Master Class: Finding and Negotiating Distribution for Your Film with Elsa Ramo
About this Master Class
Master Classes are in-depth, interactive learning experiences focused on craft and career building and led by renowned industry experts. Topics include fiction and documentary filmmaking, TV writing and production, and navigating and succeeding in the entertainment industry.
It’s one thing to get your film made, it’s another thing to get it seen by an engaged audience. Securing distribution for your fiction or documentary film is a key challenge facing independent filmmakers. Join veteran entertainment attorney Elsa Ramo and special guests as they demystify the distribution landscape and the dealmaking. In this Master Class, Ramo will walk you through the players and the process so that you understand the role of an entertainment attorney or sales agent who can represent you and your film and negotiate with clarity about the goals you’ve set for success. Whether you are a fiction or documentary filmmaker, producer, director or screenwriter, this class will help you develop an understanding and a strategy to successfully reach your audience.
Topics covered include:
- 0:04 - Panelist Introduction/Orientation
- 4:29 - Master Class Introduction/ Structure for the session
- 7:15 - Distribution Agreements: Domestic Focused
- 9:09 - Key Material Terms
- 10:36 - Types of Rights
- 15:10 - Territory Breakdown
- 17:27 - Term of Distribution deal
- 19:39 - Minimum Guarantee/Gross Corridor/Bonuses
- 27:10 - Distribution Fee
- 31:26 - Distribution/Marketing Expense
- 38:18 - What happens as money comes in?
- 44:40 - Assumption of Bonuses/Residuals
- 46:25 - Audit and Accounting Rights
- 51:35 - Termination Provisions
- 55:04 - Third Party Contractural Obligations
- 59:53 - Q&A
- 1:34:43 - Packaging: How to Pitch Your Package & The Materials You Need
- 1:35:41 - Materials and info you should have
- 1:39:10 - What you should pitch
- 1:40:38 - How you should pitch
- 1:48:35 - Next steps
- 1:51:20 - Offers
- 1:52:52 - Q&A
- 2:13:30 - Distribution Agreements continued: First Opportunity Right to Any Subsequent Derivative Productions
- 2:14:53 - Free access to distributor/sales agent created marketing materials
- 2:16:49 - Insurance
- 2:20:05 - Indemnity
- 2:22:35 - Editing Rights/ Right to change the title
- 2:24:20 - Consultation/Approval Rights
- 2:26:56 - Security Interests and Liens
- 2:31:44 - Delivery Schedule
- 2:33:47 - Q&A
- 2:46:30 - Closing
Master ClassTeam
Elsa Ramo
Instructor
At the dealmaking intersection of where content makers meet buyers, financiers, and distributors, Elsa Ramo is at the forefront of first-time deals with emerging and established streamers and studios, guiding her clients into innovative terms that optimize their reach and prevalence in today’s flattened marketplace. Elsa provides comprehensive legal services to producers, financiers, creators, and owners of film, television, and digital content and projects across a range of budgets and production levels. She established her law firm to enable up-and-coming filmmakers and producers to bring their stories to life.
Ramo works with established content-creating powerhouses such as Imagine Entertainment, Skydance, Lion Forge Studios, Boardwalk Pictures, Scout Productions, Riff Raff Entertainment, The Comedy Store, The Jim Henson Company, Wonder Project and French Tuck. She also represents independent prolific producers and directors like Lee Broda, Zachary Drucker, Anne Clements, Liza Mandelup, and founder of the Los Angeles Festival of Movies, Sarah Winshall.
In addition to directly overseeing high-level clients, Elsa Ramo founded and manages her boutique firm, which has grown from a solo practice on the Universal Backlot in 2005 to a team of over 22 attorneys with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Ramo is notable for its majority female partners and diverse group of attorneys. Elsa is a Forbes.com contributor, speaking to current issues and topics in the entertainment industry. She and the firm were recently featured in a Variety article, "The Rise of Ramo from Two-Person Law Firm to Industry Player," celebrating Ramo Law’s 20th anniversary. She was recently recognized among Variety’s 2025 Legal Impact Report and 2022 Dealmakers Impact Report, Daily Journal’s Top 100 Women Lawyers, and Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2022 Women of Influence; she was nominated for the LA Times B2B Inspirational Women Awards; and her Firm was featured among Los Angeles Business Journal’s Most Admired Law Firms. In 2024 she was awarded LAW.com’s Women, Influence & Power in Law Managing Partner of the Year Award. Elsa lives in Brentwood with her husband and two children.
Sean Pope
Panelist
Sean works with producers and production companies focusing on all aspects of production legal services from development to distribution, with a particular focus towards documentaries and docu-series.
He serves as counsel for Emmy award-winning companies Boardwalk Pictures (CHEF’S TABLE) and Scout Productions (QUEER EYE), servicing shows such as CHEER and THE BLACK GODFATHER. He also represents production companies such as Caliwood Pictures (A NICE GIRL LIKE YOU) and The Solution Entertainment Group (KILLERMAN, LINE OF DUTY, HONEST THIEF), and he recently provided representation on the 2022 Sundance films THE EXILES, BRAINWASHED, DESCENDENT, WATCHER AND TIKTOK, BOOM.
Sean enjoys being a part of teams that help elevate unconventional stories, and he delights in sharing his experience with young producers, writers and lawyers when he has the opportunity.