I've seen a wonderful solution to the audio/video challenge that I wish more schools would do: a montage of still photos, maybe 10-sec clips, set to music or narration. This way even the students with smaller roles can be featured in close-up. Family members don't have to sit through two hours with poor sound only to see their favorite actor in a walk-on.
Videos of performances are rarely satisfying and are, as mentioned in this thread, not legal. Still photos are a beautiful archive of a production and far easier to view. And still photos can represent the best of the production in a way that video can't.
A true story from the trenches: A couple of years ago an Equity regional theatre was taking their lovely production of one of my plays to an international festival. I was invited, all expenses paid, to do a talkback and to teach a workshop to local playwrights. At the opening night reception one of the board members, her mouth loosened by the good champagne, gushed over the play she had just seen and confided me that she voted against bringing the production because she had watched a high school video online and found the play "boring." Luckily others on the selection committee paid attention to the reviews of the professional productions and ignored the amateur youtube video of a different production. But that online video, posted their for friends and family, nearly caused us to miss out on an extraordinary opportunity. I wonder what other theaters have passed on my plays because someone watched a video.
Thanks so very much to this community for respecting the rights of playwrights, especially those of us still alive and dependent upon royalties to help support ourselves and our future plays.
Below are a couple of links to videos that show off the actors without violating copyright laws.
Maverick Theatre Company - As it is in Heaven
As It Is In Heaven [Trailer]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqBfWf2j5h4
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Arlene Hutton
Playwright: Letters to Sala, I Dream Before I Take the Stand, Kissed the Girls and Made Them Cry
faculty, The Barrow Group, NYC
arlene@barrowgroup.org------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 02-17-2019 10:23
From: Michael Bergman
Subject: Audio/Video challenge
I am finding it more and more challenging to explain to students (and their parents!) why we don't audio or videotape our productions, when they see full shows on YouTube or other schools' websites. I have even shown them the licensing contracts that specifically say that audio and video is strictly prohibited. They will always immediately point to a different production of what we are doing that they watched in its entirety online. In an age when everything is on YouTube and everyone has a video recorder in their pocket, how do you make the case for not allowing it? It doesn't seem to be enough to tell them that we are simply not allowed, by law, when "all the other kids are doing it."
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Michael Bergman
Teacher/Director
The Potomac School
McLean, VA
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