ABSTRACT
No matter what kind of audiovisual production a filmmaker wants to makea narrative film, a television commercial, a documentary, an industrial video-the filmmaker will need to have the legal right to tell that particular story. To put it bluntly, this is one of the most important legal issues facing filmmakers: A distributor will not pick up a film for distribution if the story rights have not been obtained! Even if you plan on distributing your film by yourself, you will need to promise all your subdistributors and exhibitors (iTunes, Amazon.com, YouTube) that you have the necessary rights to distribute the film.
