New Producer Delivery Information

Producer Delivery Information

Please note, all items are detailed in their respective sections below and sample documents are provided where we currently have them.  Just expand the item if you want to see a definition.

First, focus on the delivery of Marketing Items.  I know you want to start putting your hard drive together now but we need your Marketing Items first.  All can be easily sent via a digital transfer service like WeTransfer. Those items are:

We need 20-30 production stills. Each should be 300 dpi for use in print.

Ideally these are not screenshots from the film, but actual production stills that were taken onset.

Also, if you can, please provide head and full body shots of your principal cast, in costume, against a neutral background.

Please, no crew or behind the scenes shots. You can deliver Behind the Scenes shots, but they do not count toward this requirement.

We require a Photoshop (PSD) file of your Keyart / Poster design. This must be layered. While the art can be in a single combined layer, ALL text elements, logos, and the title, must be in individual layers and editable where possible (credit block, etc).

Remember, we are selling your film throughout the world and the text will need to be localized. Additionally, often online services have requirements for how and where text can be used in promoting your film, so we need the ability to move it around.

Yes, we will probably make new art for your film throughout its lifetime. We can provide those Photoshop versions to you. Just ask.

Please provide as a separate Microsoft WORD or Adobe PDF document. Please do not provide PAGES or other formatted documents. They will be rejected. Having it already in your KeyArt file does not count.

The block of text at the bottom of a movie poster or the back of your DVD packaging is called the 'billing block' or 'legal credit block.' And while it might look like haphazardly packed type, it is in fact the product of detailed legal agreements and intense contract negotiation... or may be.

This is why we ask you to compile the credit block for us. So that we don't make a mistake. You will be the one that gets the call from the cast or crew member if it is wrong... not us.

A legal credit block, as we stated, is the product of all your agreements with all of your cast and crew, but, please note, it also isn't supposed to include every single cast/crew member on your film, either. Not even all the keys.

Here is an article that describes how a billing block was made for a fake movie. Its a great overview.

Yours does NOT have to be this detailed. Typically you include principal cast, cinematographer or director of photography, all the producers, writer and director. In the case that the writer and director are the same you can do one credit "Written & Directed by"

Additionally you can add casting director, composer, editor, production design, costumer... but only the keys (department heads). It really comes down to your legal obligations.

Company logos for your production company or any other logo you are contractually required to have in your marketing materials.

These are for single image logos, not animated or video logos / title cards used in your film.

Please provide the images with as much resolution as possible. Preferably PSD or TIF. PNG and JPG will be accepted but know that they might reproduce grainy or fuzzy if not print ready (300 dpi).

The trailer should ALWAYS be provided in a loss-less codec. Currently the only acceptable formats are ProRes 422 HQ or ProRes 444 HQ, or Avid DNxHD. DNxHR, h.264, or any other lossy codec is not acceptable.

Please provide the BEST format for your movie that you can. If the movie is 4K then, please provide a 4K master.

Do not provide less than a 1080p 23.98 HD format. If your film is not available in at least an HD 1080 resolution, please contact us immediately to discuss alternatives.

Always include the NATIVE framerate of your film. Do not convert it. This will cause issues with the technical quality of your film. If the film was shot 30fps then the final version should be 30fps.

Please provide the video master with stereo composite audio tracks encoded on track 1.

We need an online screener that we can show to potential buyers. Preferably in the full 1080HD format, but no smaller than 720P. Known platforms that we can work with:

Vimeo - password protect video and enable downloads
YouTube - mark the movie as Unlisted and send us the link
Google Drive - upload and share the file with us. Mark it as "Anyone with the link" so that you can assure that we can download
Dropbox - When you share the file, click on the option to COPY LINK and send us the link to the file. Don't share your dropbox with us any other way.

Synopsis MUST be in English.

Synopsis MUST be in its own file and that document MUST be either a Microsoft WORD or Adobe PDF document. Please do not provide PAGES or other formatted documents. They will be rejected.

In your Synopsis document include:

  • LOGLINE or TAGLINE - One sentence, no more than 120 characters.
  • SHORT (BRIEF) SYNOPSIS - 400 characters maximum.
  • LONG SYNOPSIS - 2000 characters maximum.

Please provide an electronic press kit, not a physical press kit.

If you have already made one for festival use, just provide that.

Since you are already providing the Synopsis, Trailer, and Poster above. What we're really looking for us Principal cast and crew bios (brief), backstory, anecdotes, or anything else you want to share about the making of your film.

Next, the Paperwork Delivery.  These are additional items you can email us or send via a digital transfer service.  Please don't start on these items until we have the Marketing items, though.  Those are your priority items.  The paperwork items are:

This is a short-form for our distribution agreement that can be used for licensing rights questions with foreign governments for importation and other issues.

Please download and have this signed, witnessed and notarized.

