Posted by Michael Raben at spider-wd023.proxy.aol.com on March 08, 2001 at 02:01:21:
In Reply to: A legit question. Legalities and whatnot. posted by Alferd Packer on March 07, 2001 at 21:32:15:
: I'm working on this script, and the first scene has a guy's fiance leaving him because she watches Chasing Amy for the first time and realizes that Affleck's "I love you" monologue is what he had said to her...I wanted to start it on a blackout with Affleck talking and then go right into the footage from Chasing Amy.
I'm going to answer this in two pieces, seeing as how you qualify ALL of this with your last sentence (below). Now, IF someone were to shoot an indie flick using actual audio and/or video footage from another film (in this case Chasing Amy), WITHOUT LEGAL PERMISSION, they'd be in for a WORLD OF LEGAL HURT. Here's the thing: small samples of dialogue aren't *really* copyrightable, not in the literal sense. So Kevin, Vincent, me or anyone else for that matter can have a character use a few lines of dialogue from another film without any trouble.
You'll notice at the end of films that there are credits for media clips, television shows, movie clips, etc. All of these rights had to be secured and most likely, paid for. IF you did an indie using audio and video of Affleck's speech in Chasing Amy, WITHOUT securing the rights to do so, the second you showed this in ANY venue where ANYONE MADE MONEY, the Pandora's Box of legalities gets thrown wide open. Actual physical productions (film, TV, logos, etc.) ARE copyrightable. For an indie on a small budget, this is just something you do not do.
That's just an informational warning to anyone thinking about doing it. Now, onto your *real* question....
: How possible is this? If it's any consolation, I don't want to set out to make this movie or anything, but it's something I'd like to see if I could sell.
If you just want to write it into a script, knock yourself out. As to whether anyone will find it inventive, that's another question. Ultimately, if someone was interested in buying your script, they'd decide whether it's a worthwhile aspect of the story or not.
The sort of random trouble comes in the response of whoever's reading it. Anyone who's familiar with 'Chasing Amy' might find it interesting that this is a pivotal aspect of the story. Now, if whoever's doing coverage on your script HASN'T seen 'Chasing Amy' (and let's be realistic about the numbers here; CA wasn't seen by 100s of millions of people, there's a large section of the US that has NEVER seen it), that part of your story MIGHT confuse or alienate them, because they don't understand the context or true meaning of it.
In the end, YOU have to decide if it means that much to you that the story build from this important detail. If the end result though is the SALE of the screenplay, I'm not sure if referencing what is effectively a small (budget and revenue-wise) film in a screenplay that's probably meant to be marketed to a large group of people is a good idea. Of course, maybe it would be a great thing.
That's just me covering my ass. Try asking yourself this: Does this CA reference REALLY serve the overall story? Or does it serve as a nod of the hat to Kevin and a film that you obviously really like? Or is it both?
Always,
Michael Raben