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Oh to be in GREENLAND at the end of the world
Posted by cinepam in Reviews
apocalypse, Chris Sparling, Gerard Butler, Greenland, Morena Baccarin, Ric Roman Waugh, Roger Dale Floyd
They call the comet "Clarke" in the new movie Greenland. How sweet. What a cute name for a comet so long that astronomists cannot even see its tail. As it hurtles closer and closer, the media quotes the scientific consensus that the space object will come so near Earth that anyone looking up will be able to see it in the sky, even in daylight – but it is harmless. Even as pieces start breaking off, speeding toward Earth, the world is reassured the shards will land harmlessly in the ocean. Of course, were that to happen, there would be no drama and no movie.
That scenario of an event that begins innocuously enough only to threaten all life on Earth is not new. Even Lars Von Trier had a go at the scenario with Melancholia and managed to turn an action trope into an existential drama about a family facing the enormity of apocalypse. But Greenland stars Gerard Butler, he of the Fallen series, so it is an action movie – about a family… trying to catch a plane.
No joke. Clarke is about to cause an extinction level event. For structural engineer John Garrity (Butler), Allison (Morena Baccarin), and young son Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd), their own shot at survival is to make their way to Greenland and a place in one of the sweet underground bunkers the US government has set up there. Originally among the chosen few selected for a spot, when through circumstance, their official ride falls through, it is a race through the night to catch a plane that John hears about through random, end-of-the-world gossip.
Greenland is a film that raises so many questions. Why Greenland? The US has bases all over the world and within the United States, so why are the only bunkers in that Danish territory? Why was Garrity picked, among all the many structural engineers in the US, as a designated survivor? Was there a secret lottery? And how often is the apocalypse-survival master list updated? Why would parents entrust their diabetic child to carry his own insulin in a backpack with his blanket and toys? Why is the media so calm while reporting their own impending deaths? Why did Morena Baccarin take a role that mostly consists of crying and near-hysteria? Is the middle of a pandemic the best time to release a movie about an event with dire, world-altering consequences?
Those and many more questions are bound to come up as one watches a film in which the consequences are high stakes, but the action needed to reach an ultimate conclusion is unconvincing. Director Ric Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen) handles the action scenes competently enough, but Chris Sparling's script is weak. He's cobbled together a series of unfortunate events that add roadblocks to the Garrity family's ultimate goal, too many not entirely believable. Also, since there is so little attention paid to character, beyond John is stoic and capable, Allison is emotional, and little Nathan is precocious, it is hard to care whether they make it to Greenland or not. Why this family? Why not that other family? The stakes are high, but Greenland is more of a video game—and not a very exciting one at that—than a movie. And the outcome is never in doubt. Everybody dies. Well, almost. –Pam Grady
THE LAST VERMEER sketches out Dutch artist's postwar peril
19 Thursday Nov 2020
art history, Claes Bang, courtroom drama, Guy Pearce, The Last Vermeer, war crimes, World War II
Guy Pearce as Han Van Meegeren in TriStar Pictures' THE LAST VERMEER.
Guy Pearce, who played Andy Warhol in the Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl, plays yet another 20th-century artist in Dan Friedkin's The Last Vermeer, Dutch painter and art dealer Han van Meegeren. Imbuing the character with equal parts charm, arrogance, exuberance, and a deep well of humor that never deserts him even as van Meegeren faces the gallows, the actor is riveting in this delicious slice of historical drama.
In the Netherlands in the immediate aftermath of World War II, the Dutch judicial system is running full speed to punish those who collaborated with the Nazis. Among the targets of the investigations is van Meegeren, who sold one of the country's national treasures, a rare work by 17th-century master Johannes Vermeer, to Nazi leader Hermann Goering. Captain Joseph Piller (Claes Bang, The Square), a former Resistance fighter, is the man leading the inquiry. At first certain of the artist's collaboration with the enemy, that conviction wavers in the face of van Meegeren's spirited defense that casts his actions in a vastly different light.
At times, The Last Vermeer takes on the suspenseful tones of a thriller as Piller finds himself at odds with a judicial bureaucracy that has already made up its mind and is out for blood. But eventually the film settles into an involving courtroom drama. That van Meegeren's guilt has been predetermined is understandable. Even without the receipt of sale for the looted Dutch masterpiece, the artist's opulent lifestyle in a country where most of the population has suffered deprivation and hardship simply looks bad. How was he able to keep his fortune in a country occupied by Nazis? In defending him, Piller has his work cut out for him, and part of the pleasure in watching the film, is watching that defense unfold. The question of van Meegeren's actual relationship with the German high command lingers tantalizingly over the proceedings. Is he innocent? Guilty? A trickster who is both at once?
In contrast to Pearce's ebullience, Bang offers a sober portrayal of a man trying to do the right thing. A Jewish man who covertly fought the Nazis, Piller is well aware of what collaboration with them meant, even if collaboration in this instance was selling a piece of art and not overtly aiding the Nazis' war/genocidal efforts. A man of conscience, he seeks justice, not revenge, which puts him at odds with the prevailing mood. His insistence on following the case wherever it leads sets him against an unforgiving system. He is the beating heart of the film, a hero of the resistance who is still fighting the good fight.
Based on van Meegeren's tribulations after the war and adapted from Jonathan Lopez's book, The Last Vermeer shines a tantalizing light on a small chapter of World War II. Weaving together biography, the force of two strong personalities, and the legend of a Dutch master, it is a potent blend of drama with the history of art and war. –Pam Grady
The Last Vermeer opens in theaters November 20.
A monster in the White House in '70s-era THE WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON
Dean Stockwell, Milton Moses Ginsberg, The Werewolf of Washington
The Nixon administration and its misdeeds inspired this queasy horror comedy set in the august halls of the White House. Writer/director Milton Moses Ginsberg could have gone for a more on-the-nose scenario with vampires sucking blood out of bodies and the body politic, but instead he unleashes a malevolent hound on the Oval Office. In this curio from 1973, playing on the Metrograph's virtual screen Oct. 16-22, Dean Stockwell is the hapless assistant press secretary for whom things get a little hairy at the full moon.
It is the director's cut that the Metrograph is screening and Ginsberg has added a note to the beginning of the film that it has taken him 40 years to come to terms with Nixon's presidency and find the right cut to The Werewolf of Washington. The statement seems innocuous enough until you watch this slim – only 70 minutes – but wild feature and are left to wonder what ended up getting cut and what might have been restored at some point. This film is bonkers.
Among the few oblique references to the actual Nixon administration is newly minted deputy Jack Whitter's (Stockwell) address in the Watergate apartment complex. A one-time reporter who used to cover the White House and dated the president's (Biff McGuire) daughter Marion (Jane House), Jack leaves his latest post in Hungary to take the new job. But he brings a little bit of Eastern Europe back with him in the form of a curse, something Jack only becomes aware of at the first full moon after his arrival.
Ginsberg juggles two narratives, one a satire of Washington politics, with a boorish blowhard (no, really) installed in the Oval Office. McGuire is terrific as a crass pol who never listens to anyone and blusters his way through every situation. In one of the film's funniest moments, the president is bowling in the bowels of the White House when his ball gets stuck in the return. He insists that Jack accompany him down the lane to retrieve it. The site of McGuire and Stockwell gingerly making their way down adjoining gutters is hilarious.
The rest of the movie is taken up with Jack and his problem. He tries to explain it to Marion's fiancé (Beeson Carroll), a Navy psychiatrist, only to be met with derision. As the body count around Washington mounts, Jack's panic mounts, but no one will take him seriously. He is tortured and cannot stop staring at his hands, but the president and others are not sympathetic. Instead, they question Jack's masculinity.
A two-time acting award winner at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959 for Compulsion and 1962 for Long Day's Journey Into Night and a future Oscar nominee in 1989 for Married to the Mob, Stockwell attacks his role here full-throttle. He makes grand use of those expressive eyebrows of his as he begins his transformation, signaling another wild night out on the town. It is not a subtle performance, but Jack is a role that cries out for over the top and the actor delivers.
In the waning term of our own century's shambolic presidency, a scant two-and-a-half weeks before the election and two weeks before Halloween, the time is right for the return of this monster mashup. It's a howler. – Pam Grady
A woman warrior claims her destiny in MULAN
Crystal Rao, Liu Yifei, Mulan, Niki Caro, Rosalind Chao, Tzi Ma
Disney blinked and more's the pity. Mulanis a rip-roaring, sweeping epic, action-packed, involving, and colorful. It deserves to be on the big screen. But hemorrhaging money as COVID imposes its misery on the happiest place on earth, the company is hoping to recoup some of its losses with a $30 surcharge to its Disney+ subscription. It's a small screen, after all.
A quasi-remake of Disney's 1998 animated tale, this live-action Mulan dispenses with songs, the dragon, and other elements of that first adaptation of the Chinese folk tale. In this version of the story, a young girl, Mulan (Crystal Rao), is already practicing her warrior moves, influenced by her father Zhou's (Tzi Ma) stories of his experiences on the battlefield and in thrall to the sword that his prized possession.
