John August

Archives for 2011

Getting clearances

QandA, Rights and Copyright, The Nines

questionmarkI’m working on a series of web films that I fancy to self-produce and distribute through Youtube, etc. I’m curious: is there an easy (i.e. free) way to confirm I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes with the names I’ve chosen for characters, companies, products, etc in my story?

I know there’re entire businesses dedicated to tracing and checking this information for those in the industry, but I’m limited to typing the names into Google and hoping no results appear.

Is this worth worrying about, and is there an easy way to go about it?

— Russell Gawthorpe

answer iconWhat you’re talking about are called clearances. There are companies that do that for you (the [de Forest Report](http://www.deforestresearch.com/)™ is the best known), but for smaller projects it’s not hard to DIY.

As an intern at Universal, one of my assignments was handling clearances for the art department on the Kevin Costner film The War. They had a bunch of vintage signs, and my task was to figure out whether any of the brands or companies featured were still in business. This was pre-internet, so I ended up making a lot of phone calls.

When checking clearances, you’re hoping for one of two outcomes:

1. There’s nothing/no one with that name. You’re clear.
2. There are so many items or people with that name that no reasonable person would assume you’re talking about it/him specifically. ((But location and job might be a factor. “Bill Smith” is generic and ubiquitous, but if the character is a police sergeant in San Diego, and there is a real William Smith working for the police department there, you have an issue.))

But when you’re checking clearances, you often find yourself in a middle ground. There’s somebody or something with that name, or close enough to it that it might be a problem. If that happens, you can talk to the person and ask them to sign a clearance release. It’s a pretty generic “we won’t sue” form that your producer (or attorney) will provide.

In other cases, you’re presented with a logo or artwork that may or may not be someone’s trademark. To the degree possible, you avoid it. But a sizable percentage of clearances really come down to a judgment call: what are the odds someone has the rights and will care?

The Amway-like pyramid marketing company in Go was originally called American Products. We couldn’t clear that name, so we came up with a list of alternatives and checked each one. I picked Confederated Products, which I loved even more.

Clearances are standard procedure for making movies and television shows. Your “Errors and Omissions” insurance requires it. [Bad things can happen](http://www.piercelawgroupllp.com/articles/clearance-procedures.pdf) if you miss something.

But that’s for features and television. For your web shorts, you’re already doing more than most folks would. I wouldn’t stress out about it. If you feel like a little more due diligence, take screenshots of your Google results. Keep a file of everything you researched. The more documentation you have showing that you acted responsibly, the better protected you’ll be in the very unlikely case someone protests.

Finally, a word about YouTube: Thanks to the DMCA, corporations can get your stuff yanked without warning. It happened to me.

A Very Big Corporation felt the first trailer to The Nines infringed on their copyright to A Piece of Intellectual Property, and got it pulled from YouTube in less than an hour. They didn’t have to prove anything. AVBC and I have since hashed out that disagreement, but it was sobering to see that as the creator of the video, we had almost no recourse. If you attempt to appeal, YouTube repeatedly reminds you that you’re [an idiot for even trying](http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=185223).

None of this should scare you away from making your shorts. Avoid the names of real companies and real people — especially classmates from junior high. But you don’t have to make your films in a hermetic, brand-free bubble in which everyone is named Smith. Unless that’s the idea for your web series. Because that’s not a bad idea.

Seriously, pick up The New Yorker

Rave

At the urgings of the [Lazy Self-Indulgent Book Reviewer](http://lazybookreviews.tumblr.com/post/3169147541/wait-shut-up-this-entire-issue-of-the-new-yorker), I checked out the February 14, 2011 issue of The New Yorker. She’s right. It’s amazing.

Lawrence Wright’s piece on Paul Haggis and Scientology is so long I suspected it was some kind of Möbius strip. Through it all, I kept thinking, *Jesus, if this is what could make it past legal and fact-checking, what got cut? Moon bases? Re-animation of the dead?*

Rebecca Mead’s celebration of George Eliot was great even though I’ve never read Middlemarch. Now I will.

Malcolm Gladwell has sort of made a career of pointing out the obvious — I enjoy this snarky [Gladwell book generator](http://www.malcolmgladwellbookgenerator.com/) — but I agree with him that college rankings like you find in U.S. News and World Report are largely useless. For most students, the character of the school is a better decision factor than its selectivity. Some students flourish at giant public universities, while others need the community of a small school in the hinterlands. Comparing those experiences on a numeric scale to figure out which is “best” is pointless daturbation.

For screenwriters, the prizewinner has to be Tina Fey’s essay about trying to decide whether to have another kid, knowing how it will mess up 30 Rock and other aspects of her career.

> I can’t possibly take time off for a second baby, unless I *do*, in which case that is nobody’s business and I’ll never regret it for a moment unless it ruins my life.

> To hell with everybody! Maybe I’ll just wait until I’m fifty and give birth to a ball of fingers! “Merry Christmas from Tina, Jeff, Alice, and Ball of Fingers,” the card will say. (“Happy Holidays” on the ones I send to my agents.)

It’s the first New Yorker in which I barely looked at the cartoons.

Two things I liked about Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark

Broadway

Taped to the back of my seat at this past Friday’s performance of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark was a survey soliciting audience opinions of the still-in-progress musical.

Survey cards are common in the film industry, but this was the first I’d seen used for a Broadway show. The front side of the form was designed to be filled out before the show began. It asked questions about demographics (age, income, education, whether you lived in NYC) and why you chose to see the show. It was more detailed than I’m used to seeing for movie test screenings.

The reverse side was for after the show, asking questions about scenes, songs and characters. I didn’t fill it out very thoroughly, because there’s not much I can offer as criticism of the show that hasn’t been said at length in last week’s excoriating reviews. Piling now on feels like schadenfreude.

I did make a point to highlight two things I thought worked. I’ll share those here.

**”If The World Should End”**
This is the song MJ (Jennifer Damiano) sings in act two. It’s lovely, spare, haunting — and nicely on-story. This and Peter’s song (“The Boy Falls From The Sky”) that comes right after it felt like they snuck from a much different, much more compelling musical.

**The Skyscrapers**
How do you translate an idea that centers on a vertical cityscape to the stage? In this case, really well. The forced-perspective Fritz Lang-ish skyscrapers are constantly in motion, culminating in a a fold-out Chrysler Building that juts overhead like a plane taking off. In general, talking about how pretty the sets are is damning, like complimenting a writer on his punctuation. But in this case, the skyscrapers really are something worth seeing.

I have no idea what’s going to happen with this musical. On one hand, it’s selling well, so maybe it’s review-proof. On the other hand, the producers are publicly and privately acknowledging it needs work.

I’m pointing out these two bright spots because (a) if it keeps running in its current form, they’d be the two reasons to consider buying a ticket, and (b) if it closes, these were Things That Were Cool.

It’s too easy to file things away as “success” or “failure.” Almost every creative work is a mix of both.

Any printer will do

Follow Up

Reader Brian asked for follow-up on an old post about [picking a printer](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2005/picking-a-printer).

Back in 2005, I had an HP LaserJet 4100. I still do. I haven’t needed to replace or upgrade it. It still works fine.

As I noted back then:

> I don’t print nearly as much as I used to, since most times I’m delivering a .pdf rather than a printed script. I used to recommend screenwriters spend the extra money for a fast printer, but there’s really no great advantage now. Almost any laser printer — and even most inkjets — can print a script in less time than it takes to walk the dog.

I’ve spent a lot of time this year in New York, working on a project that requires a fair amount of printing. My only printer is a cheap inkjet from Staples that I store in the producers’ office.

Every time I use it, I marvel. It’s remarkably fast. Inkjets have come a long way from my college StyleWriter.

Same with laser printers. My first Apple LaserWriter cost several months’ rent and weighed more than my dorm refrigerator. Now you can get one for a hundred-and-something on Amazon.

If I were in the market for a new laser printer, I’d have my choice of great options. But the one I’ve got is perfectly fine.

We’re used to technology becoming better, faster, smaller, cheaper — in this case, nearly disposable. ((The environmentalist in me frets that printers may have become too cheap and too easy to throw away. The printer cartridge racket supports selling printers at a loss (or near-loss). More than once while re-boxing this printer before carrying it several blocks, I’ve thought It would just be easier to buy a new one.)) I think the reason we don’t talk about how good printers have gotten is that paper has become much less important in our lives.

So for a screenwriter like Brian, I’d recommend checking out reviews online and buying the least expensive (but decently-reviewed) printer that meets your requirements: laser or inkjet, color or not. Don’t invest the money or time into more than you absolutely need. And then hold onto it. It’s likely to last you a really long time.