7/30/2012

Copyright Permission and Releases

Indie Filmmaker’s journal: Part Two.  

“I look like a raccoon.” He said. “A bald raccoon.  And the music is not me.  Not me, doesn’t fit with my work. Change it.” He was not happy with our little masterpiece.

“Music, good music, free music is kind of hard to find.”  I said. “We can leave the music out, no problem.  But the raccoon thing is about the lighting at your house.  Not much we can do about that, now.”  I didn’t tell him it was also a function of our ignorance of proper lighting.  I felt bad.  He was a professional artist, we were amateur videographers.

We were learning, still finding out about how to do interviews of artists for informational features for our local community access cable TV station, which covers a small rural county.  I see it as a kind of journalism.  The Stanford University website mentions that many journalists do not obtain a signed interview release on the assumption that giving the interview was consent.  The US Copyright Office and the University of California  site are helpful in understanding permissions and releases.  Releases can help avoid legal actions for libel, invasion of privacy or copyright infringement (interviewee’s words can be copyrightable). 

7/29/2012

Obtaining Copyright Permissions

Indie Filmmaker's Journal: Part One

“If someone uses my images without my permission, I will own their home.”  She said it with a smile in a small voice, soft and smooth.  It was in her eyes and her smile, she meant what she said.  She told us a story of finding one of her works being sold on the internet without her permission.  She told us about registering copyright.  We were interviewing her for an artist profile of her to put on our local public access cable TV station. We knew we had her permission, we were doing a 30 minute video profile of her as a completely non-commercial gift to her and to our community.  Video is our hobby, we want to increase the cultural density of our community, we did not want to become homeless from our good intentions.

In almost all cases creating videos is a composite craft.   In making documentaries, in making fictional movies and in filming performances using the work, the property, of others is necessary.   There is nothing like the desire to follow the rules and also a good dose of fear of losing your home to stimulate the search for knowledge.

7/22/2012

Summer Vacation

Liz at the Beach, we were looking at tidepools
What is summer vacation for?  Although back a few days I’ve been struggling to maintaining my vacation mindset, sleeping in, taking long walks, staying unplugged, reading a novel a day, enjoying the moment, letting the “to do” rest, and trying to establish new routines. 

What I’ve found is sleeping in is easy, but conflicts with trying to establish new routines, like getting up early to see the sun rise.  The long walks are fun, relaxing, fit with enjoying the moment and good exercise.  Submerging into a novel of an afternoon is an exercise of the mind and a nice workout for the imagination.  Letting the old “to do” list languish is one of the enjoyable fundamentals of maintaining a vacation mindset.  The dilemma springs from setting up new routines, which sprout new “to do” lists, which stand on the sagging shoulders of the waiting old “to do” lists.  

Not surprising, staying unplugged is the hardest.  I’m in the “geezer” age group born in the time of radio and black and white movies.  Now the world for me is almost completely connected by technology.  Computers and the internet are plugged in daily life in how I communicate, in how I entertain myself and others, in how I learn.  Unplugged means being absent.  The screen flicker, the din and the rumble of the world is quieted.  Solitude accepted, solitude savored, an essence of the vacation mindset.  But the pull to reconnect is strong, a riptide sucking me back to the cyber sea.