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| One's Milli; the other, Vanilli. Or is it the other way around? |
Suddenly, your great spot is on the reel of someone who sat in that first meeting. It's also in the portfolio of the person who recommended that great designer. Even that colleague who suggested the v/o has a link to it.
Then, you're checking out other creatives' work, and your spot appears on the reel of someone that you never met. Aaawwwk-waaard! For them! Without a doubt, they're all stealing your work.
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| My Sweet Lord vs He's So Fine |
It's a gray area for creatives, and perfectly acceptable when one's role is accurately presented. Selecting and reading voice talent can make or break a spot, for instance. But selecting and reading voice talent, then claiming authorship of the entire spot, is over the line.
With these factors in mind, following are three guidelines to determine whether that work should be reel-eligible:
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| Even The Oprah fell for James Frey. |
2. Can you explain your involvement without having to think long and hard? You know what you did and didn't do. If rationalizing is at the top of your list, again, that's kind of a clue.
3. Did you add something that changed the inherent nature of the project? If you did, that's a beautiful thing, my friend. If not, and it was "just enough to put it in the brochure," then yep, that's a very big clue.
In short, this is kind of a Golden Rule for creatives. We should respect each other's work and all that, but here's the other thing: If one project is identified as being stolen, everything else on the reel is under a cloud of suspicion. Credibility is shot and virtually impossible to recoup.
So beware, somebody may be stealing your work. Just don't return the favor.
-Ed Roth
edrothshow@gmail.com
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One Fine Day?
ReplyDeleteD'oh! I meant to reference "He's So Fine." In the '70s, The Quiet Ex-Beatle was sued over his "My Sweet Lord" and found liable for plagiarizing "He's So Fine." Listen to both and you make the call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYiEesMbe2I
DeleteI updated the caption as well.
DeleteLove this article! I've had this happen as a voice-over artist. I did a campaign for BASF for many years.( " at basf; we don't make the blank, we make it blank"). Another female vo actually "bragged" to me that her composer husband created new music so that she could read the copy and put it on her own reel. Seriously ??
ReplyDeleteThat's my signature voice and you're going to pretend that it's you ??
I say shame on anyone who tries to steal creative work.
Thanks for writing ! Lynda Ashe
Thanks for that, Lynda.
DeleteThe more ideas you have,the more ideas you get.......share them and watch as people run with them.We all speak with accents,it's a copycat syndrome that pulls people together,but we don't claim to have invented our accents,or have legal rights to them.
ReplyDeleteNow let's look at where ideas come from,do we pay before having an idea?.....no,they're all free! Now if I had the best idea in the world and it had the potential to go for 2000 years,it would remain a humble idea if I did nothing with it.It takes effort,time an money to make an idea work,and the people who have no ideas,do put in a lot more effort time and money than creative innovators that have bulbs lighting up in their heads every second of their blessed lives,(I'm one of them!).
I've sat in highly populated International company meetings and popped great ideas into people's heads,they've taken them and made global concepts work stemming from my ideas,forgetting to mention my name........but in the long run,it makes me really happy to know that my idea was caught and used.I've already moved onto other concepts and ideas by the time my initial idea has been commercialized and shared.
Ideas are all hanging above our heads,lurking in the dark corners of our dreams,I breathe ideas like others breathe in oxygen,when I speak in a meeting or a party or dinner,I know that some of my ideas will be used by others who do not have that talent to illustrate in words the abstraction of a brilliant idea.
If a musician hears a child humming his song,a construction worker whistling his tune,does he ask for the rights,does he want to sue the kid and get compensation......? So it's all about the financial and commercial implications and not the real root problem,which is.......the people that steal ideas can't light up their idea bulbs,they have no current,no power.......we creatives need to fuel their cloudy minds and offer the warm rays of a brilliant,blindingly great idea,because without us there'd be very little colour in the world as we see it today.
My ideas have all been stolen? Or have I made them gifts,like seeds thrown onto the ground?
If I were to glance over my shoulder I would see the sprawling fields of flowers off into the distance,as far as the sky meets the golden mountains of my offered concepts and ideas,turning back towards my inevitable path I see baron earth,rocks and weeds.......there's so much work to be done spreading ideas,sharing thoughts and offering solutions by out of the box thinking,don't hoard them and cover them,lean back and allow others to profit from our inspiration.....they'll be financial compensation and rewards,but for most of our ideas nothing else will come back other than the satisfaction of seeing our thoughts become real.
Sing a tune in a crowd,and listen to the crowd sing back!
Keverne
It cost him $1.00. The only reason: It was proved that he was in a place where it was played. I've NEVER thought My Sweet Lord sounded anything like He's So Fine other than three notes.
ReplyDeleteI think the judge felt compelled to rule for George, but the $1.00 in damages was the judge's way of mitigating his own ruling.
Are you sure? My understanding is that it ended up costing George almost $600,000. More than you'd ever want to read about it is here: http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/mysweet.htm
ReplyDeleteI registered a script in 1980 with WGA West, submitted it to an independent agent and, as well to Andrea Eastman, Tony Danza's management agent. Within a year Disney comes out with a movie of the week using the same basic story, two character names the same, but changing the title and eliminating certain scenes, and starring, but who else, Tony Danza. I contacted an attorney who examined all my evidence and agreed it was a slam dunk case, except that Disney had an army of attorneys who would keep me in depositions etc. until I was broke, and then if I won they would claim all the money earned by their film in a separate individual corporation made no profit in order for me to collect from them, and that all it would do would be to tarnish my writing name. How do you win against deep pockets?
ReplyDeleteYou don't, Warren. Either that, or you have deeper pockets.
ReplyDeleteI think this article misses the point a bit, I think any involvement in a project is reel worthy as long as you say what your role was and don't claim more than that.. a film is a collaboration and showing you were part of that is what helps you get up the ladder even if you were just a camera assistent number 5 or one of the boom operators.. you might not of changed or influenced the core story or whatnot, but you were definitely part of it, it is team work....and sometimes film teams can exploit people so we have to watch out for that also... but also lying is not going to get you anywhere.. because these are the people you might be working with again in the future.. so why piss them off by lying about what you did.
ReplyDeleteAlso sometimes people don't credit you for the work you did and especially if you did it for free, this is really exploitative.. and if thats the case you have 2 choices you can either let it be.. and just see it as a good learning experience... and move on.. or you can own what you did.... but no more than that.
Vinny, we're on the same page re: claiming credit. Which is why I addressed this specifically - "It's a gray area for creatives, and perfectly acceptable when one's role is accurately presented." This is a collaborative business, after all.
DeletePeople nick your stuff. It happens all the time. I had a series stolen right out from under my nose on ITV. And I was sacked from another series, while an official from my own union had been engaged to write the scripts I'd been commissioned to do. Shit happens. Suck it up. Move on.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that, Don. Unfortunately, it's not a rarity, judging by our own experiences and others' stories that are coming forth.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine is a Spot Producer here in the UK, and this article was very helpful to him (he is currently going through exactly this scenario.)
QJ, I'm glad this was helpful. Good luck to your friend!
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/0mF1Fjvr8Pw
ReplyDeleteWow...read these stories and the topic host's comments. Seems that if you 'Guard' your creations they will never see light. If you are forced to share them with a collaborative team be 'On Guard' because you may take a hit from someone in the meeting room.
ReplyDeleteCan you somehow 'license' your creative story/design or product at the outset, so that your name and concept ownership cannot be over-shadowed by the Idea Thief?