Copyright
Boring as it sounds, you need to know this. You’d be surprised how careful you need to be on a video shoot, no matter how informal your video is. Supposing you create a beautiful video, investing significant time and expense, you post it online and get a good response. Then someone pops up and makes a claim. Their painting is in the background of your video and you’ve benefited from their work. They have a point. You’re then in a legally awkward situation. The video is removed and you could owe lots of money. Eek!
If any artwork, recognisable logos, book covers, magazines or photographs appear in your video you need to have permission. And when you seek permission from whoever owns the copyright they will want to know exactly what your video is about, who will see it and what it aims to achieve. They are then likely to charge you a fee.
The same goes for music of course. Production companies employ people who’s full time job is to clear copyright. It’s very complicated.
Your video production company will sort out copyright issues for you. But it’s good to be aware of the issues at the planning stage. If you want to avoid big costs and if you want your video produced quickly just avoid getting any art work in shot. Unless you painted it yourself of course. And if you know the artist just check with them that they’re happy – it’s only polite.
For more information and ideas on making videos see www.buttonmedia.net/blog
Happy planning!