25m 56s

Demystifying Contracts: Keep Your Business, Team, and IP Safe

Episode Shownotes

In creative industries, contracts can be a perplexing field, but they’re an essential part of keeping your project safe, along with all those working on it.

That’s why we share the helpful guidance of Gemma Woodhead in this episode of WorkWise for Screen, simplifying the world of contracts, and pointing us towards the support available to creatives.

The WorkWise for Screen podcast is supported by the BFI, awarding National Lottery Funding.

This episode covers:

The unique challenges of contracting in the creative industries, considering freelancers, last-minute hiring, and non-standard contracts
The importance of having clear, simple contract templates and onboarding processes to streamline contracting for small businesses
Engaging and understandable contract styles for creative workers, such as visual or gamified contracts
Complying with international contracting requirements
The critical role of policies to set standards of behaviour and provide support for employees

Episode Topics

Introductions, Gemma’s experience and the unique challenges within creative industries (0:00 to 7:10)

Essential elements in contracts for SMEs within the screen sector, and how to tailor contracts to creative professionals (7:10 to 11:00)

Considering international compliance, and the pitfalls of insufficient contracting provisions (11:00 to 18:45)

Disputes, the need for dynamic policies, and current focus areas for creative industries (18:45 to end)

Episode Highlights

“In a lot of industries, you'd have traditional HR teams doing the contracting with permanent staff, whereas there's not many productions that have HR teams. It's often freelancers doing the contracting, so it's really hard to make sure they're all following the correct procedures and the correct standards.” - 3:55 - Gemma Woodhead

“We've created a visual contract: it's all pictures, and it takes people through a story. We've worked with some games companies, and there are contracts like a video game, and you go through different levels, with bulletpoints for the key provisions. That's one way to make it so much more fun and appealing to people who work in the creative industries.” - 9:40 - Gemma Woodhead

“The cost of defending an IP infringement claim can run into hundreds of thousands. So the price of getting your contract right in the first place and taking that time to get that correct, it's so much more beneficial and will be so much cheaper to get that correct in the first place.” - 14:40 - Gemma Woodhead

“People always think, ‘Oh, it's fine. I know them, we’re friends so they're not an issue. We don't need all these legal contracts and things. It's never going to be an issue’. Then when it does go wrong, it's even worse, because you don't have those protections in place. Prevention is better than cure.” - 17:00 - Gemma Woodhead

“If I was to give you two key hot topics for the industry where we need to ensure compliance, I would say sexual harassment prevention, and national minimum wage. Those are probably areas where it's worth taking some professional advice.” - 20:30 - Gemma Woodhead