COPYFRIGHT! They think we're fools: Copyright from an Indie Filmmaker's View

Posted: 16th Sep 2010
Category: Articles
Tags: sharron ward, copyfright, copyright issues in documentary filmmaking, independent film making

Sharron Ward is an award-winning independent film-maker and has made content for BBC, MTV Europe and VH1 UK amongst others. She has made a number of short experimental art films, and is keen to carry on working in observational documentary.

Her latest projects include self-shooting a documentary on heroin addicts detoxing in world renowned Thamkrabok Monastery in Thailand, and following and following the maverick exploits of Cannes in a Van as they attended the 60th Cannes Film Festival. She is currently producing a documentary on child heroin addicts in Afghanistan, Addicted in Afghanistan. DFG catches up with her to find out how a filmmaker who may initially have to work outside of broadcast feels about the rights to her film.

How do you feel about your work being shown on YouTube or other free view sites as an independent filmmaker?

That's a difficult one. As an independent filmmaker, putting a film on free is not something that I'm keen on. What I think you want to do first is for it to go around the festival circuit and then look at broadcast windows. You want to sell it wherever you can. I think, then, you want to see where you can upload it on pay per view sites. After I have exploited every window I could, I would only then put it up on YouTube in terms of the whole film. The great thing about YouTube is you can put the trailer up and you can promote the film that way. I know a lot of people are happy to put their stuff up online without thinking about it - but I think you ought to be realistic. We are filmmakers and we're trying to make a living from our work. We're also trying to get more money to make more work. However, I think if you had a budget from a comissioner and the whole film was 100% funded and you got paid for it, that's great. In that case, putting it up on YouTube is not such a big deal, I'd be happy to do it. Say you made a film with very little budget or people got deferred payment, or didn't get paid on it at all - you 're going to try and recoup the money by selling it on all the broadcast windows. If you put it up on YouTube you're immediately going to be unable to go around the film festivals. [Above all], I think it's a timing issue.

Why does it preclude you from going around the film festivals?

If you're talking about putting up your whole film online - that would almost immediately preclude you from putting it into almost any film festival of any repute: Sundance, Tribeca, Doc/Fest. Any of those festivals - the rules and regulations are quite clear. If you've got your film online anywhere, you're immediately disqualified from entering, obviously because they want the exclusivity. It’s the same with broadcast - if your film's been widely available to a worldwide audience, especially with the Internet - then anyone can access it. It's all about exclusivity.

What is your use of YouTube?

We had put up a fundraising taster for Addicted in Afghanistan online on YouTube, not even the trailer. We put that up as we wanted to generate publicity and interest - we wanted people to know about the problem - [in this case] about horrendous rates of addiction amongst women and children in particular. I think as a filmmaker, especially with social campaigning, social issue films - you do want it to be available to the widest audience possible. But [I stress] that you want to do the film festival circuit first, you want to look at broadcast and then you want to look at what online sites actually do a pay per view screening, and then set the whole thing up online. I think you have to so that people are happy to fund you again because know that they will tend to get back the investment they've made. Also, we're still looking at a traditional model. If your film hasn't been broadcast, then there's a certain kudos attached to that. However, if you just wily nily stick it online everywhere you're immediately precluding yourself from getting broadcast and I still think there's a major audience in broadcast.

How do you handle your distribution outside of broadcast as an independent filmmaker?

With Addicted in Afghanistan, we were approached by a number of sales agents and distributors, very keen to take on the film. However, it was such a low budget film, the type of commissions they wanted to take it on were just not worth it. I've made loads of great contacts in broadcast who I know are very keen to take it. I've already sold it to Mette Hoffmann Meyer of DR TV in Denmark. Thanks to MeetMarket at Sheffield Doc/Fest, there are a number of territories all around the world who are very interested in taking on the film. So why would I then hand all of that over to a sales agent? It's about cutting out the middle-man. But of course that is still a lot of work - so that's the problem, you have to weigh up if you want to be free to be able to get on with another project or if you want to tie up your time writing out acquisition scripts, sending out acquisition screeners, and looking at all the other distribution strategies that you're up against. All of that is a big task. I've done more work on the film since its completion than when we were raising funds. I think we're still at a very transitional stage with online distribution - I get so many emails about different platforms, you know - Babelgum, Hulu. To be honest, I think we are all drowning in all these different platforms and are bamboozled by them.

Can you elaborate on your feelings about online rights and distribution?

It’s something I'm still trying to explore. I think the question that always comes up for filmmakers about online distribution is how can I make money from it? I know there are pay-per-view sites and it's about actually sitting down and comparing them all, working out who pays most. Filmmakers are always the last in the line. Musicians and writers, their royalties and their pay structures have been enshrined for decades. Someone invited me to upload my film onto a site, - presumably they wanted the whole film on the site, it said in the email: “You may notice, it adds to the ads all around us. And I thought, excuse me? You guys are getting paid and you're asking filmmakers for free content so that you can make money? What about the filmmaker? There was no revenue back from this”. They said, “Maybe later down the track, we can start paying filmmakers.” No thanks very much! They think we're fools or something. Would you ask a musician to give their music for free onto a site that you were making money out of? Would you ask for free content, unless it was a specific deal - copyright free or it was Creative Commons?

Would you ever consider applying a Creative Commons licence to your work?

No - unless it was something that I made which was very easy for me to make. It would have to be something easily produced, maybe quickly shot some footage and uploaded it you know. If I was in the middle of something that happened in the news, like Burma VJ, or there was a human rights issue that I was witness to, yeah, I'd upload that everywhere. That's completely different - I think that is when information needs to be free, so I wouldn't put a price on that.

Would you ever put spare footage unused in an edit out on Creative Commons licences into clip repositories?

That's something that I need to look at actually, as there's a lot of stuff that we have shot that hasn't ended up in the film. The canny person would say that’s the DVD extras and how you add value to your film. There is an aspect to filmmaking which means you have be business-like and think entrepreneurially. What's the point of making an amazing social film issue that's got some great visual issues that it's talking about if you're not trying to get it out to as many avenues as possible? If you can't look at your budget while you're at it, you're not going to be able to sustain yourself as a filmmaker.

In terms of filmmakers who are starting out - do you think the Internet helps or hinders them?

I think it really helps them. They get an online presence, they can get their name out there, especially if they're starting out and just making small docs. It's brilliant. If your work's really good, it'll get noticed in the right forums. Put it on Shooting People or 4Docs - that's a really good way of kick starting your career - people really get to see your work. Otherwise, it's just sitting on your hard drive somewhere and what's the point of that?!