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). 

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.

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.

Phoebe Newman, Three Poems from Ruby

Phoebe Newman

The poet Phoebe Newman reads three pomes from her book "Ruby".   These three poems were written when Phoebe lived in New Mexico.  In these pomes she gives voice to three rural women. There is abuse, there is endurance, there is a justice in first poem "Solidade".  There is the selective loss of memory from aging, the loss if independence of the old and there is dignity in the poem "Terraphellia".  The last poem she read is "Ruby" who calls her alter ego or her evil twin, there is the cattiness of a gossip with a begrudging admiration.

Phoebe Newman mixes humor, pathos, observation so clear it can be touched, into voices who speak a truth to themselves and to the rest of us.

Phoebe Newman read from four of her books in April in McMinnville.  Meadowlake Studios filmed her reading and put together a 45 minute show that aired on  McMinnville Community Media in the spring.

Phoebe Newman Four Poems

Phoebe Newman has published four books of Poetry, Ruby, Sugar, Here To Stay and her most recent This Is For You.  She read selected poems in McMinnville, Oregon on April 30, 2012.  The entire show is playing this week on McMinnville Comunity Media Comcast 11 or Frontier 29

Phoebe began a nationally recognized annual radio program called One Poem a Day Won't Kill You, on KRDB that invites people to read a favorite poem or one they have written on the radio during the month of April which is national Poetry Month.   Phoebe produced the program for 10 years until moving from Ketchikan, Alaska to McMinnville, Oregon.  The poetry program continues and during the month of April, 2012, KRDB aired a poem a day for all 30 days.  


Here are four poems Phoebe reading in McMinnville April 30th, "Beautiful Sara Lee", "The Fall", "Sciatica" and "When Bitten By The Crocodile"

Haiku Poetry, Paper Gardens 2012

 Haiku is one of the categories for the Paper Gardens Literary Contest every year.  This year Ann Patton, Margaret Halstead, Emily Cinnamon, Pruette Karl, Kyra Ellen Sieber and David Hallett read their winning Haiku entries.

We filmed the full Paper Gardens Event and the 45 minute TV show "Meadowlake Studios Encounter: Paper Gardens 2012" will began to air on Comcast Channel 11 and Frontier 29 beginning Saturday 5/12.   The schedule from McMinnville Community Media is

Tuesday, 05-15-2012

5:00 PM

Meadowlake Studios Encounter: Paper Gardens

Thursday, 05-17-2012

9:00 PM

Meadowlake Studios Encounter: Paper Gardens

Friday, 05-18-2012

5:00 PM

Meadowlake Studios Encounter: Paper Gardens

Paper Gardens 2012 Free Verse Poetry

Paper Gardens Literary Contest for sponsored by Arts Alliance of Yamhill County publishes a Chapbook of the winning entries in the Adult, Youth and Children groups.  Free Verse Poetry one of the long standing poetry categories.  This year's winners who read their work at the April 13th Awards event at the McMinnville Community Media were  “Undone” by Julie Stubblefield, “My Surgeon” by Jen Jo,  “Lullaby” by Susan Easterly, “Sideways” by Bethan Bonebrake and “Quiet” by Hannah Siepmann.

We filmed the full Paper Gardens Event and the 45 minute TV show "Meadowlake Studios Encounter: Paper Gardens 2012" will begin to air on Comcast Channel 11 and Frontier 29 beginning Saturday 5/12.  Check McMinnville Community Media for the schedule.  The show should run multiple times during the week.

We put the segment on the Free Verse Poetry readings on YouTube.  

For a copy of the Paper Gardens 2012 Chapbook go to Arts Alliance of Yamhill County website.  I do not think you can buy them directly from the site.  They do have Chapbooks available.  Contact them and they will be happy to get you a Chapbook.