About a year ago my friend and I decided to start up a production company. We began the whole process of paperwork, etc. and picked up a few projects. One of them was a documentary about a girl named Jessica Dooley who, a few years ago, was brutally murdered by a guy named Jared Rosling who was wasted out of his mind on meth. We had support from the entire family and had to travel to Helena, MT (the place of the incident) from Gillette, WY to shoot it. My friend had/still has no video experience or know-how. This was fine because he mostly dealt with the people we would have to talk to get projects and sell them etc. and I would handle the actual projects. We soon began to have many creative difference and wanted to remain friends, so we decided a company wouldn't be the best idea. We broke it up and divided the projects among eachother. I wasn't too interested in this documentary, so I said he could take it. I took a few things and he took a few things and we were both okay with it. The meth documentary was shot, but not edited at all. A few weeks later he calls me and shows me his edit of the documentary, made with windows movie maker or something. It was horrible. Basically just some interviews shown with no titles or anything and then some footage of her grave. He said he showed it to a few people and, as expected, they told him it needed work. He didn't know what to do, so he asked me to help him. I told him that if i helped him i would have to scrap the entire thing and start with just the tapes again.
This was fine, I figured I would help him out. We agreed to split any profits 50/50. So I edited the entire movie over, composed a soundtrack and even bought the DVD to burn it on. I didn't mention it earlier, but I had spent all of the money that went into this project. My friend had spent none. In fact, when we were about halfway to Helena, he said "Oh I forgot my debit card." and I ended up paying for everything. Not to mention the camera was also mine, and the tapes and tripod. I filmed everything, as well, except for a few very badly shot interviews he did on his own that took a while to clean up in Final Cut. At the end of the editing process he had this idea that I found incredibly cliched. He wanted a heartbeat at the end of credits that slowly faded out. I had my name on the credits under music and I didn't feel comfortable putting this idea on it under my name. We got into a huge argument and after a few days of him giving me the silent treatment, I ended up sticking it in and adding a credit for "Heartbeat Sound Effect".
After this, things went extremely downhill. He began marketing it and looking for people to buy it. I hadn't been able to get ahold of him, but I had a mutual friend who kept me updated. A few weeks ago he drew up a contract to give me 20% instead of the original 50%. I laughed at this. It was irrelevant because I was not going to sign it. After some thought, I managed to get a hold of him and told him that I would agree to this 20% if he were to pay me back the money I spent on making the movie. He said "Lemme turn that over", then hung up. A few weeks went by without response. Then, this Sunday I picked up the newspaper. There was a story on Andrew. It was about the movie. He had shown it to some commissioners or something and the paper made it out to be a huge deal. The thing was, I was mentioned nowhere in this article. Andrew had taken all of the credit for the movie i had paid for and worked hard on and had nearly all of the ideas for. I had no idea any of this was going on. I have not signed anything. Then I found out it was playing on local TV. I turned it on and watched to see if it was an edited version than the original. The end still had my name as Editor and Music, but he had taken out the beginning where my production company was named.
Anyone have any advice on how I should proceed?
This was fine, I figured I would help him out. We agreed to split any profits 50/50. So I edited the entire movie over, composed a soundtrack and even bought the DVD to burn it on. I didn't mention it earlier, but I had spent all of the money that went into this project. My friend had spent none. In fact, when we were about halfway to Helena, he said "Oh I forgot my debit card." and I ended up paying for everything. Not to mention the camera was also mine, and the tapes and tripod. I filmed everything, as well, except for a few very badly shot interviews he did on his own that took a while to clean up in Final Cut. At the end of the editing process he had this idea that I found incredibly cliched. He wanted a heartbeat at the end of credits that slowly faded out. I had my name on the credits under music and I didn't feel comfortable putting this idea on it under my name. We got into a huge argument and after a few days of him giving me the silent treatment, I ended up sticking it in and adding a credit for "Heartbeat Sound Effect".
After this, things went extremely downhill. He began marketing it and looking for people to buy it. I hadn't been able to get ahold of him, but I had a mutual friend who kept me updated. A few weeks ago he drew up a contract to give me 20% instead of the original 50%. I laughed at this. It was irrelevant because I was not going to sign it. After some thought, I managed to get a hold of him and told him that I would agree to this 20% if he were to pay me back the money I spent on making the movie. He said "Lemme turn that over", then hung up. A few weeks went by without response. Then, this Sunday I picked up the newspaper. There was a story on Andrew. It was about the movie. He had shown it to some commissioners or something and the paper made it out to be a huge deal. The thing was, I was mentioned nowhere in this article. Andrew had taken all of the credit for the movie i had paid for and worked hard on and had nearly all of the ideas for. I had no idea any of this was going on. I have not signed anything. Then I found out it was playing on local TV. I turned it on and watched to see if it was an edited version than the original. The end still had my name as Editor and Music, but he had taken out the beginning where my production company was named.
Anyone have any advice on how I should proceed?
