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Getting rights to a song

riley540riley540 Denver Colorado Posts: 1,128
in The Porch
hello all! 

I am a film student at the colorado film school. I am creating a short around a person who records vocals over a tape in their apartment in an effort to join a band. 

I thought it it would be cool to use footsteps and make it some what of a true story. 

To submit my film into our awards show I need written permission to use the song. Can anyone by chance point me in the right direction? 

Thank you! 

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    drakeheuer14drakeheuer14 Posts: 4,387
    Probably have to go through ASCAP or someone of the likes. 
    Pittsburgh 2013
    Cincinnati 2014
    Greenville 2016
    (Raleigh 2016)
    Columbia 2016
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    JOEJOEJOEJOEJOEJOE Posts: 10,422
    You need a sync license, which is granted by the song's publisher, as well a master use license, which is granted by the owner of the recording (usually the record label, or the band, if the rights have reverted back to them.)
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    GardenpartyGardenparty Posts: 1,908
    edited March 2019
    probably start here:
    https://www.umusicpub.com/us/Artists/P/Pearl-Jam.aspx?search=pearl jam


    “I know this song so well, I can smoke a cigarette, have a drink, brush my teeth, take a shit, and mow the lawn while singing it. But I'll only be doing a couple of those things during this version.”
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    riley540riley540 Denver Colorado Posts: 1,128
    After getting in touch with management, they could not allow me to use the song I wanted to use. So I made the film and loosely based it off of the song I wanted and had my friend write and record all original music for it. 

    Let me know now what you think 👍🏼🤘🏻

    https://youtu.be/4JpRkExhIyU
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    vercemanverceman Posts: 680
    Thanks for sharing.  You did a nice job building interest in the characters.  Curious why you decided to use CDs... When you say you were basing the film on the song, did you mean the making of the song, and the formation of the band?  Is the protagonist based  on Eddie Vedder? Or did you mean the story of the characters in Footsteps?  If so I am curious to hear what your interpretation of Footsteps is.  
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    riley540riley540 Denver Colorado Posts: 1,128
    verceman said:
    Thanks for sharing.  You did a nice job building interest in the characters.  Curious why you decided to use CDs... When you say you were basing the film on the song, did you mean the making of the song, and the formation of the band?  Is the protagonist based  on Eddie Vedder? Or did you mean the story of the characters in Footsteps?  If so I am curious to hear what your interpretation of Footsteps is.  

    Ha! Originally I was going to make the story of a person trying to record a song on a cassette tape in their living room. and I was going to try to use the song footsteps. 

    Couldn’t use that song. So my friend wrote a song. And I added a companion to the story to raise the stakes a little bit. So it turned into him finally letting her hear him sing. 

    The film opens with him alone in his room, and closes with them together in his room. 

    So the story changed a lot. But I titled it based on what inspired it. 

    Thanks for checking it out! 

    Oh, and I couldn’t find a cassette player in denver for the life of myself. So I reverted to a CD 
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