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Graduation DVD
I was hired as a videographer for a High School Graduation. The company who hired me will be selling the DVDs to the students, parents etc. I am interested in knowing what process the will have to go through to secure the rights to produce and duplicate the songs performed (Pomp and Circumstance, Star Spangled banner etc). Thanks
Nick Sharples
Videographer -
21 Replies
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Step one: look questioner in the eye squarely, without blinking.
Step two: Lie.
Step three: collect money from client.
I believe this is true in over 90 percent of these cases.
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Pomp & Circumstance and the Star Spangled Banner are probably public domain. If they’re being played from recorded sources, then the recordings may be copyright protected. If they’re being played by a live band or orchestra, then the arrangement may be copyright protected. This might be a good time to find out how the music is going to be played.
Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com -
I don’t know how you have worked out the deal with the school, but in the past I have done a few of these any my pricing structure is:
1. Charge $40 per disc for the first 49 copies and out of that offer $5 per disc to the school, so that they encourage selling the DVDs.
2. If the quantity is between 50 and 449, then the price is still $49, but we offer the school an extra $1
3. If the quantity is over 450, then we give them $7.Why? We get releases from every person involved with the person in ease. In fact, when the graduates sign some sort of graduation document (I forget the name), they include the image release with the other required documents. And the band plays the music, we are OK.
Aanarav Sareen
premiere@asvideoproductions.com -
“And the band plays the music, we are OK.”
Aanarav Sareen“No, you’re not. You are just gambling no one will care.”
Mark Suszko -
[mark Suszko] “”No, you’re not. You are just gambling no one will care.””
Should have specified that it is not “music”. It’s the Star Sprangled Banner and Pomp and Circumstance.
Aanarav Sareen
premiere@asvideoproductions.com -
Sorry to keep needling about this, but don’t tell me you have synch rights, mechanical rights, and an okay from the arranger and the orchestra and their publisher for you to record a playback of their recording of their arrangement of Elgar’s music. If you went and got that clearance, I’ll eat a bug.
Same for the Anthem; if it was a recorded Anthem being played out of speakers, you did not get the rights to that recording of it. I will bet a Krispy kreme you didn’t.
Will someone complain and sue you? Not likely, I’ll agree, but certainly not impossible. ASCAP once very publicly ran a mom and pop corner bar out of business for playing Springsteen 45’s on the jukebox without paying a license.
Schools and school districts, true or not, are considered fat, rich targets for nuisance lawsuits of every kind, and I’m surprised their lawyers have not commented on any of this to you or the administrator. Were they even consulted? Just trying to keep your head down and hope nobody sues is not a responsible strategy.
But it’s also an ethical issue for the person making the DVD’s, as well as a business one. It’s unlikely, but *possible* that if the rights holders from the music company wanted to, they could sue you for your profit, gear, your house (if that’s where your studio is), any assets involved in your production. The odds of that are close to zero, but they DO exist.
You have legal alternatives, you can buy needle-drop versions of “pomp” and the Anthem. You could even contact the rights-holders for the actual records played at the event. it may be they give youy a free passs or a very low fee, just because you played by the rules. granted, running down the rights is often a hard job.
Going ahead and using the music without rights is an active, conscious choice. Size of the project or small amount of profit is no protection. Assuming you can piggy-back off someone else’s rights to the material is not wise, as their license doesn’t cover the same things your video does.
Am I being chicken little about this? Obsessive? overly-persnickety? Maybe.
Well, I reacted to a blanket statement that was technically false. What you do with the information is up to you. The law stinks, but it is the law; work to change it if you don’t like it.
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For those logging into this thread from the link in today’s newsletter, please also check out the thread below that I have linked as it also covers other points in the discussion of rights and responsibilities in scholastic event productions…
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=17&postid=855867
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
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Mark,
NOt sure if you are exactly referring to. THe music is being played by the orchestra and yes, I do have their permission to use it in the footage. I don’t deal a lot with the copyright issues, because we do have a media attorney who oversees most of our productions. I was under the assumption that if an orchestra is playing a piece of music that is the public domain, there shouldn’t be any issues. (atleast that is what I was told)PS: On a side note, does anyone have a book regarding IP copyrights? I would love to get my hand on that.
Aanarav Sareen
premiere@asvideoproductions.com -
[Aanarav Sareen] “NOt sure if you are exactly referring to. T”
Sorry…should read “what you are referring to”.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, I don’t handle copyright issues. That is taken care by the media attorney… But, it would be interesting to see other view points. We are a real TV studio. 24×7 local broadcast and we do have some blanket coverage provided by the cable company. However, as I said, this is not my department for the most part I was just indicating our producedures. That’s why we pay the guy $500/hr. 🙂
Aanarav Sareen
premiere@asvideoproductions.com -
Just to remind everybody that this is not a private conversation. I believe that search engines survey these pages. Deliberate violation of copyrights, performance rights, etc., may get you in hotter water than inadvertent violations. (I think I learned on the COW that certain tv networks do not generally show halftime performances at basketball and football games, in large part because of licensing concerns. When music is played in an arena during a timeout, and can’t be avoided in the background, I think there is some reasonable exception made. I recall something about six seconds of music “clean” being okay. But I’m way beyond my depth here and could be wrong. Basically, you can ALWAYS be sued — it’s just a matter of minimizing the plaintiff’s likelihood of (1) noticing you and (2) having a good case.)
If it were my doing, and the graduation involved any large number of people, I’d be careful — get releases, ascertain whether the music and arrangement are public domain, and edit the piece to minimize or eliminate any potential problem. At some point, if you have significant assets, and you decide that you need to do more research than the project is worth, I think you have to tell the client to go get another producer.
And as a proud Baltimorean who took several school field trips to brave little Fort McHenry, may I remind you that the Star Spangled Banner is a splendid song. If you think it’s a little too martial, you should check out Maryland’s state song, which basically refights the Civil War from the side of the Confederacy. And if you think it’s unsingable… get a better artist.
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