What rights do I have to my material?

[blazer003]

I was recently wanting to put more of my work on the web, and I have one piece that I want some input on. I shot, directed and produced the behind the scenes featurette for the movie Call of the Wild 3d. This was a relatively small Hollywood production with a budget just over 1.5 million. In it I have interviews with Christopher Lloyd, Jaleel White, and Ariel Gade. I did this pro bono, for the experience of being on set and having the opportunity to just sit back, observe (and film) everything that went on on the set. It was my first experience on a true Hollywood set.

So the BTS turned out well, it was fun and everyone liked it, but because they wanted to include both the 3D and non 3D version of the movie on the DVD, it got cut. No big deal, I understood. But nobody got to see it.

So here comes the advice part. I never signed any sort of NDA, this all took place 5 years ago, and it's all my own work. The actors, however to my knowledge, did not sign releases. I do have a release for the music used. If I go posting this on my reel, do I need to first get releases from the actors? With no agreement with the production company, would they have any legal recourse? Honestly I think if I just asked the director or the executive producer they'd be fine with me posting it, but it's one of those things that if they aren't, it may have just been better if I never asked.

Anyway, just throwing out a lot of information and looking for feedback and opinions. This community is great.

-Matt

 

[Justin Kuhn]

My take is, if it's just your reel you should be fine and you should definitely take advantage of the opportunity to have name actors on your reel. Using said footage for your commercial gain would be another matter.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

So here comes the advice part. I never signed any sort of NDA, this all took place 5 years ago, and it's all my own work. The actors, however to my knowledge, did not sign releases. I do have a release for the music used. If I go posting this on my reel, do I need to first get releases from the actors? With no agreement with the production company, would they have any legal recourse? Honestly I think if I just asked the director or the executive producer they'd be fine with me posting it, but it's one of those things that if they aren't, it may have just been better if I never asked.

Anyway, just throwing out a lot of information and looking for feedback and opinions. This community is great.

-Matt

While you 'own' the material, you do not have the right to 'publish' those images of people who have not signed a release with you.

You can view it, and at parties in your house present to friends... but as a part of a demo reel, you would be going beyond 'for your private use'.

In the 20+ years of shooting weddings, 'actors' were the only ones who refused to agree to allow us to use the shots of the wedding in our own promotional materials (for you that reads 'demo reel') which was a part of a check off list part of our contract. And so we could not use shots from those weddings. And may I add... these were not actors whose names could be identified by most people... let alone more well known actors and actresses...

The only consolation is they can't use your material without your permission...