Ballet show DVD - extortionate and can they just film my dd without my say so?

[Enid]

I could go on and on about the expense of dd1's ballet class, the ludicrous amount of extra time she has spent rehearsing for a show, the last minute requests for impossible to track down costumes etc etc, but now its the final straw. The DVD of this extravaganza will be available to buy at £22.50.

no pix allowed during the show.

Are they allowed to film it without my consent, don't they have to get all parents consent for this kind of filming now?

We have to give consent for DS to be photographed at school, so I'd expect it to be the same? £22.50 seems abit steep!

Yes, I believe your permission would be required.

There is no legal requirement as such to obtain your permissionto film. The issues of copyright etc are more relevant with regards to who can and can't film. However I'm not sure what the position is with them actually selling copies of the film.

It is good practice to ask permission however but they could just turn around and say that they require consent to film your chid as a condition of being in the show if they wanted to.

I absolutely agree that £22.50 is extortionate.

I thought they would need permission if its being sold to other parents. A teacher at ds1's previous school took photos of his new school to make a book for him and she told me she had to ebe very careful to make sure there were no photos of other children in it.

That's way too steep price, no wonder you are fuming.

I can understand the show's organisers not wanting the children districted by flashing cameras, but it seems unnecessary to say no one else can film the show.

At all the school plays I've been to, parents can film the performance and at the end, the children pose in a group so parents can take photos. Enid, I think I'd be temptet to ask the ballet school if there will be a photo opportunity after the final curtain? If the children have stopped performing what harm is there in having their pictures taken?

As for getting parent's consent, where I work (local council) I know if one of our photographers takes a picture of a child, they always have to get the parent's consent first, no matter if the pic is published or not.

When I worked in a school, we did one of the school play. The rules regarding parent?s filming were too heavy to wade through and wasn?t my area to worry about specific laws about it. We had to ask every parent of the children in the play for a signed permission slip for the filming (not sure what would have happened if one refused) and got a company to film two performances to make into one DVD. Was brilliant, sound and picture quality, beginning credits and at the end they had a lovely out-tro where they had spoken to the children for five second sound bites immediately after the show where they were really natural and funny saying thanks and just being really excited (my favourite bit of the whole thing).
Cost £10.00 per DVD and if you bought 3 or more you could have a 10% discount on whole order. We sold about 150 and made about £100 profit for the next production.

I would want to know whether the people filming are professionals, are they giving commission to the ballet group or a flat fee and the ballet are setting their own price?s for the DVDs to make a profit? How did they choose the company, did they hunt around for a decent price or do they just think parents will pay up any amount to see their darlings?

I bet other mums are angry too. I would complain and ask to know how much cut the ballet group are taking. I would also ask other mums about it and see how they feel, a group complaining is always more effective than one mum. If they realise they may be left with a pile of DVDs no-one is prepared to pay for, they may rethink their plan. Why on earth can?t they let a mum film it and transfer it at cost with a donation to the ballet group if they wish?
One thing we did to help out the no photos during the performance rule - to cut out distraction and flash photogrpahy - was to have a photo call on the last night. All parents who were happy to allow their child to be in a photo call were stood on the stage still in full costume and smiling away. Anyone and everyone could take photos, incl. press for the local paper, the school for newletters etc. Worked well and parents got their own photos without upsetting the performance.

We've just done a show & the DVD is £15.50.

No pix/filming during the show because it's in a theatre & it spoils it for everyone else, but we are allowed to film during the dress rehearsal & take pix backstage.

As for consent, I think the implication (for us at least) is that we know it will be filmed, so entering our children for the panto implies consent to filming. Our ballet teacher was asked by the BBC if they could screen one of the shows on one of their local digital channels. She had to refuse because she would have had to have got the consent of 300 parents, & if one refused that was it.

DD's dance school has just done their show at a big venue (>2000 capacity) in the centre of town. The DVD was around £20 - cheaper if ordered in advance.

The quality is very good i.e. well-edited and it does make a great momento of the show. There was a request for no pics during the show but that's standard at most theatres/concerts. And whilst someone might have been able to home in on their own chid, the DVD is something else completely.

I'd go with bathmummy's suggestions enid, see if anyone else is similarly riled and then approach the ballet school.

My dd was in her first show last year and I remember being shocked at the price of the video (I can't recall now how much it was exactly). We had to order it before we'd seen the show too and I um'd and ah'd about getting it because it was her first show after all etc.

In the end we didn't order one and as it turned out she was actually only in the show for about a nano-second! After all the rehearsals and so on too!! She enjoyed the experience though.

People were taking a few discreet photos anyway at the show (including us) even though they'd said not to - no-one said anything. A friend was offering to copy the video (her dh was able to do this) and I think the price was probably encouraging this to be done, to be honest. I would've taken her up on it too, had my dd been in it more!

Ballet certainly seems to be an expensive pastime though - we had to pay for special costumes and clothing for the show. Then there are exam fees too.

Dd's enthusiasm waned considerably though after about 18 months of ballet and we stopped it before she took her first exam - her heart just wasn't in it and it was becoming a struggle to get her there. You have to be so dedicated to get enjoyment from it. I don't think I've seen the last of it though as my younger dd is starting to look keen...so here we go again.

spent all day at the rehearsal [yawn].

My friend's MIL is buying the DVD at £22.50 and we are going to burn copies for me and a few others

It was chaos but after all that moaning I ended up in tears as dd1 skipped her way through 'April Showers'

Yay, nice bit of piracy, sorted!