February 2021

Page A28 FEBRUARY 2021 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A www. vischerfuneralsupplies.com Free Supplies. FREE Operator Training Video. Settlements can now be used to purchase cremation supplies from our affiliate company, New England Cremation Supply. Customer Loyalty Rewards Program Family Owned and Operated since 1995 Cremation Metal Recycling 800-664-8365 cremation metal recycling - responsible recycling charitable foundation cmr@metrocast.net www.cremationmetalrecycling.com FUNERALSERVICEFOUNDATION.ORG CARING FOR FAMILIES CARING FOR YOURSELF You matter! Make time for i r self-care this year. Lights. Camera. Funeral. The Legal Side of Funeral Production for Funeral Homes and Cemeteries By Poul Lemasters Continued on Page A30 Poul Lemasters I was just visiting a mortuary college and having a discussion on how school has changed as a result of COVID-19. For the record, everything has changed because of COVID-19. In this case though, it was about schools and you may be thinking to yourself how teach- ing would change. Virtual classrooms. Social distancing in the classroom. Han- dling potential outbreaks. Even changes in how people can eat and drink in the lounge. But what really was interesting was how the curriculum - the subjects - had changed. In this particular school they were still teaching how to conduct a funeral, but now they had to do it virtually. In do- ing so, they had to film the deceased - and they had to learn the best way to do this. What I realized is that students were learning how to produce a funer- al. In my discussion I even shared that there should now be a funeral produc- tion course for students! In fact, we now need a funeral production course for our profession. And here it is. Funeral Pro- duction for Funeral Homes and Ceme- teries 101. It may not seem like anything would be different, but it is. Everything chang- es when you go virtual - and funerals are no different. You have to think of the music; the video; the copyrights; the permission. You see, when people just walk into an event and it happens live, it is one thing. But as soon as we decide to video it, well it becomes something quite different. The following is by no means meant to be the entire Funeral Production Guide - but it is meant to cover the big issues; and hopefully get you filming things properly at your fu- neral home, cemetery, or wherever your funeral may take you. Music Issues No good movie has been created that doesn’t have some music. In fact, the first silent movies at least had music played during the film to provide the effect. It is true with funerals as well - and no fu- neral is complete without a song or two. What’s the legal issue? You need a license to play the music. I know we’ve talk- ed about this in other articles, but it is worth repeating that if you are going to video a funeral you need a license. But there is a bit more to this. If you are live streaming the funeral on some platform, i.e. Facebook, You- Tube, etc, then you need a license that allows you to stream music through a webcasting license. What’s the differ- ence? A music license will allow you to play music at your business or any place the funeral is being conducted; but a webcasting license will allow you to stream the event and music - live - without legal issue. However, be clear that neither of these licenses allow you to record an event for later playback of the mu- sic. To record copyrighted music, you must obtain permission from the art- ist /music publisher and typically pay a fee (aka royalty). Obviously, this is not done in deathcare so there are two workarounds. The first workaround is to use royalty free music in your re- cording. There are thousands of songs that are royalty free and can be record- ed and used with no permission or fees or license. The other workaround is to mute out the song before you publish the recorded music. This allows you to play/stream music live during event, but then mute the music in the pub- lished version so as not to violate the copyright. Copyright Issues While music is one copyright issue, there are other copyright issues as well. Imag- es and print material can also be an is- sue when producing a funeral. Many vid- eos use beautiful imagery to show things that represent the deceased as well as what the deceased may have loved in life. Perhaps they loved racing - so the vid- eo shows images or clips from a NAS- CAR event. Well, you guessed it, this could be a copy- right violation, un- less you have writ- ten permission to use the image. And don’t think it’s just im- agery and pictures. Perhaps there is a lovely poem that you want to include in the video - and rather than simply read it, you want to memorialize it by add- ing it to the video so people can read Digital Directory Now Available Visit www.nomispublications.com Read the Funeral Home & Cemetery News Electronic Version Search the Online Directories Download instantly at www.nomispublications.com Save on Shipping!