“When you are new to this business, you walk on and they put a release in front of you… and you are so grateful for the work (that you sign it), but you have no idea what you are signing. “
“On my first commercial I had to agree that they could use the footage for other projects. I [had] no experience, and no idea of what was going on. “
“They put a release in front of me after I had sat in the makeup chair and talked to the director a couple times. Looking at it, I realized that I had no idea where this footage was going to show up, besides in the commercial we were shooting that day.”
“You agree because you want the work and you hope that they won’t use your image in projects that are humiliating or bad for your career.”
“My advice for independent filmmakers would be, ‘Keep it simple! State in the release that you are asking the artist to agree that this footage can be used and edited for this specific project… in any way that the director sees fit. That is perfectly acceptable. You are agreeing to work for this director, on this project. ‘
“But, it gets manipulative and it feels like people are taking advantage of the artist when they decide that they are going to use this footage for more, and more and more.”
However, things change dramatically when the actor is a star! Producer Deke Simon, author of the bestselling book “Film and Video Budgets”, told me a story about something that happened to him when he produced the home video "Help Save Planet Earth!"
“We had a basket full of movie and TV stars performing in skits that demonstrated how to live green. Stars like Ted Danson, Lloyd and Beau Bridges, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Ritter, Cheech Marin, Sally Kellerman, Whoopi Goldberg, and the voice of Milton Berle.”
“When Whoopi Goldberg handed me her signed release form, I glanced at the signature line, where she had signed, ‘Gloria Swanson.’ “
“I laughed but said, ‘Seriously, is this legal?’ She insisted that it was, and said she often signed documents with the names of past movie stars. I wasn't about to argue with her, and MCA/Universal's legal department never spit it back, so I guess it's either legal, or nobody wanted to make waves.”
Where does this leave you and I as filmmakers, and what should we do about model releases? I personally follow the advice that a well-known San Francisco filmmaker gave me several years ago. When I asked him when I needed a model release he said, “If the person’s mother can recognize them onscreen, you need a release.” At the time, I thought he was kidding. I now know that he was serious.
In addition to a model release, the second release that Fadiman always tries to get is a location release, especially when she is filming on private property. She said, “If I have any doubt [about permission] I always check. You should always careful to make sure you have the proper [location] permission.”
