Submitting a film with Creative Commons Non-Commercial Music to a Film Festival?

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benlen

Member
Greetings folks,

I just finished my latest film, BIGELOW, which is now available online at Vimeo. Links are below. It is about a backpacking adventure in the northern wilderness of Maine.

Just some background:

I completed this film as my master's thesis project for a graduate school film degree. Since it was educational, and not for profit, I utilized a lot of Creative Commons songs, most with the "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0" license.

I wasn't interested in shopping the film around to film festivals, as it was an academic assignment and passion project. Lo and behold, I recently discovered that my home state of Maine hosts a "Maine Outdoor Film Festival" which screens films like mine about outdoor focused adventures in Maine and beyond. This seems like such a specific and focused festival that it would be interesting to see my film screened if it was accepted! It would also be a way for me to interact with more filmmakers in the outdoor videography community.

For me, a possible screening at the festival would be beneficial only for validation and exposing people to the beauty of Maine's mountain ranges. But I want to do right by the music rights holders and not submit anything unless I have the rights.


For one piece of music, "Old Friends, Good Times" (the opening credits theme of the film) I paid a small personal fee. The process for this seems straightforward––if I wanted to ship it to a film festival, I'd be out 100 bucks. Here's the link to that song: https://vimeo.com/musicstore/track/145112/old-friends-good-times-by-martin-sebastian-holm


But I'm vexed about the Non-Commerical Attribution songs. I would not accept any financial reward or compensation from the festival even if offered, but I don't believe that is enough to ethically ensure I do right by the rights holders.

Can anyone help? Below are links to the festival rules and my film:

Festival Rules: http://maineoutdoorfilm.com/submit-2014/




 
I scrubbed through the 3 videos you provided, and I have to say that most of the music is very generic. Stylistically, it's all over the place, there's nothing unifying it. I hope you're not attached to any of it, but I don't think it would be a problem, or very expensive to replace all of it.

First, take a look at a couple of low cost buyout libraries like https://www.freshmusic.com/ or http://www.music2hues.com/

If that doesn't fit your needs, take a look at a low cost library service like http://www.audionetwork.com/ or http://www.sounddogs.com/
 
Arniepix, thanks for that––I was thinking I may just replace the music in there that couldn't be used commercially, rather than go to the trouble of fretting over contacting various artists to work out deals.

Out of curiosity, do you have any knowledge about that "noncommercial" clause and if film festivals count as "commercial" for say an independent filmmaker?
 
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