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.