My father was a professional photographer in NY and was privileged to work with many of the major venues and artists from stage, screen, TV and music. Stars like Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Jackson Five and countless others. One of the venues he was house photographer for celebrates their 60th Anniversary and wants to license images for a publication from many of the years he had them as a client. As owner of the negatives, I need advice about how to negotiate the fees. If anyone here is familiar with this please contact me as soon as possible. Thanks.
Cinematography : Seeking advice from Entertainment focused Still Photographers by Jonathan Kramer
Seeking advice from Entertainment focused Still Photographers
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Thanks for the response. My father was not employed by the company but rather contracted through a PR company. The theater is now owned by Live Nation and I will be speaking with the head of marketing next week. From what I know they want to license images for use in a magazine, publicity for the event, social media and other applications. We put up a site with over 75 images from a variety of shows for them to choose from. From the Entertainment image sites it's clear the fee per image is based on many factors of which duration, number of impressions, use types and size of print runs are but a few. Since Dad was the exclusive photographer during a period of nearly 20 years they won't find the images anywhere else which to me makes them more valuable. Hope that makes sense
Hi Jonathan, I admit this is not my area of expertise. If you haven't already, maybe try to look at pricing that other photo licensing vendors offer, just to get an idea of what others are charging and what you get for what you pay. For example, Getty Images, AP Images, Magnum Photos, even the Library of Congress. You could also try to call some photographers' agencies, but I've no idea how responsive/helpful they will be. Good luck!
Regina.. thanks and yes I've looked at image vendor sites that have a large catalog of entertainment celebrities. From what I've heard recently, the theater will be using the images for a publication, PR, social media and perhaps other uses which unfortunately I haven't seen with either of the sites. I was actually quite surprised at how liberal Getty is with use and term though the images aren't anywhere near as unique as my Dad's. I will learn more this week when I speak with the Nat'l Mktg Director at Live Nation in Los Angeles and will leverage the fact that my Dad was the house photographer in a theater where photo taking is forbidden making the value high. Ideally we want to leverage this for near future assembly of books, sites and exhibits of my Dad's work with celebrities and others.
Sounds like your dad had a remarkable talent and career. Break a leg!
David..no greediness intended and since I'm not a photographer, any long term agreement isn't likely. Regardless I'm sitting patiently waiting to hear from Live Nation and once I do, I'll circle back and let you guys know the outcome. I suspect they'll want to license images for several months with multiple types of usage.