a project im working on is garnering interest and im meeting with some people who are keen to pick up merchandise,comic rights etc.
any advice on how i should go into this without coming out looking like an idiot
Advice on dealing with Suits
By skinnylizard | Tuesday, January 16, 2007 at 9:12pm
#1
Advice on dealing with Suits
(At first glance, I'd swear the thread was about "sluts" and not "suits") : D
Not having had to deal with alot of suits, I can only go on intuition and speak in general terms:
Mostly, just remember that these same people take off the suit eventually and head downtown to grab a beer with the rest of us.
When confronted with the language of contracts, I often feel this anxiety and a sense of hostility inherent in the language. (it's such a foreign language, at any rate!)
I assuage anxiety with good research and empathy.
1: Research, to find out what it all means and guard myself from any commonly known jiggery-pokery.
2: Empathy to simply ask myself what the needs of the other party _are_ so that I might be a part of helping them get what they are looking for.
Since, if my brand of art is what they want, but also want to make sure their own rights are protected, then we're really getting somewhere : )
"Suits" doesn't say anything about exactly who you're meeting, but I'm going to interpret that to mean "non-artists" that you must now talk shop with.
Well, find out a little bit about what _they_ do... Learn their world and help them to learn ours. Keep a vigilant eye out for a knife to your back, but approach with love and curiosity. It's always appreciated, since you're just as much an alien to them as they are to you.
When you understand one another and stay honest, it goes a lo-ong way to facilitating the actual work.
wes!
1. Everything's a negotiation.
2. For merchandise rights... this can be a big one. Hello Kitty is proof that ANYthing can be branded/merchandised. Be sure that, if you care what kind of merchandise is promoted through your artwork, you have some right of approval.
3. Comic rights(printed materials only yes?) will you have story rights? Could your characters be put into situations that you would not agree with?
4. If you want to retain control over your "brand", then be sure to retain the rights to the characters you create. You can then license the use of those characters for whatever you choose.
5. Anything that is agreed to in a meeting or conversation, write it down, and mark up a copy of any documents that may be in negotiation.
6. Anything documents should be reviewed by a competent entertainment or intellectual property lawyer, perferably one with experience with animation and characters.