Using others artwork during production?

[Oller Visuals]

Is it OK to use others artwork, pictures and such during a movie production for inspiration? Ie, printing and pinning lots of drawings and stuff on the wall for artists to look at. I'm thinking that:

- Using for inspiration (even commercially) but no more than references for creating your own work = OK

- Filming behind the scenes during the production and then having visible work of others in the video without permisison = not OK

I looked at a visual short film pitch once that the director had sent out as pitch to producers, and it was filled with references of how he wanted the style to be. I guess this isn't OK legally speaking? That's a form of publishing to pitch your work with others work included in it?

Hope my question makes sense. Been thinking about this a lot lately.

 

[El Director]

Look up "mood boards". If you're not photographing the stuff, you're probably okay. A lookbook is another term for it.

 

[puredrifting]

I shoot a lot of BTS for big shows and features and we constantly have to blur stuff and reframe because of this. A lot of it depends on distribution, how picky the lawyers are for the given entity and where and how it will be seen. For what we do, licensing is always "All forms of media worldwide and throughout the known universe, in perpituity", which is the most expensive to license and clear. But I am amazed at what they get away with on single broadcasts to television, they just gloss over a lot of stuff that we really sweat the details on. Best bet, talk to the legal staff of whomever the project is being shot for before shooting and get it in writing as to what they require.

Another interesting one to think about are location releases. Do you need them for every privately owned, non-public space building? What about street scenes on private property? What about shooting a privately owned building from a public space? What about an interview subject's living room? I have no easy answers, only that I try to get location releases for everywhere I point a camera, when practical and possible as lawyers LOVE to kill projects, hold up deals and crap all over anything you submit as a finished work. It's all about the billable hours, and mitigating risk. I hate copyright and clearance lawyers.