Would anyone here be interested in this?

About a year ago I made something that could be somewhat inaccurately classified as a "video novella." It's not a work of fiction per se. For the most part it's me talking about the history of opera in a way that makes that history sound like, well, a fast-paced novel with detective overtones.

Now and then I do a live performance of it, which makes it a play as well as a novella. It gets billed as a lecture, but I assure you a lecture is absolutely the last thing it should be associated with.

False modesty aside, I've put a whole bunch of people into the opera house seats over the years; I've turned folks who knew nothing about opera (nor music, for that matter) into genuine opera buffs. In other words, give me two and a half hours, and I'll make you an opera expert/historian/lover. Seriously.

When I figured I might as well put the whole thing on DVD and take advantage of some of the technologies associated with video production, I overlooked (completely, and it was, I admit, a horrible oversight on my part) the copyright issue.

The problem is you can't have a story about opera without, well, opera. I had to use some recordings (mostly audio, with the occasional video fragment thrown in here and there) to illustrate some points. I mean, conceivably I could do the whole thing on the piano and have a couple of singer friends vocalize some excerpts, but the orchestra is a huge part of the opera experience. Now in order to SELL the DVD, I'd have to obtain permission from the various companies that own the rights. Quite a few.

They don't mind. Seriously. They're glad to be of help. The problem is, they're forgetful. And they have bots crawling the web looking for that "signature" couple of bytes that would indicate that someone's using "their" music without permission. You can't show a bot a piece of paper, you can't reason with a bot. And YouTube has this wonderful policy that in practice boils down to this: the moment a bot tells them (electronically) about copyright infringement, they take the video down RIGHT AWAY, and you end up spending the next six months or so proving that you have permission. With twenty five DIFFERENT permissions the task becomes somewhat tedious. Bottom line: can't advertise on YouTube.

And, of course, no DVD-producing company would agree to sell anything that MIGHT involve copyright issues.

Catch 22? Not quite.

I say, to hell with actual direct profits on this; I'll tweak the video novella a little, chapter by chapter, and put all of it on YouTube for free.

Two reasons:

1. Publicity is good.
2. I want my stories to be watched/heard/read. "The Opera Story" took a lot of thought and preparation. I would be a shame if all of it just went to the dogs.

For those who are NOT interested in opera (nor music, for that matter): watch it the way you'd watch a movie. You'll still have fun. That's a promise.

So. Would anyone here be interested? If so, I'll just keep posting links, chapter by chapter, as I go along.

Another question is this. Does anyone know any decent, currently active music forums (jazz, classical, or opera)? I can't seem to find any.

Sounds absolutely fascinating but even if you put it on YouTube for free doesn't the copyright issue play in? I had a book trailer (made by someone else a long time ago) removed by YouTube and I believed it was because of copyright music in it. The developer said all the music and slides were open stock for non-commercial use - but I wonder.

As for forums, there must be some; but I don't know them.

YouTube removes videos all the time for copyright infringement, "free" or not. And you're still wanting something from it: publicity.

If you think the companies wouldn't mind, I don't understand your reluctance to do the work needed to obtain their permission. Permissions gathering is a necessary part of most nonfiction works. I suspect you will have to pay fees to use the work, though.

You could approach a publisher with your project and (assuming they're interested), try to negotiate a grant for such expenses, or to have them gather the permissions. Large publishers have staff dedicated to exactly that. There's def. a market for this. My mom loves opera and would probably watch it.

Getting permissions to use commercial recordings is okay, as long as you get them from the folks who hold the copyrights, and as long as you get them in writing. At the end of your video add a crawl that identifies all the recordings just like in a movie and include a statement thanking them for their permissions. That ought to satisfy youtube. (I don't think bots are the problem.)