Re: Copyright status on Foley sound

[Peter Groom]

Hi
Im afraid id not know regarding law issues, and as the “law” so often seems to side with the opposite to my way of thinking, a guess wouldnt be helpful.
Sorry
Peter

Post Production Dubbing Mixer

[Ty Ford]

What I have done in the past (last time with The British Museum who came to Baltimore to record some audio for a touring show) was to carefully and determinedly call and leave messages (because they would never answer).

With The Brit, since they were “over there”, I emailed instead of calling. After not getting a response after several days, I went to their web site, found a publicity employee and sent them an email. I forwarded a very accurate record of my attempts to contact them about payment, with copied emails, etc. and letting them know that I was very capable of letting an enormous number of people know that they had stiffed me in an extremely rapid fashion.

This got their attention. Because they still seemed either totally unorganized or unwilling to pay in a timely fashion, I did as I told them and began to release info to forums I frequent. I had a few chaps in London offer to go down and knock on their door for me.

I did get paid. I doubt they’ll ever call me again, and I’m quite OK with that.

In another “bad pay” situation here, I went through the same procedure. After 30 days (or 60, I forget) I called and left a message. Hearing no response I waited several days and called again. Reminding them that I had called previously with the date and time of the call and that I was keeping a record of my attempts to contact them and their lack of response.

Monday of the next week I called, Tuesday of the next week I called. Everyday that week I called and left calm but concerned messages about payment and their lack of response and requesting that they contact me about payment. Friday I called and let a message that if I did not hear from them on the following monday and did not receive payment by that friday, that I would begin to circulate this body of information about their misconduct to a number of different forums, and to the PR/Marketing contacts of the client list they posted on their web site. I never ranted. I never screamed or called them bad names.

This last call did get their attention. I was told that the contact, “Had never heard of anything like this!!!!! This was outrageous!!!” I very calmly said that their conduct was the issue and I was as upset by the situation as they were and that they could resolve it and hope to salvage what was left of their professional reputation by paying me.

It was friday afternoon at 4pm. I asked when I would receive payment. He told me there was no one there to cut a check. He had a credit card. Could I take that. (knowing I probably couldn’t) I told him I had a paymaster that probably could. I hung up, called the paymaster, let him know what was up. He called, took the credit card number, verified it was good and accepted payment. I never worked for that company again. Who would want to! Yes there are stinkers out there.

Incidentally, I call this approach, “The big, slow vise” because you begin to apply pressure, remain very, very calm and never let up until you get paid. I don’t like putting that much energy into someone else’s bad behavior, but sometimes you have to. I have only had to use the vise 3-4 times over the last 27 years.

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog