More Intellectual Property to Worry About: Typefaces and Fonts Just as decisions about many elements of a film or television project contribute to a story’s overall impact, so can selection of a typeface for the written word. When we are reading text, the meaning of…

Filmmakers and TV producers understand the importance of every detail, from script to set design, in creating a believable narrative. When art departments need to fictionalize product names, we make every effort to provide alternatives that look and sound believable….

Even if defamation isn’t an issue, using a deceased person’s name, image, or likeness or commercial purposes, like in advertising, can cause problems.

A new-ish producer called for information last week and asked a question I don’t often hear: “How do you do the work on a clearance report?” Well, here’s how we don’t do the work. At a client visit a few years ago with a room full of that…

We recently refined the language that is at the header of the “Dialogue References” section of our script clearance reports. For a novice especially it’s a confusing section of a clearance report; what are you supposed to do about those comments? Here’s…

Clearance report clients hire us to read their scripts and use our experience to tell them that story elements are “clear” or “not clear.” Seeing the words “Consider clear for use” throughout the report means no clearance-triggered…

CBC News interviewed The Shape of Water‘s production designer Paul Austerberry in early March 2018 about his work on the recent Oscar winner. His job, according to Leva Lucs of the CBC “was to transform some of Toronto’s most well-known landmarks…

Ours… We aim to provide 3 clear alternatives for anything that doesn’t clear the gauntlet of sources in our reports. If we couldn’t come up with 3, that means we tried long and hard and only came up with 2. Dreaming up and researching those alternatives…

We have a unique database which we call our “clear alts”. That is in-house shorthand for “alternative suggestions that have cleared in the past and might be useful for recycling someday.” When we read scripts and find items that might present…

555 NUMBERS Yes it does sound like something from a movie, the 555- number. Unfortunately, there is no way around it. An organization called NANPA ( North American Numbering Plan Administration) determines how phone numbering sequences will be assigned. We have…

There’s no need for me to ramble on any further about using the 555- phone prefix on-screen. A quick internet search brought me to more than a few articles that can fill you in on recent standards and practices in the industry. There are some work-arounds evolving to…

“We need to clear license plates for the 2 cars that will be featured throughout the film.  How do you do this?” We answer that question with a question:  “Where are the plates from?”  If you say New York, off we go to phone or email our…

Everyone knows that you can’t put the name “Chevrolet” on a Mercedes-Benz and have anyone believe what the sign says. It’s the same situation with gun use. You can put the fake label “xyz guns inc.” on a Smith & Wesson but…

Here is a recently-revised clearance guideline freebie, related to the use of actual North American currency onscreen: “Spokespersons for both the U.S. and Canadian government offices that oversee currency reproduction enforcement indicate that there are no legal…

Back in the spring of 2011 we published the first issue of The Eastern Script. Twenty issues later I can assure you that it was not then and never has been an ambitious Murdochian enterprise. You could safely say that the motivation to begin the next one comes at a…

I spent a few days in November visiting clients and connections in New York City. One of them was a Brooklyn-based entertainment industry lawyer who was chatting with me about different art department issues in clearance reports. She mentioned this intriguing company…

From the CBC’s website on December 12: ‘My stomach dropped’: Artist discovers ‘stolen’ work on shirts being sold at Winners cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toronto/struggling-artist-copyright-winners-nordstrom-feather-shirts-1.3885330 Synopsis: Artist Jody Edwards, who…

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games begin this year on the 5th of August in their Rio de Janeiro location. The official website trumpets cutting edge logistics lined up for the event: “The competition venues will be clustered in four zones – Barra, Copacabana, Deodoro…

Gee, I could write a book on this topic! [Sorry.] Where to begin – on the outside or the inside? Since it’s a cold snowy day, we’ll start on the inside. Can you can read aloud from an author’s works in your project without requesting…