CHUNKY MOVE | management | marketing | production
 

Management issues

A key copyright management issue for Chunky Move Dance Company which emerged in negotiation of agreements was payment entitlements for performers prior to completion of the final product. The company decided on upfront payments for theatrical work and waited until the post-production to identify ownership stakes in the new products. A model to identify individuals' percentage of screen time will determine back-end royalty payments for the digital products. Chunky Move also chose to test-case the inclusion of moral rights in performers' contracts. The use of new technologies to manipulate and alter original work raises issues of artistic integrity and control. The company invited performers and the creative team to view screenings of rushes and final products at post-production stage to alleviate any concerns of misuse. This however posed a considerable risk at such a late stage in the production process.

Management overview

Chunky Move Dance Company's C.O.R.R.U.P.T.E.D. 2 was performed at the 1998 Melbourne Festival and the company used this opportunity to film the performance. The company used the source footage in a number of components of the CD ROM/Web Hybrid and documentary.

While Chunky Move regularly employs the same group of dancers it is not an ongoing ensemble company. Dancers are contracted to the company for particular productions. This made it necessary to obtain all source footage for the PAML Pilot Project during the C.O.R.R.U.P.T.E.D.2 performance season. This meant the creation of two separate agreements, one for the live performance and the other for the recording of the work.

At the beginning of the project Chunky Move was a company in transition. The company was in the process of devising a new company structure with new artists and funding partners having only recently transferred from Sydney to Melbourne. Since policy was still being formulated it was difficult for the company to determine intellectual property rights on the products it planned to produce.

Chunky Move management structure is unique with the Artistic Director and Executive Producer licensing their work exclusively to the company for a period of four years. Previous employment contracts with dancers specified that copyright automatically resided with the choreographer. The choreographer, in turn, licensed it exclusively to Chunky Move. The company chose to trial a multi-tiered policy that determined artists' intellectual property in accordance with the products rather than previous company policy.

Intellectual property

Chunky Move confronted a common issue in the performing arts: the difficulty in determining where intellectual property resides when the product has not yet been completed. Dividing productions among the participants is relatively simple in film, with its script base and specific shot tables. In hybrid productions or derivative products from theatrical seasons, this process is more complex. Each company dealt with this issue in a different way, Chunky Move waiting until the post-production stage to divide ownership. By looking at the final products the company was able to identify three components for consideration:

Rightsholders

The rightsholders in each of these categories were identified as follows:

Live Performance	Recording of Performance	CD ROM/Website
Choreographer	Choreographer	Multimedia Producer
Original commissioning agent	Composer	Scriptwriters
Projection Designer	Cinematographer	Producer
Set designer	Editor	Education text writer
Industrial Designer		Choreographer
Producer		Performers
Executive Producer		Composer
Composer		Lighting Designer
Lighting Designer		Set Constructor
Costume Designer		Stage Manager
Costume Constructor		Production Manager
Set Constructor		Administrator
		Audience and Corporate Development Manager
		Cultural Commentator
		Pilates Instructor
		Rehearsal Instructor

Obtaining the rights

Chunky Move required third-party clearances from both ABCTV WET and Netherlands Dance Theatre (NDT) for the use of their work. ABCTV, after sighting the agreements with performers, agreed to the use of portions of WET, given the original production was a co-production between Chunky and ABCTV. NDT, which originally commissioned C.O.R.R.U.P.T.E.D. 1, was sent a video version of C.O.R.R.U.P.T.E.D. 2 to demonstrate its variation from the original version. NDT is acknowledged in the development of the work and will receive a percentage split of the anticipated income.

Chunky Move was assigned the rights for photography, cinematography, editing, production, educational text, production, construction and interviews.

Other areas were licensed to the company (exclusive and non-exclusive) for periods extending from ten years to perpetuity.

