Commercial for TV

[Gustavs Repse]

Hey

I got trusted a job today to create a 10 sec promotional video for a Clothing E-Shop, and this commercial will be aired on Lithuanian TV.

So far I've done videos where the actors are acquaintances/friends of mine and there was no need for paper work, release signing what not. I'm inexperienced in this field. :/ However I'm willing to learn.

Since this is for TV, I should be more careful about the legal aspect.
So, I'm worried about things like:
1. do I need to get a Legal agreement/release where actors agree to be on the commercial, or I can( If i trust the actors well enough) ask them to be on it with out any papers?
2. Music - well, if I use Royalty free music there shouldn't be any problems. Right?
3. The shop sells many things, but the emphasis will be on clothing in this one, so the question is, can I show brands in my commercial. For example, if this shop sells "Nike" T'shirts, can I showcase these T'shirts as a product available on this site?


I'm looking for pointers/guidelines. I'd appreciate an insight or a good read/article on this matter.


Thank you :)

[Les Wilson]

For the actors, you should have a "Model Release" or contract that gives you permission to use their image in the project. You need to read the license for the Royalty Free Music you are using. Some of them have restrictions or require you to report when, where, and how many times the piece will be aired. I don't know about the logo issue. It's a good question.

[David Barnett]

I agree. Not sure about the logo but I would stay away from it for this one. You can show shots of the store & the products, I wouldn't go recreating the Nike Logo or using one off of google images though.

[Gustavs Repse]

Thanks for great tips :)

About the logos: I meant logos like a trade mark on clothing, for example, Denim jeans, Nike footwear(you cant really show Nike shoes and expect people not to recognize the brand, and to remove the logo from boots would be unpractical)

That's the deal here.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Gustavs Repse

Thanks for great tips :)

About the logos: I meant logos like a trade mark on clothing, for example, Denim jeans, Nike footwear(you cant really show Nike shoes and expect people not to recognize the brand, and to remove the logo from boots would be unpractical)

That's the deal here.

IMHO the only time you need to worry about using the logo of the products being advertised would be if the store was selling "Nike-like" knockoffs and you used the Nike logo. Trademark is different from copyright and the restrictions in its use come up when you use them in such a way as to confuse or deceive the viewer, hardly the case here. But you need to check with an attorney there in Latvia ... what the law says in North America may not be the same with the law in another jurisdiction. The need for model releases is pretty near universal though ... since you're using your model's faces commercially, you better get a signed release and for it to be binding, pay them at least a token amount for their appearance. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, a single paragraph can do it.

[Gustavs Repse]

Thank guys.

Yes, hope it is like that Steve, since often peaces of clothing contain logos, would be a mess to key them out etc.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Gustavs Repse

Thank guys.

Yes, hope it is like that Steve, since often peaces of clothing contain logos, would be a mess to key them out etc.

The while idea that you might need to blur out the logos in an ad for a store that sells those products just didn't make sense to me. After all, the purpose of the ad is to tell people that that store is where they should go to buy those products. Blurring the logos would kind of cancel the whole reason for doing the ad in the first place. It's like blurring the Volvo badges on cars shown in an ad for a car dealership that is advertising that they sell Volvos.