Here is a sample / template document. This document certifies the country in which your film was made.

Please fill it out accordingly and have it witnessed and notarized.

Please download and fill out the metadata spreadsheet here.

Please return it as an Microsoft EXCEL spreadsheet. NUMBERS and other formats, including Adobe PDF, will not be accepted.

Beyond just the script you went into production with, we really need the updated version of the script after the final edit was made: capturing any scenes that were cut or ad libs that cast might have made on set.

Please provide as a separate Microsoft WORD, Microsoft EXCEL or Adobe PDF document. Please do not provide PAGES or other formatted documents. They will be rejected.

This should only include text that is superimposed on screen, but does not include titles or credits.

Timecodes must be included for each subtitle.

Examples:

00:10:57.00      September 15, 1967
00:22:32.10      A galaxy far, far away...

Please make sure to provide textless elements for the film.

Cue sheets are the primary means by which performing rights organizations track the use of music in films and TV. Without cue sheets, it would be nearly impossible for such composers and publishers to be compensated for their work.

Download a sample document here.

If the song in question was a work for hire the publisher name can then be the production company.

If the composer or publisher does not have a reporting entity you can make this N/A.

Royalty Free music will have the information you need.

Sound effects, stingers, etc, from CD or DVD libraries typically don't have to be reported on the music cue sheet. Only actual composed music.

Please provide as a separate Microsoft WORD or Adobe PDF document. Please do not provide PAGES or other formatted documents. They will be rejected.

We are asking that you review all agreements regarding billing and credit obligations, such as the type of credit, when and where the credit is to be given, and size and location in relation to other credits of those who contributed services to the film. This also includes on-screen credits as well as for paid ad credits.

If you have no legal credit obligations, then just include a document that states "There are no legal credit obligations for the film ."

Please provide as a separate Microsoft WORD, Microsoft EXCEL or Adobe PDF document. Please do not provide PAGES or other formatted documents. They will be rejected.

This is a textual representation of all credits in your film, both in the opening title sequence (if you have one) and the final crawl of the film.

This document will be used for translation of job titles, etc, in foreign deliveries, but, most importantly, it will be used for legal review of your chain of title.

Every name mentioned in the credits must have a corresponding agreement for name and/or likeness usage in your film. This can include special thanks for some companies so PLEASE think twice about all those special thanks credits you give.

This is a copy of every document that provides legal clearance for every element of your film.

If you need clearance forms for cast, crew, or music, these documents might help.

To put it simply, Chain of Title is the complete set of documents that establishes a persons (and companies are people too) right to take action with respect to a piece of property, in our discussion the property is a film, but can be anything including a passel of land, a building, an automobile, etc. With any property the chain runs from the present owner back to the original owner of the property in question. In entertainment, this means a whole slew of documents that establish that a producer/production company owns/controls the right to produce a whatever it is they are trying to create/sell.

Here is a nice primer and suggested list of required documents, but every situation is different.

As a rule of thumb, if it gets a mention in your closing credits of the movie, you'll need a legal document for it.

We require a scanned copy of your Copyright Certificate from the U.S. Copyright Office for your final film. If you have filed but not received the certificate yet, you can print out your proof of filing and provide that as a PDF document.

This is not the same as the copyright for your script. We'll need to see the work-for-hire or license agreement for the screenplay in your chain of title paperwork.

You can file everything online at copyright.gov

We will require the U.S. and Canada Title Report from The Clearance Lab. It costs $399 and can be purchased here: https://theclearancelab.com/title-reports-film-television/

* This is included in the Film Assist package.

If you do not have one, we can add you to our policy for a one-time, up-front administration fee of $1,750 USD.

* This is included in the Film Assist package.

Errors and Omissions policy maintained by Licensor for the Picture, if any, for three (3) years beginning within thirty (30) days from the Effective Date of this Agreement, which is indicated on the Deal Terms section herein.

Copies of the policy and all endorsements must be delivered to Distributor.

  • The Errors and Omissions insurance policy must name: Select Media Group and its owners, partners, subsidiaries, licensees, successors, distributors, or affiliated companies and each of their officers, directors, shareholders, agents, and employees as an additional insured.
  • Coverage should include, but not be limited to, all EPK and DVD Bonus materials (including interviews, commentaries, out-takes, deleted scenes, “making of”, behind-the-scenes and B-Roll footage.
  • Such endorsement shall also include a statement providing Distributor with sixty (60) days prior written notice in the event of a cancellation or material revision of the policy.
  • The policy must provide limits of at least US $1 million per occurrence / US$3 million in aggregate and a deductible of no greater than ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
  • The policy must provide coverage for occurrences during the term of the policy regardless of the date of claim.

