When you interview somebody do you have to get written permission to use their image and words?

I’ve been looking this up on the net and haven’t found an answer. I hope somebody here can help answer this.

Thanks in advance.

In July 2007, have there been any newer recomendations for camera or sound equipment?

I have some prior experience with video work (weddings, mock reality show) but I’m researching online because for whatever reason I’m stuck on planning out what the point of documenting these musicians I work with is.

Where are we trying to go? What is going to be conveyed. What is the point of each video release and how is it going to attract viewers that enjoy the content… all that fun stuff :P

Make Your Own Documentary Film
10 Easy Steps from Conceptualization to Completion

on the search box at http://www.suite101.com

for some other great tips and ideas

Here it is:
So you want to make a documentary… There are no rules on how to make a documentary, however here are some ideas that may make the process a little easier.
Starting: How to pick a topic: A documentary can be about pretty much anything as long as it remains based on fact and non-fictional The most important thing is to be interested and passionate about the topic you choose.
Before you can go out and start filming it helps to have a plan to go by. Start by thinking about what the ultimate goal of the documentary is. What do you want to get across to the viewers? By
Think about how you want to get across your idea. The two typical styles of docos are observational (tells a story as it happens by following the action and events of a story as they take place), reconstruction (tell the story after it’s happened via interviews and other material and dramatic reconstructions.)
So are you sharing a personal experience? Are you trying to get a belief across or portray a balanced two-sided story? Do you want to include history behind your film or just a specific story/moment in time? These are some good things to think about and by placing your idea on paper you can begin to put some structure into it and you’ll have a reference point from which to start your journey.

When creating films many filmmakers create a storyboard to help structure their thoughts and create path for the film to follow. Essentially a storyboard is to a film as an outline is to an essay except a storyboard contains pictures to represent the different shots and segments. Its purpose is to give you a rough guide of which to follow, yet doesn’t contain overly specific details or creativity. Once you have your storyboard complete you have a guide of what is going to be in your film so you know what you should go out and film. Seems unimportant? The thing is is that if you don’t have an outline of what you are going to do you can end up creating a lot more work for yourself in the end…you can get some blank story boards to fill in @@@@

Many emotions and feelings can be expresses just on the angle in which you shoot something, or the lighting in the room…so think about what you want each shot to express before you start filming.

Watching other films and docos can help give you a better understanding about the different techniques as well as give you ideas about where to go from here.

Shooting: 10 Basic Techniques and pointers:

1. How I film it has a big impact on the perceived image quality. Using a tripod for many shots can help improve the quality.
2. Be aware of lightning. It may seem bright to you in the room, however before shooting an entire hours worth of film be sure to check how it looks on the camera first.
3. Showing the visual evidence is more important for a documentary than shooting pretty shots.
4. Hold that shot! First lesson not to look like an amateur: hold that shot. Don’t start zooming, panning and so on if not absolutely necessary. It makes it a lot harder to edit later on and can ruin entire segments.
5. Sound is the hardest thing to get right. Sound is the one factor that tends to get forgotten about while shooting, and the problem is that you can’t fix bad sound. So it is worth taking the time to record good sound right from the start.
6. When you’re finally doing the shoot, you don’t want technical problems. So bring a backup battery and lots of tapes.
7. It’s nice to shoot little scenes that can complete other scenes (for example when you have a part that’s not usable because it’s out of focus).
8. You can’t know exactly how the documentary will work out before doing it.
9. You helps to watch what you filmed every evening to get a feel for what you’ve got, and where the documentary is going.
10. Remember that you as the filmmaker may know a lot more than the audience knows on the subject and can run into the danger of assuming that they know when they don’t. So be sure not to leave out important details and information that will help strengthen your doco.
And most importantly have fun!!!
Cameras: Camcorders: Normally the bigger in physical size the CCD is, the better the quality of the picture captured. Nowadays there are a whole range of options, but normally a cheap camcorder or digital camera is fine.
Sound: Sound tends to be forgotten about, and once recorded there is nothing that can fix bad sound, so your best bet is to get it right the first time. One thing that can help is using extra mics to get the sound. The most common mics are:
· Broom: A large microphone attached to a broom/pole that enables one to get better sound without the mic or person holding the mic getting in the shot.
· On camera mic/top microphone: The microphone that comes in the camera.
· Radio microphone: A small mic that can be clipped onto somebody. It has a transmitter that is plugged into the camera. These are mainly used for interviews.
When filming try to get the mic as close as possible to the subject and minimize background noise. Also listening through headphones will let you know what it will sound like when playing back, so that way you can fix any problems during the shoot.
Lighting: Lighting is important as it can affect the mood and how your film is perceived. The best bet is to use available light. Also be aware that when filming outdoors the unforeseen may happen and it may affect the shots you take.
Legal Rights: Music, film clips, photography, and certain other material cannot be used in films without permission. If in doubt be on the safe side and contact the person who created/owns what you would like to use and get their permission, or you can check out material which is available for anybody to use under the creative commons licence at http://creativecommons.org This is a collection of videos, audio, images, essays and text which anybody can use if they follow the proper guidelines and give credit to the creators and ‘enables legal sharing and reuse of cultural, educational and scientific works.� Or you can always create your own stuff! Also get the permission of people you’re filming that it is okay to do so.

So what are you interested in? Whatever it is go out and start filming!!!