[Mark Suszko]

I believe I read somewhere Texas recently passed a law specifically about this, and their standard is, how much, if any, game footage was also shot. If the original tapes contain the whole game, how the perv edits it later is his own business, but if all he’s shot is the cheerleaders, then they can nab him as being there soley for “prurient interest”.

I have to say, not to defend the perv, but cheerleading is not the same thing it used to be when I was a kid. Call me a prude. It has gotten to be very much more sexualized, in dress, in the moves and mannerisms, and the overall sentiments being put on display. it alternates between dizzying but wholesome athletic gymnastics and unwholesome pole dancing hootchy-koo. And I don’t much care for this kind of NFL-level bump and grind stuff being foisted on nine year old girls. I know that’s not universally the case, not all cheerleading is bad, etc. but as a dad of a nine year old girl, I worry.

[Mark Suszko]

Tim, I once had to do a similar thing, the actress they gave us for the spot had a dark cocoa colored mole the size of a postage stamp on her upper lip that looked like an offset Chaplin moustache. If it had been a documentary type of deal, I’d have left it, but since it was a commercial spot, and her face was an XCU, the spot was doomed unless I got rid of the Austin-Powers-moley-moley MOLE. Painted it out of most of thirty seconds worth of frames. Three times, as it was my first learning experience with Combustion’s paint function, and the vector mask wasn’t blending believeably for me….

But back to the initial question: The editor’s first question would likely be: which of these guys signs the check? That guy is the final arbiter. That’s the simple answer.

On a less mercenary note, it may depend on what kind of editor they were asking for, and how you see yourself: a mere button-pusher or a creative partner/collaborator. In the first case, you have zero say. In the second case, you may be able to argue the issue or offer alternate ideas.

[Mark Suszko]

I know of one manufacturer that sells this stuff, that would be Parkervision. However, I thought I heard they were bought by someother company ecently, and so all their products and services may be in flux right now. But i do recall they used to sella system with a clip-on wireless mic that also was used as the target for an automated motion-tracking motorized pan head. This was specifically made for those people that walk a round a lot while talking. Gawd, those are work to shoot: it’s like tryhing to track ducks inthe old county fair shooting gallery. You wind up staying on wide shots just to geta breather from rolling focus continually and reduce the motion sickness.

Good luck on the Parkervision thing. Write back and tell us of your success if you find a unit that works.

[Mark Suszko]

I wonder if they don’t have a polarizer on the front of the lens…
other than that, I’d put it off to overcranking the chroma and luma as well. Possibly, the protective glass layer on the surface was removed? That would make the screen very delicate and easy to damage.

[Mark Suszko]

I would stay away from the DVD based units for now, because it’s my understanding and perception that they add a LOT more compression to the signal to cram it onto the DVD, and you then need to do extra steps to extract the video and audio to be able to edit with it. All of this adds expense, complication, and transcoding losses.

If you will absolutely never edit it, then maybe it’s not a concern.
But how do you then make extra copies of it? Hm?

[Mark Suszko]

I.A.N.A.L., but I think you’re safe in this case. I mean, she can still sue you, and you will spend time and money defending yourself, but I don’t think she can win because of the circumstances. Public place, shot in a group from a distance, not singled out or in any way identified, for a documentary. All those factors carry some weight in the privacy rights debate. How a predator is supposed to make something out of that 20-second clip beats me. Be sure to let her know you will file a counter-claim for court costs and lost business.

If it’s really keeping you up at night, you can talk to a real lawyer about this for a small amount, maybe fifty dollars to straighten it out over the phone or in his office. If that’s too expensive, you can try free legal advice sources like nolo.

[Mark Suszko]

I understand the Aussies have a somewhat more enlightened system for this, but I don’t have all the details, perhaps some COW reader from Down Under will elaborate.

“Meanwhile, back at the hall of justice…” check out the free online version of this guide to copyright produced by some brilliant folks at Duke University. It doesn’t give you all the answers, but frames the problems for small producers pretty well.

https://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/

I feel discouraged that we can get this government to get enlightened about fair use, because large corporations (like the one that puts orphans in all their animations) pay big money to lobby politicians, and they keep extending Sonny Bono’s copyright act on into perpetuity. The status quo makes the big media conglomerates rich and gives them power to harass any potential competition, they like the law just fine as it is: impenetrable and unworkable, creating a paralyzing effect on outsider productions. I’m all for protecting my intellectual property, but controversy over incidental background instances of music and imagery has gotten ridiculous. It needs to be reformed, the playing field leveled.

We little producers are not organized enough to counterweight all that lobbyist money, so the law will stay the way it is until enough of you all get mad, get together, and bring your representatives back to the table for a reasonable compromise.

[Mark Suszko]

Sure it’s the way to go, for THEM.

They can get the same price for working you ten hours or twenty or fifty, that’s a GREAT deal. FOR THEM.

If you are not very careful, you could wind up working for less than minimum wage on a fixed-price schedule. Smaller projects, lower-budget projects, can be MORE complicated than expensive label-sponsored endeavors. When they are paying Spike Jonez six figures or more to make a video, they can afford everything to be top of the line, so as to minimize the unknowns. Everything is planned out, storyboarded, tested, approved.

When it’s some garage band that’s not even on Myspace yet, you usually have more constrictions on budget and staff, more compromises to make, more chances for problems to crop up that will need a time-consuming fix in post. You need to be paid well for that extra time, effort, and creativity that saves the project.

A fixed price does not allow for that. You can charge a fixed price for dubbing DVD’s because it’s a mechanical process that never varies and is identical all the way: you load a machine with blanks, you pick up the finished units. The editing and design work is craftsmanship, these things are hand-wrought, not stamped out. I feel strongly about this.

If you set a fixed price you will either be overcharging for the finished product, which is good for your immediate bottom line but hurts your future marketability, and cuases unfair comparisons to your work quality versus the value, (“you paid HOW MUCH for THAT?”) or you lowball it and lose money on the deal, which pegs you as a poor businessman and a risk, or worse, an easy mark for people that want to take advantage of you. When you try to raise the rates later, or compete for higher-level projects, you are never seriously considered. You get buttonholed as “the low budget guy”. Instead of “it’s worth what it’s worth”.

[Mark Suszko]

You can look at sites like discmakers for “packages” that give you a per unit rate for a duplication run of a finished program with printed discs, sleeves, etc.

But you are right in that making each master is a different set of circumstances, and while you can quote a range, locking yourself into a fixed price for the production is insane; you’re guaranteed to be either way low or way over the target. Both ways, you lose money.

[Mark Suszko]

You can start by noting the information on the jacket of the recording, it will list the company/ies that own the rights.

You might want to check out the B-Z permissions web site for a good introduction to this very complicated issue.