I often get asked about getting permission to use someone In your video and is permission necessary. The answer is yes and no. Let me explain further.

Years ago there was a Hollywood movie shooting in a big city and in the background of one scene was an elderly lady selling apples from her cart.

The lady was quite recognizable in the background of the shot and her son was a lawyer. As you probably guessed, the son sues the production company because they didn’t get a release form from the woman and gets his mom a nice chunk of change.

What this all comes down too is whether or not there is money to be gained that is over and above the costs to gain it.

In all the work I have done, whether it’s a TV spot, a corporate video, a TV drama, educational film or a PSA, I always get the people who are recognizable in the video to sign a release form. It’s just good business practisen to do so.

The release form I use I got from Hollywood Enterprise stationers In L.A. It’s a pretty detailed one sheet that uses the phrase “for valuable consideration” which is whatever you and the other party agree on for you to use their likeness. It also covers voice and other attributes.

It’s not likely that someone will sue you over your little educational backyard video that you show to you family and friends, but if you have something that makes your video very saleable and you make money from it you never know. So always get releases.

Sometimes you might get the release on an audio tape or saved on a wave file.
The important thing is to always get permission whenever possible.

Even putting up a poster saying something like “We are shooting an educational film here and would appreciate you staying out of the camera’s field of view” is better than nothing at all.