Here’s a nightmare scenario for you:  Imagine that you’ve spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours writing, shooting and editing the ultimate Doritos commercial.  Then after weeks of waiting and hoping you get the big call; you’re a finalist in the Crash the Super Bowl contest!  You’re going to receive $25,000 and a free trip to the Super Bowl!  But before the win is official, you have to get a big stack of paperwork taken care of.  You have to fill out tax forms and transfer your copyrights and of course, you need to get all of your actors to sign Fritolay’s official release forms.  But when you go to your actors and tell them the good news, they aren’t excited that the ad they were in might play on TV.   They just want to know how much of your prize money they’re going to be getting.  Suddenly the stranger you hired off of craigslist to say one line in your CTSB entry has your entire future in the palm of his hand.  If he doesn’t sign the releases, you don’t get to be a finalist.  Of course, there’s no way he won’t sign….but that signature is going to cost you.

That type of scenario is exactly why you need to get your actors and your crew members to sign agreements with you before you submit an entry to a big video contest.  Of course, the sponsor’s official releases will trump any release forms you concoct on your own.  But your goal should be to get your cast and crew to commit to a few key terms before you shoot.  So really, you should put the term “release form” out of your head.  Instead, what you need is a “Actor/Producer Agreement.”  (Or a Crew Member/Producer Agreement.)  This type of agreement is signed by both you and your actor.  It’s like a mini-contract that lays out what both of you are going to do.  Here are three crucial points the agreement needs to include:

1. The actor must agree to sign all future releases and paperwork related to the project:
2. You are the owner of the entry and all the audio and video created during the shoot.
3. How much compensation an actor or crew member will receive if you win any prizes.

I’m shooting a Crash the Super Bowl entry of my own this week and in my actor/producer agreements, the actors will each be getting 5% of any “Cash Prizes” I might win.  It’s very important that you include a stipulation like that in your agreements because Fritolay gives the Crash the Super Bowl finalists a bunch of non-cash prizes.  But you can’t split a ticket to the Super Bowl so be careful about how you phrase things.  Also, 5% might not seem like a lot but it’s a pretty good payday for someone who only spent one afternoon working on your entry.  And 5% per crew member and actor can add up fast!  If anyone balks at the number, just be sure to mention that the top prize in this contest is a million bucks.  5% of a million dollars is 50 grand.  So like I said, 5% is pretty fair.

Unfortunately, Doritos doesn’t provide any release forms that you could have your actors sign before the shoot.  So you’re going to have to create your own actor/producer agreement.  Or you could just use the one that I use!  Below is a SAMPLE Crash the Super Bowl Actor/Producer agreement that I may or may not have created.  I don’t want to say who wrote this thing since it seems to contain bits and pieces of other agreements that are floating around the web.  Also, for legal purposes I have to advice you not to just use some bogus-ass agreement that you found on  the Internet!  If you really want to be protected you need to hire a lawyer to draw up a legit agreement for you.

So now that I think about it, let’s say that this particular agreement is for “Novelty Purposes Only.”  It’s just a funny sample for a non-existent Crash the Super Bowl entry named “Doritos: They’re Toasted!”  Like I said, you shouldn’t use this form but if you were going to you’d have to do a replace the fake producer’s name with your own.  Same goes for the title of the ad.  (Find and Replace in Word would do the trick.)  But again, don’t use this form and if you do, come crying to me if it winds up biting you in the ass.

Click here to download the DOC file:  CTSB-sample-agreement

Remember agreements like this one are signed by both the producer and the actor and each person gets a copy.  That way no one can argue that they didn’t have time to study the document carefully.  If anyone has any questions, concerns or feedback about the agreement, e-mail Dan at VideoContestNews.com.