90 second clip of you in a production

One of the MT programs that my D is auditioning for states that the video prescreen may include an optional “90 second clip of you in a production.” All the DVDs of her productions say they’re copyrighted for the cast only, etc. Is a short clip of one of these productions acceptable to upload through GetAcceptd, where it’s viewed only by the MT department? (Fair use?)

I don’t know how it is legally as I am not a lawyer but I suspect the owners of the DVD and the licensers of the shows probably would not want you to replicate any part of it. However, the schools have to know that all these shows are licensed and I’m sure they won’t distribute any of it outside the auditors so the chances of you being caught are miniscule and I’m not sure what they could even do to you if you were caught - you aren’t making any money from this and you aren’t letting it out to the public (like You Tube) or replicating the show DVD for other people. I think you’d get away with it and personally I wish we’d had the same chance!

Thanks, CaMom13. Another concern is how the college would view submission of a clip that potentially violates copyright law. She might submit something from a recital revue that doesn’t have that restriction, but that’s not the same as a full out performance in a musical.

I don’t know of any musicals that wouldn’t have licensing agreements in place so it seems to me the school is asking for something that in all likelihood is a pushing the rules of licensing agreements a bit. I don’t think you can copyright a performance. The authors have copyright protections on the material and they allow schools and theatres to license the copyrighted material for performance purposes with the explicit understanding that the school will not let the performances be distributed beyond the cast. Chances are the school just figures you won’t care and they don’t care and the licensor will never find out since it won’t go anywhere.

I’m pretty careful in general about anything that would affect a writer or artist’s income or reputation but in this case… I don’t honestly see the harm it could do. But I do know some people would be vehemently against the idea. We had a school theatre board member who wouldn’t even let us make DVDs of theatre performances even when the licensing agreement allowed it because someone could copy it and get the school in “big trouble”. Since the performances were NOT at a level that anyone would ever want to pay money for them or publicize them and his anxiety meant our parents never got recorded shows I felt his concern was misguided but - he was definitely concerned.

I “think” there is an allowable amount of time (perhaps 90 seconds!) that you can be “fair use”. Again, I think…

30 seconds is what I heard from the artistic director of one of our local pro theatres. He gave us some video of my D for her reel, but stated legally he could only give 30 sec. per show.

I would send an email directly to the program, with those copyright questions. Would be interesting to share their reply…

I asked a friend who works for a licensing agency and this was the reply:

I normally don’t comment on this board, only lurk, but considering I’m a copyright attorney…any distribution or showing of a performance of a licensed show would be copyright infringement. It doesn’t matter how long it is; it doesn’t matter if the license originally allowed for recording of the show for archival purposes; it doesn’t matter that no one is making money off of it. Copyright law is generally misunderstood and I’m sure the colleges or summer programs (my daughter just applied to a summer program that allowed for this as well) do not believe or intend to be promoting copyright infringement, but it still is. The only way that it would not be copyright infringement would be is if you got explicit permission from the licensing company (and even then they would probably have to get explicit permission from the original writers - can you imagine them going to Sondheim asking if a high school senior could send 90 seconds of her performing in “Into the Woods” for a college audition???).

All that being said, it doesn’t seem most of the licensing companies even act on much more blatant forms of copyright infringement. I know there are full performances of shows from community theatres and high schools on Youtube that are easy for anyone to find. So, although it is copyright infringement, the chances that you or the colleges would be prosecuted, or even asked to take it down, seem to be slim based on the licensing companies’ prior (and present) actions.

I was told too that licensing companies prohibit distribution of any part of these performances without explicit permission. Furthermore, parents are telling me that there’s “no interest” by programs to see a production clip from a show the applicant was in … they only want video footage that meet pre-screen specifications. What MT programs invite seeing these production clips?

The licensing companies focus on pursuing those who produce shows without paying for the license to do so. You’d be surprised how many schools, camps, programs do this. They have limited resources and it would be impossible to police youTube or other social media videos, or other uses of these videos.

@Twelfthman I’ve heard of schools requesting students to send a dance video sample from existing work if they did not do a dance call at the auditions and they are interested in you. Or, if you missed the dance call for some reason. Most send dance recital cuts, but I imagine you could send musical choreography numbers. That’s the only time I’ve heard that request.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I decided to write to the licensing company describing what we wanted to use, its purpose, and the platform (password-protected GetAcceptd), and I received this prompt reply from the licensing department: “That should be fine. Thank you for checking in.” I made a PDF of the correspondence, and my daughter will submit it with the clip.