Legal Question

clearance clearance clearance...this is always a problem...

but yes to both...unless this is just a home movie that will get no Dist...

if you have a can of Coke in your shot you need clearance...and so on. you will have to GREEK these thiings out or just remove them from your shot when shooting...

on Godzilla there were plate-shots of Times Square...they contacted all the advertisers and they all wanted too much money...so the production company CGI'd all the adds out and then sold the space to other companys for thier ads....very smart....lol...pissed off the companys that had thier ads removed, but they could do nothing about it...haha

so back to you...when in doubt...remove it,turn it,greek it..before shooting

hope this helps

Crap

Man, that sucks. I knew that logos on shirts and ads for products were a no no, but names?

Clearance and Copyright

Michael C. Donaldson is an entertainment attorney who has been fighting for independent filmmakers for over thirty years. His book Clearance and Copyright, the third edition of which was just released, is used in over 50 film schools and has become the standard reference book for the industry. I am highly recommending that you re-read this book, or more importantly, buy it and learn it if you haven't all ready.

Dave Pastecchi said:

on Godzilla there were plate-shots of Times Square...they contacted all the advertisers and they all wanted too much money...so the production company CGI'd all the adds out and then sold the space to other companys for thier ads....very smart....lol...pissed off the companys that had thier ads removed, but they could do nothing about it...haha

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Now that's an awesome strategy, I'd like to meet the smartone who thought that one up. That gives me some ideas.....

If I'm making a movie and one of my characters is big and fat and his buddies call him Shrek, do I break any copyright laws? Do I need to have Disney sign off? What are the rules on this.

Also, if I have a poster of a famous person on the wall do I need their permission?

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Even if you are in the right on Shrek you might scare off distributors when it's time to sell your movie.

You only need permission if the poster takes up a lot of screen area.

You can use real products on screen to "dress your set". For example if you shoot a scene inside of a store you certainly don't have to cover up every single product seen in the store! However if they grab a product off the shelf you might want to create your own product.