R.A.R.I.N.
DOS AND DON'TS: MANAGING FILMING courtesy Amalyah Keshet, The Israel Museum
"My department handles the many film crews from all over the world who want to shoot at the Israel Museum. Most of these are documentary productions, but we've had the occasional "cinema" production, too. We have a standard site license agreement, if you would 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 written 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 don'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 supply a staff member to accompany them the entire time they are on Museum premises (both 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. (Remember: 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 Museum 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, film crews being film crews, it happens, quicker than one can shout "DON'T!".)
"5. We dictate lighting restrictions per instructions from conservation staff. For example, "available light only" applies to any objects or works of organic origin (including 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. The credits at the end of a film are illegible, and if we aren't identified in the narration, what have we gone to all this trouble for?
"We are often offered "great P.R. value" in lieu of payment of a service fee. My standard reply to this is, "The fact that you've approached us and want to 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 partially 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 service from us.
"If we can be of any further
help to anyone on this subject, let me know. We have LOTS of experience..."