ASK & DISCUSS

INDEX

Producing Post Production Distribution

Advice about music rights for filming a public dance performance

Jon King

1 year, 3 months ago - Jon King

Hi,

I'm working on a short documentary about a dance troupe, who do street performances. When they perform, they dance along to pre-recorded, commercial music.

I expect the film will include at least one scene of them performing.... and I"m trying to get my head around whether or not it'll be acceptable if we can hear the music in the scene. We don't have the budget to license any commercial tracks. :-(

Just to be clear - I'll be filming them and recording sound as it's played out of their speakers... so would that count as "fair dealing"? My understanding is that it's sometimes OK if there's incidentally some copyrighted background music or imagery in a documentary scene - would that apply?

Any advice, insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in adavance,

Jon

Only members can post or respond to topics. LOGIN

Not a member of SP? JOIN or FIND OUT MORE

Answers older then 1 month have been hidden - you can SHOW all answers or select them individually
Answers older then 1 month are visible - you can HIDE older answers.

Chris Chandler

1 year, 3 months ago - Chris Chandler

Unfortunately, having the music to which your subjects are performing on the sound track will necessitate clearing the music. It's completely different from an entirely incidental snatch of a song from the window of a passing car (though even that will not always count as fair dealing, e.g. not on a fiction film where the snatch of music may be a creative choice, not an accident of the filming process).

For the project you outline, you would certainly need to clear the music used. You could potentially reduce costs by - for example - clearing only festival and online rights (rather than all media all territories which would be the normal advice for a film). Some rights holders will be very generous for unfunded shorts not intended for wide-scale distribution or TV screening - it's worth investigating.

Response from 1 year, 3 months ago - Chris Chandler SHOW

Jon King

1 year, 3 months ago - Jon King

Thanks Chris; appreciate your input. I suspected that might be the case, but thought I'd ask (probably inspired by some wishful thinking)!

Yes I'll maybe investigate getting limited rights to the track in question and/or try and avoid the need to include the tracks at all, if I can do that without impacting the story.

Thanks again for the response.

Response from 1 year, 3 months ago - Jon King SHOW

Chris Chandler

1 year, 3 months ago - Chris Chandler

Hi Jon,

If you do contact rights holders, make sure that you tell them from the off that you are making an unfunded short for limited release (i.e. festivals, online), that you don't need to use the entire track (it can add to the complexity of filming, but if you can make do with only a short extract - 30 seconds?) and that it is a non-commercial venture. All of this should reduce the cost of a clearance. It doesn't always work but I've a lot of experience of shorts getting very good deals.

Good luck

Chris

Response from 1 year, 3 months ago - Chris Chandler SHOW