The soundtrack to James Benning's film Deseret consists entirely of some
one reading NY Times articles aloud. I'm willing to bet he did not pay for
the rights nor
has been bothered by the NY Times about it.
I say go for it.
On Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 11:29 AM, ch...@signaltoground.com wrote:
Hi Caryn,
$800 is a bit high on one hand, but also seems fair for adapting another
artists/writers work to your film and for all the rights they are granting
you.. you even have broadcast rights, which is a rarity! Maybe you think
broadcast's a moot point, but at least it opens things up so that you
don't ever have to sneak around... and streaming rights are definitely not
moot!
When I've worked with a writer I've tried to give him around that amount
for the work that he did, since it was essential to making it what it is.
I know that its a pain to give the money to the mothercorp, new york
times, rather than directly to the writer, but they are also the ones
hiring the writer for his work. That's the contract he signed. As well,
It's probably good for him that they're able to monetize on his work
beyond the original article, no matter how small.
You're saying its about 1/3 the cost of the film. Is the soundtrack not
1/3 the experience of the film?
I think its harder to apply fair use when you've already asked them what's
fair to them. Also when you know the other creator, the concept of fair
use gets trickier, doesn't it?
I think its really about how essential you think this particular writer's
work is to your film in terms of whether you pay for it or make up a new
script of your own.
Finally, just for fun: doesn't NYT's occasionally run videos on their site
? Maybe eventually they'll be interested in hosting your project since its
derived from their writing--although only grant it if they pay you!
best
Chris
Message: 2
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2014 12:48:22 -0800
From: Caryn Cline carynycl...@gmail.com
To: Experimental Film Discussion List FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com
Subject: [Frameworks] question about fees for permission to use
material
Message-ID:
CAMaLZ=
am9noor12_pgncgsvc8z2eshs1yg1b8dgskxzvc+w...@mail.gmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Dear Frameworkers,
I'm writing to ask your advice. I'm working on a short handmade,
experimental film that takes as its script a slightly modified version
of
an essay I found in the *New York Times*, which I plan to use as a
voiceover narration on the soundtrack. I wrote to the author to ask his
permission to use it, which he gladly gave with this caveat: everything
he
writes for the paper is owned by them. He gave me the name of someone to
contact at the paper, who sent me to the paper's licensing people. I
decided to follow that lead, to see where it went. [I have not had good
luck with trying to get permission for a reasonable fee before, but I
decided to try, as an experience.]
Well, needless to say the people who license for the *Times* want me to
pay
them what I regard as way too much money for the use of the essay--$800
for
rights for festivals, galleries, streaming, broadcast, etc.--for the life
of
the title. As you know, it is difficult to communicate to people in
these
positions that there is absolutely no commercial value in the film.
The
money is about 1/3 of my overall budget. Some of my handmade film
buddies
advised me to forget about the permission and just use it anyway, but I
feel funny about doing that now, and as one friend who works in the
business cautioned: my project and I are on their radar now. Should I
try
to talk them down? (They originally asked for $1300, so this is a
considerable reduction from outrageously expensive to merely quite
expensive.) Should I claim fair use, and use the text anyway? What
are
the chances that they would come after me?I'd appreciate any advice
or
hearing about your own experiences with this. Many thanks.
CC
--
Caryn Cline
co-producer, *Acts of Witness*
www.actsofwitness.com
vimeo.com/carynyc
-- next part --
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/pipermail/frameworks/attachments/20140220/f5faeba3/attachment-0001.html
--
___
FrameWorks mailing list
FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com
https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
--
www.ryanmarino.com
www.imminentfrequencies.com
___
FrameWorks mailing list
FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com
https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
