MGM Signs Up for Producers Guild Certification...

MGM Signs Up for Producers Guild Certification...

MGM has come on board the Producers Guild of America's film credits certification process — giving the guild another victory in its longstanding campaign to curb excessive credits.

The announcement comes three months after Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros. signed on to the voluntary PGA process and a year and a half after the Weinstein Co. agreed to use of the Producers Mark — a lower-case "p.g.a." after a certified producer's name — on its Prohibition-era drama "Lawless" when it screened at Cannes.

Fox, Sony and Universal signed off on agreements a year ago, with the condition that they could drop out of the program if a fourth studio did not come on board within two years.

There are more than 60 films with the mark, including "Furious 6," "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," "Silver Linings Playbook," "The Lone Ranger," "Rise of Guardians," "The Croods," "The Purge," "Monsters University," "White House Down" and the upcoming "Saving Mr. Banks" and "47 Ronin."

"One of the Producers Guild's primary goals is to ensure that producers are recognized for their work – MGM's adoption of the Producers Mark is another gratifying achievement for the Guild," said PGA co-presidents Mark Gordon and Hawk Koch. "All major studios have adopted the p.g.a. certification process and by continuing to secure agreements with distribution companies and independent producers across the industry, the Producers Mark is steadily becoming the standard."

The PGA is touting the Producers Mark as certifying authenticity, not membership. "A producer need not be a member of the PGA to be eligible for certification, only to have performed a majority of the producing duties on a given film," it noted.

The PGA, which has 5,700 members, unveiled the Producers Mark concept in October 2010 with 144 notable producers endorsing the idea in order to protect the integrity of the role of producer. To receive it, a producer's work must be vetted and certified through the PGA's arbitration process; the mark is only given to producers who request it.

The PGA's Code of Credits spells out the qualifications for those eligible to receive the "produced by" credit for features and executive producer credit for TV. The code attaches specific weights to producer functions — 35% for development, 20% for pre-production, 20% for production and 25% for post-production and marketing — and includes job descriptions, guidelines and rules intended to help resolve credit disputes and protect the integrity of the "produced by" credit in features and exec producer credit in TV.

The PGA code requires that a person must have had substantial involvement adding up to a majority of those functions to qualify for the PGA credit. Leaders of the guild have emphasized that the PGA's mark does not govern who can receive a "produced by" credit on a pic with studios and distributors remain free to assign that credit to whomever they wish.

Reining in the volume of producer credits has been the PGA's signature issue since the 1998 Oscar ceremony, where five producers were credited for best-picture winner "Shakespeare in Love." The org held its first credit arbitration in 2001, promulgated a Code of Credits in 2004, and gained traction in 2005 when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced that the PGA's credit determination process would be the one it uses as a guideline on best picture nominations.

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PGA Predicts Quick Studio Approval of New 'p.g.a.' Mark...

