Hello Lighting people. I am going to be talking about some information about entertainment law. I found 2 videos and 1 podcast that talks about anything from fair use, to what an entertainment lawyer does, to copyright ownership vs right of publicity. Just the little things you will discover in the videos will help you understand more about the industry you are working in. If you like learning about entertainment law there are hundreds of video and podcasts talking about entertainment law.
The first video I reviewed whats from a Video series called BYOD (Bring Your Own Doc). In the series, interviewers are interviewing an Entertainment Law Attorney, Michael C. Donaldson. Donaldson is an advocate in the independent film documentary world on fair use. Defined by Centerforsocialmedia.com Fair use is the right, in some circumstances, to quote copyright material without asking permission or paying for it. It keeps current copyright holders from being private censors. I am not saying go out at start taking everyones stuff and steeling it. Donaldson tell’s us there are three questions when making a documentary and or non fiction films.
- Does this item well illustrate your point? So if the audio clip says “Michael Bay’s explosions in his movies are intense,” and you show a small clip of something that exploded in the movie Transformers, then yes.
- Did you only use as much as needed to illustrate the point? So in the example of Michael Bay. We see the explosion, then it cuts to the cars transforming into robots then yes thats a little much.
- Is the connection between the item you are using and the point you are making obvious to the average viewer? Basically does the clip of Michael Bay’s explosion clip pare with the line that says, “Michael Bay’s explosions in his movies are intense.” Then yes. If a 5 year old can see the point connection then you are fine.
Donaldson talks for 55min about fair use to errors and omissions, Donaldson has great insight on entertainment law issues. I suggest you watch the hole thing if you are an Indie or documentary film maker, that wants to understand how not to get sued and save money on buying copyrights when you actually don’t need one, if you are using the clips in fair use in the right way.
My second video I reviewed is an interview with Cliff Lovette. Lovette is an Entertainment Lawyer in Georgia. The video is a short 8 min video that hits on subjects like, what does an entertainment lawyer do? He explains that entertainment lawyer’s where different hats, like networking matchmaker that takes talent and match them up with production talent and resources ect... Another hat is dealmaking services and draft contracts and so on. Lovette also hits on tax incentive and talks about how you can build credit on an incentive and sell it to another production. Other subjects include copyright law and new technologies. If you just want a brief background what an entertainment attorney does and some information about the topics then watch this video.
On to copyright ownership vs right of publicity I found a Podcast from ARC Law Group. ARC Law Group has a lot of informative information on copyright to trademark basics threw short 10min pod casts. The pod cast I like the most was copyright ownership vs right of publicity. In this podcast Mark Pearson from Pearson Law Group talks to the prosumer photographer and also to prosumer videographers. He talks about if you take a picture of some one you own the right to it, but if you want to distribute you will need a written agreement from the “model” saying I give you permission to use my image and likeness. As well goes for video. So the bottom line is get a release of any person or art you shoot.
Hope you guys enjoyed the blog
Happy Lighting!!!
