Copyright Infringement, Is It Out of Control?

After spending time browsing Hollywood Reporter Esq, I noticed there is a trend in the entertainment industry with copyright infringement There are a few stories that imply the ongoing trend in the industry.

Peteski Productions, Dr. Phil’s production company, brought about a lawsuit against Gawker Media. The lawsuit is focused on Gawker Media posting footage on Deadspin.com, from the Dr. Phil show, about the Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax. The footage was posted several hours before the episode air. In result, this jeopardized the rating and viewers.

Gawker released the footage as exclusive and claimed the footage was their own. They gained some profit from their readers about the breaking news.

Since the Internet has become such a vital source of passing along information, new issues about infringement are arousing. As the Internet is developing, it is getting more difficult each day to monitor copyright infringement. After the post was made, Gawker cut down the video to clips instead. I do not have a problem with someone posting footage of someone else’s, as long as the credit is given.

In 2010, Caitlin Sanchez, the young voice actress who played the Dora in Dora the Explorer filed a lawsuit against Nickelodeon saying that she was bamboozled into signing a contract. At the time, she was underage, and the network assigned her a lawyer. Sanchez claims that she was given only twenty-two minutes to sign the contract. Because of the pressure and short amount of time, she signed a contract that had high lawyer contingency fees and tax payments. This resulted in Sanchez earning very little money.

Even though Sanchez felt she had no control over the situation, she should have tried to take control of the situation. It appeared Nickelodeon tried to maximize their profit under any circumstance. Nickelodeon hired an inexperienced lawyer to represent Sanchez, which backfired on her end.

In my opinion, Sanchez’s parents should have had an entertainment lawyer prior to showing up to review the contract the moment they knew their daughter received the job as Dora. They should have not let the network have control over who their lawyer should be. If, for unmentioned circumstances, they had to use the lawyer the network provided, they should have researched the lawyer and reviewed his history. When they would have saw how inexperienced the lawyer was, they could have requested a new lawyer.

This situation mirrors the advice Julee Milham delivered in her interview during the Full Sail guest lecture. She mentioned that contracts should be read as slow as possible to ensure full comprehension. If not, then the contract will get signed with several consequences. This is what happened to Sanchez, and because of that she technically worked for free.

Another story I encountered was a conflict between Michael Costanza and the producers of Paranormal Activity 4. Paramount was sued by Michael Costanza claiming that the Producers of Paranormal Activity 4, Steven Scneider and Spencer Medof, used some concepts from his screenplay without any form of acknowledgement. Constanza pitched his horror film called The Collingswood Story, back in 2002.

Situations, such as this one, happen often in the entertainment industry. It is important to copyright any and everything you can to protect written or visual work. Most screenplay writers only register their screenplays through the Writers Guild of America. The screenplay does not have the same protection if the screenplay were registered with the Copyright Office.

It is blatantly obvious that there needs to be a more strict method on maintaining the rights for works. But as the industry and Internet are developing, it is becoming nearly impossible for someone to prove that work is originally theirs.

Arrested Development, It's Time.

Netlix is taking on several new ventures on its distribution outlets. Netflix is in the process of becoming a new outlet for releasing new original television series and reviving television shows.  The most anticipated Netflix release coming next month is Arrested Development. 

Arrested development, by definition, is an abnormal state in which development has stopped prematurely. This explains how to show is written and operates on its offbeat comedy. The premise of the show is for Michael Bluth to keep his family intact after his father is arrested for his suspicious financial practice in the family owned business. Around this conflict is how the family copes with the situation and having little to no money.

Arrested Development’s season 4 will be released in its entirety on Netflix. So, if you are a fan, start watching season one to three to catch up. Each of the 14 episodes will follow a character from the past seasons. Jason Bateman’s character, Michael Bluth is the only character to appear in all 14 epsiodes. Arrested Development also stares Jeffrey Tambor, Michael Cera, Will Arnett, David Cross, and Jessica Walter.

Arrested Development was cancelled with many questions unanswered. After seven long awaited years, this new season is to answer all questions. Since the moment Arrested Development went off the air, fans have been demanding it come back in some form. The show will not have the exact same feel of the original. All of the actors were tied into other projects, so creating the show was very difficult. The necessary adjustments were made to make this work.

