More on rights, a question…

[Steve Wargo]

I would go with Plan “A”. It would take an hour or two to plan including drawing up a talent release. Have the coach organize it. Buy a hundred bucks worth of pizza and soda and give the team individual credits. They might even put what you want on the scoreboard. You can place team names in later. You’ll be the local hero.

When we are casting for features, we actually have people call and ask us if they can pay us to be in the movie.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona

It’s a dry heat!

[Doug Collins]

This is just my warped sense of humor but if it is a comedy (and maybe even if it isn’t), have a few friends play touch football, shoot it, and use that for the footage.

Doug

[Timothy J. allen]

Todd,
I’ve used high school football footage as a stand-in for NFL… uh… (did I say “NFL”?) – I mean… ahem… “professional football” footage before. It was incidental to the shots – like the shots you mention.

It worked just fine. If viewers are expecting to see NFL footage, that’s most likely what they will think that it really is. It’s amazing but viewers tend to “see” what they expect to see.

I’d say ask the coaches and the organization that oversees the game and offer a “special thanks to the Central High Tiger Football Team” (or something similar) in the credits.

You may even be able to use something they’ve already shot, especially if you give them a “football footage courtesy of XYZ” credit.

We shot our own footage with permission from the coaches and the state high school athletic association (but not from individual players).

I still did not show recognizable faces and I made sure that the names on the backs of the jerseys were not legible in the final shots, but bottom line is that we didn’t have to pay for rights to the footage and it went over just fine for standing in as professional football footage.

By the way, as you may have surmised from what I wrote at the front of this post, be careful about referring to the game using any specific licensed organization’s name, especially with graphics. I’m sure you are already very aware that the NFL logo is trademarked, but I figure a gentle reminder might not hurt.