A little about Film Law

Hey readers, once again I am stepping aside my lighting blog to talk about a couple of legal issues at are coming up on the radar. First of which is the lawsuit with Internships with Black Swan and Fox Searchlight Productions. As working in the film industry for a wile now, I have had various opportunities to do internships in L A. I started as an office intern on movies sets and some of my jobs included getting coffee, making copies of scripts to picking up camera gear from Panivision. Even being an office intern, I learned a couple of things or two from producers and other office staff. As most of you all know, working for free or being an “intern” is a right of passage into the entertainment industry. Film and Broadcast is a different world then the “real world.” Internships figure out if you are cut out to work in this industry or not, as well its a great way to meet people and learn how the entertainment world works. The next step to the industry after being an intern would be paid positions as a PA, Grip & Electric or Camera PA. In the legal case of Black Swan and Fox Searchlight, Eric Glatt and Alexander Footman were both interns working on the blockbuster film. Glatt an accounting intern and Footman an office intern for Fox Searchlight’s Black Swan. Glatt said to the Huff Post “As the internship wore on I continued to feel like fox was taking advantage of me after the film made 300 million.” Footman was taking out the trash, taking lunch orders and making sure the coffee pot was full at all times. Glatt and Footman both filed a lawsuit for unpaid labor in film. Glatt and Footman are hoping to get money for them selfs and over  100 Searchlight inters. On August 8th 2012 Judge William H. Pauley III allowed them to file a motion to amend their suit to expand the plaintiff class to include everyone who has worked as an unpaid intern at Fox Entertainment Group for the past several years.

I understand where Glatt and Footman are coming from and wish I was paid as well on blockbusters I was interning on. In my opinion I feel like the film industry is earned not given, as well putting your time in. 

According to Huff Post in 2010 Fox will start paying all interns in the internship program $10 per Hour.

Here is a question. If most PA’s where making $10 per hour and now interns are making $10 per hour, doesn't that make Interns PA’s now?

I know when I open my company, I will have Interns working with me and hopefully asking questions and learning like I did. I feel picking my crew from interns is a great way to find the trust and drive to see if they are willing to succeed in my company.

Another legal issue that was on the radar is about Intellectual property disputes, and my case comes from the movie Hangover 2. Stu Price, one of the characters on hangover 2 had an identical Mike Tyson tattoo that was painted on his face for the movie. Victor Whitmill Tyson’s tattoo artiest filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Entertainment on April 28, 2011. Because Whitmill obtained a copyright for the 8 year old artwork and claimed that the use of his design in the movie and in advertisement with out consent was copyright infringement. Later Whitmill and Warner Bros agreed on an undisclosed amount. 

knowing about IP issues like this, is definitely something to look out for wile producing projects. I know for my company this is going to be something to look out for. Coming from someone that does not have any tattoos, this is something I need to look at designs in tattoos so that I am not having any IP issues before I go into production.

         Talking about IP and copyright artwork lawsuit case, comes from the Syfy reality show Dream Machines and a Louisiana Artist Preston Asevedo that clams the show has been infringing on copyright on his artwork. The problem comes from the comedy tragedy skulls that is used on the parker brothers establishment sign on each episode, and uses it in other ways like stamping it in 50 Cent’s car. Asevedo is suing for copyright infringement, unfair competition and unjust enrichment. No compensation or ruling has been reached. 

Again I feel the producers need to do a better job on spotting out little things like artwork, that can turn around and bite them down the road. Copyright in art is a very hard thing to miss wile in production. After looking at case after case of copyright in art I  can see something going wrong in the future if I don't pay enough attention. Like I have said before, I will be watching out for the little things before I go into Production. 

ARRI Kit and LoCaster LED

Hello lighting people. I am going to be doing a write up on something that I know the most, which is ENG (Electronic News Gathering) lighting. You know those big ARRI kits that are in that big silver case that has four to five lights in them? Yes, I will be talking about that in my post today. 

Arri Kit

 Whether you are doing a sit down interview or a small indie film, the ARRI kits are the best to use. I use the ARRI kits for ENG sit down interviews. I personally use the ARRI kit that has the two 150’s, one 300, one 650 and one open face 1K with a chimera. With the lights in the kit I am able to do some really interesting interviews. I use the 1k with the chimera as my key light and a 300 or 150 as my back light depending on what the light is already doing as a back. If I want to create a fill, which I really don’t do because I use a technique called shadow side towards camera, but if I was to use a fill I would use a bounce board and use a 300 as a back light. 

Enough of my technique, lets get to whats in one of these kits. Depending on what your doing, you can customize your kits to what ever you want. you can have 150s to LED lighting. What ever you pick, your using ARRI which is a very reliable company and the lights are beautiful and controllable.  Mole Richardson is a great company and has there lighting kits also. But everyone I work with will not argue, Arri kits are the best to use due to being rugged and long lasting. 

LoCaster Kit

I am very interested to play with the LoCaster LED lighting that is part of ARRI's kits. The LoCaster LED panel has a 0-100% dimming function, as well as a 2800-6500k control that can be controlled from the fixture it self. But I am very concerned with the throw of the LoCaster, it’s throw is about equivalent to a 75w to a 100w light bulb. At the price you can get two LoCasters that range around $3,000 or you can having a five pice lighting kit with a Chimera for the same amount of money. As well having a fresnel lighting kit you have more control and creativity with the Arri five pice kit. 

Hope you guys got some good information from the Arri kits and the LoCaster. Till next time.

 Happy Lighting. 

The video Below shows the ARRI Kit I recommend. and what the Arri kit has in it.