Liaising With Legal Departments – Film Production Companies and Property Landlords

Production Legal Departments and Landlord’s Lawyers rarely agree on anything. Once we have a licence template agreed with a landlord (ideally before marketing a location), and a production has agreed they want to use a location, we need to get their respective legal teams to agree the terms of the licence. They cannot enter a property without a licence, and it can often cause timely delays, so it’s very important to get the legals sorted as far in advance of a shoot as possible. More issues are usually caused by this than the shoot itself.

How To Liaise Effectively Between The Teams

STEP 1: Ensure the Licence Is Agreeable To The Landlord

• Send the landlord a licence template for review as early as possible and ask their legal team to look it over. This can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Our licence templates are tailored for filming occupations, so have some production specific terms in them that will be essential. They are quite different from traditional occupations and as such this will save time down the line.
• Some landlords lawyers will want to draft their own licence- this is time consuming, but not impossible. Try to avoid it if possible but if it is unavoidable, ensure it happens quickly by asking for updates every 2 or 3 days. Property lawyers work much slower than productions do, and it’s our job as the go-between to progress it faster than it would be otherwise.
• Ensure they’re aware of the exact areas that are being demised to the production, which parking, which access routes etc as this will likely be reflected in the agreement.
• If the Landlord has a template draft that CANNOT be amended, make sure the production are aware of this early. If they really want to use a location they’ll usually accept this fact.

STEP 2: Send The Approved Draft to the Production For Review

• Our point of contact will usually be the Location Manager, who will discuss directly with their lawyer. This is preferred to us dealing with them directly as they can filter out the issues.
• Never directly introduce the lawyers on either side, or copy parties from either side into emails- this will never end well, and will usually lead to them tying themselves up into argumentative knots.
• The production lawyers will usually work quickly and revert with requests for amendments withing 3/4 days. They will always request numerous changes, even though many will not be essential.
• Try and sift through the amendment requests to work out what’s essential/important, what’s reasonable, and what’s not, and go back to them on these points before sending it to the Landlord lawyer. It’s important we minimise the work for the landlord’s lawyers, as it’s often expensive for them and can be off-putting if it causes them too much grief. We want the landlord to feel that the process has run smoothly and hasn’t disrupted them, otherwise they may not want the location to be used again.
• Once you’ve gone back to the production and asked them to clarify on what they absolutely must have changed, then send this version to the Landlord lawyers. Ideally this would be five revisions or less.

STEP 3: Get an Agreed Version Out For Signature

• This step is usually time consuming, even when it shouldn’t be! Once both parties have agreed terms, ensure the landlord’s lawyer issues a version for signature. Ideally you want this out a minimum of a week before access is required, but it’s not unheard of for it to happen the night before.
• Chase up the production to sign as soon as it’s been sent out, and get them to return it. The delays will almost always be on the side of the landlord.
• Ensure you know who is signing on behalf of the landlord- is it your contact, is it a board member, and how long will this take? Is access going to be denied until they’ve signed?
• Note that lawyers are rarely available after 5pm, so try to get everything from them before then.
• Once signed by both parties, exchange copies and issue the invoice for immediate payment.

Our Licence has been formulated over years of experience working with landlords and productions.

When we do repeat business with a production this Licence template with the agreed terms is invaluable. It can also form the basis for future contracts at the same location.