I know this has been discussed in the past, but I couldn’t find the answers I wanted in those posts. @Zoe_G can you clarify?
Most (all?) of the location agreements I get from production companies are written as an agreement between me or my studio directly and the production company. In the past, I’ve just read them over to make sure they didn’t sneak something weird in there and signed them. However, now after seeing a photographer friend get screwed over by a media company that has a peacock for their logo, I’m trying to be more careful with what I sign.
Most agreements want me to affirm things like…
The production company is paying me $X,XXX for the use of my space
The production company has the right to cancel and use the space at a later date without a fee
These things (as well as others in the agreement) are either inaccurate or irrelevant with Peerspace being the middleman in the arrangement.
The production company is technically not paying me. They’re paying Peerspace and then Peerspace pays me a portion of that total fee
Peerspace has it’s own cancellation policy that goes against the location agreement’s statement that they can shoot another day without a fee
I just got into an argument with a producer when I pointed these things out. I put $0 as the amount the production company was paying me, but she demanded that I change it to the full fee. Told her I would put my payout amount and not the full fee. She relented.
How do other people who rent to production companies deal with location agreements? I’m thinking that I’ll just keep signing them, but call out in an email which segments are or seem to not apply. At least that way it’s in writing that pointed it out to the producer.
@Geoffrey_B Hi! Good news - the booking agreement and our Terms of Service serve as the contract for bookings including location usage and booking terms. Hosts are not obligated in any way to sign any outside agreements.
Perhaps I have been lucky. But I always carefully read the agreement. If there’s anything I disagree with, I have contacted the person in charge, and they have agreed to change it. In the cases in which it has to go to “legal” to change the terms, they have sent an email in one case simply stating that Peerspace agreement prevails.
As to Zoe’s statement saying “Hosts are not obligated in any way to sign any outside agreements.” many companies will not even make the booking until we have signed the agreement.
On a lighter note, I always laugh when it states I cannot show the footage in perpetuity or throughout the universe. I generally tell the company that I reserve rights to show it on Mars.
It’s really not good news. As with other things in the Peerspace terms of service, the way it’s written doesn’t actually reflect how producers and studio owners work together. I think it’s written more for rentals by individuals and not media/production companies.
I actually ended up losing the booking I mentioned in my original post because of this. They contacted me mid-day yesterday for a booking that was to start at 8am today. They insisted that they could not move forward with the booking without a signed release and there was no time for back and forth on the agreement. They booked elsewhere.
I think going forward I’m just going to agree and move on
In the spots asking for how much payment is I always just write in [Payment via Peerspace] and I leave SS / EIN requests blank since I’m not accepting a direct payment from them.
Production companies usually need the agreement signed because they are concerned about the footage rights and you not claiming any rights to whatever they are shooting there. They are way less concerned about the rental terms. When renting outside of Peerspace everything is usually included in the location agreement, including the rental terms, which can and often do conflict with Peerspace terms. However production companies usually don’t have a problem amending the rental terms part of the agreement because it is the release they are more concerned about. That has been my experience with the issue.
The only reason why a company may be hesitant to make alterations (especially a company like NBC) is because they have massive legal departments and any alterations need to be run through their legal department, so it is probably a big hassle to have their standard agreement altered. But if you ever did have to go to court or anything like that, you would have 2 different agreements that you both signed with different terms in each one (their agreement and Peerspace’s). And I’m sure both contracts say that this contract supercedes any other contract signed. What would happen then? Best to handle it up front and request the alterations even if it creates a small issue.
Perhaps create a location/footage release form that you can offer as an alternative. Let the renting party know that all terms of the rental, money transacting, cancellation, etc etc are aready set in the Peerspace contract, but you can offer them the footage and location release they are probably more concerned about.