This is a new one for me

I need some advice please. I have been contacted by a gentleman making an historical documentary about the Trinidad, Colorado area. He wants to use an image I have of Trinidad Lake to use as an overview of what it is like today. He says it will run for about 5 seconds in the film. He will run my name in the credits, of course. Should I be charging for this as well? Also, I don't know what color formats are used for cinema (RGB, CMYK etc.) I have had images used in publications before but never for film and am not sure what is correct for this situation.

Many thanks in advance for your help

Pam

Absolutely you should charge for use of your image. I'm sure he stands to make $ from his documentary, with your assistance. Sorry, can't help with the color format question.

My opinion is if he's making money from his work you should make money from yours. Congrats on the interest and best of luck working out the details that both parties can agree are fair.

Pam, I agree with Mark and Peter, though I don't know what kind of fee we should be talking about.

Different video recording types use different forms of color expression. For example, if it's standard videotape, TVs can't express color range as well as computer monitors, so the form videotape uses won't render as wide a range of color.

That's a very old format, however, and likely the fellow is using digital video recording. I just used it as an example of how complicated it can be.

You could just ask him what size, resolution and color regimen he'd like. I doubt very much he'll think less of you for not knowing video rather than still conventions.

Hi,

regarding $, it is hard. He may have a low budget. Documentaries do not make any money, unless he is producing it for a company. The best is to charge a small fee with a royalty clause. Should he make a lot of money, somehow, then you get a cut from that. But otherwise, you get a token amount. In terms of actual value, for a documentary, $50 may be too much for one image, unless that image is very unique.
Don't worry about the picture itself. He should be able to fix it in his editing software. Give him a jpg with the shortest side about 1024. But if you are interested this may help.
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/basic_ps_scan_crop.html

Cheers,
Rajesh

Also be very clear in your license language. In what forms will the documentary be displayed? Will it be televised? Will they produce and sell DVDs? Will there be any print material with it? Will your image be part of the artwork for any products (i.e. DVD packaging, face of the DVD, booklets, etc)? Will your image appear in any advertisements for the documentary?

Make sure you have a complete understanding of every place where your image will appear, not just how long it will be displayed on the screen. Every use incurs its own license fee. You can always discount for multiple uses, but put in writing in the license agreement explicitly where they have licensed your image to appear, how, for how long, the duration of the license, and that you own the image and all over uses require a separate license agreement and separate license fee.

If you are a member of Editorial Photographers trade organization, you may pose your question there. It has come up a few times in the past. It only costs $50 a year and is worth the fee if you are a professional photographer who publishes in editorial outlets.

Is he making money? Then you should, too.

Is he working pro bono for a charitable cause? Then discuss what kind of tax write-offs you can get for your donation.

Thanks for your speedy replies and sound advice. I wrote him an e-mail asking many of the questions you have mentioned including more specifics about the nature of the documentary. We'll see what happens next.

Pam