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Name: amalyah keshet
director, visual resources / the israel museum, jerusalem
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Date: 02/15/96
Time: 08:46:19
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My department handles the many film crews from all over the world who want to sh
oot at the
Israel Museum. Most of these are documentary productions, but we've had the occ
asional
"cinema" production, too. We have a standard site license agreement, if you wou
ld be
interested in that. Our basic guidelines are:
1.The person requesting filming services in the Museum must indicate that the
request is legit. Anyone can phone up and say they are from the BBC. If they
really are from the BBC, we have an official faxed request from London in our
office within a couple of hours. Others somehow never get back to us with a wri
tten
request on letterhead...
2.The requesting producer must give us details about the production so that the
site agreement has some meaning. "Possible use in a documentary for which we do
n't yet
have funding..." means they just want footage which can then end up anywhere.
3. We charge a service fee per hour for arranging filming work in the
Museum. This covers our office's time for negotiation and writing of the
agreement, for making arrangements with the various departments of the Museum,
including security, conservation, curators, and even events and education staff
in
order to prevent conflicts in scheduling. We also check out possible filming
restrictions due to artist's copyright, lender's restrictions, etc. AND, we supp
ly
a staff member to accompany them the entire time they are on Museum premises (bo
th
to assist and to "police" them). The fee also includes security arrangements,
electricity/electricians, curatorial time, technical staff time, etc. No-shows
(it
happens) are charged the minimum ($100) for the time we've already put in. (Reme
mber: we
have their letterhead with address, etc., so they can't "escape" us. It happens
.)
4. The crew must be insured. Our agreement expressly states: "Client assumes
responsibility for and will compensate the Israel Museum for any damage to Museu
m
collections or property which may occur as a result of filming work, crew and
equipment movement, or the handling of works of art/archaeological artifacts."
(Obviously, they are strictly not ALLOWED to handle works or artifacts. But, fi
lm
crews being film crews, it happens, quicker than one can shout "DON'T!".)
5. We dictate lighting restrictions per instructions from conservation staff. Fo
r
example, "available light only" applies to any objects or works of organic origi
n
(icluding prints and drawings). I've seen crews, armed with the proper camera,
film with no trouble in semi-darkness. If forewarned, restricting added lighting
is no
problem for the cameraman.
6. We stipulate that the Museum must be properly listed in the credits, and that
works/objects from our collection must be identified as such in the narration --
an
important and often-overlooked point. No one ever reads the credits at the end
of
a film, and if we aren't identified in the narration, what have we gone to all t
his
trouble for?
We are often offered "great P.R. value" in lieu of payment of a service fee.
My standard reply to this (with a bit of chutzpah) is, "The fact that you want t
o
film here indicates that we've already done our P.R. rather well."
Obviously, there are cases in which the film in question IS of P.R. value to the
Museum, and the services outlined above are arranged at no charge by our P.R.
people. The guiding principle is: who needs who? If the film is partialy ABOUT
the Museum, and the Museum can "use" the film as a P.R. opportunity, and can
control what is shown and said about the Museum or its collections, then it's a
P.R. job. On the other hand, if the producer needs something that happens to be
in
our Museum to illustrate his subject, then he "needs" us, and purchases the serv
ice
from us.
If we can be of any further help to anyone on this subject, let me know. We have
LOTS of experience...
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