Licensor agrees to deliver a copy of said policy to Distributor not later than delivery of the Picture. Licensor must specifically add the name of distributors, including sub-distributors, as an additionally insured. Licensor shall obtain and reserve options for two (2) rights period endorsements under the policy. In addition, upon Distributor’s request, the policy shall be extended, modified, or renewed by Licensor to accommodate distributor requirements. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Agreement, Licensor’s obligations to Distributor with regards to Insurance shall be deemed satisfied if Licensor complies with the terms in the “Insurance” section of the Agreement.

Finally, now you can focus on the Physical Delivery of your film.  Please make sure that EVERYTHING you have sent us so far is included on the hard drive in addition to the video and audio elements.  Please DO NOT ship a thumb drive.  They are small and tend to fall behind shelves, etc.  We will only accept a HARD DRIVE for the final delivery.  Those new items are a hard drive containing:

Please place ALL delivery items, even those that you have already sent to us via email or digital transfer service on your hard drive.

If you do not have a Mac, that is OK. We prefer Mac-formatted because the OS/X was built with large file sizes in mind. Windows FAT32 is acceptable.

Do not send an NTFS or standard FAT formatted drive.

The film should ALWAYS be provided in a loss-less codec. Currently the only acceptable formats are ProRes 422 HQ or ProRes 444 HQ, or Avid DNxHD. DNxHR, h.264, or any other lossy codec is not acceptable.

Please provide the BEST format for your movie that you can. If the movie is 4K then, please provide a 4K master.

Do not provide less than a 1080p 23.98 HD format. If your film is not available in at least an HD 1080 resolution, please contact us immediately to discuss alternatives.

Always include the NATIVE framerate of your film. Do not convert it. This will cause issues with the technical quality of your film. If the film was shot 30fps then the final version should be 30fps.

Please provide the video master with stereo composite audio tracks encoded on track 1.

You must provide video elements for any portion of your film that includes text so that the text can be translated for foreign use.

This includes titles, opening credit sequence, subtitles, and the end credit crawl.

Any portions of the film that are just black do not have to be included in the textless images.

No audio is required for textless video elements, either.

All audio files should be AIFF or WAV format (16-bit, 48k or higher).

Please provide the following additional audio files:

Stereo Music and Effect (M&E) Tracks - These are your stereo master audio files with no dialog. If you recorded practical sound effects on set (footsteps, doors closing, hands clapping, etc) you must duplicate those with no dialog in your M&E tracks. No dialog can occur in these tracks or they will fail a lab check.

If you have them and preferred (but not required):

5.1 surround composite plus 5.1 surround music & effects (M&E) in CAF format, or each surround channel in separate AIFF or WAV format files.

In lieu of 5.1 surround mix, stereo stem tracks (separate dialogue, ambience, effects and music pairs) should be provided, if available.

We've arranged a $10 discount with REV.COM if you use this link, and you are a first time customer

Closed captions should be provided in SCC (Scenerist Closed Captions) format and must include all caption elements as required. You can provide other formats in addition, but we require the delivery of the SCC file format.

Federal requirements for Closed Captions are:

  • Accurate: Captions must match the spoken words in the dialogue and convey background noises and other sounds to the fullest extent possible.
  • Synchronous: Captions must coincide with their corresponding spoken words and sounds to the greatest extent possible and must be displayed on the screen at a speed that can be read by viewers.
  • Complete: Captions must run from the beginning to the end of the program to the fullest extent possible.
  • Properly placed: Captions should not block other important visual content on the screen, overlap one another or run off the edge of the video screen.

All captions must start with zero-hour time code (i.e. 00:00:00). Assets that don’t adhere to this won’t display at the correct time. For example, files that have a one-hour offset will not display text until one hour into the video’s run time.

If a title contains no dialogue or has extended scenes with no spoken content, captions should include a description of the foreground or background audio elements. Extended silent scenes should be captioned with [no audio]. For background music, if the music is instrumental (no lyrics), use descriptive words [in brackets] to accurately convey the mood and tempo of music. If music contains lyrics, caption the lyrics verbatim. The lyrics should be introduced with the name of the artist and the title in brackets. In the event that lyrics are unclear or in another language, use a descriptive caption to indicate that to the viewer.

All captions should appear on screen long enough to be read. As a rule, no caption should be less than 1 second on screen.

* This is included in the Film Assist package.

Please provide as a separate Microsoft WORD, Microsoft EXCEL or Adobe PDF document. Please do not provide PAGES or other formatted documents. They will be rejected.

This is a time-coded, transcript of your final film. There's no other way to say it. This will be used for captions and for dubbing your film. So it requires not only the dialog, time-coded, but the names of who spoke each line.

Download a sample here.

* This is included in the Film Assist package.

Must be from a third-party approved lab.

If you have a quality check certification, please run it past us for verification.

We can refer you to our lab if you require one. They will bill you direct. We receive nothing for the referral.

* This is included in the Film Assist package.