Announcing - NEW for COL 2008...

no, you DO need his permission, in fact you have to get him to sign on the music release form where it says

'Signature of musician/singer'

thats what i thaught thats a bumber any idea how id get ahold of darude?

sorry, you'll have to work that out yourself: that's the fun of getting an entry together!

Without knowing the specific music it's hard to make a 'blanket' statement that will answer this definitively. But I'll try!
The reason for the form is because we use the music on a DVD which is then sold. Even though all the proceeds are used to fund the forum bandwidth and costs, it is still categorised as commercial use and so we need to make sure we are not going to suddenly get an unexpected bill for royalties on someone's music. It is entirely possible that Creative Commons music IS free to use in this situation and if you can prove that to us then no problem. But even though most classical music may be in the "no copyright" category, it doesn't mean the particular recording of it you used isn't covered by a copyright as it was performed by someone who might want to make trouble for a "commercial" use of their recording without their permission. In the past we've had an entire DVD held up and had to go to re-editing and reprinting because of a dispute about the music. That's not fair for us or the other people's videos and the HoPpers waiting to see it - hence the form. As long as you can prove to us that the music you use has no copyright or usage issues attached to it, then we are good to go.

So Meg - in the examples you cite, if you are sure there are no issues with commercial use of the music, fill in the form along the lines of pointing to the reference which shows there is no problem using it (e.g. a weblink) and sign it. That should cover most things.

If however, we receive it and our interpretation - which will understandably err on the side of caution - is that it may not be useable, then the entry would run the risk of not being used. So, the cautious person would submit 2 entries - one with music and the form as described, and one without music just in case...

I hope this helps clarify the intent/reason for the music release and your (everyones) common sense will be able to apply this to each specific situation.

Yeah the licence I'm talking about is essentially free for everything, including commercial use, as long as it has attribution to the original composer. Which you will be doing as you attribute music at the start of each segment.

How much trouble I have to go to prove that the music is released under that license is what I'm wondering... I mean, if it's on a music collection site, like jamendo, and said to be under that license... how do I know that it was put there by the composer? Is jamendo's word enough on that front? How much checking do they do? I mean, surely they would be sued by the original artist if they knew about it, but does either party? ANd then say, I could follow a link back to the artist homepage where the another copy of the music could be found under the same free license, but again the issue of authenticity comes up. It's just the internet, it could be made up... How far does the paper trail have to lead and how really can I assume anything is authentic?

people use the word "due diligence"... As long as you have made a reasonable effort (and document that for us) to ensure the music is ok to use then it will probably be fine.

There's also the other angle of how much checking do they do as you implied - do they go and check every DVD out there on the offchance they'll find their music being used? Chances are little old COL in the scheme of the worlds music industry isn't featuring highly on the lists.

and the first COL entries arrive....

*squeeeeeeeee *

god damn it i need to find a video camera lol

Ooooooo - first ones eh?
Who who who?

Mine's done - can't find a good compressor in Sony Vegas. Can make it either 9gb (!) or 32mb with poor quality...

George - can I send you a DivX avi? or is it just going to be easier to burn it onto a DVD?

Cool - i'll try and whiz something to you this evening...

no COL entry from me guys, simply no time in my life now to offer anything new or different. looking forward to seeing what inspiring stuff is out there!
b

Bender's on the last one I believe and er... 2005? Maybe....

As a general viewing guide, i'd personally skip the first 3, no offence to any performers on them, but standards of both spinning and videos really jumped from 2005 onwards (note there's CoL5 and CoL 2005).

George - I haven't forgotten, will upload it tonight and PM you a link.

P

bender was on Col 5, 2006 (i think under 'shakuru'?) and 2007

hi george,

i really hope you can help me. i'm hoping to enter col2008. my entry is pretty much ready only i'm having a MAJOR problem in relation to converting my file to dvd format. currently it is a .mov quicktime file. when i try to convert it to .vob for dvd it loses so much resolution and quality.

i hope it is possible to send you the entry as the .mov format on cd-rom and hopefully you can convert it at your end to the specifications which you require.

looking forward to hearing back from you on this,

jean

after going back to the drawing board... all seems to working out ok......

have footage! now dashing to edit!

what's the deal with crediting the people who edited your video for you?

i always thought the person that did the editing was the producer

is this not the case?

director tells people what to do, producer does all the organising of stuff, editor does the cutting of the footage to a tune.

i have done a rough cut. woot! might actually finish by my self imposed deadline of friday morning....

i also have a (very) rough cut. Didnt get everything i wanted last time i filmed though so gonna have to go out again when it stops raining might be a repeat of last year and posting on the last possible day.

can videos be submitted on mini-dv?

thats the highest quality i can do, i think....

will .VOB files be accepted?

mini DV is fine
.VOB - hmmm maybe??? - that's the native DVD file format isn't it Guy?

basically, almost anything you can cut to a DVD will probably be fine. One of the main things to worry about though is resolution - if the resolution is low it will be pixelated when viewed later. Think of people watching it on a large screen TV screen rather than on a 14" monitor...

rough cut's done finally...and now back to tweaking

*evil editing cackle*

and how risque are we allowed to get?

Ya!

Finished my entry today, mailing out tomorrow, early!

Where's everyone else at in their submissions?