She grows into a beautiful young woman (Liu Yifei), but even as her father warns her that a female warrior would bring disgrace to the family and her mother Li (Rosalind Chao) reminds her that a woman brings honor to her family when she makes a good marriage, Mulan never loses that independent streak. Her chance comes when the government seeks conscripts to defend the kingdom from the nomad would-be usurper Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee) and his horde. Disguising herself as a male, Mulan goes off to war.
Mulan Is at its lightest in the film's training camp scenes. A soldier's life is something she has anticipated and trained for her all her life. Skill sets her male counterparts are just learning she already possesses. She is awkward out of necessity – not only does she not know the world or experiences of boys, but she does not dare do or say anything that might give her away. The deception tugs at her conscience even as her heart tells her that this is her destiny.
Director Niki Caro, who rose to prominence with Whale Rider (2002) before going on to make such films as North Country (2005) and The Zookeeper's Wife (2017), takes the reins of the most expensive movie ever made by a woman and every bit of that $200 million is apparent on screen. The battle scenes are tense and thrillingly choreographed. Mandy Walker's cinematography is crisp and luminous. Grant Major's production design, Anne Kuljian's set decoration, and Bina Daigeler's costume design blend into a kaleidoscope of often jewel-toned color, adding a sense of richness even to Mulan's modest home village.
Mulan represents Disney's latest step away from the princess-in-need-of-rescue narrative that was the company's bread and butter for so many years. As portrayed by Rao and Liu, the girl who will be a warrior is a strong, resilient young person with the courage and fortitude to make her dreams a reality. A fierce conviction that the battlefield is where she belongs and that it is her duty and her destiny to protect her family and her country animate her. Mulan has lessons to teach the patriarchal society she was born into – and to a contemporary society watching her ancient battles on screen. –Pam Grady
Bert Stern Recalls A SUMMER'S DAY
Posted by cinepam in Interviews
Aram Avakian, Bert Stern, Jazz on a Summer's Day, Jimmy Giuffre, Louis Armstrong
Note: This interview was conducted in June 2000 and originally appeared on Reel.com. Then the interview ran in conjunction with the DVD release of Jazz on a Summer's Day. Twenty years later, it is running as the 4K restoration of the 1959 documentary opens in virtual cinemas.
In a career that spans nearly 50 years and is still going strong, Bert Stern has racked up quite a resume as a still photographer and director of commercials. He photographed Marilyn Monroe and designed the infamous, heart-shaped sunglasses poster for Stanley Kubrick's Lolita. In 1958, Stern took a break from photography and shot his only film, Jazz on a Summer's Day, a breathtaking, tune-filled documentary on that year's Newport music festival. With the film recently released on an eye-popping DVD by New Yorker Films, Stern took some time from his busy schedule to chat with Reel.com about his acclaimed detour into filmmaking and why he only made the one picture.
Q: The liner notes interview from Jazz on a Summer's Day states that the film is less of a documentary than a happening. Is that how you perceived the project going in and why?
Bert Stern: I think it is more of a music film and a happening. In fact, it was an event, which was the Newport Jazz Festival. It was just an opportunity to make a movie out of a musical event, which is what intrigued me, plus the fact that jazz took place in Newport, which seemed unusual.
Q: Why did that seem unusual to you?
Bert Stern: Because I always associated jazz with the South — [music] for poor people, you might say, and Newport with the North and rich people. And at that time, it seemed strange to me that the South and North would be together. It doesn't seem strange anymore, but, at that time, it was strange.
Q: Jazz on a Summer's Day benefits not just from having the eye of a great photographer, but also that gorgeous film stock. What went into your decision to shoot color rather than the more documentary-standard black-and-white of the era?
Bert Stern: Well, it was 35mm Eastman color negative. I think basically when I had the idea, I kind of envisioned green grass and sunny days and stuff. It was an outdoor festival. I always thought Newport as being a beautiful, rich place. I didn't think of it in black and white at all. Also, most of my photographs are in color.
Q: You've also said that when you think of jazz documentaries, you tend to think of them as being more downbeat than your film. Did that go into your decision to shoot in color as well? Did you want to bring jazz out into the light?
Bert Stern: Well, you might say that. I like to think that most of the movies that are made about jazz or music were black-and-white and downstairs in little rooms, and I thought that was somewhat depressing. Whereas music should be uplifting.
Q: You originally envisioned this as a short. When did you realize that you had a feature film on your hands?
Bert Stern: I think that when we started to plan it, I said maybe I could put a story to it and make a full-length feature.
Q: And then the story ended up?
Bert Stern: On the cutting-room floor.
Q: You were a photographer but you had served in the motion picture unit in the Army. When you decided to make the film, what kind of tests did you do prior to actually shooting the film to re-familiarize yourself with cinematography, or did you just go on the fly?
Bert Stern: Just went on the fly. I did news photography for the Army in Japan and I was familiar with movie cameras from that.
Q: You did adapt telephoto lenses for the cameras that you used.
Bert Stern: I adapted a long lens which I use a lot in my still work and put it on an Arriflex, which gave me a chance to shoot all the close-ups because we weren't allowed on the stage.
Q: You had five cameras on the shoot, how did you decide who would shoot what?
Bert Stern: We didn't have five all the time. But basically, long shot, medium shot, close-up and two medium shots, made one on each side.
Q: Did you plan in advance who was doing what?
BS: No, we just had — like I was the close-up camera looking towards the stage on the left which is most of the close-ups in the movie. So that was my camera. But we had a long one in the back and we had two other people roaming around on the right and center below.
Q: Some of the most stunning footage in the film is the aerial footage from the America's Cup races. Did you always have it in mind to shoot those races or was that something that you came up with after you arrived in Newport?
Bert Stern: I think it came up after I arrived in Newport. When I got a feeling of what was going on in the area, it seemed to add dimension to the idea; instead of just shooting people playing musical instruments, to bring in the things that were happening around the event. The birds, the boats, children, all kinds of things. I guess that came out of shooting the music. The first thing I shot was Jimmy Giuffre, which is the opening of the movie. And first I put the camera on and just listened to him. I just pictured the seagulls flying around, which led me to shoot the next morning out at the dock. But there were no seagulls, so I shot reflections on the water and put that to his music.
Q: I know you shot the party sequence later on Long Island. There are also cutaways to a Dixieland band driving through town and playing at what looks like an amusement park and also on the beach. Was that all staged as well and if so, why did you chose those particular images?
Bert Stern: The band in the car was a group that came to town on their own and we just asked if we could shoot them. So, we just followed them around a bit when we weren't shooting the festival. The kids on the merry-go-round were kids on a merry-go-round but the footage of the party on the roof was done afterwards because we needed a little bit more cutaways and we set that up in Long Island in a similar-looking area.
Q: [Music supervisor] George Avakian determined who you would shoot on the basis of what music you knew you would be able to clear later on?
Bert Stern: Right.
Q: There were people you didn't shoot at the festival, like Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and Ray Charles, I guess because you couldn't get the permissions to use their music. Do you regret not getting some of them on film?
Bert Stern: Probably. I've never been a big Duke Ellington fan so I was very happy with Louis Armstrong. I think basically, I had to choose between the two of them. Didn't have enough budget to afford both. And Coltrane I wasn't aware of at the time.
Q: How did you finance the film?
Bert Stern: By shooting photographs during the week.
Q: So, this was totally, totally self-financed?
Bert Stern: Well, not just totally self-financed. There was a little money here and there that was raised and finally to finish the film, we met a man named Milton Gordon, who became the distributor and who put up the final amount that we needed to pay Louis Armstrong and finish the film. The budget was, I think, the total cost of the film was $215,000.
Q: I know your relationship with the Avakian brothers was somewhat contentious. What was it like editing with Aram Avakian? And prior to going into editing, did you have a game plan going in or was editing more or less improvisational?
Bert Stern: Aram is a great editor and is the brother of George, of course. I think Aram is a different kind of filmmaker and he kind of objected that I was so improvisational. He was much more structured in the way he went about making films, and many times I had to tell him I didn't want to do the kind of cutting he was normally accustomed to and to leave it alone. So, it was my decision finally to decide what to do. But he was a wonderful editor, and it was very hard putting all that footage together. I think it took him at least six months. It was a very difficult task since it was before video tape and everything.
Q: You've never made another film after this film. Did you decide you couldn't be both a still photographer and a filmmaker?
Bert Stern: Pretty much. But I did do some Twiggy specials in 1967 when she came to America. I did three specials for ABC and I did a lot of commercials, of course. But I never decided to give up still photography and just make movies, because that is what it would take.
Q: Have you ever had any regrets that you didn't make more movies?
Bert Stern: No, I think I would have been a good filmmaker, but that would have been my career instead of still photography.
Q: You are probably most famous for your wonderful portraits of Marilyn Monroe and you've also had great successes as a still photographer, a commercial director, and you made the one film. What do you regard as your greatest achievement?
Bert Stern: Surviving. I guess. Photography. I think there is something very Americana about my photography that I like. I am very much an American kind of photographer.
Q: Is that what you would like to be remembered for?
