Documentary Interview Release Form: Fill & Download for Free

Often the real answer to this is about insurance.When you're doing news/documentary there is no real legal need to get a release, as long as you're not breaking the law yourself (trespassing, etc.) in the course of filming. However, most independent productions require "E&O Insurance" before a broadcaster will touch them - that covers the production against lawsuits for various things, basically protecting the producer and broadcaster from most lawsuits. ("Errors and Omissions" - if you get a fact wrong and someone sues you, you're covered as long as you've done due diligence as required by the insurance policy)Insurance companies are very good at minimizing risk. So often they demand that anyone whose face is seen in a documentary must sign a release, or they will not insure the program. That's why most documentaries need releases - not because they are legally required, but because they can't get insurance without them.It's also why brand names and logos are often fuzzed out - the insurance company is generally not happy unless you've reduced their risk to zero. So if your insurance company is very picky, you may have to call up Nike and get written permission to use their logo on the shirt your interview subject happened to be wearing, or you can blur it out in editing.... I read an article somewhere that no one has ever actually sued a documentary filmmaker for this kind of thing, but many of them go through hell in production eliminating recognizable brands just because they're afraid they will have to fuzz them out in editing to get their E&O insurance.Network news departments don't have insurance - they have lawyers on retainer to deal with lawsuits and threats of lawsuits... so usually network news magazine programs don't require release forms, because they aren't hamstrung by insurance requirements (no insurance company will insure a news program - they actually DO get sued!)The most aggressive documentaries I've worked on have been done with no release forms signed... and with the legal department of a network backing you up.

Oh yes.There are multiple layers of deception; generally speaking, SBC’s crew - producers, etc. - contact the staff of a subject, e.g. their publicist, manager, etc. They’ll give what is sometimes a totally insane claim - it’s an award show, etc. - and arrange for that person to sign a release form for their client (this is doable because, generally, managers etc. have sufficient power of attorney to do this as a part of their normal business). The subject is then usually basically never told anything about SBC’s character, and certainly never told it’s a bit.In some instances - such as when he worked for HBO - they would say it was being filmed for an “HBO documentary”, which while true was obviously not a full description.All of this, of course, is legal; the release forms, if properly read, laid out exactly what they needed to.The first legal obstacle that tripped up Cohen's interviewees was their own signatures. Before filming, most of the plaintiffs signed legal releases entitled "Standard Consent Agreement" or something similar. In those contracts, the interviewee agreed that he or she "waives, and agrees not to bring at any time in the future, any claims against the Producer … or anyone associated with the Film, that include assertions of" every conceivable cause of action that Cohen's attorneys could come up with. So when the litigants sued Cohen and his cohorts, they were immediately confronted with the fact that they had agreed in writing not to do so.Do Sacha Baron Cohen's Targets Have a Shot at Winning a Lawsuit? (Guest Column)[When filming Borat] The producers would give all subjects a release form which, conveniently, didn’t identify where the footage would be appearing. Often times, they’d hand out release forms en masse. “We’d have someone in the lobby of a hotel with release forms,” director Larry Charles told Squidoo. “We’d tell people we were shooting today and they may be in the background of a shot. Then they’d get in the elevator and, boom, two naked guys would come running in.” Most people were so quick to sign the forms that they didn’t notice any irregularities.How Sacha Baron Cohen Keeps From Getting Sued

After his capture in March 1941, the most successful German U-boat commander of the Second World War Otto Kretschmer "Silent Otto" spent almost seven years as a prisoner of war in the hands of the British and then the Canadians. After the end of the war he was allowed to return to Germany in December 1947.Just as several other surviving German naval veterans had, in 1955 Kretschmer joined the newly formed Bundesmarine (West German Navy). From 1962 he served as a staff officer in NATO before becoming chief of staff of the NATO command COMNAVBALTAP in May 1965. He retired as a Flottillenadmiral (flotilla admiral) in September 1970.In his later years Kretschmer was often interviewed for television and radio programmes about the Second World War. He appeared in the British 1974 documentary series "The World at War". He was also interviewed for the computer simulation game "Aces of the Deep" in the mid-1990s.During the summer of 1998, while he was celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary in Bavaria, Kretschmer died in an accident during a boating expedition on the Danube… he was 86. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea.