Help with video licensing clarity...
qquegchristian
3 Jan 2015 11:30
Hello, I am hoping someone that has been on here for some time can help me clarify a few things about video licenses. The Pond5 license page is far less detailed about videos than I have seen on other sites.
I am an independent filmmaker who has made a mock-documentary with an extremely low budget (less than $2,000). I have an aerial shot from this site I'd love to license and use for maybe 12 seconds. My issue is that I do not yet know how the film will be released.
We have released a film in the past that played over 50 film festivals, then went on to get a VOD release, a pretty wide DVD release, and release in many countries. It looks pretty successful from the outside, but it has barely broken even and we are constantly fighting to get paid. I bring this up to simply illustrate that there is definitely a likelihood that there will be some decent interest in our tiny new film, but we are not rich or backed by any production company of any kind.
My questions for this new project are:
1. On a clip with no editorial restrictions, will I be allowed to eventually sell the movie containing the clip on DVD? (Many other sites have many bylines about this, but I am not seeing that on here.)
2. Will I be allowed to upload a 1080p video of our entire film containing the clip to YouTube, or even torrent sites? There seems to be a line about not making the footage easily extracted and I understand why. My use of the one shot of footage would be covered by a title card of text, essentially watermarking the video and making it impossible for people to extract it in a usable fashion.
Other stock sites are very clearly against torrents (for GOOD reason) but I can't imagine ever being able to guarantee that my film will not get torrented, as our last film was torrented over 500,000 times against our will. It's just the sad state of releasing a movie.
As I said, we are still unsure of how we will release our film and are considering our options... one of which may include a purposeful torrent release with a paypal link (kind of an honor system release). Again, I would be obstructing the stock shot with text... does this sound like something within the Pond5 license?
Thanks for any help!
I am an independent filmmaker who has made a mock-documentary with an extremely low budget (less than $2,000). I have an aerial shot from this site I'd love to license and use for maybe 12 seconds. My issue is that I do not yet know how the film will be released.
We have released a film in the past that played over 50 film festivals, then went on to get a VOD release, a pretty wide DVD release, and release in many countries. It looks pretty successful from the outside, but it has barely broken even and we are constantly fighting to get paid. I bring this up to simply illustrate that there is definitely a likelihood that there will be some decent interest in our tiny new film, but we are not rich or backed by any production company of any kind.
My questions for this new project are:
1. On a clip with no editorial restrictions, will I be allowed to eventually sell the movie containing the clip on DVD? (Many other sites have many bylines about this, but I am not seeing that on here.)
2. Will I be allowed to upload a 1080p video of our entire film containing the clip to YouTube, or even torrent sites? There seems to be a line about not making the footage easily extracted and I understand why. My use of the one shot of footage would be covered by a title card of text, essentially watermarking the video and making it impossible for people to extract it in a usable fashion.
Other stock sites are very clearly against torrents (for GOOD reason) but I can't imagine ever being able to guarantee that my film will not get torrented, as our last film was torrented over 500,000 times against our will. It's just the sad state of releasing a movie.
As I said, we are still unsure of how we will release our film and are considering our options... one of which may include a purposeful torrent release with a paypal link (kind of an honor system release). Again, I would be obstructing the stock shot with text... does this sound like something within the Pond5 license?
Thanks for any help!
vadervideo
3 Jan 2015 16:49
Actually there are no restrictions other than taking the same clip and trying to re-sell it as is. When you purchase the clip, you have full royalty free rights of use in perpetuity. It sounds like your production for sure would have no issues as you are not selling or planning on selling just the specific clip on its own.
fernleafmedia
3 Jan 2015 23:22
Hello qquegchristian, It is my understanding that you have full commercial rights to anything you purchase from pond5.com, as long as you do not resell the exact same clip in it's original setting (i. e. without using in a project with other media). Plus, you don't need to pay any royalty or license fees, no matter how widely distributed your project is.
NaplesMedia
3 Jan 2015 23:43
Some good advice from above, the only thing i'll add is stock media is like lego, you buy your pieces put them together for a single product (project) and now your ready to release it to the world as such. Some sites require different license for TV or Broadcast rather then to distribution via the internet or project services, which are higher, but Pond5, not so.