Bert Stern: I don't know. The Marilyn pictures I like. I like my pictures so I don't know — I guess I will be remembered for them because you can look at them. There is something nice about a photograph because you can have it around all the time. A movie you have to project and sit down and watch for an hour and a half.
Q: What do you remember at this point? It has been over 40 years since that jazz festival. What do you remember most about it now?
BS: About the jazz festival?
Q: Yes, and about making the film. What stands out in your mind more than anything else?
Bert Stern: That is hard to say. I guess just the idea of being there and being able to capture that kind of material on film and a group of people that weren't usually together. There are very few times that there were so many musical stars at a festival. That was probably the only time. I just liked the idea and I liked doing it. –Pam Grady
Jazz on a Summer's Day opens virtually at CinemaSF and BAMPFA on Aug. 12 and the Roxie Theater on Aug. 14.
JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY basks in new restoration
Anita O'Day, Bert Stern, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington, Jazz on a Summer's Day, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Newport Jazz Festival, Thelonious Monk
Photographer Bert Stern, best known for his pioneering ad work –he was the "original mad man," according to his official bio – and glamorous portraits of Marilyn Monroe, made only one film in his career, Jazz on a Summer's Day. That documentary, freshly restored to 4K, is enough, though, to make one regret that Stern – who died in 2013 – chose to stick to still photography.
Jazz on a Summer's Day is Stern's impressionistic chronicle of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. At its core, the film is a record of the performances that include sets from jazz greats Jimmy Giuffre, Thelonious Monk, Anita O'Day, Sonny Stitt, Gerry Mulligan, Big Maybelle Smith, George Shearing, Dinah Washington, Chico Hamilton, Louis Armstrong, as well as rock 'n' roll pioneer Chuck Berry, and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. For anyone who loves the best of music from that era, this is bliss, from Giuffre's instrumental that opens the film to Dinah Washington's soulful rendition of "All of Me" (during which she playfully joins in on vibraphone during the song's instrumental break) to Armstrong's energetic "Tiger Rag" to Jackson climaxing the film with a soulful "Lord's Prayer."
Beyond the world of the stage, Stern sought to capture the full essence of Newport on that tuneful weekend, roaming the town and the concert grounds with his camera. A Dixieland band riding in an open jalopy brings its joyful noise to the city's streets, horns blaring. Stern follows along, later catching the young musicians playing on the beach at sunset. Children frolic in their yards and at a carnival.
Sailing trials for the America's Cup were at Newport that weekend, too, and Stern is there, flying along overhead or skimming along the water with the boats. The images of a trio of yachts bobbing on the water cross-cut with Thelonious Monk performing "Blue Monk" are indelible.
The camera ventures into the festival audience capturing young lovers dancing, parents grooving along with their children, and the rapt faces of entranced fans. Pianist George Shearing appears in one of these asides, a huge smile on his face as he mimes playing a keyboard while Louis Armstrong wails on stage. The only sound in the film is the music itself, announcements from the stage, and the occasional off-camera remark, typically a conversation between festival organizers. The cinematography is a rich kaleidoscope of sounds and pictures.
Stern was 29 when he shot Jazz on a Summer's Day, and already one of America's premier photographers. For this project, he dispensed even with light meters, he and his fellow camera people Courtney Hafela and Ray Phealan using their own judgment when it came to setting exposures. They deliberately broke rules – shooting directly into stage lights, for example.
When Stern was done that weekend, he came away with a collection of gorgeous, color-saturated images. Jazz on a Summer's Day is visually spectacular, never more so than 62 years after it was shot. IndieCollect's 4K restoration amplifies the film's beauty, the complement to its aural enchantments. The doc was always glorious, now its shimmering qualities have been enhanced. It is a pure delight. –Pam Grady
A Neeson family affair: MADE IN ITALY
father and son, James D'Arcy, Liam Neeson, Lindsay Duncan, Made in Italy, Micheál Richardson, Valeria Bilello
The echoes of two actors' shared reality lend unexpected emotional resonance to this engaging Tuscany travelogue, actor James D'Arcy's (Agent Carter, Homeland) feature writing/directing debut. What might have been a slight relationship drama between a fractured father and son takes on real weight when the father is played by Liam Neeson and the son by his own progeny, Micheál Richardson. In a story that touches on a young adult feeling like he can never measure up to a celebrated parent, Richardson proves that is not an issue in the Neeson household.
There are eerie parallels in the situation between Jack (Richardson) and Robert (Neeson) and that of the actors that play them. Jack lost his mother and Robert his wife in a car crash when the boy was a child, just as a skiing accident claimed Richardson's mother and Neeson's wife, Natasha Richardson, when Micheál was in middle school.
In Jack and Robert's case, the death opened a chasm between them that neither now knows how to breach. Robert, a respected artist, simply stopped creating as grief consumed him. Jack, only seven when his mom died, can barely remember her or a time when he belonged to a happy family. He brings his father to their old Tuscan villa not to strengthen any familial bond but because he needs money and selling the property is his only prayer of getting it.
There is no mystery about where all this is going, but that scarcely matters. The views are stunning, the villa at the top of a hill overlooking a verdant valley. In contrast, the long-neglected villa is decrepit and full of weasels, but somehow no less charming for it. Selling the property is clearly the height of insanity, but can Jack see that?
Valeria Bilello (Sense8) plays Natalia, a restaurateur who catches Jack's eye, while Lindsay Duncan is Kate, a realtor tasked with selling the house who just happens to be age appropriate for Robert. Father and son returned to England after the tragedy, never to look back until now. What remains unsaid could not be clearer: In Robert's inability to cope with his loss head-on only made a bad situation that much worse for father and son. Jack, in his desire, for quick cash has inadvertently backed his father and himself into a long-delayed reckoning with the hole in their lives.
A syrupy score and an over-reliance on Italian pop grate on the soundtrack, but mostly Made in Italy floats on the strengths of its glorious setting, the amiability of its storytelling, and the strengths of its performances. In particular, Neeson father and son are terrific, a coup of casting for a first-time director that pays off in the rich emotional shadings they bring to their roles –Pam Grady
Made in Italy is playing in drive-ins, theaters, and digital and cable VOD platforms.
Offbeat pairing animates WWII drama SUMMERLAND
Gemma Arterton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessica Swale, Lucas Bond, Summerland, World War II
Alice (Gemma Arterton) has well earned her reputation as the town crank in her small seaside village. So nasty is she that you half expect the townspeople to start shouting, "Burn the witch!" She has that effect, but her surliness does not mean she is not expected to do her part as World War II ravages Europe. Volunteerism is thrust upon her – a woman without an ounce of maternal instinct or selflessness – when Frank (Lucas Bond), a young refugee from the London Blitz, is put in her care. So goes the set-up of Summerland, Olivier award-winning playwright and theater director Jessica Swale's big-hearted feature writing/directing debut.
"Stories have to come from somewhere," Alice, a writer, tells Frank. They also have to be going somewhere and where this one is headed is evident from the first meet-mean between a guardian who wants nothing to do her charge and a boy blessed with a sweet disposition and endless charm. An opening scene set 30 years in the future with an aged Alice (Penelope Wilton), still living in the same cottage and pecking away at what looks like the same manual typewriter she's used since at least the 1940s, only underlines that Summerland is a tale following a predictable path. But plot mechanics scarcely matter in this endearing film. It is the personalities of Alice and Frank, and the endless small details that make up their lives that matter.
The title refers to the pagan idea of an afterlife, a concept Alice introduces to the child. Summerland is part of her research into myths and legends. She also brings Frank to a seaside bluff to look for Fata Morgana, the mirage of the sea. In this case, what she hopes to spy is an image of a nearby castle, seemingly floating in the air. The ideas capture Frank's imagination, his enthusiasm creating a small chink in Alice's armor.
Frank also bonds with new schoolmate Edie (Dixie Egerickx), united in shared interests. Separated from his mom in London and his dad off fighting the war, his prickly guardian and new friend are a balm for his loneliness. Frank's presence in Alice's house begins to have the same effect on her, even as it reminds her of how she came to be so bitter and isolated in the first place after a breakup with girlfriend Vera (a luminous Gugu Mbatha-Raw). The wound simply never healed.
Shot in Sussex along the region's glorious white cliffs and gorgeously lenses by cinematographer Laurie Rose, Summerland offers picture-postcard views of the English countryside. But what makes the drama so inviting are the sharp characterizations of Alice and Frank, and the performances. Arterton, a Bond girl in Quantum of Solace and, more recently, Vita Sackville-West in Vita & Virginia, has never been better as she essays a role where thorniness is Alice's defining trait yet she must also suggest just enough heart to make it believable when Alice's ice begins to thaw. Bond is terrific as a child thrown into a lion's den at a time when his life is already unsettled, yet who finds a way to thrive.
Together, the actors' chemistry is irresistible. Summerland is a resolutely old-fashioned movie that wears its sentiment on its sleeve. That could have been a disaster, but Swale's confident storytelling never cloys. Instead, she spins a captivating tale, shot through with gruff humor. Alice's village might reject her; audiences will gladly spend time in her prickly world. –Pam Grady
Summerland is playing in drive-ins, theaters, and digital and cable VOD platforms.
