Movie posters in your footage...

[mad_hatter]

Kind-of a pre-emptive question here, but I’m asking more out of curiosity...

Presumably, the poster for any given movie is copyrighted / trade-marked, in much the same way as the movie itself. So, one would require permission to use that poster in their narrative work. Say, hanging the poster for “The Exorcist” on a characters bedroom wall would be a no-no. But how about for documentary work? Or BTS footage for a film? What if you were to interview somebody who worked on your film, say the composer, and in their studio, hanging on the wall behind them, is the poster for “Jaws”?

And, again, surely the same thing applies to t-shirts. Any footage that had a crew member wearing a t-shirt that featured a movie poster or logo (or a band logo may be more likely) would be unusable, save for blurring that part of the image, or seeking (and probably paying for) permission from the copyright holder. Eli Roth seemed very fond of wearing his “Cannibal Holocaust” t-shirt on the set of “Hostel 2”...

The same thing should apply to the footage of those cast and crew members that are drinking from ‘Coca-Cola’ bottles…

Does all this sound about right? Is this sort of use covered by “fair use”? Could any of this be considered incidental?

Cheers!

 

[NickClapper]

I think that the BTS footage would qualify for the copyright laws associated with documentary films.

See this for further detail:

http://www.cmsimpact.org/fair-use/b...akers-statement-best-practices-fair-use#three

 

[mad_hatter]

Thanks Nick. That's really helpful!

 

[ItDonnedOnMe]

And, again, surely the same thing applies to t-shirts. Any footage that had a crew member wearing a t-shirt that featured a movie poster or logo (or a band logo may be more likely) would be unusable, save for blurring that part of the image, or seeking (and probably paying for) permission from the copyright holder. Eli Roth seemed very fond of wearing his “Cannibal Holocaust” t-shirt on the set of “Hostel 2”...

You'll see this kind of thing all the time in reality television - someone's walking around with a big blur on their chest because they're wearing a shirt with a logo from a brand that they don't have permission to use. When the logos aren't obscured it probably means they're a sponsor of the show.

Which brings up an idea I had - if you're going to have characters in a film wearing printed t-shirts why not design your own (or have someone design them) so that you can sell them as part of the merchandising for your film later? I don't mean ones that are branded with the project, but just cool and/or memorable shirts, things like the 'what are you looking at dicknose' shirt from Teen Wolf, "I ♥ Toxic Waste" from Real Genius, or "COLLEGE" from Animal House. If your film does well enough to build a small fan base it could add another source of revenue to the project. It could also be a unique reward you could offer to backers if you're doing crowdfunding. You could probably do the same with posters, although it might take some more design work/chops to make them look good. For band posters you might be able to get a local band to provide some posters, or offer to design one for them to use in the film - or whoever you've got on your soundtrack.

 

[WalterB]

You'll see this kind of thing all the time in reality television - someone's walking around with a big blur on their chest because they're wearing a shirt with a logo from a brand that they don't have permission to use. When the logos aren't obscured it probably means they're a sponsor of the show.

...............

Could it be then that the logos aren't blurred because of lack of permission but because the owners of the logos didn't want to pay? Or because the paying brands don't want non-paying brands in the frame?

I'm no laywer.
But unless the context is really negative for a brand I don't see why, from a non-legal point of view, you wouldn't be able to wear the Opeth or Iron Maiden shirt or have that Batman poster on the wall.
I understand copyrights, but sometimes...

 

[ItDonnedOnMe]

Could be any of those reasons, or a combination. I'd tend to lean towards the network lawyers preferring to play it safe though.

And you may be right, in terms of what you can get away with - but you also don't necessarily know what the people behind the brands you're showing would consider a negative context. It may seem entirely fine to you, but if they do object you'll have to deal with it later. It seems like if possible it would be worth coming up with an alternative ahead of time to eliminate any possibility of problems later.

 

[mad_hatter]

You'll see this kind of thing all the time in reality television - someone's walking around with a big blur on their chest because they're wearing a shirt with a logo from a brand that they don't have permission to use…

Do you think the laws for “reality television” would differ from a documentary (or the BTS footage from a film)? Not really sure on the definition of the two, but I’d suggest that what differentiates reality television from documentary is that, as the maker of this film / program, you have more control over the people and the places they are in. Having said that though, there’s no reason that as a filmmaker, you can’t tell your gaffer to not turn up in his favourite “Ramones” tee...

…if you're going to have characters in a film wearing printed t-shirts why not design your own (or have someone design them) so that you can sell them as part of the merchandising for your film later?

This is something I’ve thought about before. I’ve written fake bands into scripts before, who could have t-shirts that the characters could wear. I think for the majority though, I’d keep characters in relatively plain clothes. I think you’d have to come up with something pretty special for people to want the buy them, especially before the film’s even released, as a crowdfunding perk. Still, that’s a whole other issue, which I think we all pretty clear on when it comes to narrative films.

 

[sfoster]

is there any way to have posters of movies in a characters house in a narrative?

What if they are a public domain film?

 

[wilmywood]

Which brings up an idea I had - if you're going to have characters in a film wearing printed t-shirts why not design your own (or have someone design them) so that you can sell them as part of the merchandising for your film later? I don't mean ones that are branded with the project, but just cool and/or memorable shirts, things like the 'what are you looking at dicknose' shirt from Teen Wolf, "I ♥ Toxic Waste" from Real Genius, or "COLLEGE" from Animal House. If your film does well enough to build a small fan base it could add another source of revenue to the project. It could also be a unique reward you could offer to backers if you're doing crowdfunding. You could probably do the same with posters, although it might take some more design work/chops to make them look good. For band posters you might be able to get a local band to provide some posters, or offer to design one for them to use in the film - or whoever you've got on your soundtrack.

George Lucas would be very proud of your for thinking this...the money is in the merchandising. Good idea.