But wait. Fans of Arrested Development are not only getting another season to the series, fans also receive a movie. There is not a projected time on when that is going happen, but it is happening, one day. It keeps getting push back further and further and has not been green lit yet. Hopefully, it will happen . But, at the same time, Arrested Development will operate and flow better as a television show instead of a

Catch the release of Arrested Development on May 25^th.

Is Shameless TOO Shameless?

This past week, I was taking a tour on the Warner Brothers studio lot. As we drove by The Alibi, an exterior set from the US television show, Shameless, he mentioned that the show itself has yet to be nominated for an Emmy. Then I remembered that Shameless has only received two Emmy nominations total, both for Joan Cusack as Best Supporting Actress. It got me thinking.

US Shameless is a British adaptation on Showtime about a dysfunctional family who lives under the worst circumstances in Chicago. Shameless has a variety of personalities that make the Gallagher family unique. The eldest daughter, Fiona is the one who takes care of her five younger siblings. This is because her father is an absent alcoholic and her bipolar mother left the family years ago. The show is raw, but maybe it is too raw.

Shameless, lives up to its name. In order for the family to survive, they spend most of their time conning money and essentials just to make it to the next day. Shameless has dealt with murder, conning, homosexuality, mental disabilities, frequent nudity, and that is just scratching the surface.

What keeps Shameless from an Emmy nomination?

There are extremely strong performances that deserve formal recognition, from every actors: Emmy Rossum, William H. Macy, Justin Chatwin, Ethan Cutkosky, Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey and more.

If any, at least William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum should have received a nomination. William H. Macy plays Frank Gallagher , the absentee alcoholic father. His character has performed some of the more extreme actions on the show. Because of his careless actions, some drug dealers held his youngest son, Liam, hostage because he owed money.  His daughter, Fiona, who holds the family together, is working from temporary job to another, barely making enough to feed the family. Fiona is played by Emmy Rossum. Emmy has deliver outstanding performances one after another, but has yet to get any formal recognition for it. Her character has had a handful of emotional breakdowns that was portrayed realistically. 

The reason this show has never been nominated for an Emmy may be because of its extremity. The events that have taken place may be perceived as over the top. It might make the nominators feel uncomfortable to support a show under these standards. It is not that the events do not happen to families, it is that they do not happen to only one family in a condensed amount of time. This puts this situation in an odd perspective. The extreme events are so crazy that it is good and that may be overshadowing the acting ability portrayed in the show.

Despite its lack of formal recognition, this show is peaking in success on Showtime. I avidly watch this series and every episode is unpredictable. What makes this show special are the actors provide input on each episode after the table readings. If an actor has any suggestion regarding their character or plot, the Show Runner listens and usually takes the actors' suggestion because it was better. This show inspires me to write outside the normal to schock audiences.

Interview: From Marketing Expert to Supervising Producer

Michelle Larkin began her career in marketing and promotions. Since then, she has branched out and explored several different options in different industries. She has held managerial positions. Alongside owning her own networking company, she is currently working as a Supervising Producer for a new and upcoming television talk show. This past week, I have had the opportunity to interview Michelle Larkin of Cynergy Media Group.

When asked if she has ever used any dirty tricks when negotiating a deal, she answered no. She has never used dirty tricks to win a negotiation, but she has left out general information. Michelle believes that, upon meeting, the other person should take the time to do the research and not expect her to have it all done. She has come across situations where she was expected to carry the responsibility as informant, and that is unacceptable.

For the most part, Michelle is able to separate the people from the problem when negotiating a deal. She goes on to say that it is business and it is easier to stay focused on the money or the objective. People are just the resources. She focuses on what obstacles she will have to jump over to get what she wants.

Through the last several months, Michelle has had to use positional bargaining in a professional environment. She had to build a relationship between a creator of a show and an owner of a production company. The creator of a new show had an idea, the connections and the talent. What he lacked was a production company to get his show in front of the right people. The owner had the resources but not the product. Michelle had to negotiate between the two to get the job done. She had to make them both realize how much they needed each other and for them to recognize the long-term benefits.

Michelle’s favorite skill to use to influence the way people think in a negotiation is finding out what is most valuable from listening. Another example comes from this television show is working on. The creator of the show needed to feel that the production company had value. So, what Michelle did is provide support outside of meetings. She goes out of her way to keep up with the client, with check ups, and makes sure that the connection she built between him and the production company is still strong. 