THE RENTAL: Scarebnb
Alison Brie, Dan Stevens, Dave Franco, Jeremy Allen White, Joe Swanberg, Sheila Vand, The Rental, Toby Huss
Rental_AR_05.23.19_234.ARW
There is such a thing as "too good to be true." That is the terrain actor-turned-director Dave Franco explores in his feature directing debut, The Rental, a chameleon of a film that morphs from relationship drama to edge-of-your-seat thriller in a compact 88 minutes. What The Shining did for isolated mountain lodges, The Rental stands to do for luxury home shares. Be afraid, very afraid of what might be lurking just below sleek surfaces and a host's five-star rating.
The house is huge, really too big for two couples, Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Michelle (Alison Brie), and Charlie's brother, Josh (Jeremy Allen White), and Mina (Sheila Vand), on a short weekend getaway. But the home's beauty and its placement on a bluff overlooking the ocean are the perfect backdrop for the celebration of business partners Charlie and Mina's latest success. At least, that is the theory.
Mina's immediate dislike of Taylor (Toby Huss), the property's caretaker, and faint but evident fissures in both couples' relationships cast discreet shadows over the trip, but part of the beauty of the script that Franco wrote with mumblecore veteran Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas) is that he spins a yarn where the audience is far more clued in than the characters.
The weekend never quite goes as either couple plans – Michelle is on a different wavelength than everyone else when it comes to having fun, Charlie and Mina both have reasons to question their relationships, and Josh has a troubled past that affects his relationships with his sibling and his girlfriend. So far, so mundane, but Franco privileges the viewer with another point of view, one that hints of malevolence in the offing, Someone is watching. The question that hovers is whether the trouble in the offing will come from within or outside of the house?
Performances are uniformly excellent, even if it is hard to work up much sympathy for characters that are whiny, entitled, and sometimes downright awful. The plot is set at a low simmer, only coming to a full boil in the last half hour or so. The sedate tempo, Danny Bensi and Saunder Juriians' eerie score, and the pea-soup fog that surrounds the house at night blend into a menacing atmosphere. The tension slowly ratchets up until at last the house reveals its horrifying secrets. For this sleek, suspenseful film's director, it is quite a calling card. –Pam Grady
The Rental is playing in drive-ins, theaters, and digital and cable VOD platforms.
Ross brothers find truth in fiction in BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS
Bill Ross, Bloody Nose Empty Pockets, Michael Martin, Turner Ross
Charles Bukowski would recognize the habitués of Las Vegas dive bar the Roaring 20s. So, would you if you put in any time in a bar that is welcoming enough and has been around long enough to attract a dedicated family of regulars. One of those places that doesn't call itself a "cocktail lounge" and doesn't employ mixologists, but a joint for a beer and a shot among strangers who become friends. And for the regulars at the Roaring 20s in Bill and Turner Ross' shambling, engaging documentary, it is time to spend one last night together there as "last call" really is just that for a watering hole about to close forever.
The twist is that Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is not a documentary at all. There never was a Roaring 20s in Las Vegas. The Ross brothers shot some of the shabbier, off-the-Strip streets way back in 2009 shortly after the big financial implosion. But nearly a decade went by before they circled back around to that Sin City footage. In the interim, the siblings upped their profile with the releases of Tchoupitoulas (2012), Western (2015), and Contemporary Color (2016).
Revisiting their Las Vegas idea, they opted not to revisit Las Vegas, instead auditioning bars in their own city New Orleans, eventually finding one with the right timeworn but inviting ambiance. Then they populated the place with a large ensemble of barflies, some actors, others one suspects not, and allows them to improvise their way through the Roaring 20s' last hurrah. The Rosses make no attempt to hide their cameras, so the film crew, too, becomes part of the mise en scène.
Anchoring the story's kitchen-sink realism is weathered, white-haired Michael Martin, playing a homeless regular who is the first customer in the door in the morning and the last to leave in the wee hours of the next day. He is gruff but friendly, helpful, and he has no illusions about his life. As the final minutes count down on the Roaring 20s, he counsels Pete (Peter Elwell), a young musician following Michael's same path of dissipation, "I'm 58. I look 70. I used to be an actor and I used to be pretty good at it… You need to get out of here while you're still a musician."
Not all of Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is that heavy. There are moments of humor, scenes of affection between people who exist together only in this space and know they may never be together again, the nostalgia that comes from the realization that something is coming to an end, and the petty, drunken spats that erupt when booze flows like water.
From the opening frames as Michael makes his way down a shabby street on his way to the bar, Buck Owens' '60s country classic "Big in Vegas" striking a plaintive note on the soundtrack, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets sets a bittersweet tone. Set in the here and now (the day after Trump's election, in fact), the muted tones of the cinematography and the nature of tipplers who scarcely seem to exist outside of their favorite dive give the film a timeless quality: It could have been set at any time in the last 50 years and little would change, except at one time Michael would have been the young actor on the receiving end of a friendly lecture.
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is an impressive feat for the Ross brothers and their large ensemble. For all of its artifice, a kind of truth emerges. Maybe not actual facts, but there is an undeniable sense of emotional veracity that imbues every frame. The film might not fit a documentary's traditional parameters, but the emotions and personalities that inhabit it lend it a verisimilitude that make it more real than any reality show and far more resonant. –Pam Grady
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets plays at the Roxie Theater Virtual Cinema starting July 24. Bill & Turner Ross will take part in a Zoom discussion, 5 P.M., July 29.
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Copyright, Publicity Rights and Social Media Influencer Licensing
Enrico Schaefer - November 19, 2019 - Internet Law, Social Media Lawyer, Uncategorized
In this podcast, social media influencers and celebrities will learn:
What rights do third parties and pseudo-news websites have to use or embed influencer photographs into their stories and posts?
Is it 'fair use' to embed an influencer photograph into a news or click-bait story?
How to force third-party websites to license your Instagram or another picture as a copyright-protected work.
Why copyright registration of your Instagram feed can provide you maximum leverage to get paid for use of your picture.
Use the DMCA to remove your copyright-protected pictures and videos for third-party websites.
What Every Influencer and Celebrity Needs to Know:
Today on TechLaw Radio, we've got Charlie Clark and he's done some really interesting work for us and research for us as we continue to help social media influencer understand their business model, understand their rights, understand how to license their copyright-protected work, how to license their name and likeness and their publicity rights. Listen to this podcast below…
Influencers and Copyright Infringement
Interview Transcript: Detroit, MI: Many social media influencers make their lives from their Instagram photographs. Influencers get paid to do a post, and they will license their photograph to the brand looking for an endorsement. They sometimes further license the right to reuse the influencer post to the brand for use on the company's website or in other advertising. The next thing that often happens is those third-party websites that make their money from advertising revenue embed or repost the Instagram photograph onto their website.
Oftentimes, the website uses the influencer's photograph in a way that 'pretends' to be newsworthy when it is just clickbait to drive their own advertising revenue. The more famous the celebrity or influencer, the more likely third-party trolls will seek to monetize the influencer's copyrighted works without permission, compensation, or license.
This type of copyright infringement is rampant in the influencer market. And while some celebrity influencers conclude that 'any press is good press', more sophisticated influencers work hard to control third-party uses, demand compensation, or use the DMCA take-down process to have their photographs removed from third-party websites.
Unauthorized Re-use of Influencer Photos, Videos, and Endorsements
These YouTube channels and pseudo-media outlets are using influencer Instagram photos and videos without permission, license, or compensation. The first question every influencer or influencer attorney should ask is, "how is the photograph being used?" While inserting a hyperlink to the influencer's Instagram post is typically lawful, embedding the post raises issues of copyright infringement and a possible violation of publicity rights.
Can a Website Repost or Embed My Instagram Photo Without Paying Me?
The influencer owns the copyright in these photographs and videos, yet you see them used all over the place without permission. And, of course, these pseudo-news blogs and these websites want to use the "fair use "defense and say, well, we're reporting on this Instagrammer, so we get to use their photographs and their Instagram posts or photographs of their Instagram posts without permission, without a license, without compensation because we're going to now comment on that post.
I think a lot of people, Charlie, are going to be surprised to find that you can't just use an influencer's post on Instagram, for instance, without permission, without a license, without compensation even if you're a TMZ-style website or you've got a YouTube channel where you're commenting on the influencer space. It's not a free-for-all that there are real ramifications for using these Instagram photographs without permission from the copyright owner or the influencer.
If you happen to be one of these media players, if you're running a YouTube channel that's doing hundreds of thousands of views a week, and you're doing a bunch of stories on influencers, and you're showing those Instagram photos, you could get sued for copyright infringement.
The research is pretty clear. There's some emerging case law and, of course, the existing/pre-existing analysis under copyright law all supports the fact that an influencer can have a viable cause of action for copyright infringement, not to mention name and likeness use that's not authorized, if some of these third-party websites, YouTube channels, etc., use the photographs of the influencer without license or permission. Tell us a little bit about what your research found.
