AFRIFF 2022: Tackling Non-Disclosure agreements contracts in Nollywood

The ongoing AFRIFF focused on legal relationships in the film industry and the need for the creation of a standard form of contract.

Many times in the movie industry there are complaints from screenwriters, extras, and sometimes actors about being underpaid for a project. A Twitter thread early this year highlighted the unfair working conditions employees had to face from their bosses.

Moderated by Isioma Idigbe, Partner/Head of Media, Entertainment and IP Law at Punuka Attorneys and Solicitors, Yinka Ogun, President screen writers guild of Nigeria, Baba Agba, from the Association of Nigerian Producers, Andrew Cutrow, Legal Counsel, Entertainment One (Hollywood), and Tunji Andrews of Awabah Nigeria were panelists at the session.

Answering the questions of standardizing business practices and contracts to align with the global best practices Ogun said “There is a dragon called the non-disclosure agreements. There is a lot of talk about standardizing payment but the challenge is centered on how to get it done.”

He gave an instance of a screenwriter getting paid N50,000 for 3 feature-length scripts for production and was paid half of the money without getting his balance. He says industry players need to look at those hindrances that make it difficult for people to get what they actually deserve, stating that people can not complain of being underpaid when they realize they signed a contract.

Touching on how NDAs are handled in Hollywood, Cutrow said they don’t have NDAs but more confidentiality provisions but they all highlight the importance of having a representative either an agent, manager, or lawyer who’s helping through this process and safeguarding them all through.

Cutrow added, “in other territories like the US if a producer selling a project for $500,000 but only making it for $100,000 and making it cheaper without the protection and contracts in place, you will make your $400,000 gain but the odds of Netflix or Amazon Prime, if something goes wrong with that production, are wildly low.”

He advised making the $400,000 project and selling it for $500,000 and doing that every single year and that making that smaller margin year after year becomes a more stable business that one can bring investments to.

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Speaking on Guilds, Cutrow says that every country handles its own guild differently and the creative spaces tend to be ones where unions are important, operating as independent contractors dealing with contractors so having those unions that are moderating a lot of those processes is incredibly helpful.

He added that big studios like Netflix and Amazon have a limited number of creative and authentic storytellers that can speak to the audiences that they are looking to engage.

Speaking on how talents can pull out of deals that make them feel like they have been screwed over by the contracts Idigbe said, “Part of what drove this panel is that Punuka is very involved in this process and we are going to announce that we are working on a platform that will have the standard form agreements that all the guilds will negotiate that will be fair.”

The biggest stakeholders are the producers as they are the people that pay everyone in the project and issue the contracts and what is happening now is that the big players like Kunle Afolayan and Mo Abudu have been forced to join a guild (Association of Nigerian Producers ANP), and are going around negotiating these agreements with the other different groups and when they’ve arrived on the master agreement that will run from the top of the chain to the bottom, it will trickle down to standard form contracts that will be short and easy.

She also mentioned that there will be working with the guilds and AWABA to establish an online platform where people can go and input their information and essentially contract without paying a lot of money for lawyers, and make pension payments and insurance through that platform.

Agba stated that they are going into talks with the cinemas and distributors to negotiate on a more equitable agreement for producers “It’s not just about sending money out but it’s about how people come in, negotiating with the platforms on how to get better and more equitable deals for producers because at the end of the day, it is what comes in that can go out and so if the producers are not getting anything in, there is nothing to give,” Agba added.

Cutrow says establishing those agreements across the board helps to clean up the process and leaves each of the guilds feeling like they are heard around that process in cases like people getting paid lower than what is expected and when that happens, the producer involved in such cases is kicked out of the group and not allowed to play the game in the industry. He further explained that those negotiations are found in Hollywood but they become tense at the highest levels. They mediate between the largest groups and the industry and they are hardly contested for a good reason that a lot of people’s livelihoods are at stake.

Ogun gave his thoughts on the issues of the agreements that they are only centered on the producer and directors, “The arrangement has only been beneficial to the producers and the directors, so when people go to screen their films the Film and Video Censors Board only concentrate on the producers and directors so if the writer came from pain, they don’t care.”

He said that once the producer and directors belong to the guild, they pass the films and the complaints have only been met with lip service where they only respond that it was an oversight.