mechjustin
Carbonite Member
While filming, there was a scene with kids watching the movie 'The Ring', is there any legal issues I would have to deal with to use this scene in the movie?
Can you use other movie clips?
- Thread starter mechjustin
- Start date
Shane Ross
Veteran
Yup. You either have to get the rights from the studio to show that, or you have to blur the screen.
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
Not just blur the screen, but mute the sound also. It's not only the visual you have to worry about, but the audible as well.
plexi
Active member
Are you making a documentary? If so you might be able to claim fair use. If you were just documenting what was happening at the time, and the kids happened to be watching the ring, you should be able to get away with fair use. Especially if the film is for indie festivals and such, and not for major broadcast.
stuckfootage
Well-known member
Fair Use is often mentioned, but I believe it only refers to
educational uses, like copying an excerpt to use in a class,
or quoting someone in a scholarly text. U.S. law is quite different
from European law in this respect.
Copyright owners (especially those who can afford expensive lawyers)
have been getting really nasty lately. I think the best way to go is to plan
for success. In other words, what if your film got a lot of attention and
you're really happy, then you get that nasty lawyer letter? At that point,
you are really screwed. You've got to either pay an absurd amount of
money, or reedit your film. Big mess. It's better to make a film that
is yours and yours alone.
Actually, you may have an even trickier problem on your hands
because you used kids. In certain situations, you can sign a contract
with the kids or their parents granting you permisssion, and later
on they can have the contract declared void. Again, this usually
happens when things are going great, and everybody wants
a piece of the pie.
Before you commit to using kids or using copyrighted material,
do some careful research. Make sure that film you worked on
so hard actually belongs to you.
Les
plexi
Active member
Not necessarily, Huy. Here's a section from the excellent "Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use"
CAPTURING COPYRIGHTED MEDIA CONTENT IN THE PROCESS OF FILMING SOMETHING ELSE
DESCRIPTION: Documentarians often record copyrighted sounds and images when they are filming sequences in real-life settings. Common examples are the text of a poster on a wall, music playing on a radio, and television programming heard (perhaps seen) in the background. In the context of the documentary, the incidentally captured material is an integral part of the ordinary reality being documented. Only by altering and thus falsifying the reality they film— such as telling subjects to turn off the radio, take down a poster, or turn off the TV—could documentarians avoid this.
PRINCIPLE: Fair use should protect documentary filmmakers from being forced to falsify reality. Where a sound or image has been captured incidentally and without prevision, as part of an unstaged scene, it should be permissible to use it, to a reasonable extent, as part of the final version of the film. Any other rule would be inconsistent with the documentary practice itself and with the values of the disciplines (such as criticism, historical analysis, and journalism) that inform reality-based filmmaking.
LIMITATIONS: Consistent with the rationale for treating such captured media uses as fair ones, documentarians should take care that:
- particular media content played or displayed in a scene being filmed was not requested or directed;
- incidentally captured media content included in the final version of the film is integral to the scene/action;
- the content is properly attributed;
- the scene has not been included primarily to exploit the incidentally captured content in its own right, and the captured content does not constitute the scene’s primary focus of interest;
- in the case of music, the content does not function as a substitute for a synch track (as it might, for example, if the sequence containing the captured music were cut on its beat, or if the music were used after the filmmaker has cut away to another sequence).
For more on this, the full guide is available as a PDF here:
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/backgrounddocs/bestpractices.pdf
CAPTURING COPYRIGHTED MEDIA CONTENT IN THE PROCESS OF FILMING SOMETHING ELSE
DESCRIPTION: Documentarians often record copyrighted sounds and images when they are filming sequences in real-life settings. Common examples are the text of a poster on a wall, music playing on a radio, and television programming heard (perhaps seen) in the background. In the context of the documentary, the incidentally captured material is an integral part of the ordinary reality being documented. Only by altering and thus falsifying the reality they film— such as telling subjects to turn off the radio, take down a poster, or turn off the TV—could documentarians avoid this.
PRINCIPLE: Fair use should protect documentary filmmakers from being forced to falsify reality. Where a sound or image has been captured incidentally and without prevision, as part of an unstaged scene, it should be permissible to use it, to a reasonable extent, as part of the final version of the film. Any other rule would be inconsistent with the documentary practice itself and with the values of the disciplines (such as criticism, historical analysis, and journalism) that inform reality-based filmmaking.
LIMITATIONS: Consistent with the rationale for treating such captured media uses as fair ones, documentarians should take care that:
- particular media content played or displayed in a scene being filmed was not requested or directed;
- incidentally captured media content included in the final version of the film is integral to the scene/action;
- the content is properly attributed;
- the scene has not been included primarily to exploit the incidentally captured content in its own right, and the captured content does not constitute the scene’s primary focus of interest;
- in the case of music, the content does not function as a substitute for a synch track (as it might, for example, if the sequence containing the captured music were cut on its beat, or if the music were used after the filmmaker has cut away to another sequence).
For more on this, the full guide is available as a PDF here:
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/backgrounddocs/bestpractices.pdf
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stuckfootage
Well-known member
The California Law for child actors is commonly called "Coogan's Law":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coogan_Law
Defintely worth checking out.
Les
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coogan_Law
Defintely worth checking out.
Les
stuckfootage
Well-known member
....and here's a scary New York Times article about using incidental footage:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/movies/16rams.html
It's really worth reading!
Les
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/movies/16rams.html
It's really worth reading!
Les
plexi
Active member
Regarding the NYT story, that was three years ago and I think the definitions of fair use have been broadened since then, including those in the Best Practices paper. In all the cases they listed in the NYT story, I think fair use should have applied and been pursued by the filmmakers.
But anyway Justin, is your film a documentary or a narrative???
But anyway Justin, is your film a documentary or a narrative???
stuckfootage
Well-known member
Plexi, this is really an excellent document and policy statement!
Have these ideas held up in court cases?
Les
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plexi
Active member
To my knowledge, there haven't been any cases brought on these issues since the policy statement was released. It was drafted by media lawyers, copyright experts, and US media organizations. Read it over, it basically serves as the bible for documentary makers in terms of what is or isn't considered fair use.