Emily Carr Graphics usage and copyright
IMPORTANT NOTE: Your individual faculty will supply you with guidelines that they determine are suitable, and you should observe how they have instructed you. The following information can be considered general guides.
Credits are for acknowledging the creative and hard work that has been applied to the production, as well as the extra support and assistance that has been a part of the background effort of supporting the filmmaker as they produce the film.
SPELLING in your credits is very, VERY, very important! Make sure that you spell everyone's names correctly. A good way to do this is to have that person check their own name spelling.
You might have an online document of the credits, then share it everyone and have them check it over, indicate if they approved it, and a way to correct their name if it is wrong and indicate there has been a correction.
How do I assign credits and what order do they appear?
Student and indie filmmakers carry many jobs! How do we credit this?
Solo-produced films might have a director that does everything, perhaps excluding the sound design and music. In these situations, the credits are minimal and a director would likely use "Film by ..." In short student films, it's understood that "Film by ..." will mean that any activity that isn't listed in the credits, was done by the filmmaker. This might be activities like storyboard, design, script, editing, etc.. Listing these activities would be redundant. A music composer would have their own credit.
A crew member that has multiple activities should have each one credited. For example, a student that has been a Production Coordinator and an Editor on your project would have each title acknowledged.
If the director has a few major activities and there is a crew engaged in these as well, they should have these activities specifically credited to them.
"Directed by ..." can become their primary credit. If they were involved in a task that other crew members supported with the same activity (like animation), you can put the director down as a Lead, and list the associated crew. Alternatively, if one of the crew acted as a Lead or Supervisor in an area, their name would be used.
ANIMATION
Lead, Person Name
Person Name 1 (crew, and does not have a a title)
Person Name 2
Variations on credits. Sometimes a credit might have various ways it can be indicated. Ask collaborators and major contributors what title they want to receive in the credits. These should stay within the standard, professional titles because these might also be referenced in the crew's professional CVs.
A music composer may prefer Music by ... or Score by...
Production Manager versus Production Coordinator
Credit Timing
- The TIME for holding a frame of credits: 2.5 SECONDS for a single major credit, like "Film by Person Name". A page with numerous credits would hold for 3 SECONDS.
- ROLLING CREDITS are usually reserved for large crew accreditation. The timing is observed from the time a name appears at the bottom of the frame, till it arrives at the top. A name should be present for 2.5-3 seconds during that interval
- Length overall: Be aware of your credits lasting a long time for a short film! If it's lasting too long, consider collapsing individual credits into combinations.
Credit Order
The HIERARCHICAL ORDER of credits is usually based on two things: the production pipeline order and the level of the importance, being the major roles. Professionally, the major roles are referred to as the "Above the Line" credits, or ATL.There is no rule that says you have to use single cards for the major roles, so you can choose to combine them.
Learn more about professional credit treatments with this website's info.
As an example, this order reflects ATL hierarchies:
- Film by Person Name
- Music by Person Name
- Produced by Person Name
- Art Direction by Person Name
- Actors, indicating the actor and their role
These credits might include multiple credit activities, and also indicate hierarchy when a supervisor or lead is involved.
As an example, this order reflects pipeline and ATL hierarchies combined:
- Art Direction ....
- Editor ....
- Sound Design ....
- Cinematographer ....
- Assistant Cinematographer....
- Animation Lead....
- Animation Assistants ....
- Modeling and Texturing ....
- Compositing....
- Clean-Up and Colour ....
- Sound Mix Engineer, Person Name, Studio Name
FOUND SOUND CREDITS
What about sound effects and other sounds that I found in a collection?
First, you always want to be 100% certain that you have the rights to use these. Depending on where you find them, there should be clear information about this. If not, then you need to research it or use something else.
Emily Carr's Sound Library resource from Westar, Sound Dogs, etc.. These sources can be attributed to the database source only, and not by listing individual files.
Found Sound? Database and website services with non-commercial use agreements should be credited if they request this. If they don't, it's your call. FYI, your student film is considered non-commercial, even if it wins cash awards at festivals.
Example:
Sound Effects Sources. SoundDogs, StellarJay44/SoundCloud, BrownieBites_z/FreeSound
Individual Sound Artists: If individual sound artists have requested credit when their sounds are used in publicly released projects, you can determine how to do that. A paragraph listing of all the sound artists may be one way to do this.
Person Name, Foley Sound Performance
Person Name, Sound Recordist
SPECIAL THANKS
Special Thanks is an important for your Emily Carr film, but not required. This is one important way that many people receive a "thank you" from a student filmmaker, and it's always very much appreciated.
