Using television in your film.

[Dan_The_Man]

Hi there,

I really don't know where to post this one but chose here because I am wrting a script for my short and I want to include some clips of films or TV programmes at the beginning to help set up my narrative. I was wondering what the copyright implications are of this? I'm guessing I'm not allowed to use short clips from real film and TV, can I?

 

[Martay]

Not unless you have the rights granted from the owner of the footage.

 

[clang]

Correct. Using clips inside a film can work really well (I loved the ones in Starship Troopers for example), but always use made-up clips - unless you desperately need some specific historical clip (e.g. some famous person saying something famous), and even then prepare for an uphill battle as the rights may be unobtainable or horrificly expensive.