Charlie Clark: On that point, there's a lot of those pseudo-news outlets that are trying to hide behind the fair use doctrine under copyright law. To qualify for fair use, you must use the work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, education, scholarship, or research.
Is Re-posting My Instagram Photograph Fair Use?
Many people don't know that those are just prerequisites to get yourself into the analysis, and there's much more that needs to be considered to determine if that use is actually fair use under the Copyright Act. You need to go through four factors in your analysis to determine if it is fair use.
Those include the purpose and character of the second use, including whether it's for a commercial nature, the nature of the copyrighted work concerning whether it's published or whether it is highly creative, the amount and substantiality and portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and the most important factor is the effect on the potential market for the value of the copyrighted work or its derivatives.
We've seen in the case law that there's definitely going to be a factual analysis on a case-to-case basis. All the factors will be explored and weighed together in light of the purposes of the copyright. We'll not automatically grant deference to a pseudo-news outlet because they're supposedly commenting on the purported work.
Enrico Schaefer: It's really interesting, Charlie because you got all these consumers, third-party websites, YouTube channels, etc. And they assume that content posted on the Internet is inherently free and that you can do whatever you want. And it's just not the case. This perceived free culture is a material conflict with the creator, with the copyright owner's interest in maintaining control over the reproduction and distribution of their copyright-protected work.
You've got this tension between the copyright owner's rights in the works and their need to control what happens with their works online and offline. And, of course, this media frenzy to be able to report on really clickbait-type items, which often are influencer stories. But the message here is clear.
Just because you're reporting on influencers does not mean that you will escape a copyright infringement lawsuit and potentially lose that copyright infringement lawsuit if you start using Instagram photographs of influencers without permission or likeness — that you use their name and likeness without proper permission in some cases.
Although the copyright will be a broader level of protection for the influencer than name and likeness if some news and commentary is going on with regards to that person. So let's break this down a little bit. You've got this free-for-all going on in social media, where you've got every top influencer out there — they have baked into their business model a lot of followers and a lot of clicks.
Brands are Paying You for Eyeballs. Pseudo-news and Celebrity Websites Should Pay as Well.
And what that means is not only do they get to monetize that, but you've got all these piranhas trying to monetize them because of their popularity. And so to have a media outlet or a pseudo-media outlet that is using the celebrity's celebrity to drive their own traffic creates this kind of issue of is this fair use of reporting and news or commentary. Isn't it just that these websites are trying to drive clickbait traffic to increase their advertising revenue?
Now no one's gotten too far into that in the case law yet. But to me, Charlie, it seems like a loser for the website — for the person who should be licensing the copyright. Because if you ever got into discovery, it's going to be clear that, yeah, they may be using commentary and pretending that news is a factor here.
But their emails, their business model, everything that's going on on the SEO side of their business will establish that they're just trying to use someone's copyright-protected work so they can make money. Isn't that going to be the problem for the pseudo-media?
Charlie Clark: You pretty much hit the nail on the head there. Courts are very concerned about whether they're transforming the work's purpose, character, message, and meaning and making something new or just using the copyright to gain in their own commercial purposes. And that's kind of where the first factor comes into play.
A lot of cases lose on that factor alone because the outlet is just using the copyrighted material for their own gain without ever changing anything or doing anything different or even reporting on any real news that is not subject to protection from the copyright holder.
Is It Real News or Contrived as Click-Bait?
Enrico Schaefer: To have a news outlet that's a legitimate news outlet that does legitimate reporting day in and day out use an Instagram photo to comment on that photo — that may still end up being copyright infringement. And a jury could still hold against that news outlet. And they've got a lot more evidence that — [they're other people] went to school.
They're publishers. These folks have been trained in journalism. They have all kinds of other stories going on. And they'll have a lot of evidence to at least throw up there in terms of fair use. Most of the uses we see from celebrities and social media influencers online, where they're reproducing the photographs or the Instagram posts for their own website purposes — there's just no question what's going on there.
They're just trying to drive traffic. And they're not going to have that same level of protection as even CNN or Fox News, which then brings us to the next thing I want to talk about is there was a case against Fox News as a result of the use of a photograph that was reposted on a Fox News Facebook page. Tell us about that.
Even Fox News Often Has to Pay to Use a Copyright-Protected Photo.
Charlie Clark: Right. You're referring to the Fox News v. Pirro case, correct? With the Fox News reporter using a copyrighted photograph from 9/11?
Enrico Schaefer: Exactly. Exactly. Here, you have a legitimate media outlet that has used someone's photograph and put it on their Facebook page — added to that photograph, i.e., potential transformative use as part of the fair use defense. And yet, they filed a motion to dismiss, and Fox News lost that lawsuit. Tell us a little bit about what the facts were there.
Charlie Clark: Essentially, a Fox News reporter used this copyrighted photograph that a photographer had taken during the commotion of 9/11 of firefighters raising a flag right near Ground Zero. They juxtaposed that photograph with the very, very popular, well-known photograph of the soldiers raising the flag in Iwo Jima during World War II.
On the anniversary of 9/11, they posted the juxtaposition photograph with the caption #neverforget on a Fox News Facebook page. They made the argument that they made this dissemination in a transformative way in that it signaled Fox News' participation in the ongoing global discussion concerning 9/11.
But the court ultimately rejected this argument, and they found that even the slight alterations and additions to the original photograph only minimally altered the content, message, and meaning. And it began to constitute the creation of a new aesthetic, new information, new insights, or understanding required for a finding of transformative purpose.
Enrico Schaefer: Yeah. So essentially, Fox News remained at risk for copyright infringement. And I don't remember from that case whether the photograph was copyright registered. But what social media influencers need to know is this — number one, your most popular photographs or your Instagram feed, you need to find a way to register those with the copyright office.
Influencers Need to File Copyright Registrations for Their Photos Every Three Months.
When you register your copyrights, not only are you entitled to a reasonable royalty from unauthorized, infringing third-party use, including from potential media outlets. But if you're a registered copyright holder, you get to wield statutory damages of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more for unlawful use. So not only can you say, hey, you owe me a reasonable royalty as a minimum, which might be thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, but now you potentially owe me statutory damages.
Plus, potentially, you have to pay my attorney's fees if you do not resolve this lawsuit or this threat letter sent for copyright infringement by the social media influencer or, typically, the social media influencer's attorney. So message to all of you influencers out there — work with a copyright registration attorney — a copyright infringement attorney — to ensure that your Instagram photographs are protected by registration and not just through common law rights.
It's going to give you really good leverage to protect your copyright. The risk that Fox took — of course, I think that case ultimately settled. But the risk that Fox took would have been for statutory damages of six figures or more for unauthorized use if they had not resolved the matter. So this first element that you noted was the character of the work and how the alleged infringing party has used the work –let's take that. We know what happened to Fox News. They used it to comment.
They used it as a newsworthy item. And yet, the possibility of copyright infringement still existed. What does that mean for these bloggers or YouTube channels that want to use these Instagram photos of celebrities and influencers without permission or license? Because they're kind of in the same boat as Fox– and maybe not even in as good of a boat. Their boat may be leaking water more than Fox's, given that they are driven purely by traffic.
Charlie Clark: The way those YouTube channels all work is they operate on ad revenues. When they post a video, and they have an x amount of subscribers, they can get x amount of money from ad revenue via YouTube. That makes their work [of] a commercial nature, which is one of the main points in the first factor of the test.
If you're making money in any capacity off of the unauthorized use of a copyrighted work, then you're at risk of losing that first factor of the test on that alone. Mix that with the fact that you didn't transform the copyrighted work's message, meaning, or content, and you're in deep water pretty quickly there with the YouTube channels.
Enrico Schaefer: There's the Elvis Presley Enterprises v. Passport Video case where you've got, again, an entertainment company that uses a bunch of footage of Elvis Presley in order to tell the story of Elvis. And they provide voiceovers on top of the photographs just like these YouTube channels do. And yet the court found that adding a voiceover and some commentary is not transformative of the original work.
In this particular instance, the defendant, in that case, remained potentially liable for copyright infringement. That you have to if the purpose of your YouTube channel or your blog is commercial, you better get permission or license or pay for a license to use those Instagram photos or you are at serious risk.
Influencers are Creating Works That 'By their very Nature' Require Maximum Copyright Protection.
The second factor is what is the nature of the work itself. And the things that the court will look at are is this just some random thing, a random photograph that gets posted to Instagram, or is there an element of creativity to the work that gives it broader protection. Talk a little bit about that factor.
Charlie Clark: In the second factor, courts usually note that there are works that are closer to the core of the intended copyright protection. And they align highly creative works closer to that core of the protection. You can think about a factual work –a factual-based paper– versus a photograph that an Instagram social media influencer would typically post. They often hire professional photographers to work with them to get a great aesthetic and good lighting.
They're adding filters and editing their photos. It's probably undisputed that an Instagram photo from a social media influencer will be considered a highly creative work. It's going to be closer to that core of copyright protection intentions. And it will be subject to high copyright protection under the second factor as opposed to an academic paper or something more factually founded rather than created.
