Film

The tradition of advising the film industry is one which started with the establishment of Marriott Harrison in 1985. The firm has advised producers of many major successful theatrical features including "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Notting Hill", "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace", "Hilary and Jackie" and many others. Recently, we have also acted for a number of independent producers and have advised on the successful financing of British made feature films utilising EIS funding. The firm is also currently retained by a leading independent post-production facilities house.

Some of the main areas on which we are able to assist relating to motion picture production are the contractual arrangements with the individual talent including the director, the actors and other performers; location agreements and studio licences; all aspects of the creation and exploitation of music soundtracks including commissioning composers and clearing rights on existing compositions and recording for use in films; commissioning post-production and VFX shots; negotiating sales and distribution agreements; the licensing of finished films for television and video/DVD exploitation; and clearance issues including the use of the existing audio-visual clips and stills.

On the other side of the coin, we also regularly advise individual performers and creators of films on their contractual and other legal requirements.

On the finance side, together with the corporate department, we advise on the sale and leaseback of finished movies and on tax driven partnerships established for purposes of funding the production of features and, as mentioned above, EIS schemes.