In the wake of a Justice Department letter greenlighting the Producers Guild's new "p.g.a." credit designation, guild executive director Vance Van Petten tells The Hollywood Reporter that he's confident the designation will be adopted shortly by a majority of studios.
"With this letter, we will be able to close (agreements with) four studios imminently," Van Petten said in an interview.
The designation is intended to indicate that a motion picture producer has performed the functions of a producer on a project, as opposed to having received a vanity credit. Eligibility requires a "Produced by" credit and the credited producer having "performed a majority of the producing duties on the film," according to a PGA statement to THR explaining the designation.
The designation would follow a producer's name in the movie's credits, if he or she qualified, and desired the designation. In addition, said the guild, studios and distributors remain free to assign the credit to whomever they wish.
STORY: Producers Guild Will Continue to Nominate 10 Movies for Its Top Film Award
PGA presidents Hawk Koch and Mark Gordon said "We're extremely pleased that the U.S. Department of Justice has fully endorsed the Producers Guild's certification mark." The added, "The DOJ's critical decision clearly and definitively paves the way for swift adoption of the Producers' Mark, as there should be no further resistance from the motion picture studios to participate in the 'p.g.a.' certification program."
The PGA has sought to protect the "p.g.a." designation by filing for federal registration as a certification mark – a type of trademark indicating that the services were performed by a person meeting specified criteria.
Certification marks also – and more commonly – can be applied to goods. For instance, "Bluetooth" certifies that cell phones, headsets and other products comply with the necessary technical standards.
The guild received a Notice of Allowance from the Trademark Office, meaning that registration is all but automatic once the mark is in use.
A certification mark for use in motion picture credits is unusual, and perhaps unique. According to Van Petten, this approach was developed "because we had brilliant legal counsel," David Quinto of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.
Catherine Fisk, a law professor at UC Irvine and an expert on credit and attribution in entertainment, remarked "Screen credit is important in Hollywood's labor market and to consumers of Hollywood films. The success of the PGA's certification mark will ultimately depend on whether the PGA can develop an impartial and rigorous method for determining the contributions of producers."
Although the Producers Guild is not a union – unlike the similarly named Writers, Directors and Screen Actors Guilds – it's managed to adopt for producers one of the WGA's key functions for writers: namely, determining credits, at least for the purpose of qualifying for best picture nominations for the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards.
The guild explained that "the process for implementing the (p.g.a.) Producers' Mark follows the template laid down by the Guild's successful awards arbitration process, though with an accelerated timeline: eligibility determinations (are held) during a film's post-production process in order to determine the recipients of the Mark prior to the striking of the film's credits."
Following the receipt of a Notice of Credits from the relevant studio or distributor, Guild staff will invite credited producers to submit an eligibility form to receive the Mark, said the PGA. The form is similar to the eligibility forms submitted by producers for consideration for awards.
The process is similar in some respects to the WGA credit procedure.
Studios haven't yet agreed to the plan, and negotiations with one of the majors, Paramount, hung up over the studio's concerns that the designation might lead to antitrust liability – despite the fact that the designation is optional, isn't restricted to PGA members, and will only be granted to members if they meet the same criteria as any other producer.
In addition, Van Petten pointed out to THR that designations such as A.S.C. have been used in credits for many years after the names of members of the American Society of Cinematographers – a more restrictive designation, since only ASC members are eligible – yet without apparent antitrust concerns.
Another frequent designation is A.C.E., for members of the American Cinema Editors. Both organizations are professional societies open to personnel of a certain level of experience and distinction. They're not unions.
The Paramount objections led to another innovative move: the PGA sought a "business review letter" from the Department of Justice – essentially, an assurance that the DOJ sees no antitrust problem in the proposed approach.
Those letters are seldom granted – they've been issued at the rate of only about five per year in the past few years – and the use of such a letter in combination with a certification mark seems even rarer.
Rare or not, the PGA obtained one on Friday.
The letter, which was the first one issued this year, stated "the (Department of Justice) has no present intention to challenge the proposed use of the Guild's certification mark." Receipt of the letter led Van Petten to express his confidence that negotiations would now be successful with Paramount and three additional studios, which he didn't name.
Koch and Gorden said "We (believe) that the entire industry benefits from recognizing producers for their work."
The guild also noted in its statement to THR that it "believes that audiences deserve to know which producers, among an often-extensive list of credited individuals and teams, actually did the work."
At present, the p.g.a. mark is only applicable to theatrical motion pictures, although television use is under consideration.
The official description of the mark, as reflected in the guild's trademark filing, is "The certification mark, as intended to be used by authorized persons, is intended to certify that an individual identified as a producer on the credits of a motion picture, television or cable show has satisfied the certifier's standards to qualify for a production credit and is thus is recognized as a producer eligible to be nominated for and to receive an award in connection with the individual's work on such motion picture, television or cable show."

