Copyright Infringement?

marlenedegrood

marlenedegrood

Flicks By Chics
So I'm filming a documentary and in one scene I'm filming an artist working in her "creative environment". Wanting to film the artist as she normally works meant allowing her to have her sound system playing. She works to music and it made sense but now I have to contend with recognizable popular music in the background. What should I do? I'm sure I would be in violation of copyright if I leave it in but I need the rest of the audio. Any words of wisdom here? Thanks!
 
If you can't get synchronization rights, you'll have to lose the music. There's always the posibility of getting festival rights to the music but it all depends on what you want to do with it. I'm sure that's not what you want to hear but...
 
Blaine said:
Perhap you can just redo the audio...
Click to expand...

I wish I could, but the commentary during the filming is really important. To remove the audio and do a VO just wouldn't work.....but thanks for caring :)
 
Marlene,

There is actually a great article about the 'true costs of documentaries' that was in the NYTimes about two to three months ago. There was a link and discussion about it in the cafe. Furthermore, one of the elements of the article dealt with someone having the rocky theme song on their cell phone as a ring tone. It cost more than $15,000 for them to get the rights for the documentary! I know it seems insane, but the record labels really stick it to you when it comes to this. One of the best things I would say that you could do is to try to mute out the sound if possible, unless you have dialogue, or even go to some narration or something. I know reshoots are a pain, but you can always try the label and see what you can come up with. Good luck!

Jeremy
 
Filming with that music in the background was really stupid of me, I just wasn't thinking. Fortunatly, reshooting is not a problem. I will just chock it up to another lesson learned. Thanks for your input Jeremy.
 
Marlene,

If she needs music while she works, have her go to one of the royalty-free music sites (there are too many to list here) and pick a song or too. Usually full songs run about $40, and you get full rights to the song for any use (other than re-distribution, as in you sell the song to others to put in their movies).

Phil
 
I would recommend shooting with no background music. That way, you can cut it however you want and nobody would notice a break in the music. You can then add your own background music in post. Having no music may not be the artist's "normal" environment, but neither is the camera crew.
 
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