[Greg Ball]

Thanks Brett. After going through emails I found it was a CalDigit. Downloaded the drivers and I’m in business!

Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com

[Greg Ball]

Thanks Mark!
Lense was just a typo…it’s a pet peeve of mine also! Merry Christmas!

Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com

[Greg Ball]

Thanks Jeremy! What if I’m just moving an image without using Ken Burns?

Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com

[Greg Ball]

I hear you Neil. But just keep in mind that the more people who view and understand the video, the more people donate to the non-profit.

Happy Holidays to you.

Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com

[Greg Ball]

I like Peter’s solution (without the attitude). At least you can monitor the audio and also have a back-up.

We use a wireless lav on the talent (that we can monitor through our camera), and we work with the AV people to get a feed from their audio board as a back-up.

Often we have multiple people speaking, or a panel discussion. Then it’s either tie into the house system, or provide a field mixer with multiple microphones and an audio person. I don’t think I’d be comfortable using portable recorders that I can’t monitor for a live event.

Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com

[Greg Ball]

For English subtitles Mark’s suggestion is the way to go. For other languages, it’s best to hire a professional.

We translate, subtitle, or dub videos into any language and can give you a timed .srt file that you can easily drop into Premier Pro.

Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com

[Greg Ball]

Thanks. That’s kinds what I thought.

Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com

[Greg Ball]

Here’s something posted by Ned Miller several years ago. This may answer your questions.

FWIW

I received a spam from an entertainment lawyer and was about to reflexively delete it when I saw the word “documentary” so I felt I should read it. From time to time I have clients who want to “lift” or “borrow” (seldom pay) for news footage since they figure it’s public domain, after all, it’s just news. Most of what I do is not for commercial release so until I read this email I felt it was in a gray area. I have never been able to afford E&O insurance so I stay clear of taking on risk for the client’s benefit and if I could afford it I wouldn’t trust the insurance company to not snake out of the claim and protect me. I am posting it here for the benefit of all since this question comes up from time to time on this forum and answers the issue clearly:

Question and Answer for this week:

Question:

Question about using news clips in a documentary: We’re producing a documentary about a major criminal case revolving around a bank robbery ten years ago and one of our producers has been collecting news clips for years about the case from CNN, America’s Most Wanted, Geraldo, etc.

We plan to use only a few seconds from each in a sequence to show how much interest the case generated. Can we just use the clips that were “ripped” from TV recordings, or do we need to get permission/pay/for each one individually?

Answer by Brandon Blake, Entertainment Attorney:

It certainly seems ubiquitous in feature films and documentaries to have the montages of breathless news reports about this or that subject as an easy way to introduce the audience to the topical or “real world” nature of the story.

Much of the confusion about the use of news footage actually comes from some of the special exceptions to copyright law that are available for the production of news footage provided for under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. Copyright Act. For television producers producing news programming, you can see one of my former articles here: <> for information about whether the fair use doctrine might be applicable.

For the most part fair use is beneficial to the producer of news programming, rather than those seeking to license news footage. While certain factors of the test would support the fair use of news footage, given that news programming is hopefully factual work rather than fiction, the greatest problem for documentary filmmakers is that a market currently exists for licensing news footage, which tends to negate the other three factors of the fair use test.

From a practical standpoint, the fair use defense is just that, a defense. That means that to prove that a usage of copyrighted material is fair use you have to go to trial. Most film and television distribution companies do not want to go nearly that far defending the distribution of a property, and generally do not want to take any risk at all.

For that reason unlicensed use of news programming, even a few seconds worth, will typically prevent a producer from getting E&O insurance. Over the years I have noticed that a lot of E&O insurance providers no longer review films and documentaries they cover, and so therefore a lot of unlicensed footage does end up getting into distributed works. Producers should not assume there is no risk, however, because the insurance companies are relying on the blanket warranties that the producer is signing. If it turns out the producer breached these warranty clauses in the E&O insurance contract, the insurance company will not cover the loss or claims, leaving the costs and liability with the producer of the project.

So although there is some gray area, generally anyone producing a film or documentary intended for commercial release needs to license third-party news footage. Some alternatives would be to check with stock footage houses to find similar, royalty-free footage, or to produce the footage in-house.

Commercial news footage, especially from the major networks, is expensive and it is licensed by the minute, meaning that 5 or 10 seconds is not a de minimis use. My firm has helped a lot of documentary film producers negotiate more reasonable rates, often substantially below the initial quote. Feel free to contact my firm for a quote if you decide to negotiate licenses with the networks.

– By Brandon Blake, Entertainment Attorney

About the Editor:

Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com

[Greg Ball]

As Mark said, there is no link

Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com

[Greg Ball]

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the kind words. our layout is in portrait. You can fit more on a page.

Great tip about not using decimals when possible. We try to do that too. However the deposit may include decimal points depending on the amount and deposit percentage.

For lunch, we prefer to not have it in the budget, as we try to keep our pricing low. We feel that this also gives the client some choices.

Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com