Taking Screenshots

[Stephen Cremin]

And not only are frame grabs more likely to come under "fair use" law, but they are what you're going to want for an academic project.  After all, promotional stills are just that ... shots to help sell the film, not an accurate reflection of the films' cinematic qualities, language, etc.

I think using a digital camera on a television screen is going to be more trouble than it's worth.  If these are contemporary films, perhaps you can buy VCDs from Hong Kong and just grab stills on your computer.  Technically, grabbing DVD stills can be more problematic.  VCDs can just be a matter of copy and paste.

Alternatively, invest in a box that digitises video.  On the Mac, the eyeTV costs US$200 and will digitise both NTSC and PAL in real time through the USB port.  I'm sure there are similar offerings on Windows, etc.  Again, you can then just copy and paste stills into your project, advancing frame-by-frame as you need.

Stephen




On Tuesday, May 13, 2003, at 10:32AM, Aaron Gerow <gerow at ynu.ac.jp> wrote:

>>Film stillsare given out by the film's distributor with the aim of having them used in the
>>media for promotional purposes, so these pictures are meant to be used in magazines and on
>>websites, etc. Using those instead of screen shots basically puts you in the clear.
>
>This comment needs some clarification. Yes, stills are put out for promotional purposes, and almost all distributors will allow their use without permission during the promotional period of the film. However, stills are separate, copyrightable material. Frame grabs or screenshots can be defined as quotations of a film under Japanese court precedent, so they more easily fall under fair use, but stills have individual copyright (thus using frame grabs is probably more allowed under law that using stills). Most distributors in Japan don't care about it much, but some have begun to put warnings on the stills saying that they are only for use for promotional purposes during the film's release. After that, their use is illegal without permission. Some distributors are now asking for payment for use of stills for films no longer in the theaters, or will only agree to their use if you agree to promote the DVD or video release. I do suggest people treat stills with care.
>
>Aaron Gerow
>Yokohama National University
>KineJapan list owner
>For list commands: send "information kinejapan" to
>listserver at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Kinema Club: http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/Markus/Welcome.html
>
>
>