Enrico Schaefer: If I were to post on Instagram as I sometimes do, but I don't have any commercial aspect to what I'm doing on Instagram, and I might do a lot of random stuff that I don't put a whole lot of thought into, etc., I might still have copyright protection there.
But it's going to be a much lower level of protection than an Instagram influencer or celebrity that is very selective, highly involved in the editing and photograph process, that's very, very careful about what they're putting online, how they're putting it online, which photographs they're using, which filters they're using, how those photos have been edited.
The more effort and time you put into those types of factors, the more protection you will get just by looking at what the copyright owner does in relation to the work.
Charlie Clark: There's definitely going to be a higher degree of deference to professional photographers, people who are using the photographs for commercial means rather than just point-and-shoot pictures. However, even in a case where it was, I think it was [Munn v. Mia Magazines].
They found that a photo that was just a point-and-shoot photo of a wedding was generally viewed as a creative, aesthetic expression of a scene or image, and it has been subject to that high degree of protection from copyrights. But you're going to have a better case in the case of a social media influencer, for sure, in the creative aspect of your work.
Enrico Schaefer: If you happen to be on the media side of the pseudo-media side of the equation, you need to be aware that there have been courts that have found really casual photographs that don't appear to have much thought put into them also receive copyright protection. And so you can imagine if a random photo at a wedding taken in the spur of the moment can get copyright protection and require a license that, certainly, influencers who are very meticulous about what they're doing and how they're doing it.
Influencers Should Demand a License for All Uses of Embedded Photographs.
Good luck defending yourself from a copyright infringement case against an influencer if you're not getting an appropriate license to use that photograph. Now that takes us to this third factor, which is the amount and substantiality of the work taken in relation to the whole and the purpose of copying. So this question of the value of the materials, how — in relation to the purpose of the copying — does that factor work, and how would it be interpreted in the influencer/pseudo-media environment?
Charlie Clark: Based on the language within the factor, you can assume that when you're taking an entire photograph from a social media influencer's Instagram page, it's going to be substantial in that you're taking the totality of their work. Social media influencers are going to have a very big edge in this factor. And then all these factors bleed together in combination with the fact that they're taking it for a commercial purpose. It will also favor the social media influencers in this factor.
Enrico Schaefer: Yeah. And obviously, you could scale up from a photograph into musical compositions or literary works where there's more substance, there's more breadth to the substance of the copyrighted work, which may increase the level of protection, especially when someone's using a big chunk of it. But the reality remains in the context of social media, if you use the entirety of someone's social media post — the photograph, the words, the text — that's the point.
That's how social media influencers make their money by posting. And sometimes, they're just endorsing someone else's product on their post. But if the social media influencer has the right contract in place, that contract also talks about what the brand can do. Can they share that Instagram post?
Can they take an image of that Instagram post and use it in another context on their social media platform? These are things that the social media influencer gets to control. And through their influencer contract, they can say yes or no at every point. Can the brand use that photograph on its website? Again, yes or no. The social media influencer that owns the copyright, that has the rights in that gets to decide.
Influencers: Copyright Licensing is Your Business Model.
The beautiful thing about copyright law for social media influencers is that you can scale up and down on price depending on how much gets used. So if someone wants a post, and it's going to live only within your platform, then that could be a lower cost than, oh, and we want to put your post on our platform or we want to put your post [or] screen-capture on our website. Those are additional license rights that would be required in the contract that should drive up the cost.
This allows the social media influencer to say, well, okay. Your budget is x, brand — speaking to the brand. Your budget is x, so I can do this for you for x. But you only get a license to this point. If you want more rights, if you decide you want to put my social media post/photograph on your website, come back and we can license that as well.
The social media influencer is losing all the value of what they've done if they're not protecting their rights against all these media players who are just simply using their work to drive traffic to their websites. One of the fair use arguments we hear all the time is, well, I'm commenting on that photograph, so I have to put the photograph in there to comment on it. And it's an easy thing to say. It's a hard thing to prove.
Do you need that photograph? Because if you're going to do a story about the social media influencer influencing, then you don't need photographs to do that. You can write the story. If you're going to talk about a specific photograph, then the question's going to be, well, if your purpose is commercial and you're really just driving traffic, then you're not going to get very far on a fair use defense saying, well, I was commenting on the photo.
I had to put the photo in the story to comment on the photo. In most instances, the evidence is going to be that that's relatively contrived — that the real purpose is to use the photograph so they can drive traffic and that the commentary on the photo is there as an SEO tool, not as really fair commentary. So this third factor will again weigh in favor of social media influencers and celebrities in many instances. This brings us to the fourth factor.
The Value of Your Copyrighted Works is Diminished by Unauthorized Use.
Let's talk about the fourth factor. The fourth factor is the effect on the potential market for or the value of the copyright-protected work. And it's a very important factor. So let's break that down — the effect of the use of the work on the potential market. So this is speaking from the influencer's point of view.
If the copyright isn't protected, if the influencer does not control the use of that photograph, or if some third party comes in and starts using their Instagram photograph without permission or license, think about the ability it will have on their ability to monetize those photographs. Tell us how this factor works, Charlie.
Charlie Clark: In this factor of the test, you're looking at the value of the license. If you're going to have a media outlet take your photographs and use them to tell a story about you, that's diluting the value of the licensing rights that you have with legitimate companies that would like to otherwise license your photograph. Because why would they if they could use it for free under this fair use curtain of a defense? So if you're not protecting your rights, you're actually losing a lot of monetary value that goes along with your copyright.
Enrico Schaefer: We understand that many social media influencers and celebrities really don't understand the nuances of all of this, so they don't sometimes protect their copyright as well as they should. In fact, in most instances, they don't. But in a lot of cases, they don't know that they can. And if you're a social media influencer, think about it this way. You require the brand you are endorsing to pay you money to use that Instagram post.
And yet, you will allow a pseudo-media, blogger, or YouTube channel to use that same post for free? Think about the impact on value just on that one example. The value of your post goes down. The ability of you to convince someone else to pay for the use of that photograph goes down dramatically if everyone else gets to use it for free.
This is something that social media influencers will continue to learn about and understand at a higher level as they continue along with their business model and as they learn about copyright, which is the essence of what their business is all about. It's these photographs and the copyright protection and ownership they have of the photographs and the importance of, as you mentioned, protecting their photographs from infringement.
If you don't protect your photographs from infringement, it is much harder to enforce them down the line. And so social media influencers need to understand copyright law. It'd be like a neurosurgeon not understanding how to use a scalpel. It's the core of your business model. Yes, your name and likeness. Yes, your publicity rights. But also your copyright-protected photographs and works.
If you're having a photographer or a friend or a boyfriend or a girlfriend take the photograph, whoever's holding the camera owns the copyright-protected works unless there's an agreement that those works will be owned by the influencer or celebrity.
'Work for hire' Agreements are Critical if Someone Else is Holding the Camera.
In most cases, if the influencer or celebrity has got someone following them around taking photographs, they've also got a work-for-hire agreement with that photographer, which assigns all of the copyright to the influencer so that the influencer can claim copyright ownership for DMCA takedowns and whatever. So that's really important.
Make sure you have those copyright assignment documents in place so that when it comes time to enforce the copyright in those photographs, the influencer is the person in control. They can legitimately say I am the copyright owner.
DMCA Take-Down Notices Can Remove Unauthorized Uses of Your Photographs and Videos.
Now next time — on the next show — we'll talk a little bit about DMCA takedown notices.
And those, of course, are the other half of the trademark or the copyright infringement threat letter program, where instead of the attorney sending a threat letter to the pseudo-media player, to the YouTube channel, to the blogger, they file a DMCA with the web hosting company or the social media platform, saying I own copyright. And then your post, your YouTube comes down. The provider, YouTube, what-have-you has an obligation to remove that from the Internet.
You can counter-respond to that notice and maybe get it back up, but at the end of the day, your risk is that all this work you put into that content gets removed. All the traffic you are hoping for that content cannot exist because the copyright owner can have that removed from the Internet.
And in one of the next programs, we'll put DMCA on the table and educate our social media influencer friends and clients about the DMCA takedown notice they have in their arsenal of copyright protection. Charlie, thank you for being on the show today. Really appreciate it. We love our law student listeners. We'll get you back on the show soon, okay, Charlie?
Charlie Clark: Sounds good. Thank you.
Enrico Schaefer: All right, everybody. That's it for today. Again, to our clients, prospective clients, all the social media influencers, law professors, and law students, thank you very much for listening to the TechLaw podcast. We'll see you next time.
[End of recorded material]
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Fighting for America's Dairyland
Posted by	Jennifer Shilling, State Senator Dist 32 (B)
Jennifer Shilling, State Senator Dist 32 (B)
Jennifer Shilling lives in La Crosse with her husband and two children. She curr
on	Friday, 24 January 2020	in Wisconsin
We need a meaningful and comprehensive approach to help our farmers and rural communities succeed.
MADISON - When you say 'Wisconsin' what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me, I think 'America's Dairyland.' As Wisconsinites, that title is something we take deep pride in, knowing that our state produces the finest milk and cheese in the nation.
