The things you have to deal with...

I'd like to talk about clearance.

Now, I'm sure that the last two posts I've made here have given you the impression that I'm a total hot-shot, wheeler and dealer who has everything flowing perfectly smoothly on the way to making a film, but I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that, as I am making a small, indie feature, I have to do a lot of work that most studios, even smaller ones, have dedicated departments for. One of those things is getting something known as "clearance."

For those of you unfamiliar, clearance is something you have to do if you want your film to be able to play without you getting sued. Let's say you have a shot where somebody is walking down the street in his brand new shirt, listening to some music on his mp3 player. Well, let's break that down:

1. Does the shirt he's wearing have a logo on it? If so, you'll need clearance. The company that made that shirt is clearly visible.
2. The mp3 player he's listening to, is it an iPod? Do we see the mp3 player in enough detail to see who made it at any time? Well, that'll need clearance too.
3. Can we hear the song? Is the guy whistling or humming the song? Singing it? That's a paddlin'. I mean, uh, that needs clearance.

See, while we'd all love to think that all companies would love what amounts to free publicity, that's just not how the business world works. There may be a lot of factors behind the scenes or in your scene that might cause clearance to be denied. Maybe some companies do not want their product seen alongside another specific product you have in your shot. This is rare, but possible. Also, depending on the context of the scene, maybe it would make placement there undesirable. I doubt Apple would want their product visible as a man walks down the streets of hell, watching people being eternally flayed alive. These are factors you need to consider and get cleared with the companies who you're trying to make use of.

Another factor may be that this clearance may cost money. In the instance of music, there's actually something very interesting about this. You see, a character listening to an mp3 player and wearing a shirt isn't too bad. You can always swap out those brands for something else, even props that don't resemble known brands, if you're so inclined. Music, however, is often used not just to make the scene flow better from a sound standpoint, but may also be used to promote the movie. If the band and importance of music to the film are big enough, this can really drive the cost of licensing the music up. If you do use music in the trailer, that would probably cost you a good deal more.

Right now I'm working on getting clearance from a few companies and bands that I will not name, just in case. A lot of these companies are pretty huge, but their products aren't selling the movie. For example, an mp3 player. This should keep me from having to worry about massive clearance costs. However, I'm also trying to get clearance from a couple of bands I feel whose music I feel would really help bring the movie to another level. The bands I chose are actually a few Canadian indie bands, though, which should keep the cost far below what I'd be spending if I wanted to use, say, Lady Gaga or the Rolling Stones.