Madison Karsenty Highlights Legal Essentials for Film & Television on the Legal Vision Podcast

Madison Karsenty recently appeared alongside host and filmmaker Damien Swaby on the “Legal Vision” podcast. In the episode, entitled “Legal Essentials for Film & TV – Madison Karsenty,” Madison breaks down legal essentials for film and television creators.

Madison explains that legal agreements aren’t one-size-fits-all and are dependent on a filmmaker’s budget, financing, and commitment to their project. “Production legal includes all of the negotiations and agreements that you need in order to be able to deliver to a distributor, so you can start as early as obtaining the rights to an underlying work,” Madison tells listeners. “If we’re talking about the scripted space, you might have a book or a podcast or an article that you want to acquire the rights to, and even starting there, there are multiple different flavors of the type of agreement that you may want to use depending on what your budget looks like, whether you have financing locked in, and how committed you are to the project.”

Madison continues to elaborate on her perspective about working with creatives to align the legal and artistic processes, adding that her passion for film is what led her to pursue this area of the law.

“Our firm tries to be as creative and filmmaker-friendly as possible, and that’s something we really pride ourselves on,” she continues. “One of the primary reasons that I got into this type of work is because I enjoy talking to creatives, but I think there is oftentimes this misconception that the lawyers are the suits that are trying to come on to a production and be the roadblocks, and say ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that’ – I, and the other lawyers at DCP, really try to have conversations with our clients that are practical and say, ‘what’s your creative goal?’”

The Legal Vision podcast series, in collaboration with esteemed filmmaker and podcast host and producer Damien Swaby, is a pro bono project with the mission to inspire creators to explore necessary legal frameworks as they launch creative endeavors. The discussions and subject matter in this podcast do not constitute legal advice. Please consult with an attorney before making any legal decisions.

View the full episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.