It isn't surprising that Wisconsin produces more than 26 percent of the nation's cheese and accounts for more than 14 percent of the nation's milk productions. Between cheese, dairy and vegetables, agriculture contributes almost $105 billion to our state's economy.
What's easy to forget is the people whose sweat, hard work, perseverance, and dedication built the foundation of our state pride.
Despite this honorable farming heritage, Wisconsin has been losing dairy farms at an alarming rate – roughly two farms a day – and our state leads the nation in farm bankruptcies. We cannot abandon those generations of families that have dedicated their lives to feeding our families and communities.
Our local farm families are the backbone of communities across Wisconsin, but the federal trade war is making it impossible for many to stay afloat. Rather than closing markets and eliminating trade opportunities, we should be supporting our local farmers and helping them compete on a level playing field.
The time for action is now, and Governor Evers is seizing this moment by calling a special session for the legislature to address these challenges head on. The package of bills he announced in his State of the State address aim to do the following: create the Wisconsin Initiative for Dairy Exports to help build Wisconsin's dairy brand in international markets, expand the Farm Center that currently provides no-cost services to farmers, increase staffing at UW Extension to ensure farmers have partners and resources closer to home, and help connect farmers and their produce to local universities, tech colleges, hospitals and businesses through a farm-to-fork program.
Additionally, the Governor wants to expand rural access to broadband services, improve access to affordable health care, and help rural communities harness the technologies, opportunities and jobs of the renewable energy economy.
This is a meaningful and comprehensive approach to help our farmers and rural communities succeed.
By promoting financial security and expanding economic opportunities, we can support Wisconsin's family farmers and ensure everyone can enjoy healthy, affordable and locally-grown food options.
My Democratic colleagues and I remain committed to working with Gov. Evers to advance these bold solutions and improve the economic security and prosperity of Wisconsin rural communities.
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Jennifer Shilling lives in La Crosse with her husband and two children. She currently represents the 32nd State Senate District which includes La Crosse, Vernon, Crawford, and part of Monroe Counties.
She is serving her first full term as the State Senator for the 32nd Senate District after being elected in a 2011 special election. She previously served as the State Representative for the 95th Assembly District and worked as a legislative aide to State Representative Mark Meyer and Congressman Ron Kind. She is a proud graduate of UW-La Crosse and a former La Crosse County Supervisor.
Jennifer was elected by her colleagues as the Senate Democratic Leader. She has served as a ranking member on the Joint Committee on Finance,which is primarily responsible for crafting the state's biennial budget and reviewing state appropriations and revenues. She has also served on the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Public Works, and Telecommunications and the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges.
Locally, Jennifer serves as a member of the UW-La Crosse Alumni Association Board of Directors (past President), the UW-La Crosse Chancellor's Community Council, the La Crosse Area Habitat for Humanity Women Build (Honorary Chairwoman), the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce, the La Crosse County Local Emergency Planning Committee, the La Crosse County League of Women Voters, the La Crosse County Democratic Party, the Vernon Women's Alliance, and the Viroqua Chamber Main Street.
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/32/shilling/


The queen of Progressive House; the pioneer of summerish beach anthems; a multi talent on the modern dance music horizon. Tamara Dinka Hunkeler brought a breath of fresh air into the house music scene and quickly gained a big fan base for her music all around the globe.
Tales Of The Sun is her 3rd artist album. After Temptation in 2008 and Hotel Summerville in 2010, this album continues the successful and distinctive musical structure Dinka has been followed over the past four years: Magical melodies nestled into warm, atmospherical and subtly chosen beats.


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William Edward Murray AM (16 February 192021 April 2013) was an Australian bishop of the Roman Catholic Church.

Murray was born in Leichhardt and was ordained as a priest on 21 July 1945 in the Archdiocese of Sydney. He was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Wollongong on 5 June 1975 and consecrated on 21 July 1975. Murray remained with the diocese until his retirement on 12 April 1996.

He was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia on 26 January 1988 for services to religion.

Murray died on 21 April 2013 at a Sydney nursing home. He was 93.

References

External links
Catholic Hierarchy website
Diocese of Wollongong website

20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Australia
1920 births
2013 deaths
Members of the Order of Australia
Roman Catholic bishops of Wollongong

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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A decade of iPhone J.D.
Ten years ago, I had lunch with two New Orleans attorneys who had successful blogs — Ernie Svenson of Ernie the Attorney and Robert Peyton, who used to publish Appetites and who now writes about New Orleans food at Haute Plates — and they encouraged me to start my own blog. They both knew that I love technology, and I suppose they also knew that I like to talk and write. I agreed that I was interested, but at the time did not have a topic worth writing about. Around that same time, I bought my first iPhone. After using it for a few months, I realized that the iPhone was something that really interested me and seemed like a perfect topic for a blog. On November 17, 2008, I started iPhone J.D. with my first post, explaining why I found the iPhone a valuable tool in my law practice. Here we are 10 years later, and I still love using my iPhone in my law practice.
At the time, I had no idea if this blog had a future. Back in 2008, only a tiny percentage of lawyers were using an iPhone. If a lawyer was using a smartphone in 2008, it was most likely to be Blackberry. But it was clear that there was incredible potential. The Blackberry and Palm Treo taught us that having a handheld computer which could be used for emails, text messages, and apps was a great idea. On July 10, 2008, Apple debuted the App Store, which made it easier than ever for developers to create and publish new apps for people to buy them. A few months after the App Store opened — and only a few weeks after I started iPhone J.D. — Apple published an ad in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to announce that there were over 10,000 apps available in the App Store.
Out of those 10,000 apps, Apple selected 16 to feature in the ad, and it is interesting to look back at what Apple considered noteworthy ten years ago. There are two news apps (the New York Times and Bloomberg), three social media apps (Facebook, AIM, and Loopt), three games (Sodoku, Asphalt4, and Spore), and two music apps (Shazam and Remote). There was also a travel app (Flight Status), a translator app (Mandarin), a dining app (Urbanspoon), a banking app (Bank of America), a voice recorder app (QuickVoice), and a shopping app (eBay). Many of those apps no longer exist, and one of the apps — Shazam — is now owned by Apple itself. But the categories selected by Apple ten years ago continue to be very popular categories today.
What was missing? There are many categories of apps useful for attorneys which are popular today but barely existed ten years ago. Most importantly for attorneys are apps that help you to get your work done on an iPhone (or iPad) when you are working with documents. Indeed, the debut of Microsoft Word for iPad in 2014 (it debuted on the iPad in March 2014, and then came to the iPhone in November 2014) was arguably the most important app release for attorneys in the past ten years. Whether you are a litigator like I am or a transactional attorney, I suspect that you work with Microsoft Word files every day. While there had previously been third-party apps which could work with Word documents with various degrees of success, having the real Microsoft Word on iOS was a huge development, giving you the ability to review, revise, and send Word documents using your mobile device no matter where you are. Another significant change over the past 10 years was the introduction of apps designed specifically for lawyers. There were a few of those apps back in 2008 thanks to developers like Cliff Maier, but not nearly as many as today.
At the same time that those iPhone apps improved, the iPhone itself has vastly improved. The iPhone X introduced last year was such an incredible leap forward in technology with its beautiful OLED edge-to-edge screen and incredible speed. This year, the iPhone XS and iPhone XR improve upon that concept.
When Apple first started working on the iPhone, the goal was actually to create a tablet computer, but along the way, Apple figured out that an iPhone would be a better first device to introduce. When Apple did release the first iPad in 2010, the ability to get work done with an iOS device increased substantially. The iPhone will always be my first love when it comes to Apple mobile technology, but my iPad is probably a more important part of my getting work done every day. And with the new third-generation iPad Pro 12.9", we now have the tablet that the iPad always wanted to be.
Add to that some amazing accessories in the iOS universe — the second-generation Apple Pencil, the Series 4 Apple Watch, AirPods — and there has never been a better time for an attorney to use iOS devices. Apple has provided us with incredible hardware running amazing software, all of which can be used in countless ways to increase productivity, not to mention improve our lives outside of the office.
Popular posts this year. Every year on the birthday of iPhone J.D. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), I find it interesting to look back and see which posts over the prior 12 months were the most popular. The fact that these posts were so popular often sheds some light into what has been on the minds of folks using an iPhone or iPad. Here, in order, are the top ten most viewed posts published in the last 12 months:
Review: Apple iPhone X Leather Case - slim case to protect your iPhone. I was surprised to learn that this was #1 most read post from the past year. With the radical new design of the iPhone X, I suppose that folks wanted to find the best case to keep the device safe. I like the slim design of the leather case sold by Apple, and that's also what I use with my iPhone XS.
Review: Anker PowerLine+ II versus PowerLine+ -- high quality nylon USB to Lightning cords. Every iPhone owner can use some good Lightning cords, and these cords from Anker are great. They are less expensive than the cords sold by Apple and yet they are of excellent quality, in many ways better than what Apple sells.
