Jesse Saivar

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Q: I’m in pre-production for a feature film, a large chunk of which will be shot in my living room. I have various movie posters in my living room from — movies like Seven, Aliens, etc. — not to mention a few pieces of mass-produced framed art. Is it easy to get clearances for this sort of thing if they don’t play into the movie and are just used as background? Will it affect me if only pieces of the posters appear in various shots (either out of focus or very close-up)?

A related (but possibly different) question is this: the film relies on showing iPhones receiving text messages. What is the legality of showing logos like Apple and AT&T?

A: So your living room is filled with posters from movies like Seven and Aliens? I hope you lightened the mood in your foyer with posters for Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and I Spit on Your Grave.

Moving away from the questionable atmosphere of your living room, let’s get to the first part of your question. The good news is that you seem to understand that clearance is an issue. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Elisabeth Moriarty

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A few weeks ago, lulled into a stupor by the lazy days of summer, my family and I headed over to LACMA to kill some time before our weekly rendezvous at the neighborhood dog park. The featured installation was a retrospective by renowned conceptual artist John Baldessari, entitled “Pure Beauty.”

My favorite was “Brain/Cloud (Two Views): With Palm Tree and Seascapes.” We walked into a room on which a giant white brain was mounted on a blue wall. On the opposite wall a grainy, black and white projection of the brain was displayed. As we stood there ponderingwhat the heck this was all supposed to mean and trying to look sufficiently artsy, we didn’t realize that the brain was actually recording us on a twenty second time-delay video. Once our images popped up on the opposite wall, my seven-year-old daughter and my seven-year-old husband (in spirit if not in age) immediately began recording themselves karate punching and kicking the air, then literally ran around to the other wall and repeated the same nonsense so that, when the video played, they appeared to be fighting themselves under the watchful — um, eye? — of the brain. The room may have been empty before we arrived, but my family’s antics quickly drew an audience; even the typically stoic museum guards came over for a laugh. My family had become part of the art itself, if not the artist.

I can’t truthfully say that I absorbed the deep artistic meaning likely intended by Baldessari, but Brain/Cloud was pretty cool. And it did get me wondering about copyright (yes, I’m a geek, sue me). I would argue with as straight a face as Baldessari himself that our Battle with the Brain was, itself, a new and exciting piece of art. Just ask the guards. So whose art is it? Baldessari’s for having the idea and setting it up, or ours for portraying man’s eternal struggle against himself? Continue reading the full story . . . »

Megan Rivetti

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While walking (or for most people, driving) through the urban jungle of Los Angeles, it’s not unusual to see a swarm of ravenous, camera-wielding hyenas (a/k/a the paparazzi) stalking their prey (a/k/a a celebrity) outside of a restaurant or shop. Or you might see several cars speeding and swerving down a street in an attempt to capture that money shot of a big-time star gracefully traversing the streets. While I’m not one to judge (I tend to get excited when I see a celebrity in the flesh), the packs of paps seem to be a threat to both the celebrity’s and the public’s safety. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Matt Galsor

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Q: I want to shoot a short film in which a couple is on a date to the movie Casablanca in one of the scenes. I know I can’t use it without permission from Warner Bros. So I have three questions really:

1. Is it possible that Warner Bros. would grant me permission to use a few short clips of Casablanca for a small or zero fee? If so, who would I talk to at WB about this?

2. Can I use an out of focus shot of the film playing in the background without rights?

3. If I have actors rerecord the lines, imitating the voice of Bogart and Bergman, am I still in any trouble?

I know the easy answer is to spoof a generic romance movie, but it would pack a better punch if I could use Casablanca.

A: What about this elegant solution — why not spoof a generic romance movie instead? Can my answer be in a form of a question? Continue reading the full story . . . »

Aaron Gafni

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I thought I was breaking the law. Okay, it was breaking the law in the dorkiest way possible, but still, breaking the law is always kind of cool (wait, I’m a lawyer — am I allowed to say that?). After hours of research, I put my brand new first generation iPhone into the hands of some rogue programming genius with a vitamin D deficiency. The plan was to jailbreak and unlock my iPhone. In simple terms, jailbreaking allows you to modify the iPhone operating system in ways that Apple doesn’t allow. At the time, the App Store was just a gleam in Steve Jobs’ eye; jailbreaking would enable me to download games and other apps iPhone owners now take for granted. But I was more interested in unlocking the iPhone, which would allow me to run the phone on T-Mobile instead of AT&T (and avoid AT&T’s ungodly rates). Somehow I wasn’t deterred by the dozens of horror stories online about failed jailbreaking attempts, stories about “bricked” iPhones that never worked again. I certainly wasn’t going to drop another $400 on a new iPhone, so I knew I only had one shot at breaking out of jail. I downloaded the program and, like magic, I was playing Super Mario Bros. 3 in a matter of minutes — never a doubt. Continue reading the full story . . . »