displaying showreels at events

[akira_k]

Hi everyone,

We're organizing a little VJ event next week and we thought it would be cool to show people's showreels in a special area. The idea is to make people see what is possible with A/V arts and what is going on in the worldwide scene.

I thought about a bunch of showreels that would be good to have in there, how should this be aproached? Put the showreel up (every showreel will have a still before saying who they are and what it is) with or without asking the artist first? A mail asking doesn't hurt, I'm just thinking about further possible ethical/legal implications.

Cheers!

[revjrbobdodds]

Either legally or ethically, you absolutely CANNOT display a person's work without some prior arrangement. As there is no industry standard arrangement or governing body in place to license performance rights, you must secure agreements prior to the event, and on a case-by-case basis. There are no exceptions to this.

the rev

[akira_k]

I'm talking about showreels that are being posted online, like pixy's site with all the showreels which get displayed at pirate TV.

What would be the difference in these two situations?

Obviously with this post I take the opportunity to say that we're open to any and all submissions for this event.

[revjrbobdodds]

Pointing out on your website that a tune is available for download on the artist's website is vastly different from making the tune available for download yourself. Even if an artist fileshares their own work, it does not give you permission to fileshare it, unless they expressly grant that right, either directly or through a EULA, for example.

Also from experience I know Pix gets permission FIRST.

As I said, there really are no exceptions.

[evomedia]

The issue I'd be most concerned with is use if showreels from internet sites, lo quality reels do not do people justice espcially in a public display environment. Have enough respect to contact artists directly and ask if they are happy to have work displayed and ask for high quality reels. VJC has email address attached to most profiles, so not doing it will just shows a lack of courtesy.

Most people who would be happy for their work to be displayed but still want to sign a contract, and most definately do not want their lo res streamed reels shown, as I imagine most here have dvd quality for publicity or display.

Its like displaying a Painting in gallery as a black and white photocopy rather than orginal media.

[akira_k]

Thanks for the input.

I am aware of the problems specially with the low res clip stuff. I was just asking because it makes me wonder, even for the demoreels we will put up at our site.

Now everything is clear ;)