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DEAUVILLE 2011 PGA/APC

The PGA and APC [Producer's Guild in France] are in the planning stage of an event: roundtable plus cocktail during the festival September 2- 11th http://www.festival-deauville.com/DEV/index.php. They have added a pro section this year that includes a Producer's Corner and meeting with EU Distributors and Sales Agents. If you are a PGA member coming, please let us know your dates.

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Industry News: The Producers Guild of America Moves to Certify Films' Producing Credits...

January 23, 2011

On the eve of its annual awards, the PGA is fighting for a new designation that distinguishes working producers from those in name only.
The Producers Guild of America is determined to leave its mark on the movies its members produce. As the organization, which represents more than 4,500 producers nationwide, readies for its 22nd annual Producers Guild Awards — set for Saturday at the Beverly Hilton — its leadership has been meeting behind the scenes with studios to promote a new credit designation that would spotlight producers' contributions.
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Working producers have long bridled at the fact that when it comes to screen credits, they often share hard-earned titles with others who leverage clout — sometimes it's a movie's star or the star's manager or a passive investor who provides cash.
Among this year's PGA nominees, for example, the guild recogonized Scott Rudin's work on both The Social Network and True Grit but not that of financial powerhouses like Ryan Kavanaugh, one of the producers of The Fighter, or David Ellison, an exec producer on Grit.
"Until 2000 or 2001, nobody had ever really thought about the rights of producers, so I think we've come a long way," says Hawk Koch, the PGA's co-president with Mark Gordon. "We are part of the fabric of the industry now, where that wasn't always the case. But we still have to fight for respect. If you go to see a movie starring Natalie Portman, you don't expect to see someone else playing Natalie Portman. But everyone wants a producing credit whether or not they've done the job."
The PGA has proposed a solution, which it calls the Producers' Mark. Studios would still be free to grant whichever producing credits they contractually agree to. But once a movie begins postproduction, the PGA would review the various producers' contributions, then certify which were significant by adding the initials p.g.a. after their names.
The guild has already been using the process to decide which producers get credit when it comes to films nominated for its PGA Awards, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in its attempt to prevent armies of producers from taking to the stage to accept a best picture Oscar, has adopted the PGA's recommendations about which producers deserve ultimate credit.
In October, 144 producers signed a letter urging studios to adopt the proposed mark, which would be determined according to guidelines the PGA laid out in its Producers Code of Credits, set down in 2004 and revised regularly since. The code breaks down producing into 30 functions; to be certified, a producer must submit evidence he or she has been involved in at least half of them.
Signatories to the letter included some of the producing ranks' biggest names: Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro, last year's PGA winners for The Hurt Locker; veteran producers Robert Evans and Richard Zanuck; director-producers Clint Eastwood and Warren Beatty; and current contenders Rudin, David Hoberman and Mike Medavoy.
Currently, the PGA reviews credits on about 30 movies a year during awards season. PGA executive director Vance Van Petten estimates that adopting the mark would require his staff to collect information on more than 200 movies a year. But he insists, with the hiring of additional staff, that the job is manageable. "It works because we functionalized the job," he says. "The standard is whether a producer performs the majority of the functions in a personal decision-making capacity."
Inevitably, there have been disputes. Five years ago, the PGA didn't include financier Bob Yari on its approved list of Crash producers, a decision he appealed unsuccessfully. This year, Relativity's Kavanaugh, a credited producer on The Fighter, was denied PGA certification.
Kavanaugh, through a representative, declined comment. Koch, saying he can't address specific cases, says: "We have nothing against financiers. We appreciate every single one of them because without them a movie wouldn't get made." Securing financing is one of the stipulated 30 functions. But the PGA insists that if a financier — or for that matter, a writer, director or star — wants to earn the mark, they must offer evidence they've gone beyond their primary role and taken on a majority of the producing functions.
No studio has signed on to the designation, though several appear to be giving it serious consideration. PGA officials are hopeful the new mark will begin showing up on screens this year.
Says Koch, "Right now, I would say that at most of the studios, we are inside the 10-yard line."

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