The t-shirt logo thing is fine if it is just casual and happens to be there,
it's kind of public domain. A friend of mine who has his own production company
had to film on a public street once, they didn't have to close it down, but
they did need a permit from the council. To get around the copyright issue
of people in this film they put up a sign at either end of the street, which
read "By walking down this street and into the line of camera you are giving
us permission to use your image in this film", apparently this is legal.
The music thing, forget it, if there is music playing on a radio in the background
you will need to pay and get a licence from both the MCPS and the PRS and
in some cases the record company too, this is because some bands have very
strict policy on this, take Nirvana for instance, Kirt Cobain's wife Cortney
Love has banned anyone and everyone from ever using Nirvana's songs for any
reason whatsoever, she will sue you and take away your house and family if
you even think about it.
Do it the correct way, you would be surprised just how cheap it actually
is, well of course if you are called Quinton Tarentino and want to use a
famous song in your Hollywood feature it will cost you approximately £2000
for every 30 seconds of the song that you use, if on the other hand you approach
the MCPS and tell them that it is a student film which will only be shown
to other students, the tutor and a few close friends i.e. it won’t be sold,
then it will only cost you about £80 for every 30 seconds of the song, then
if it looks like it will win a major festival and get picked up by Warners,
then they will foot the bill and it won’t be your problem anyway.
Back to the Karaoke thing, not only would you have to pay the folk who made
the vocal-free version, you also have to pay the original artist who wrote
the song and believe it or now, the fat cow on stage that sounds like a strangled
cat who is actually singing the god awful rendition also has to be paid,
after all this is her voice and she will probably sue you if she ever sees
the film and recognises her dodgy version of “I will always love you”.
More details:
http://www.mcps.co.uk/
It will tell you everything you need to know, they are really nice and helpful
people if you just explain what you want, work out which song you want and
get all the details of that song i.e. which record label owns it, band, track
title, track duration, writer of the song (Writer: K. Cobain, Track: Come
as you are, Album: Never Mind, Duration: 3:12, Year: 1995) they will need
all this information, they will also need to know just how much of the track
you are going to be using i.e. 27 seconds from the middle section, it is
very unusual for an entire track to feature in a film or programme, think
the Café in Eastenders, you will notice that the music you hear in the background
never continues for more than 20 seconds or it cost them more, same goes
for the Queen Vic.
The only exception to this of course is our man Tarentino, think Res Dogs
and the warehouse scene with “Stuck in the Middle with you” you know, when
the cop is getting his ear cut off, but like I said it’s very rare and if
you phone the MCPS and simply say “Well the whole track actually” they won’t
take you seriously, they will expect you to have already edited the film
and know to the exact frame how much of the song you will be using.
Hope this all helps.