Creative Clearance

How do I submit a request?

All you have to do is email us the name and address of the entity you wish us to bill, and we will send out an invoice for your requested report.

What forms of payment do you accept?

We accept checks (business or personal) and credit cards, however we charge an additional 3.5% for credit card payments in order to cover the fee that the credit card company charges us. Please note that we require receipt of payment before starting on any requested reports.

What is the difference between a title search and a clearance report?

Script Clearance reports:
A script clearance report checks your script to determine which elements in your script may require permission from an outside party; for instance, music, set dressing items, dialogue references and character and business names. We check names to determine if a fictional place or person you have included in your script may be confused with a real business or a real person. For example, there is a defense attorney in the city in which your action takes place with the same name as your character, who incidentally, is a defense attorney. We would flag this in our report and provide a pre-cleared replacement. We can also provide suggestions for replacements for anything that may be deemed risky or cost prohibitive by production.

This report would then go to the production office so that they can go through the report to assess risk and determine if they need to change anything. This is also why you should request a script clearance report, prior to shooting- if anything turns up in the report and you have already shot your project, it may be more difficult to remove or change.

Copyright & Title Search reports:
We provide one combined Copyright & Title Search report that is less expensive than what our competitors charge for a Title Search report alone. Our Copyright search checks the status of your title in the U.S. Copyright Office and checks trade notices to determine if any other entity has acquired rights to your project. A Title Search report involves extensive research to check where the title of your project is currently and previously being used, to determine if it has obtained any secondary meaning in the minds of the public. This is important, because while titles cannot be copyrighted, if you release a film (for example) called “Gone With The Wind, Down On The Plantation” and people go to see it thinking that it is related to the MGM film, you will be making money by trading on the secondary meaning that title has obtained and confusing the audience as to the source of the project.

When should I get a Title Search report done?

Please note that Title Search reports are considered time-sensitive, and are usually ordered 3-6 months before distribution.

Do I need an “opinion” on my title search, if so how do I get this?

In our experience, you do not always require a Title Opinion letter. We encourage you to look at your documentation for deliverables, if it states that you are required to provide a Title Search and Opinion, then you need an Opinion letter. If it only says you need a Title Search, then in all likelihood you only need the Title Search report. If you do need a Title Opinion, we have an attorney we work with who can provide a Title Opinion letter based on their review of our title search.

Do you include script revisions in your script clearance rates?

We include five revisions. If you have more than five, we can negotiate at that time depending on number of revisions.

Do you charge a fee to accept credit cards?

Yes, we charge an additional 3.5% fee to accept credit cards, which covers the amount the credit card company charges us to process the payment.

Script Clearance Reports

Copyright & Title Searches

Title Opinions