Video Game rights

A

afaloth

I am thinking of having a scene in which the main character can be seen playing a video game, and for it to work it is vital for the game to be shown. Now what complications can this have? If the actual title of the game cannot be seen, would I need permission to use it? If the footage is of a game that could look like any game, would anyone notice? Also I plan on entering it in a competition, not a festival, would this affect the situation at all?

Does anyone have any experience of showing footage of a video game in their works?
 
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You can't. Ever since YouTube videos started popping up featuring gameplay there's been an issue. The small print on the games state that all content created by the game is copyrighted by the publisher. They used to force YouTube to take them down in the early days, now they let it go BUT you can't make money off the video.
 
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afaloth said:
I plan on entering it in a competition
Click to expand...
The competition you are planning to enter may have
rules about this - check.

I am an advocate of never using copyrighted material - I
don't want people using my material with permission so
I never use the material of others without permission. If
you don't feel as strongly as I do then you should use the
game as you want. and if the competition allows you to
use copyrighted material in your entry then it will not
affect you legally.
 
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Why not for aspiring video game programmers that would like to have their game demo played in your movie. I have found a number of game designers/programmers working at Game Stops. Get a signed release for unrestricted exhibition of the images of their gameplay. Good luck.
 
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It would only work if you got permission from the company itself. It would likely be more effective to find a small company, with a game similar to popular games (find a 2D sidescroller if you were making Mario/Sonic references, or any FPS for Call of Duty/Halo, etc.)

These smaller companies would be more willing to give you permission, in exchange for credit, which they see as free promotion.

One last bit of advice, if you're even thinking about using Halo.... just get the idea out of your mind and save yourself the trouble. Microsoft will never allow it, I've had a representative tell me this before.
 
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Another thing to consider…

People spend a lot of time and effort creating video games, it’s a hard slog. Even indie developers might be reluctant to let you use their game in your film.

Here’s the thing though, you don’t really need a game. You could easily find somebody to create a bespoke video of an FPS (or whatever game genre) for you. Your character wouldn’t need to play the game. They’d just need to press the buttons on the controller, while the video is played (via a DVD, perhaps) on the TV or monitor! That’s the beauty of film… We can fake this stuff!
 
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mad_hatter said:
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Here’s the thing though, you don’t really need a game. You could easily find somebody to create a bespoke video of an FPS (or whatever game genre) for you. Your character wouldn’t need to play the game. They’d just need to press the buttons on the controller, while the video is played (via a DVD, perhaps) on the TV or monitor! That’s the beauty of film… We can fake this stuff!
Click to expand...

Do you mean have the video in form of live action?

Also the game I was thinking of using was GTA, or anything similar to GTA, even something like sims could work. If there is no way of identifying what the game is, could I still get away with having a branded game?
 
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afaloth said:
Do you mean have the video in form of live action?
Click to expand...

No, no, no.

Esentially, you'd have a video of a computer animation. You could (or whomever may do it for you could) create an animation of a man, running along a street, shooting a granny, stealling a car, then running over a dog. Layer a HUD over it, with a mini-map and a health bar, and when it's played back, it'll look like somebody playing a video game.

Play this through a TV, with your character sitting in front of it, pressing the button on a controller. Job done.

You could do something like this in "Blender", a free 3D animation software. Creating a small animation like this would be much simpler than creating a 3D game world and programming a game engine, all to fake a few seconds of footage in your film.
 
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It's much more challenging to fake the video game, and rewarding! We did this in a film last spring. The characters were supposedly playing the Wii dancing game called "Just Dance" or something like that. So we shot it from the POV of the TV, looking at the characters, holding generically propped controllers, and moving in unison while generic (and purchased) 8-bit techno music played. It was awesome! Good luck!
 
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