posted
<sigh> you know how the Alice's Adventures book had a really good cover design by our own Darryn, and the in-house publishing bods managed to make it significantly worse by the time it was released?
Well, I am working for a different company now, and they are "bouncing about" ideas for the cover of The Blade Runner Experience.
Specifically: they want an image of a unicorn. Presumably like wat the unicorn is like in the film, but free from any copyright issues.
Here is the correspondence. You will be impressed by the professionalism of high-level publishing I'm sure.
quote: >>>We're bouncing around ideas for the cover image and want to use an >>> appropriate image of a unicorn - having some difficulty finding >>> exactly the right thing - wondered if you, or any of the >>>contributors, or anyone else you may know etc etc, may be able to >>> source a good image. >>>
quote:>>I do know some designers and can post on a discussion board asking >>for images. But can we guarantee them a credit if their image is >>used? I wouldn't want to ask professionals to make an effort and >>then not give them proper recognition.
quote:of course - if we use any image or artwork as supplied by a third >party there will be full acknowledgements - no problem
In fact I did give Darryn a big-up in Alice's Adventures so this isn't just hot air.
Does anyone fancy this mini-challenge? If you don't get the concept cause I explained it badly after 6 hours of fielding this kind of correspondence, please ask!
posted
Er, Kovacs, what sort of company do you work for that want to publish a book (I'm presuming a book) but not pay for the image rights?
Not helpful I know, but I'm slightly incredulous. If you can be slightly incredulous.
eta: Okay, slightly more helpfully, creativecommons.org's image search function might help you to find images which have a creative commons license allowing commercial use. The bad news is you're mainly looking at photos, which isn't much use for unicorns and there's no quality filter for crap posted on flickr.
quote:Originally posted by OJ: Er, Kovacs, what sort of company do you work for that want to publish a book (I'm presuming a book) but not pay for the image rights?
Well, if someone takes a picture of a horse and photoshops it, isn't that free for you to use? And aren't some images free from copyright, perhaps because of their age or because they're intended to be used for that kind of purpose? The photograph of Alice Liddell, for instance, didn't cost anything and we just had to ask the estate of Carroll or whatever, as a courtesy.
But this isn't really my field (as may be obvious) -- it is the publisher's lookout.
I think this one works. It draws attention to the reality gap that exists between our imagined futures and the mundane reality that actually unfolds for us. It also highlights the workaday reality of our application of technology. Furthermore, it identifies the fantastic inventions of our mythical past as trite, transparent, predictable constructions.
posted
Apparently not though I had always assumed so.
I don't know, actually, why the publisher wouldn't pay a small amount for permission to reproduce an image like the one above, from the film! on the cover. Because obviously it must look like that unicorn to make sense.
posted
I think Darryn's deconstructed origami unicorn pattern would be fantastic, but if you want something a little more obvious I have a mate who does origami and would probably be willing to make a 'half finished' origami unicorn or something.
Posts: 1583
| IP: Logged
posted
it's a clever concept, but it looks like it should be the cover to "Applied Boolean logic & your ZX81". A bit 70s, and a bit dry? What do I know though lol.
How about an oil painting of Clarissa Flockhart being fucked by a horse? Eyecatching, modern, and relevant.
-*OR*-
Jonny5 from short circuit in front of a rainbow coloured fractal, with 3D titles created in WordArt? WOW!
-------------------- What I object to is the colour of some of these wheelie bins and where they are left, in some areas outside all week in the front garden. Posts: 4941
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by My Name Is Joe: I have a mate who does origami and would probably be willing to make a 'half finished' origami unicorn or something.
Wouldn't this look great if the part-finished unicorn were designed to appear as if it were folded from the book cover itself. A bit like an Escher painting perhaps.
Posts: 14015
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by My Name Is Joe: I have a mate who does origami and would probably be willing to make a 'half finished' origami unicorn or something.
Wouldn't this look great if the part-finished unicorn were designed to appear as if it were folded from the book cover itself. A bit like an Escher painting perhaps.
Or... sell the book as hundreds of loose pages folded into unicorns and presented in a special Blade Runner bin bag!
Astromariner
Going the right way for a smacked bottom
posted
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: (Looking for this picture I found that Milton had died! Now I am sad.)
oh no! Now I am sad too. I remember when he was Next Milton: I had a big poster of him and John Whitaker at the Horse of the Year show on my wall. Desert Orchid better be still alive, or there will be trouble. Actually, it's unlikely, isn't it. I'm away to check.
posted
Kovacs, I'd prefer to see your book cover featuring attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, and perhaps a few C-beams glittering in the dark near Tan Hauser gate. But I suppose this suggestion will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.
