Business and Legal Seminar

What every filmmaker needs to know: The business and legal aspects of the filmmaking process, from rights, financing, and production to distribution.

Saturday, November 3, 11 am, Ojai Art Center Gallery

Moderator: Laura Caulfield, President, Entertainment Solutions Corp.

Panelists:

• Michael Grizzi, Executive Vice President, Motion Picture Legal, Paramount Pictures
• Scott Kanyuck, Sr. Vice President, Motion Picture Business & Legal, STX Entertainment
• Rosalind Read, Vice President, E-One/Global Film Group
• Romy Schneider, Director, Business & Legal Affairs, Activision/Blizzard Studios

The complex minefield that is entertainment law can create hard lessons for people entering the industry. This seminar will give attendees an insight into the key areas they need to know when structuring deals for distribution, working with actors or directors, rights acquisition, and many of the terms you will confront in negotiations. Each panelist will have an opportunity to speak and discuss/debate the topic among themselves. Afterwards, the panel will open for Q&A with audience. Bring your best question and learn from people who toil in the trenches with top industry players.

LAURA CAULFIELD, PRESIDENT, ENTERTAINMENT SOLUTIONS CORP.

After a distinguished career of 20+ years in which she worked both in front and behind the camera with positions at New Line Cinema, O’Melveny & Myers and Paramount Pictures, Laura launched Entertainment Solutions Corp. where she serves major independent producers, financers, and production companies in the business and legal aspects of the motion picture industry. She handles everything from corporate formation, equity finance transactions, development, and production–including structuring deals and drafting actor, director, producer agreements, and manages all production legal matters, including placement deals, guild relations, as well as worldwide delivery to distributors. Laura began her showbiz career as an “indie” producer and passionately believes in the power a film can have, impacting its audience, and motivating people to great change.

MICHAEL GRIZZI, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, MOTION PICTURE LEGAL, PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Michael Grizzi is Executive Vice President of Motion Picture Legal for Paramount Pictures Corporation, where he is responsible for supervising a team of attorneys in the negotiation and documentation of high-level talent employment, rights acquisition, term deal and related agreements for Paramount’s motion pictures. He joined USC Gould School of Law as a lecturer in law teaching legal writing in Fall 2005 and has taught Entertainment Law since Fall 2008. Grizzi holds a JD from UCLA School of Law, where he was an editor of the UCLA Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. He received a BS from Northwestern University. After law school, Grizzi practiced for three years with Irell and Manella in Los Angeles, where he handled corporate legal matters, including negotiation of employment, distribution, licensing and settlement agreements, for several public companies. He also served as Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for New Line Cinema from 2002 to 2005.

ROMY SCHNEIDER – DIRECTOR, BUSINESS & LEGAL AFFAIRS – ACTIVISION BLIZZARD STUDIOS

Romy Schneider is in-house counsel for Activision Blizzard Studios, the feature film, television and digital media group of Activision Blizzard, a Fortune 500 company. In her current role, Ms. Schneider oversees all production legal on the popular Netflix series Skylanders™ Academy, as well as the business and legal affairs for the development of feature films, digital and television series based on Activision Blizzard’s extensive interactive game library including, Call of Duty®, Crash Bandicoot™, Overwatch®, StarCraft® and World of Warcraft®. Prior to her current position, Ms. Schneider has held in-house legal positions at major studios and media companies such as The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, New Line Cinema and the YouTube multi-channel network, Machinima. Ms. Schneider also acquired extensive labor industry expertise during her seven-year tenure at the Screen Actors Guild. Over the years, Ms. Schneider has been a frequent panelist at various industry events, universities and film festivals. She received both a LL.M. in Entertainment and Media Law and Juris Doctor from Southwestern University School of Law, a Bachelor of Arts from UCLA and is licensed to practice law in both California and New York.

ROSALIND READ, VICE PRESIDENT, E-ONE/GLOBAL FILM GROUP

Ros works on all aspects of feature film finance, development, production and distribution representing Entertainment One’s Global Film Group. She focuses on complex finance transactions, tax and corporate structuring matters. Through strategic partnerships and its global distribution network, eOne produces and distributes premium film, television and family content across the globe in many genres and on many platforms. Ros works closely with eOne’s key partnerships (such as sales agent Sierra/Affinity, The Mark Gordon Company [which eOne recently acquired], Brad Weston’s Makeready and Tucker Tooley) and other top creative talent in almost every aspect of the movie business. Previously, she was VP at Miramax, and an associate at Greenberg Traurig LLP, and before that, an associate at Reed Smith LLP, where she worked on complex entertainment finance transactions.

Originally from South Africa, Ros loves heading home for a good time in the country’s beautiful wildlife game preserves.

SCOTT KANYUCK, SR. VICE PRESIDENT, MOTION PICTURE BUSINESS & LEGAL AFFAIRS, STX ENTERTAINMENT

Scott Kanyuck is the Sr. VP, Motion Picture Business & Legal Affairs for STX Entertainment, a global company that focuses on development, financing, production, and distribution of film, television, VR, digital video, music and live entertainment content, transforming beyond traditional platform-driven content to creating talent-driven enterprises and is uniquely positioned to maximize the impact of content worldwide, with direct passage into the China market.

Mr. Kanyuck acts as strategic advisor for all STX theatrical business and legal affairs, including acquisition of rights to all forms of intellectual property, chain of title, as well as structuring high level writer, director, producer, and talent deals for the development and production of theatrical motion pictures. Prior to his current role, Mr. Kanyuck held in house legal positions at Paramount Pictures and New Line Cinema. He is also a gourmet cook and avid poker player.