ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

11 years, 9 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Everything is by arrangement or fees are paid. Documentary sector has to pay its way, of they want to use footage they don't shot for themselves they pay a licence fee. There are possible exemptions for education and review but toy would need to go through it with a lawyer to be comfortable that you really would be likely to plead that if sued. Libraries like itnsource have different licencing options depending on what you want to use and how.

11 years, 9 months ago - Dan Selakovich

I haven't done this in years, but I'm sure the process is much the same. Basically it goes like this: You call up CNN (or whoever) and say "I need footage of jets landing in Iraq." In the day, they'd send you all the footage they have of jets landing in Iraq on 3/4" video tape with a time code burn. You tell them what bit of footage you're going to use, and they'll send it to you without the time code window once you pay them 90 bucks a minute. I'm sure the process is much easier now, since there's the internet. But I'm also sure it's more expensive.

Every news organization has a department devoted to selling footage. Just call them up and ask.

Dan

11 years, 9 months ago - Tim iloobia

Hi Thomas,
You kind of answer your own question in your post.
Its not impossible to get clips from news channels at all, its actually quite straightforward, but you do need to get permission from the appropriate owner and almost certainly pay some kind of fee based on what you use it for and the duration used. And this might include both a fee for providing the footage as well as one that covers where and how you use the material (which will probably be the larger figure).

Are asking how you can get to use clips for free on the assumption that when you see them used elsewhere they are just putting them in without doing it with permission or paying? I'm curious why you assume that they are not paying for the clips? Of course if you do then you are breaking copyright which opens you up to a multitude of problems.

The research part of finding your clips can be quite time consuming but through that process you will almost certainly find out who owns it and who to ask for permission.
Impossible - no, but certainly requires a bit of time and effort, but you will thank yourself for doing it properly later on down the line.
be interested what other people think....
tim

11 years, 9 months ago - margaret cox

I think it is a great shame and illogical that when time is of the essence in expressing a point of view (particularly in documentary) the whole process gets stymied when you have a list of permissions to ask for. I think the internet, youtube and torrents prove that public information material should have creative commons. It seems to me only logical. Why should documentaries, or artists who are struggling to make anything, get set back even more by this. And this applies to big name artists too. Timing it everything. Did Banksy take best managerial advice when he sold his print canvases last weekend for $60 each in Central Park? or Radiohead when Rainbows was put out first on the Internet for free? These made their effect through timing.