Hi All,

New member. Great forums!

Quick question. I'm making a yoga doc. One of my main characters is a
controversial yogi. I've shot stuff of him hosting a yoga
'championship', giving a lecture, and doing a five-minute interview
with us, all at public events where we were a credited film crew.

Problem; He has not signed a release. And while trying to get a sit-
down interview with him, his people suddenly said he's 'under
contract' to another doc and can't be in mine. Where does this leave
the earlier footage I shot?

John Philp

When doing interviews with SurfGuru.com, we never had signed releases. What we did instead, was ask the subject for permission to use this footage on our website. Verbal consent on tape was all we needed. In your case, you might argue that, since he was aware of the camera and still gave the interview, he was giving consent. Of course, I am not an attorney, and this may not stand in a court of law.

In the future, if you don't have a release form, always ask the subject for permission on camera. Once they say "OK", you are good to go.

From your description, I'd say you are out of luck. His manager probably has a better idea of what his priour commitments and contracts are. If you were in the process of shooting the interview, and his mangager said, "Sorry, no can do, we have an exclusive deal..." then all ofyour priour footage is a no go as well.

Thats just my opinion, your attorney might say differently. And I wouldn't use it without speaking to one.