When asked if there was an example of a situation that she found very difficult to settle a negotiation, a story from her past experience came to mind. A new boss came in a changed her positive working environment to a negative environment. Before the new boss came in, Michelle was interviewed for the same position because she was a good performing employee at the company. But she was hired over because the other person had a degree. Since the first day the new coworker arrive, they clashed because the new coworker felt that she did not need to respect Michelle. Michelle tried to negotiate by saying, “If I did x,y,z then will it help you respect me. I am not trying to take your job, I am just trying to make it work.” She then went on to offer to work on a different project and her coworker still didn’t want her to be there. Michelle was trying to be passive aggressive. Michelle and the coworker could not separate the emotion from the objective.

This interview was very interesting because she has had the opportunity to work in different industries. Because she has worked in different environments, she can use her various experiences to build a strong foundation in her negotiation deals. 

Beautiful Creatures: Movie Reviews

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to catch a preview of Beautiful Creatures. I have been exposed to the advertisements for the movie for a while now, and though it looked somewhat intriguing, I was not sold on spending my time and money to see it. I had a conversation with a colleague who was reading the book and she had mentioned that, from the previews, she could tell that the movie cut off the first half of the book. I interpreted that as very important information hacked out of the script to make the movie a reasonable length. But, like every movie out there, I gave it a chance, and I was glad I did.

Beautiful Creatures is a book to movie coming of age adaptation involving the complication of living life as a caster. Casters are the equivalent of witches and wizards. It is a romantic fantasy that stars Lena (Alice Englehert) and Ethan (Aiden Ehrenreich). The moment Lena moves to the small town that Ethan is growing tired of his small hometown, struggles arouse. Lena is a member of the wealthiest family in town and who possesses the power of magic. Their love is at a disadvantage when Lena turns 16, she will either be claimed buy the light or the dark. This movie involves battle after battle between good and evil.

The special effects were done flawlessly It definitely helps deliver the notion that the story is takes place in a different realm. The acting chemistry between Alice and Aiden is delivered naturally, which makes the romance extremely believable. The rest of the cast delivered solid performances as well: by Emma Tompson, Jeremy Irons, Emmy Rossum, Viola Davis, and Margo Martindale.

Overall, I would suggest moviegoers to see this movie. It is different and filmed extremely well. I have yet to read the book, but from what I saw in the movie, I felt Beautiful Creatures would have been an effective television show. There is a lot more depth in the storyline than what is presented. Adapting the full story could be more effective through a television show.

Warm Bodies : A new take on Zombies

I guess you could call me a zombie fan. For fun, I am developing a short film script based on zombies. So, it is important to pay attention to zombie movies that appear to have different twists and takes on it. I am a fan of the novel World War z, I enjoyed 28 Days Later and I have become an avid watcher of The Walking Dead. They all have its similarities: mindless, gruesome looking wanderers. Each focuses on finding a government ran facility for safety. Despite the similarities, they each deliver their own interpretation of how a zombie apocalypse. 

Warms Bodies is based on a novel by Isaac Marion. Warm Bodies stars Nicholas Hoult (Skins and X-men: First Class), as R, and Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four), as Julie. While R is searching for his next meal, he comes across a  young militia in training. Upon the encounter, R notices Julie and it is love at first site for R. To avoid Julie getting eaten by the other zombies, R becomes protective over Julie and takes her back to his home. The communication is very minimal. R understands everything that Julie says, but can only communicate in grunts and moans. During their daily encounters, R begins to build a vocabulary and slowly becomes more human each day.

So, why does Warm Bodies work? It gives a more optimistic spin on the zombie apocalypse perception. It gives a new kind of hope and twist for a painstakingly standard plot: zombies will forever be zombies and there may be a cure. R is personified. We are taken on a journey through the film through a R's voice over. Normally, I would be apposed to to voice over narrations because they are mostly ineffective. But Warm Bodies uses it in an effective way to carry the plot. The soundtrack give Warm Bodies an upbeat feel so the world being consumed by zombies is not as bad as it appears.

The main reason I wanted to see this movie is because of the British actor, Nicholas Hoult. He always puts on an outstanding performance and has a unique acting style. Hoult decided that his character R would not blink in any scenes and hunch is back. 

This is a must see movie. The zombies are easy on the eyes, compared to the classic zombie look. The movie has some strong special and visual affects. Alltogether I give the movie a 9 out 10 stars.