Filmmaking Methods & Practices – Licensing Images/Footage/Music
The biggest pitfall of any filmmaker I’ve ever worked with is hubris – the arrogance to believe your production is untouchable, not that important to be bothered with or invisible in regards to licensing content.
A friend of mine has a cat, Pepe. When he’s feeling particularly playful or frisky, he climbs into an open top box my friend has placed in the living room. Pepe climbs in and peers over the edge of the box, his green eyes glinting wickedly. He swipes at the ankles of passers-by, takes furtive catnaps and rigorously cleans himself in this box. He believes he is hidden in the urban home shrubbery of boxes and newspapers. He always gets quite a shock when he’s lifted, unceremoniously, out of the box. That’s the “Pepe In The Box” complex, and a lot of filmmakers suffer from it.
I’m going to make this 1000% clear, so anyone reading this entry will have a clear understanding of licensed content. IT IS NOT LEGAL TO STEAL OR BORROW OR USE CONTENT WITHOUT EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION AND OFTEN A LICENSING FEE. Period. It’s not about if you’ll get caught or not (you will), if you can afford it or not (I’ll show you ways you can below), or if you think your usage is outside of the law (its not, trust me). Content is king and content comes with laws. Lots of them.
And there have been organizations set up to discuss, change and offer alternatives to standard copyright laws. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that approaches the “all rights reserved” with a more flexible license “some rights reserved”. They “enable the legal sharing and resuse of cultural, educational and scientific works”. Their tools are free and their site is a great resource for emerging filmmakers looking for content.
In an article by Pat Aufderheide, he discusses examples of films lamed by their un-licensed content:
The outrageous consequences of today’s interpretation of copyright law discovered in a study just completed at American University, “Untold Stories: The Creative Consequences of the Rights Clearance Culture.†They testify to the fact that unbalanced interpretation of copyright leads to a creative stranglehold.
Pretty strong commentary and fairly on target.
At Duke Law, a comic book has been created to explore the pitfalls of a documentary filmmaker looking for content in a copyrighted world. “Bound By Law” explores the idea that so many things are copywritten these days, where is a filmmaker to find content. Comic books aside, what is a filmmaker to do when they need b-roll, stills, music and archive footage?
Orginal Content:
You are an artist, a creator, right? Well, to borrow a line from Creative Commons, get creative! Sometimes filmmakers feel the burden of supplying content for every frame of their film. That’s where a good editor or resourceful producer can come in.
When I edit, or am hired to help produce a film, I go over the outline of the film with the director, and brainstorm images, footage and musical styles over the main content. (It’s even worse when I’m the director – detail, detail, detail!) This goes for narrative as well as documentary. You may very well have all the coverage you need for a narrative feature or short, but what about the music or b-roll? Watch Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty” to understand how b-roll can really be another character in the story, and truly enhance, visually, the emotional lanscape of the film.
Breakdown the film into sections, and in each section, list the images, the b-roll, the music (specific examples or general style) you are looking for. Free associate as much as possible, so the range of content gives the search a certain scope.
Next step – create the content. Need an image of the ocean – plan a day trip and shoot it yourself. Let’s say that costs you one day of shooting, and while you are there, you also capture a bunch of relative b-roll. That’s much cheaper than licensing a 15 second clip of the ocean, that’s probably been in a hundred productions already. Your content is fresh and unique, just how your film should feel.
Digital stills are another option. Creat your list of images and hire a photographer to shoot the conceptual and the literal interpretations of your images. I’ve been hired a few times to do this, and my turn around time from shooting to digitals stills in post is less than a day. Or grab your own camera and start shooting. The advantage of shooting with a pro is the quality and composition of the images you end up with.
Original illustration and animation are amazing resources that few people tap. It is very easy to find an illustrator or animator who will work for a reasonable rate, or sometimes free for the exposure, and utilize them to take an idea, a concept or an archived image to the next level. Animation is an incredible way to make the abstract concrete. A good illustrator or animator can make dry facts exciting, help you span history or create characters where archive footage or old stills fail. Where do you find a good animator? Check out try Digital Animators or Animation Mentor. Both have great communities and are packed with talent. I would also highly recommend Signe Baumane, an animator I’ve worked with, whose animation is outstanding.
Music is the most difficult to license but also the easiest to outsource. Anything a recording company owns – forget it. No Beatles, no Rolling Stones, no Cold Play, nothing in their catalogs. Why? Because the recording industry has had their panties in a twist for years (one only has to remember the ridiculous Metallica/Napster battle), and they are ready to rumble. So don’t poke the angry bear – leave the majors, and their content, alone, unless you have major money or major connections. And both distributors and cable networks will reject your project if the music isn’t cleared, because they know the costs and headaches broadcasting or licensing the content for you would create.
Solution? Work with an emerging composer, beat maker, musician or band. Pay them fairly and you’d be surprised how much incredible original content you can get. Sure, you could spend the money on libraries of music, but if you share the same theme with CNN or a travel show, the uniqueness of your production is diluted. Not everything needs to sound like it was scored by John Williams. Find the musicial voice in people who are as eager to create as you are, and you might find a sound that has true affinity with your moving images.
Licensing Content:
Need archive footage? Try Archive.org, a great resource of archived footage. However, it is not clear if all the footage is public domain, so check with source and see if its usable.
Easy Street Productions is another resource, and they sell specifically public domain footage, available on DVDs or mini-dv tapes. Their pre-packaged footage starts at $250 set.
Looking for stills? Try Dreamstime or Fotolia. Dreamstime licenses images starting at $1 and Fotolia is also very affordable. (Disclosure note – I’m a stock photographer for both sites – have stock images up there for sale – but they also happen to be the cheapest and best organized on the web).
Need music? Video Helper is one of the best known licensed music libraries out there. Their site has a fatastic online pre-screener for tracks, entire CDs or complete sets of music. If you need more extensive help, try LicenseMusicNow.com, offering services from music licensing and clearances to musical supervision services. Good to check out if you plan on using a Top 40 track or two.
You can buy into the copyright stranglehold or you can seek to be the artist you truly are and create original work. It is the work we put into our productions that is reflected back to us on the screen. Remix culture with an eye toward originality and innovation.
Peace,
Melissa