Apple previews new emoji coming in iOS 12. Attorneys may use their iPhones and iPads to get work done, but when you need to send a quick message to a friend or family member, there is nothing wrong with using some fun or silly emoji character to get your point across. Apple previewed the new emoji in July of 2018, and they were finally available when iOS 12.1 was released on October 30, 2018.
iOS update error -- press home button to attempt data recovery. I encountered this bizarre error when backing up my daughter's iPad in January 2018. I guess I wasn't the only one to run into this problem because over 10,000 people have read this post so far this year.
The latest on GoodReader version 5. I have been using GoodReader to manage and annotate work-related PDF files on my iPad for just about as long as I have had an iPad. But the app has not been updated in years, and while the developer has been claiming that a big update is coming soon (as noted in that post), my frustration with the lack of an update caused me to start using Readdle's PDF Expert. If the incredibly overdue update to GoodReader ever does show up, perhaps I'll consider going back, but for now, I'm enjoying using PDF Expert. The popularity of this post tells me that I'm not the only one who has been wondering if GoodReader will ever be updated again.
Tips for using 3D Touch, 3D Touch has been a part of the iPhone for many years, but I suspect that many folks still don't use it to its full potential.
Review: CARROT Weather -- excellent weather app, with attitude. It was the snarky attitude which first brought this app to my attention, but I remained a user because it is a fantastic weather app with lots of great features.
Why lawyers will love iOS 12. iOS 12 was a big update for the iPhone, and I especially love the new Shortcuts feature. iOS 12 was a less significant update for the iPad, and I hope to see more attention paid to the iPad in iOS 13.
Hey Siri, read me the news. Near the beginning of 2018, Apple introduced iOS 11.2.5, which added the ability to ask Siri to read you the news. I use this feature often with CarPlay in my car, and it causes Siri to play the latest episode of the NPR News Now podcast, which is updated every hour (so it is always fresh news) and only lasts 3-5 minutes (so you quickly get the highlights).
Presidential Alert coming tomorrow, October 3. I was in my office when the first Presidential Alert was issued. It was only a test, but you could hear lots of iPhones ringing throughout the halls of my office.
The iPhone J.D. Hall of Fame. On the fifth anniversary of iPhone J.D., I listed the most popular posts during the first five years. Here are the top ten most-read posts of the ten years of iPhone J.D., the posts that have stood the test of time — or in some cases, were just so incredibly popular when they were first published that they still have the most pageviews:
The iPhone's Do Not Disturb Feature. The iPhone is great when you want to use it, but sometimes you just want it to be quiet — especially if you are in court or in a meeting. In this post from 2013, I talked about how the Do Not Disturb feature worked in iOS 6. That post was incredibly popular at the time and has now been viewed over 600,000 times. Clearly, this is a topic that a lot of folks are interested in. Apple must know this too because Apple has improved the Do Not Disturb feature many times since 2013.
iPhone tip: content of e-mail not displayed. When I encounter problems with my iPhone or iPad, and then I find a solution, I often write about it on iPhone J.D. so that others folks who have the same problem can do a Google search and can learn from my experiences. Back in 2011, I talked about what to do when you tap on an email but there is no content displayed. I still encounter this problem from time-to-time, and the solution remains the same: restart the Mail app.
iPad tip -- turn off Messages if you share your iPad. If you use multiple iOS devices, you can get your messages on all of your devices, which is very handy. It can also be a problem if you leave one of your devices, such as your iPad, at home and it is used by someone else, such as your child. Confidential and personal messages intended for your eyes only can suddenly be viewed by third parties. This post from 2015 offered some good advice which remains good advice today.
A look at the iPhone passcode lock feature. When I discussed the passcode lock feature of iOS 3.1 in this 2009 post, the passcode lock was something that you had to manually enable. Passcodes are so important to security that Apple now has passcodes enabled by default. Thanks to Face ID and Touch ID, you don't have to go through the trouble of entering a passcode every time you try to use your iPhone, but this remains a critical step for maintaining the confidentiality of information on your iPhone.
iPhone "No SIM card installed" message. I encountered this error message shortly after I started using an iPhone 4 in 2010. As I noted in a follow-up post, the solution that ended up working for me was bringing my original iPhone 4 back to Apple so that I could get a new one. This post was the all-time most popular post during the first five years of iPhone J.D., so much so that it still appears on this list for the first ten years even though substantially fewer folks are now using an iPhone 4.
Apple Watch tip: solve disconnect from iPhone by resetting Bluetooth. I loved my first-generation Apple Watch, but it was clearly a 1.0 product with issues that would need to be addressed in future updates. This post from 2015 discusses the first problem I ever had with an Apple Watch and a solution.
My favorite iPhone shortcuts. Phone J.D. was only a week old when I wrote this post in November 2008. During the first five years of iPhone J.D., it was read well over 100,000 times. And even though the post is now ten years old, it continues to get some pageviews. Many of the tips remain just as useful today as they were when iPhone J.D. was in its infancy
How to view unread emails on an iPhone or iPad. If you get as many emails as I do, it sometimes feels like simply reading and managing your emails is its own full-time job. In this tip from 2013, I showed how to see a list of all of your unread emails in iOS 7. To do the same thing in iOS 12, tap the filter button at the bottom left of the screen.
Review: Apple Lightning to 30-pin adapters -- use older accessories with your new device. In 2012, Apple replaced the large 30-pin connector on the iPhone with the much better Lightning port. While that was a fantastic improvement, it meant that you needed an adapter to make older accessories work with the new Lightning connector. In this post, I discussed options for doing so. Six years later, Apple has now replaced the Lightning connector in the iPad Pro with USB-C. I don't know if Apple will ever make that change on the iPhone, but USB-C has incredible potential on the iPad Pro. But once again, there will be some growing pains during the transition.
Why the "i" in iPhone? When I wrote this post almost ten years ago, I had to go back another ten years to May 7, 1998, when Steve Jobs first introduced the iMac — the first Apple product to begin with a lowercase "i" in its name. It was fun to research and write that post, and I love that the post continues to get pageviews today as folks wonder, like I did, about how the iPhone got its name.
Visitors to iPhone J.D. Every year, I use this post to share some statistical information on iPhone J.D. visitors, to the extent that I can figure it out using the tools at my disposal — specifically, the Google Analytics service.
During the past 12 months, about 60% of iPhone J.D. readers have used an iOS device. Back in 2010, only 15% of readers were using an iOS device. By 2012, that was up to 40%. It rose to 60% in 2015, which has remained consistent for the past few years. Most of those folks used an iPhone, but last year almost 20% used an iPad. About a third of iPhone J.D. readers use a computer, with Windows being twice as popular as Mac. Around 5% of iPhone J.D. readers use an Android device.
In the past 12 months, about 62% of iPhone J.D. visitors were in the U.S. The main other countries were the U.K. (8%), Canada (5%), and Australia (4%). Looking at the past ten years, those results are virtually the same. And while those are by far the top four countries, 42 countries have had over 10,000 residents visit iPhone J.D. at least once over the past ten years. Making better use of an iPhone or iPad is something that we can all agree on.
Looking at the cities of iPhone J.D. readers, New York was #1 for the past twelve months, as it has been every other year except for 2015, when there were a few hundred more visitors from London:
Last year was the first year ever that San Francisco wasn't in the Top 10, and it regained its status this year, knocking Melbourne down to #11.
Looking at all of the visitors for the last ten years, the results are very similar. The top four spots remain New York, London, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Sydney was the #5 city over the past ten years, followed by San Francisco at #6 and Houston at #7. Although Melbourne didn't make the Top 10 list this year, Melbourne is #8 on the all-time Top 10 list. Washington, D.C. and Dallas round out the all-time Top 10. The only city on this year's Top 10 list which doesn't appear in the all-time Top 10 list is Atlanta, which is #13 on the all-time list. I went to college at Emory so I have many fond memories of Atlanta and I love to see Atlanta readers here on iPhone J.D.
My hometown of New Orleans is #37 on the all-time list, just below Dublin and Nashville and just above Columbus and Orlando.
At the bottom of the list is Center Moriches, NY, where only 14 of the 7,580 citizens of this hamlet in Long Island, New York have visited iPhone J.D. in the past ten years. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why this shows up at the bottom of the over 17,000 cities identified by Google Analytics; surely there is at least one city in the world where fewer than 14 people have ever visited iPhone J.D.? Maybe Google just stops counting at 14? Regardless, even if Center Moriches doesn't truly deserve to be at the bottom of this list, I think it is fair to say that not many people know about iPhone J.D. in this part of Long Island. If you are reading this and you practice law in Center Moriches, NY, let me know and I'll send you some MobileCloths with the iPhone J.D. logo to help you to spread the word far and wide!
On a more serious note, I cannot thank all of you enough for reading iPhone J.D. for some (or all!) of the past ten years. So many of you have reached out to me, either in person such as at a conference or via email or a comment on a post. By hearing from you about how you have been using an iPhone or iPad in your own law practice, I have learned so much, and I have been able to share lots of that advice on this website. This helps all of us to do a lot more with our devices, making us better attorneys and also enriching our personal lives.
Ten years from now, will we still be using an iPhone and an iPad? And if we are, what advanced features will they have that we couldn't even imagine today? I cannot wait to find out.