Special Thanks are placed at the end, before your last ECU logo closing card.
Consider it good karma to acknowledge people, groups, services, businesses, friends, and family that have provided some kind of support and assistance, but didn't work specifically on your film. Examples include helping you out with feedback, technical support, skill building, donations of equipment, space or money.
Consider saying thank you to your peers. As a student, you're probably receiving support from your classmates, particularly the students in your production course. You could identify people individually, or identify the class using the course name, or some other creative way you can think of.
Consider saying thank you to the faculty who mentored you through the project, those that have helped you learn and arrive at this point, and those that helped support your project at some point.
Consider saying thank you to technical support staff that have put in their attention and time to support you.
REQUIRED: ECU Graphics for Film Credits Use
Emily Carr University of Art + Design needs to be recognized in the final credits of the film. The university has specifics about its proper naming and its graphics. By having this as part of your film, it helps to publicize our program by being associated with your great film!
Download official copies of the ECU logo and accepted variants: Visual Identity
This is a page on the Emily Carr website. PNG's will have a transparent background.
Rules of Use: ECU Graphics for Film Credits
- OPTION 1: Your can add "Produced at" or "Made at" above the Emily Carr logo. You can write your text in whatever font you choose. If you want to be consistent with the ECU font, it is Freight Sans Pro, available through Adobe CC
- OPTION 2: Use the ECUAD logo only. The scale is up to you, but needs to be graphically and reasonably visible.
- RULES, GRAPHIC LOGO PROTECTION: The Emily Carr graphic logo with text must not be changed or adjusted in any editorial manner, other than general scale adjustments of the entire graphic. This prohibition includes any self-designed version of the spiral, as well as any animated re-representation.
- Place the logo at the end of your film. Hold on screen for 2.5 - 3 seconds. Fade-in/fade-out is recommended. You may wish to place the logo before or with your final copyright
Here is a VISUAL GUIDE for SIZE and PLACEMENT of your logo. This is not a high-quality production-ready file. This is here for you to use as a reference, so that all films have consistent use of the logo.
Ownership Identification
As the creator of your film, you are the owner by default, with or without a copyright or licensing identifier on your film.
You are not required to place copyright information on your student film project. However, film festivals must know the year your film is released, and the placement of the copyright information is part of that proof. Also, professional filmmakers and companies do include this credit because of legal coverage needs. See the end of this page if you want to know more about legal protection topics.
Traditional copyright
A traditional copyright indicates that all rights are held by you as the filmmaker, and when the project was publicly released. You can apply this just as the information at the end of your film, or also pay a fee and file this information with the government. Both are valid.
PLACEMENT for copyright information is at the very end of the film's credits, usually on a single card by itself or under the Emily Carr logo.
INFORMATION Legal and traditional copyright identification requires your full legal name and the year, alongside the copyright symbol.You can use numbers or spell out the year. The © symbol keystrokes, hit together: (Mac: OPT+G) (PC: CTRL+ALT+C)
example: © Barbara Knowles 2016
CREATIVE COMMONS (CC) culture licenses
If you like the opportunities in sharing creative work, there's a contemporary license identification method through this organization, and it is recognized internationally. They provide an identification system that supports various levels of sharing, with a clear and established set of parameters and graphic icons that indicate what choices the artist has made.
A good reason to include CC identification is so that other people like yourself can be sure that the artist has given their permission to use their material.
Creative Commons is a culture-sharing approach, and you choose how you want to allow the use of your materials, and place CC icons on that work to let people know. Non-tangible work, like sound, would have this in the website hosting the sound files.
As an example, these icons indicate in this order: 1, that it is using Creative Commons; 2, that it can be used freely for cultural use; and 3, that it may not be used for commercial use.
Additional Notes about Copyright
Legal Identification
According to Canadian copyright law, you do not have to place a copyright symbol on your work in order for it to be considered owned by you. However, it is strongly advised that you do place this information at the end of your film if you are open to having a distributor contract it for sales, video-on-demand, or educational rentals. If you want to go the extra mile, you can also register your work with the Canadian Intellectual Property Offices. This is the ultimate method for legal protection in a court of law (hopefully you will never be in that situation!)
Copyright Problems
Problems occur if you've included materials that were not created by you, and for which you haven't obtained permission to use. You can't release your film publicly unless you clear those permissions. Make sure that information is listed in your film credits. An example of this going badly is seen in this animation filmmaker's first independent feature.