Posted by Richard Crowley on 06/28/07 19:28

<koblesky@gmail.com> wrote ...
>I am an employee at a Fortune 100 company. I went around the world
> shooting video of our employees at work. Legal insists I get releases
> from everyone in the video. Others say if they are employees you
> don't need a release.

Depends on who "legal" is. Depends on who "others" is.

Did your contact in "legal" have a good working knowledge
of your employer's contract with employees? Do they have
any experience with "entertainment law" (or at least the ability
and motivation to get a professional consultation with a
colleague with specialty experience)? Or did you just get the
standard "give them the stock answer to get rid of them"
response? Sounds like time for a second (legal) opinion.

Who are the "others" who claim you don't need a release?
What is their expertiese, their responsibility, their position
in the corporate legal system?

In our (F100) company, we have a sub-team of legal that
works within Human Relations ("Personnel"). They may
be better versed in the explicit (and implicit) contract with
employees when it comes to photo/video releases, etc.

> The video is for B2B and will be shown sometimes to a
> few clients, and sometimes at Trade Shows. It is not retail.

However video for release anywhere *outside* the company
may carry more stringent requirements than something for
strictly internal distribution.

> Anyone had experience with this? The problem with getting
> releases is twofold:
>
> One - shooting around the world, there are a lot of people in the
> shots - its a hassle.

We had the same issue. Legal told us we needed releases for
anything for external release (but not for internal stuff). So we
lobbed the ball back into their court (no pun intended) and made
them post a PDF of their acceptable release form on the internal
website so it is easy for anybody anywhere in the world (insde the
company) to print out some copies to keep with the camera.

Carry a folder full of blank forms whenever you go out shooting
anything that might need the release. Have people sign the forms
right on the spot. Some producers actually shoot the people signing
the forms as (1) a "witness" to signing the document and
(2) a record of which face goes with which name/form.

> Two - Typical of large corporate video with executive involvement -
> gets delayed a lot. I can get releases, edit changes, wait, etc...it
> is 4-5 months - and by the time people have quit! So do I need to
> edit them out, etc..?

Your legal people likely wouldn't be happy with an external
production showing ex-employees who never gave their
release to use their images. Can you even identify the
people who have left?

If you either get blanket permission from legal/personnel or
you get release forms signed while shooting, you're covered.

[Back to original message]