NEW WORK	Rightsholders	Assigned / Licensed	Territory	Term	Payment	Moral Rights
Composition	Luke Smiles	Non-X License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Fixed fee and Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Script/Producer	Angharad Wynne-Jones	Non-X License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Wage and Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Script	Peter Hennessey	Non-X License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Fixed fee and Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Production	DROME	Assigned	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Upfront Fee	Integrity and Attribution
Educational text	Erin Brannigan	Assigned	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Upfront Fee	Integrity and Attribution
Cinematography	Philippe Charluet	Assigned	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Upfront Fee	Integrity and Attribution
Performers	Brett Daffy, Lisa Griffiths, Kirstie McCracken, Byron Perry, Luke Smiles
Editing	Maria Barbagello	Assigned	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Upfront Fee	Integrity and Attribution

ORIGINAL WORK	Rightsholders	Assigned / Licensed	Territory	Term	Payment	Moral Rights
Choreography	Gideon Oberzanek	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
CORRUPTED 1	NDT	Not Required
Projection	Gideon Oberzanek	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Set Design	Gideon Oberzanek	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Performers (WET)	Kate Dunn, Byron Perry, Chris Ryan	Non X-License	Worldwide	10 years	Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Producer	Angharad Wynne Jones	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Lighting	Damien Cooper	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Composer	Luke Smiles	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Fixed fee and Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Costume Design	Joke Visser	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Costume Construction	Anna Tregloan	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None
Set Construction	Alan Robertson	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None
Performers (CORRUPTED 2)	Fiona Cameron, Brett Daffy, Lisa Griffiths, Kirstie McCracken, Byron Perry, David Tyndall, Luke Smiles
Video WET	ABCTV	See third-party material	Worldwide		Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Kinetic Image	David Tyndall	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Royalty	Integrity and Attribution

ADDITIONAL WORK	Rightsholders	Assigned / Licensed	Territory	Term	Payment	Moral Rights
Interviews With:
Performers	Kirstie McCracken, Luke Smiles, David Tyndall, Brett Daffy, Fiona Cameron, Lisa Griffiths, Byron Perry
Choreography	Gideon Oberzanek	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Composer	Luke Smiles	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Fixed Fee and Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Lighting Designer	Damien Cooper	Non X-License	Worldwide	Perpetuity	Royalty	Integrity and Attribution
Set Constructor	Alan Robertson	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None
Production Manager	Rebecca Palmer	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None
Administrator	Isla Carbon	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None
Development Manager	Rachel Boyce	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None
Cultural Commentator	Hilary Crampton	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None
Choreographer	Lucy Guerin	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None
Rehearsal Instructor	Fiona Reily	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None
Stage Manager	Annette Dole	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None
Pilates Instructor	Craig Phillips	Deed of release	Worldwide	Perpetuity	None	None

Royalty division

While designers, companies and those with film experience agreed to the terms with additional royalties from anticipated revenue, negotiations with performers were far more complex.

Under the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) award, minimum wage for filming a performance for CD ROM is $500 per day per performer. This was prohibitive to Chunky Move which negotiated an upfront loading during rehearsal and an additional back-end royalty. The performers received a 20% loading on their weekly wage for the five-week filming period. When combined with the back-end payments due on estimated income this is equivalent to, or more than the MEAA rate of $500 per day.

Dividing income into royalty splits was based on the screen time of each component of the production. Originally the company had tried to equate the live performance model where the 10% box office royalty is divided between senior creative team (designers, choreographer) and the company. Since the participants had foregone loadings in favour of a back-end payment this model was no longer applicable.

The three sections were broken down accordingly into new work at 50% of screen time, additional material at 30% and the original work at 20%. Individual divisions are seen in the following chart.

Chunky Move Revenue Distribution by Screen Time

Chunky Move Individual Distribution of Revenue from Products

Negotiations

The difficulty with this model (and one recognised by the company) is that negotiations cannot be finalised until the product is finished i.e, a performer would not be aware of his/her split until the product was completed and screen time determined. Given that Chunky Move could not annotate what the final product would entail they chose to wait until post-production to demonstrate the final product. Arena however dealt with this issue in a different manner.

Moral rights exploration

Chunky Move also chose to trial the inclusion of moral rights in the performers' contracts. In order for performers to determine whether their right of integrity or attribution had been infringed all parties viewed the material at post-production stage. Performers viewed the various alterations to their image that the interactive CD ROM permitted in order to assess whether their rights had been infringed. Completing this at the end of the production period when all investment has been expended is not ideal since it places the product at risk. While this was not the case in this instance, it is foreseeable that one person's objection could stall the use of the product. Potentially, this could be detrimental to companies with presentation deadlines. In a similar experience to Arena, once the final product was viewed, participants understood what was being produced and how they would be represented and were excited rather than fearful about their involvement.

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