Who owns the rights?

J

John.Malak

Member
I'm not exactly sure how to word this but, here goes...

A film student makes a movie and submits the film for class. Does the college then own the film because it was essentially produced for the sole purpose of receiving a final grade? What do you guys think?
 
Completely depends on the school in question, at my school for example. If the head of the film department produces your feature, raises money ect, he has a loophole to allow the student to still own the rights to the footage even if it was shot on campus. Multiple students have made features, and distributed them outside of school on there own. However I know that most other schools do not have such a loophole and the school does own the footage. The best way to find out is to ask the Professor.

Hope it helps,

Graham Robbins
 
It does depend on the school, and what the papers the student signed actually say. I have a friend that teaches 3D and Game Design, and I asked if we could get his students to work on a game I have been working on. He explained how everything his students do in class belong to the school for promotion. I can only assume that a Film School might also have that written into the entrance papers the student signs.
 
Many schools have business development people or departments as they look to monetize their IP (intellectual property). IP can take any shape or from from research, innovation or content. If it can be monetized, there needs to be a release and agreement.

Michael
 
Yeah USC for a long time has had something saying essentially that no matter whether you fund a project entirely yourself, they still own the rights to it if you're in school there, etc. They have recently realized, on good legal advice as well, that this is in fact not true because you can't just assert your rights, that doesn't make them so. It's much like Film LA telling me I need to get a permit to film on private property -- because they said so? No, I don't think so. That's not the way this country works. I have that right because of the constitution and because on my property or anyone else's property with their permission I can do whatever the hell I feel like as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. You have to be SMART when it comes to laws and regulations, realizing that you really only need to follow and believe ones that are actually enforceable. Just because USC says they own YOUR footage doesn't make it so -- in point of fact, if that ever came to any sort of court of law, I doubt there would even be a hearing, it would just be dismissed immediately. Whoever pays for a project owns the rights to it, doesn't matter if you're enrolled in a film school or not. That's the facts.

It's just like if I say, "Well if you ever shoot a project for me, then I now own the right to everything you ever make in the future." That's really nice that I said that, but it doesn't make it true. You can't just assert rights that the law gives you no actual recourse to take. USC doesn't have the right to say they own footage that they don't own, and no matter how many times they say it won't make it so, either.
 
It's getting a bit murky here. As I understand the law on this subject, the photographer owns the pictures they capture. It doesn't matter who pays for it. That's why a still photographer keeps the negatives even though you hire them to take your portrait. You can buy as many prints from them as you like, but the photographer will never sell you the negatives...he owns them. UNLESS... you sign that right away. Typically in the commercial world it's called "a work for hire", which means the photographer is "employed" to do the work and the paying producer is then the owner of the work. Similarly, most schools will have some language in release papers that will say they own whatever a student produces at their behest. I doubt it would be immediately be dismissed by a court since the student voluntarily sign over the right. The only claim by the student would be that it is a "contract of adhesion", meaning the school forced them to sign the contract in order to get an education etc. and that they otherwise would have never done that and therefore did not have equal bargaining power.
Wow, do I sound deep here. I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on TV!... actually, I was married to one for a long time!
So, if you're a producer, get the DP to sign a "work for hire" contract. If you're the creator of the pictures, you own them, unless you sign an agreement stating otherwise.
Here's the bigger question: Who owns the movie? Even though The DP owns the "pictures", the compilation of them known as the movie, may in fact be owned by the producer or school, or whatever. Those pictures could always be re-edited into another movie by the DP!
 
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