Donated Documentary Hoops

JJKizak wrote on 7/16/2005, 8:00 AM
What would have to be done to do a documentary with cancer kids at a private resting area and a very huge national hospital as far as licenses, permissions, copyrights, etc. with someone else writing a sound track? This would be a donation type deal. PBS already declined as a few others. I don't mean shooting it but the paperwork incloved to keep it legal.

JJK

Comments

filmy wrote on 7/16/2005, 1:17 PM
This is a touchy issue but first and formost you must have all the parents and/or gaurdian of the children sign off. next you need to get the hospital and hospice to sign off - you may need to get their board of directors to do the signing off of.

This tpye of thing isd always easier if you are doing it because you have been asked to - I mean that in the sense of say the hospice wants to produce a documentray on what they do so they come to you. This way they would mostly take care of the legal paperwork and you would have access to their entire staff and potentially famlies and patients.

For the most part any film is the same as far as certian things go - copyrights, release forms and the like. Just in the case of minors you need to have the parent or gaurdian sign off. Being a documentray chances are you would not be "working" the minor long enough to break child labor laws.
rextilleon wrote on 7/16/2005, 8:54 PM
Any copyright music needs to be purchased--although for a non-profit effort, the publishing and record companies will often wave their major fees and just charge you an administrative fee.
JackW wrote on 7/16/2005, 10:18 PM
You might approach the Make a Wish Foundation and the local Ronald McDonald House. We did a cancer patient shoot recently and worked closely with these two agencies. They arranged all the details with parents, patients and the Ronald McDonald House and the hospital. All we had to do was come in and shoot the little boy's birthday party and edit the shoot. The Make a Wish Foundation even took care of getting tapes and DVDs to the appropriate people. We did the shoot pro bono, so getting paid wasn't an issue although the Make a Wish folks covered all our out-of-pocket costs and gave us seats at the party.

A very gratifying experience. I think it's really great when videographers are able to give something back to the community.

Jack