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Fair Rate For Licensing Of Film
Hello,
I have been contacted by a production company that wishes to use some family film in one of their productions for cable TV (and probably DVD release afterwards), and I’m not sure what a fair licensing price would be. The production company wants authentic film from a specific decade and location, and the film I have perfectly fits their needs. I have searched the Internet for other films similar to mine and none exist in the several dozens of stock footage companies I have researched. The film is historic in nature, and I have licensed other historic film in the past for $80 per second, which afterwards I felt was a bit low due to its rarity. I would appreciate your opinion on what a fair rate would be. Thank you very much! -
3 Replies
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Your rate isn’t the only issue. The *rights* are the crux of the matter. You want the footage to revert to your complete control and unrestricted ownership at some point, or for you to be able to show it or use it for other projects at some point. If they want to lock in your footage exclusively in perpetuity, and it is a unique as you say, then you should charge much more. If thee are going to re-use the footage in spin-off products of any kind, again, re-mixes, best-of’s, compilations, etc. you need a “taste” of that. You want dvd, blu ray, and streaming all covered.
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Thank you very much, Mr. Suszko. They did want perpetuity, but I have already told them that I will not do that, plus I want a statement saying that I retain the copyright. They are now thinking of 10 years, but I will not go beyond three. I had thought about an extra amount if they would use it in DVDs, but I didn’t know that Blu-Ray and streaming would be considered separate. That was of great help. I really don’t want to abuse the amount of money per second, but I do want to get a fair value. I appreciate your help!
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I have a similar situation and would like to get a sense of what “much more” means.
Albert Johnson
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