So What’s A “Shopping Agreement?”

A very good friend of mine, actor-writer Sam Dalton, has co-developed a possible episodic TV series with his collaborator. They’ve got a producer interested, but rather than a traditional option, the producer wants what is become increasingly common in the film business, a “shopping agreement.”

So what is a shopping agreement? In an industry that is as complicated and as laden with legal minefields as film and publishing, a shopping agreement is an attempt to move a project forward without the time, expense and hassle of engaging a crew of lawyers.

But as this article from FilmmakerMagazine.com reveals, it’s really difficult to get past all that:

Not an Option: The Ins and Outs of Shopping Agreements