Audiovisual & Performer Contracts for Filmmakers

Film and audiovisual work involves more contributors, more rights, and more contracts than almost any other creative field — writers, directors, performers, composers, and producers all bring separate rights to the table. This article is based on ARIPO's Guidelines to Audiovisual Contracts, which map out what a well-documented audiovisual deal looks like at every production stage.

Read IP Contract Essentials first for the fundamentals — licensing vs. assignment, exclusivity, core clauses — this article applies them specifically to film, video, and performance work.

What You'll Learn

• Who the rights holders are in an audiovisual work, and what each one owns
• The key international treaties that shape performer and producer rights
• Performers' exclusive rights and their unwaivable right to equitable remuneration
• Moral rights for performers and directors — and why they can't be signed away
• The contracts needed at each of the 5 production stages
• What a performer contract should cover before anyone signs

Key Takeaways

Who owns what in an audiovisual work

An audiovisual work is defined as a work consisting of a series of related images that impart the impression of motion, with or without sound. Multiple rights holders contribute to it:

• Authors — of the script, screenplay, music, and other underlying works
• Performers — actors, singers, musicians, dancers, and others who perform in it
• Producer — the person or entity that takes the initiative and responsibility for the first fixation of the work
• Director — the creative force who brings the script to life, but who also holds separate moral rights

Because so many people contribute, national law on who is deemed the "author" of the film itself varies by country — some jurisdictions treat the producer as the first copyright owner, others treat it as a work of joint authorship requiring assignment from every contributor. Always check what applies in your jurisdiction before assuming who owns the finished film.

The treaties behind performer rights

A handful of international instruments set the floor for what performers and producers are entitled to, and ARIPO's own Model Law on Copyright and Related Rights (2019) builds on them:

• Berne Convention (1886) — the main exclusive rights relevant to audiovisual works: reproduction, public performance, broadcasting, communication to the public, and adaptation
• Rome Convention — protects performers, producers, and broadcasters against certain uses made without consent
• Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances (2012) — gives performers exclusive reproduction and distribution rights over their fixed performances
• WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT, 1996) — rights for performers and phonogram producers specifically

Under the ARIPO Model Law (Section 12), performers have the exclusive right to authorise: broadcasting/communication of their performance, fixation of an unfixed performance, reproduction of a fixation, distribution of copies, rental to the public, and making the performance available on demand.

What happens once you agree to be filmed

This is the clause performers most often overlook: under Section 12(2) of the ARIPO Model Law, once a performer authorises their performance to be incorporated into an audiovisual fixation, they are deemed — in the absence of a contrary contract clause — to have assigned the exclusive economic rights in that performance to the producer.

In plain terms: agreeing to be filmed can automatically hand your economic rights to the producer unless your contract says otherwise. If you want to retain any rights, they need to be written into the agreement explicitly.

Moral rights can't be signed away

Separately from economic rights — and even after those are transferred — both performers and directors keep moral rights that cannot be waived:

• The right to be identified as the performer or director of the work
• The right to object to distortion, mutilation, or other modification that would be prejudicial to their reputation

These rights survive regardless of what else is signed. Any contract clause purporting to waive them outright is exactly the kind of unfair term to watch for.

Equitable remuneration — money you're owed even after assigning rights

Independently of any transfer of economic rights, performers have an unwaivable and untransferable right to equitable remuneration for broadcast, communication to the public, rental, or making available of their fixed performance. This is made effective through a Collective Management Organisation, which collects from users and distributes it back to performers.

A useful clause to look for (or ask for) in your own contract is a "Quit Clause" — language confirming that nothing in the agreement prevents the performer from claiming remuneration owed to them by a domestic or foreign collecting society, and that they don't have to account to the producer for that income.

The 5 production stages and their contracts

Every audiovisual project moves through five stages, and each one has its own essential contracts:

What a performer contract should cover

Before anyone signs, both sides should agree on:

Practical Steps for Sokobuni Sellers

• If you sell video, music, or photography as a service booking, put credit, reuse rights, and licence scope in writing before the shoot or session — not after delivery
• If you're a performer engaged by a third-party producer, confirm in writing what happens to your equitable remuneration and whether you're waiving anything you shouldn't be
• For any project with outside financing, keep the chain of title documented from script option through to final purchase agreement
• If you licence stock footage, music, or photography from others for a project, get the licence in writing and check its duration and territory before you publish anything using it
• List bookable video/audio production services on Sokobuni with clear terms on what's included, revision rounds, and final-file ownership