A typical film production, even a relatively small, independent one, often sprouts from the initiative of one or two individuals. But it can quickly grow into a multimillion-dollar company, often with a substantial number of employees, when you tally the entire cast and crew.

As a filmmaker, you chose a creative path. Business school and law school were never part of the plan, as you may have had to tell your parents in an awkward conversation. But as the producer of a decent-sized production, you are now the CEO of a company, bestowed with certain attendant responsibilities and liabilities.

In the early 2000s, the biggest workplace issue on the minds of most hip CEOs was how to attract talent with videogames, ping- pong tables, and free snacks in the break room. Those were the days when free volunteer workers in the entertainment industry were called “unpaid interns,” even if they didn’t meet the legal definition of interns and weren’t tied to programs run by academic institutions. It was a simpler time, when many of us believed the concept of a “casting couch” was a salacious legend from the old studio system of the 1940s.

While employment and labor laws has been in place since before the new millennium, prudent producers today need to be more mindful of what these laws are and what they require. There is a mistaken belief that these laws simply don’t apply to independent filmmakers, because making an indie movie is just a more grown-up version of putting on a show in...

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