An Unfortunate Update to Travels in the Deep South

Hello Steem,

Once again it has been some time since I wrote last. Graduating college and beginning work full time has certainly kept me busy.

I am writing now to give an update on a documentary project I was called on for that I previously posted about. That update, unfortunately, being that we went on the trip, but the project debuted was cancelled. I am hoping this post can serve to help you all learn from my experience.

I won't name any names or go into the specifics of what happened beyond saying that there was a difference in opinions during post-production. The end result was the museum who wanted to debut the film was no longer interested in it and gave us notice four days before it was supposed to be unveiled there. I was particularly upset by this decision as there were many hours spent working on a final product that were wasted. What made this particularly frustrating, however, is a murky area surrounding ownership of the countless hours of video that I took during this expedition in the Deep South. It essentially boils down to someone claiming that the university I attended owns all of my work because it was filmed during a class.

Because of this, while I originally intended to go to PBS with a noncommercial broadcast debut of the program, I can't now. I don't know what I can do with any of the content in any kind of public exhibition without consulting an attorney and media spokespersons for multiple venues from the trip.

I did meet with the university attorney who told me that in actuality, there is no clear policy on student project content ownership. While this was some good news, this makes it even murkier and the sad end result is that the kind of legal headache this project would now entail has left me completely disinterested in it.

I learned this the hard way, and now I hope that this serves as a very important lesson for any of you on Steem who are in content creation:

My massive, facepalming mistake predating all of this? I did not request a contract document prior to accepting this project.

I think I misunderstood what they were looking for even from the beginning, and several times my partner on this project and I felt as though promises or offers were made that were later taken back as if they were never made in the first place. The idea the film could be taken to PBS was a major part of that, as the people asking for our help originally contacted our local PBS station to request one of their producers for the project before they recommended my fellow intern and I. I was a naive college student wanting to work on a big project, and I didn't get the proper paperwork nailed down for it.

Learn from my mistake Steem: ALWAYS request a contract. Get any little stipulation or usage permission nailed down on signed paper before you agree to any kind of work in a publication or media.

So what does this mean for my travel posts on here? Ultimately, I think what I can show you visually is limited by this situation. My idea is that anything captured from a public space is fair use. To give you an idea of what I mean and what kind of content I'm looking at, I attached a photo of myself at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. This was a key travel point and site of a major clash with police during the Civil Rights Movement, known as "Bloody Sunday."

Maybe I can even post some of my photos from inside exhibits and other places that had clear cut media permissions.

Ultimately, I can't make any promises I'll post more about it. If I do - If anything, it would be a way to put some of that trip's work to use.

While it certainly wasn't fun to go through, I learned a lot from this experience and will be ready with a stack of paperwork in future projects.