Copyright for Festivals

Some festivals will accept your film with the 10 seconds of "Frankenstein".
Some festivals will not accept your films with 10 seconds of "Frankenstein".

In general you cannot use copyrighted material. At all. Even if you are not
making a profit the owner of the copyright has the right to decide how their
work is used.

Before paying the entry fee to any festival contact the people running the
festival and ask them.

Directorik's advice is the safe and correct advice...

BUT, in my experience, festivals really tend to not care. If they like your film they are just going to program it, simple as that. They assume you, as the filmmaker, have taken proper care to clear all the rights within your film and they are basically operating on a don't ask don't tell basis. In rare cases when a film gets into a big festival and becomes highly publicized, a copyright owner might catch wind of the film and try to get it removed from the festival (usually this happens when someone makes a film based on someone's life without permission). Usually at this point festivals just cancel the screenings. I highly doubt this will happen with a 10 second clip of Frankenstein.

Directorick's advice is accurate.

It's also about context. If the 10 seconds is way in the background, and inconsequential, then noone will notice.

Sometimes a brand product is flashed and no one notices or cares. Even Hollywood does it by accident.

That being said, it doesn't mean you are free to use without possible consequences,

writersandfilmmakers said:

Sometimes a brand product is flashed and no one notices or cares.

Click to expand...

It's not a violation to use a brand logo or product in a film if it's being portrayed as its intended use.