I have a very slightly altered Grace (blessing) in my script

It's a prayer?? Are you saying you want us to tell you the source/author/copyright holder of the prayer?


What prayer might that be?

I think you would have better luck in the story research and experts section of the board.

LIVIN said:

I have a very slightly altered Grace (blessing) in my script. I had trouble finding the actual original source.

It's five lines. It's enough that it wouldn't fall under fair use partiality restrictions. However, it's old enough that it's straight up legit to use. However, I wanted to make a bibliographical notation. Like I said, I couldn't find an actual author. It's one of those things that, in some circles, is common, everyday knowledge.

Anyway, this is the last thing I need to take care of before I send it off to BlueCat. Any suggestions? Thanks.

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Well -- you could do a web search for +"saying grace" +origins

I came up with this web site:

http://www.drstandley.com/guidance_grace.shtml

which gave me this:


Bless us, O Lord,
and thy gifts,
which we are about to receive from thy bounty.
In Jesus Christ's name I pray,
who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit
One God
forever and ever.
Amen~

Of course, this is, specifically, the Catholic grace. There are many other, different "graces" that people say before meals.

And if I may ask -- why would you want to make a bibliographical notation in a screenplay?

NMS

If anyone things you invented saying a blessing, they are really out of touch with world history.

I use a prayer in my work, it's my own childish prayer however, I can't imagine not being able to use a standard blessing, esp. an old one. Why don't you just make your own? That way it's more personal.

ETA: I also use the beginning of The Lords Prayer, Psalm 23, hmm, where would I get permission to use that? I'll let the editor figure it out.

Passages from the King James bible fell into fair use year and years and years ago. It was translated before copyright even existed.

Archie Bunker's blessing: "Bless the meat/ damn the skin/Open the kisser/ and cram it in."
That's only four lines.
I grew up with a one-liner: "Thank you God for all this good food, Amen."

If it's from the Book of Common Prayer, you won't have a problem.

Is this a requirement of BlueCat or something? I really don't think ANYONE would be upset if you just used the prayer in your script and made no special mention of it. I don't think the person who wrote the prayer would mind, and I don't even think God would mind. And I certainly don't think BlueCat would mind--not about a prayer.

then there's the prayer from Laverne and Shirley:

god is great
god is good
thank you god
for this food

I don't think anyone will care; you don't have to cite the author (or source) of a prayer. Having read for Blue Cat myself, I really can't imagine a reader would care.

LIVIN said:

It's in the public domain. I merely wanted to make clear that I did not author the grace blessing. (It should probably be obvious, but I don't want anyone to misinterpret that I invented the blessing.)

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Believe me, for things of this nature -- any more than "Now I lay me down to sleep" or "We are gather here to join this man and this woman --"

-- you don't have to do it.

In fact, you don't have to do it and you shouldn't do it for anything at all.

For someone reading a screenplay it's hard to imagine few things that would be more disruptive to the flow of the read than footnoting.

Look, for a script that I recently sold, I needed a traditional Sunday School song -- so I went on-line and I looked up traditional Sunday School songs and I found one that I thought would work in the context of my story -- and I used it.

Is it in the public domain? Don't know. Who wrote it? I have no idea. The sources that I found didn't credit it.

The script has been optioned. If and when it goes into pre-production they will put the script through what's known as "errors and omissions" -- that's a kind of insurance that movies get to cover them in case they get sued because they inadverently intrude on someone's name, or place, or produce or rights -- and they will study everything. Every person's name, every place name, ever product mentioned -- to make sure that it's all clear. And if the song is currently not in the public domain, it will be determined and if they have to pay for the rights to it -- they will.

Certain kinds of things are frowned upon - like having some big contemporary pop music hit playing on the radio.

Other things -- like they're singing "Happy Birthday" to somebody in your story. Well -- it's under copyright, it means that they'll have to pay for it -- but that's just part of the cost of doing business. If it's a valid moment in the script, so be it.

Or if they're singing "America the Beautiful" -- or whatever.

If the scene justifies it, it's not for you to figure out whether that song or that hymn or what have you, is in the public domain or not.

But if "Oops, I did it again" is playing on the radio -- they tend to be a little less forgiving of that sort of thing.

NMS

Quentin Tarantino used a biblical quote in Pulp Fiction. And at that time, he was a relative unknown, having only written a couple of movies, but, Pulp was his first big one. Though he didn't quote it exactly as the bible said, it was a quote from the bible.

just a side note: a few years back i read an article about product placement on television shows where they actually added, say, a coke can to the scene *digitally*.

i don't think sam raimi had permission to use 'maker's mark' whiskey in the first 'spider-man,' though i know they didn't mind as it increased sales.

i've heard about 'happy birthday' before. that one rather blows my mind.

my question is, can they remake a song, say 'oops, i did it again, i lost my panties and don't know where i've been,' and avoid all or part of the cost of using that song?

preyer said:

my question is, can they remake a song, say 'oops, i did it again, i lost my panties and don't know where i've been,' and avoid all or part of the cost of using that song?

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Actually, if you want to change a song, you need permission from the person who holds the rights to that particular song.

That might, might, fall under the catagory of parady. You'd have to lawyer up and make sure your butt was covered though.

no, i wouldn't be altering the song other than having it done performed by other people. not a parody, either. hm, i'll see if i can find something about this....

a quick look-see at ASCAP isn't as specific as i'd hoped, but it seems that yes, there would be a fee even were the song re-recorded. you'd be paying for something called a 'syncronization fee,' which for a major studio can be $15-70,000 dollars, though it's not set in stone. that 'syncronization fee' would allow you quite a bit of usage for that song in terms of being able to use it for commercials, that kind of thing. there are other mitigating factors, naturally.

it's possible to get the song for free given the kind of movie and/or budget you have. basically, if the movie isn't bound to make a profit, for example a student film or documentary (and i think the ASCAP site is dating itself here), you may get it for free or at a minimum. if, however, the film makes a profit then you'd have to cough up some cash.

how it is that i thought you could re-record a song using other performers and get out of paying all or some of the fee is beyond me....

you mean those aren't the exact lyrics? man, i'm going to have to stop huffing moon rocks and stick just to helium. if i do that, though, i'll probably forget all the lyrics i have in my mind for my sock puppet version of 'star wars: the musical.'

then again, maybe it's just as well.

i don't think sam raimi had permission to use 'maker's mark' whiskey in the first 'spider-man,' though i know they didn't mind as it increased sales

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. product placement is huge but it doesn't necessarily cost the production company anything -- for reasons given: they're happy to have the increase in sales. a signed release will do it with a donation of the product to use during the production or in the case of maker's mark - the cast party.

i just read that some life-sized sex doll companies sales went through the roof after lars and the real girl came out.

okay back on topic

Wow! This has really opened my eyes. I never even thought about things like having to pay to use Happy Birthday. This forum is great especially for those of us who are brand new to screenwriting.
Thanks for the really great info guys. This forum is amazing!