Posts: 8467
| IP: Logged
posted
Astro, Desert Orchid still parades before the King George at Kempton each Boxing Day, so you can see him on telly once a year.
Perhaps it could be a clever marketing gimmick to misspell "Blade: runner" at least twice on the front cover.
-------------------- What I object to is the colour of some of these wheelie bins and where they are left, in some areas outside all week in the front garden. Posts: 4941
| IP: Logged
Astromariner
Going the right way for a smacked bottom
posted
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles:
If unicorns existed, would the french eat them?
mais bien sur! The french will eat anything. Famous frencher Francois Mitterand's last meal was a tiny songbird called an ortolan. Prior to eating, the ortolan had to be caught, kept in a dark box for several weeks and eventually drowned in cognac. You eat them whole, feathers, bones, innards and all, whilst wearing a handkerchief on your head.
Posts: 2814
| IP: Logged
posted
You'd have to include Snipes and Dorff on the cover, and make it clear that the errand boy was in the relevant trade. Maybe, faux jogging, holding some sandwiches, with Snipes leaning against Dorff in that kooky way that people leaned against each other on the cover of 80s screwball comedies. Maybe Snipes could be rolling his eyes, and Dorff crossing his arms.
Neurotic Cat
My fortune cookie's empty... That's also the title of my autobiography.
posted
Originally posted by Astro-lady
quote:...Francois Mitterand's last meal was a tiny songbird called an ortolan. Prior to eating, the ortolan had to be caught, kept in a dark box for several weeks and eventually drowned in cognac. You eat them whole, feathers, bones, innards and all, whilst wearing a handkerchief on your head.
I had heard this! Apparantly Jeremy Clarkson actually did this in one of his programs and forever more my mum (the RSPB member) has despised him ever since!
Sounds gross!
-------------------- You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats Posts: 150
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by OJ: Er, Kovacs, what sort of company do you work for that want to publish a book (I'm presuming a book) but not pay for the image rights?
Well, if someone takes a picture of a horse and photoshops it, isn't that free for you to use? And aren't some images free from copyright, perhaps because of their age or because they're intended to be used for that kind of purpose? The photograph of Alice Liddell, for instance, didn't cost anything and we just had to ask the estate of Carroll or whatever, as a courtesy.
But this isn't really my field (as may be obvious) -- it is the publisher's lookout.
Hi Kovacs. The incredulity was about the fact that the publishers wouldn't budget to purchase reproduction rights to an image. And indeed would be asking you to be looking around for one - though I don't know what your role is obviously.
Anyway, back to being vaguely helpful.
Even with older pictures, to which you may assume the Artist Works copyright may have expired (because the artist has been dead for 70 years), you may still be liable to pay to reproduce the image. So if you wanted to use a Breughel image owned by the National Gallery they would almost certainly charge you a reproduction fee. This is the distinction between copyright and reproduction rights. The Tate's policy on this clarifies it http://www.tate.org.uk/home/copyright.htm
If someone will take a picture of a horse, adapt it for you and then sign a contract giving you the right to use it free of charge, fair enough. But you can't assume. I would probably recommend "someone" to license the image under Creative Commons so they could decide which rights they wanted to reserve. For example, if an advertising agency wanted to pick up the image and use it on billboards, your helpful artist would be mightily pissed off to receive nothing.
Anyway, this is why I suggested looking for images which have been licensed using Creative Commons. This has been set up to allow creative re-use of artworks, with the artist (photographer, whatever) able to specify different permissions for use. e.g. that they will allow sampling, that they will allow adaptation of an image but only if the subsequent image also remains freely licensed, that they will allow only non-commercial or commercial use etc.
posted
The best bit about it is he'll sit in the pub and make roses and dragons out of gig flyers and crisp packets. You can almost hear the barmaids' underwear hit the floor when they discover his 'leavings'.
Posts: 1583
| IP: Logged
posted
Thanks OJ for the info and everyone else for the laffs. It does seem pretty odd to me still that they wouldn't pay £100 or whatever for a picture from the film. I will investigate your links further, OJ.
Yes I think they want a real unicorn, not an origami one, though a bonus origami pattern inside the cover to make your own Gaff unicorn would be fantastic.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic