Dear Member:

The possessory credit has stood as a trademark of the very best in film direction since the birth of the American film industry. Over the years, this worthy credit has been accorded to those directors whose particular contributions to their films entitled them to it, and afforded them recognition among movie-goers.

For more than a year now, the DGA Creative Rights Committee, faced with what we all know is occasional abuse in the awarding of dubious credits, has been looking within with one goal in mind – maintaining the integrity of the possessory credit. This credit is rich with history and, as we took on our task, we went back again and again to a time nearly forty years ago when some of the giants of our craft – Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, King Vidor, and Frank Capra – successfully defended an all-out attack on the possessory credit.

The founders of the Guild and many of the greatest practitioners of the craft had a vision of the possessory that, frankly, has been diminished in this era of questionable credits. And while we certainly don't think that unmerited possessory credits are the worst abuse of credits to be found today, our Guild has never been one to wait for others to clean house before it picks up its broom.

The dilemma faced by the Guild is how to preserve the significance of the possessory credit without sacrificing the basic principle that individual possessory credits should be determined in the negotiation between a director and Employer, and not by some external authority. After much debate, your colleagues on the Committee concluded that the Guild should take some action to insure that the possessory credit continues to signify that what appears on the screen should be identified with its director. Ultimately, the National Board unanimously agreed with the Creative Rights Committee's recommendations on the necessary steps to take, resulting in a new possessory credit sideletter. Let me share with you its key provisions:

• Possessory credits in any form will not be given to a first-time director unless that director brought the property that was the basis for the film to the studio and provided substantial services to its development. This is a limited, carefully crafted exception to the principle that the possessory credit should be freely negotiated, in order to eliminate the most flagrant abuses of the credit.
  
  
• The mandate to use a "film by" credit in outdoor advertising when there are 6 or more personal credits to other people has been dropped. This provision was negotiated more than twenty years ago, as an effort to encourage the studios to limit the number of credits on billboards. It has clearly not achieved its purpose of discouraging the proliferation of billboard credits, and its mandatory aspect is inconsistent with the DGA's principled approach to possessory credits.
  
  
• In addition, we have also included several non-binding guidelines for the Employers to consider when they are weighing whether to grant the possessory credit. The guidelines suggest the criteria should be whether a director has established a marketable name or a signature style of filmmaking, or received critical acclaim, or possesses a substantial body of work consisting of 3 or more films, or has received a possessory credit on a previous film.
  

We feel comfortable in proceeding this way because the industry knows that the Directors Guild will continue to fight to insure that the right of directors to earn a possessory credit is free from encroachments imposed against our will and our best interests.

In developing this new approach, the members of the Creative Rights Committee and National Board often returned to the words of our founders, searching for a roadmap that would guide us in correcting our course. I am proud of the hard work and creative thinking that scores of directors have given to this important endeavor.

Please feel free to drop me a note or send me an email with any questions or comments you have on this matter.

My best regards,

Michael Apted
President
Directors Guild of America