bjbj Tackling a subject inside and out requires grabbing as much content as you possibly can.
For all you documentarians out there, you're gonna have to pay close attention to what
you can and cannot use for your project. Fair use is a clause that grants video editors
access to movies and television. Copyright law allows a person the exclusive right to
control the distribution and sale of his or her creation. This is to encourage the creation
of new works of art and invention that add value to society. However, there are specific
exemptions to that exclusivity that allow others the right to copy or distribute pieces
of another person's work under copyright law, called fair use. Fair use allows users to
copy portions of a work in a review for purposes of illustration or comment or to quote short
passages in a scholarly or technical work, in order to illustrate or clarify the user's
observations. Journalists may also quote speeches or articles. They may transmit images or sounds
associated with the work in or near a news-making event. Libraries may reproduce portions of
a book to replace missing or damaged pages, and teachers or students may print small parts
of a book or essay to illustrate a lesson. Parody is also fair use.
For moviemakers, the issues of fair use most often involve the addition of music to a video,
reproduction of video images for other films, and/or the use of dialogue from other works.
Courts consider and balance four factors in determining the fine line between fair use
and copyright infringement. For years, fair use has not been a cut and dry proposition.
What someone thinks is fair use is often opposed by the copyright holder. A good place to get
information about fair use, specifically for documentary filmmakers, is at the American
University's Center for Social Media. Probably the safest solution for using other people's
work in your creations is to make sure that you only use items who, by choice or by copyright
expiring, is in the public domain. A good conservative rule of thumb is that you should
assume that the work is protected by copyright if it has been created after 1922, as all
works created before that are now in the public domain. For example, older photographs, paintings,
books and sheet music are available for use without permission by the author. Copyright
law protects a musical performance recorded after 1922, even if the score was composed
before 1922. You could contact the U.S. Copyright Office to find the registered material. Copyright
Office personally can conduct a search for a modest fee. Every state or province has
its own film commission or equivalent. Many situations require permission from a bewildering
host of overlapping authorities. In the case of larger cities, you may have to obtain permits
from a Mayor's office, the county's executive office, the police department, the public
works department and/or other transit authority. Certain jurisdictions may grant permits only
upon proof that you have purchased suitable liability insurance to protect yourself and
the government agencies in charge of the property. As a first step, find out if insurance is
a requirement, then ask your insurance agent how to secure short-term insurance protection.
The best advice is to attempt to get as much information in policies, procedures and forms
by telephone or mail well in advance to your scheduled shoot. Permit fees can vary to being
entirely free to thousands and thousands of dollars, depending upon the length and time
of the shoot, the purpose of the video, the time of day and the property owner or granting
authority. In general, you won't need to make royalty payments except occasionally to professional
performers. Remember, everything is negotiable. Sometimes a property owner will be flattered
to be represented in a video, in which case a copy of the final video will be a sufficient
compensation. Perhaps the best solution to the soundtrack problem is to comprise original
music or have it composed for you. Local colleges often have students majoring in music. These
students may be interested in working with you as long as they receive credit for their
compositions. Be sure that you have a written agreement with them, however, so that you
will have the rights to their work. Well, there you have it. Creating a documentary
involves a unique ability to be able to tell a story and when telling those stories being
able to retain the realism in what it is you're capturing. [End of Audio] Fair Use & Copyrights
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