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Filming Money
Hi Everyone,
Is it illegal to videotape or film money? I’m working on a video about money and can’t find any info on the topic. Any help is greatly appreciated!! -
15 Replies
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No, not illegal per se, I’ve done it several times. But if you are hesitant, the people to call and ask are the Secret Service….
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Does anyone else have advice…or know where it may be written in the law books? Just because Alex has done it, doesn’t make it legal 🙂
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I’ve done it, too. Does that make it any more legal? (Sorry… sarcasm is a vehicle with no brakes.)
I do agree that the Secret Service will be your best option for information. http://www.secretservice.gov will link you to local office or an email address.
That being said, I’ve seen scores of stock photos of money from a variety of commercial sources. One could assume that something that public would not be illegal.
But you know what happens when you assume.
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Thanks Mark.
Any stock photos of money (greater than a $1 bill) has always been a portion of the bill, never a full bill…that is why I had the concern. According to secretservice.gov, videotaping/filming is OK, but printing (in some cases) is not. That’s probably why the stock photos I’ve seen are not of full bills.
Thanks both of you for the resource!
And yes I do know what happens when one assumes 😛 … that is the *last* thing I want to do for my boss! 🙂
Julie -
Sorry, Alex, for the scarcasm. I didn’t realize the Secret Service had anything to do with money…I just thought you were being a smart***. Again, it’s that whole “assume” thing 🙂
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[JulieB] “Sorry, Alex, for the scarcasm. I didn’t realize the Secret Service had anything to do with money.”
Since counterfeit is the primary concern here, the Secret Service would be the place. They handle all counterfeit investigations. We have a paper lab in our building that has clients occasionally pull up in plain sedans with government plates…
🙂
I doubt there would be a huge problem with filming (or certainly videotaping) money as the primary concern is whether or not the image can be used to create counterfeit mony. Of course, video and even to some extent, motion picture film won’t work very well for that. I know that scanning a bill in a flatbed and creating graphics can be a little dicey, though I think there’s something in the newer bills to mess up flatbed scanners…but I’ve never tried so I don’t know.
TimK,
Kolb Syverson Communications,
Creative Cow Host,
2004-2005 NAB Post Production Conference
Premiere Pro Technical Chair,
Author, “The Easy Guide to Premiere Pro” http://www.focalpress.com
“Premiere Pro Fast Track DVD Series” http://www.classondemand.net -
Secret Service is a part of Treasury Department, unless I have that backwards. That’s why you ask them.
I had a pitch once for a PSA shoot that required a car full of paper money, like, the passengers were in the car and money apparantly was filling the car up to their armpits, with stray bills blowing about in the interior and falling out the windows in a loose scattered trail behind. We would have put in a large sheet of cardboard in there with them like a tray, surrounding their bodies and reaching to the dashboard and doors, then stacked/piled the money on top of that so an inch-deep layer would look like it was four feet deep. That one would have required massive printing of fake bills, but my work-around was we’d only print one side, slightly oversized, and could modify even that. The video cameras would read it as real-looking, but any eyeball inspection would give it away immediately as fake. Like the Larry David “Curb” episode. The pitch was declined, partly because the budget was too low even for a ream of copier paper and some green toner, but also with concerns about causing disruptions out in the field shooting this without adequate lock-up of the location. With the micro-budget they wanted, I couldn’t give them that.
But it sure would have looked cool….
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Speaking of money, here’s my .02
Information from Treasury (via Secret Service) as of 2001 was that the filmic use of curency was allowable, however the bills shown must never be shown in a 1:1 ratio. There was a clause in the usage that prohibited currency being shown in such detail that embedded security material is visable, but changes in the formatting of currency has eliminated that issue. They also dropped the showing of consecutive numbering…what that had to do with shooting currency I haven’t the foggiest idea, and the agent I worked with didn’t seem to know.
As I understand the act, there are no restrictions, except that no representation or photographic images of in-service instruments of currency may be duplicated, printed, broadcast or represented in a 1:1 ratio, unless the word “SPECIMEN” appears in bold type, of a color in contrast with and 50% larger than the largest wording and must appear in two locations on each side of the instrument/currency.
Cheers,
Frank Otto
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my work-around was we’d only print one side, slightly oversized
You might want to be careful of that in the future. Several years ago a radio station my company owns had a contest where listeners could provide one dollar bills with the stations freq. numbers on it for a chance to win. They initially encouraged people to fax the bills to the station. After a few days of this we had a ‘visit’ from the Secret Service telling us to cease and desist. It appears that even a crappy fax image of money….printed on one side in black and white…is illegal, I can only imagine what they would say about your idea. 🙂
Fortunately they came as a courtesy, not to arrest us for encouraging people to break federal laws.
Doug
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Thanks everyone! You all have been most helpful!
Julie
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