Lock in the legal terms behind your production work

Creative projects often run into trouble when the commercial deal sounds clear in conversation but the legal detail is left unstated. Common pressure points include who owns raw footage and final assets, whether the client gets an assignment or a licence, how many revision rounds are included, who signs off on milestones, and what happens if the schedule slips. A written production services agreement helps capture those points in one place so the working arrangement is not left to assumptions once filming, editing, or delivery is underway.

These agreements commonly cover the production scope, deliverables, timeline, fees, payment triggers, approval process, change requests, ownership of materials, usage rights, credits, confidentiality, liability, and termination. Depending on the project, the document may also deal with third-party material, talent permissions, music or stock content, location issues, and who is responsible for obtaining specific consents. The exact drafting depends on whether you are the producer, agency, client, or a service provider engaged for a defined part of the production.

The legal wording usually turns on the project structure and who is contributing what. We look at the type of production, whether content is commissioned or speculative, who will own the finished work, what approvals are needed, how revisions are handled, and whether there are external contributors such as crew, talent, editors, or licensors. If there is already a draft from a client or agency, we can review it and point out clauses that may create issues around broad usage rights, unclear acceptance criteria, or payment linked to vague milestones.

Templates can be useful for very simple jobs, but production work often involves moving parts that generic wording does not handle well. A standard form may not properly separate ownership from licence rights, explain whether raw files are included, or deal with approvals, re-edits, kill fees, or third-party content restrictions. Those details matter because they affect both payment and future use of the material. A tailored draft or review is usually more useful where the project has multiple deliverables, valuable IP, or several stakeholders with different expectations.

Timing depends on the complexity of the production and whether we are preparing a fresh agreement or reviewing one already in circulation. A short-form agreement for a straightforward engagement is usually quicker than a document involving layered usage rights, multiple approval stages, or several parties. Once we have the project details or the existing draft, we can give you a clearer idea of turnaround. After delivery, if the other side proposes substantial changes or the project scope shifts, further work can be scoped separately if needed.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Production Services Agreement service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.