Licensing of films for public display - help please

[Inprogress]

I'm starting out in the film thing (one man band at the moment), mainly building a little portfolio which I hope helps me to get either paid for work or crew position on some project - all to gain experience and work in the industry.

Licensing came to mind recently, now that my first promo film is just about complete and I wanted to upload it to Vimeo - then reading the fair use stuff really got my bogged down cause it is something I'm not naturally talented for - figuring out these legal stuff.

How does one handle licensing cause (unless it is internal company content) I would like to embed such video's in my future website. Am I allowed to do it?

I suppose what I am asking is really about contracts with clients and the video content produced for them. How do you handle it and where do you get contracts? Do you have a contract setup specially for each project? These are really business side questions, more than happy to follow links to articles.

Thanks.

(Admin, hope this is the right category - looked at the lot and this seemed most appropriate apart from general off topic section)

 

[Cassius]

Your post isn't very clear to me, so it's hard to answer well. I don't understand what Vimeo has to do with this if you own the video. If it's a promo video for you, produced by you, then you can do whatever you want with it. Contract templates can be downloaded from a number of websites and modified to suit your needs. I very rarely have to customize my contracts, the basic releases usually work for everything once I fill in the project title and people involved. Not counting the proposal and what they pay, of course, which I don't have signed contracts on but some people do. Those have to custom. Contracts for video work are pretty basic, and come down to talent release forms, work for hire agreements, proposals and invoices and limited licensing. If you aren't limiting the ability of your clients to use the video as they wish you don't even have to mention it.

If you can come back and give us a cleaned up post with clear questions you'll get a much better response.

 

[Inprogress]

Hi Cassius. Apologies for the murky question, I really know too little for me to ask point driven questions on the subject. The past year and a half I've focused on learning video techniques, some lighting, sound etc, but now that I suddenly have a promo video, I realize I know just about stuff-all about the legal aspect of public display of video's and promo-films. The business side of things (like how to charge when I get to that point) is very new.

Vimeo fits into the picture, when I was looking at what I am allowed to upload since they have different for accounts - I will upgrade to a Plus account for better encoding and priority uploads. I asked the Vimeo staff but they kinda gave me a bland answer to my question (which might be cause I gave a bland question).

The promo video clearly promotes the business I did it for, logo and everything. However my reason to upload it on my Vimeo account is for my exposure in terms of skills and talent, as well as constructive criticism. This idea is now much clearer after reading your post.

Maybe I'll be specific to this promo if it helps:
I made a promo for a dive business, part of it was interviews with some the divers. I used about 5 of them as interview inserts in the video. The rest of the divers appear in the background. From your post I take it I need to get release forms signed at the very least for those I interviewed, and if I can the others who are recognizable in the background.

In terms of displaying the video publicly (I purchased royalty free music) I can freely showcase it on my website and video hosting account (given it is agreed with my client - the dive business - I will confirm but I stated that when I proposed the making of a promo) since my use of the video is to showcase my talent and skills, and receive critique on my work to improve myself. The business will them embed it in their website for their use as promotion of their business.

Thanks a million.

 

[Mattoid]

If you pressed the record button then the copy right belongs to you. It is your video and you can do what you want with it. Maybe if you were working for a company and using their camera while being payed a wage there would be some ambiguity. But if you are freelance and you own the camera and you filmed it yourself there is no ambiguity what so ever. You don't have to ask the client what you can do with YOUR video. even if they asked you afterwards not to use it, (which they probably wouldn't) you could (and should) tell them were to shove it and they couldn't do anything about it. The only way you could be restricted on how to use the video is if YOU agreed to it in a contract beforehand. And since you are drafting the contract and can put absolutely anything you want in it, why would you even mention it? If they mention it (which they probably wouldn't) you could either chose to agree or disagree. Completely your choice. The only thing a client could do is not pay you. So wait until you get paid and then do what you want with your video.