The Double-Edged Sword of Social Media

I am a filmmaker. I have always loved to write. When I'm not telling other people's important stories as a journalist, I am creating worlds of my own, as an indie filmmaker under my production company name FARMGIRL IN THE CITY PRODUCTIONS INC, with the dream of being as well known as people like Patty Jenkins, Roxann Dawson, Ron Howard....

Well, I think you get the drift of what I am saying. I want to make films that can help support myself, my family, be it present or future family, and will entertain and educate people. Certainly, it is every film maker's dream to get their work into places like Cannes, TIFF, Sundance....

Again, I think you get the drift of what I am saying. Which leads to a cardinal rule on all of the film and television show sets I have ever had the honour of working on in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

NO CAMERAS/PHOTOGRAPHY/SOCIAL MEDIA ALLOWED.

This is very understandable as many productions do NOT want any kind of spoilers or leaks about their projects. Certainly, with the recent release of Avengers: Infinity War, there were TONS of warnings put up to people who got to see partial previews to the film. So far as I know, there weren't any spoilers posted, but that isn't to say it doesn't happen a lot on the smaller scale independent films (such as the one I am currently making).

I did show one of the earlier drafts of my short film script to someone who is a professional in the film industry, as it is one that I am working on for a university class I am currently completing. The idea was to get an honest opinion about how I should improve it. Rather, I got a HUGE compliment, as I was told that it was certainly a good enough script to use as the basis of a short film to compete at Cannes! In fact, including the rural element/culture in it such as the one I grew up with (and that the story itself is set up in) was something she felt was important. Including all elements of that culture is paramount for my film project, and also of my business. With that goal in mind, I was careful to include the all-important words on my call sheet to tell the people working on it to not take photos.

On set, I told my young actors and their parents what my end goal for this film is beyond my film class: to enter it into Cannes 2019. I verbally told everyone that there was to be absolutely no photography or social media posted on set from the project, and at that point, all of the parents agreed to this.

Unfortunately, one parent (whom we'll just call Snap Happy from now on) decided that they were the exception, and started to madly take photos of their child on set while we were filming. I was trying to keep the children in the scene in the overall mood I was going for in the scene, so at the time, I said nothing as I didn't want to break their momentum. Also, as I had said NO POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA, and everyone there had nodded and said "We agree." I (mistakenly) assumed Snap Happy would actually stick to their word on the agreement. Also, Snap Happy took off with a canon costume piece for the character (which the older version of the character wears later on in the film—and yes we had shot some footage of that) with a promise of bringing it back to set.

The agreement was smashed to smithereens as Snap Happy posted photos of the scene we filmed on set on at least two different social media platforms. I asked Snap Happy on several occasions to pull the photographs down. Snap Happy did not, so I had to take matters into my own hands and report them myself, proving the images were taken on my film set without my permission, forwarding the legal documentation to each of them.

Fortunately with one of the social media platforms, upon contacting the administrators of the platform, they not only pulled down the photos, but reprimanded this rather pushy parent by not allowing this person access to their account for a certain length of time for breaking copyright law. Of course, Snap Happy said they would give the canon costume piece—a scarf I had hand knit—to another parent. That parent has yet to get it back yet.

The other social media outlet, when I asked on numerous occasions for them to pull the photograph(s) down, did not take the legal matter at all seriously, even with the proof and documentation I had of the fact it was infringing on my intellectual property. It had been posted as a link from their platform to another, and although the other platform agreed with me on the legality and seriousness of the matter, could not do anything because they had no control over that outlet.

So, what did I do to solve this "problem"??

For one thing, I had to recast the actor whose parent had broken the law with another young actor. I just finished auditions with a group of potential ones to take over the role, but as it is a film that requires a few kids, I did guarantee everyone at least some background work in the production, which all of the parents have been agreeable to.

Another thing I was forced to do was to REWRITE parts of my script. This has set back the timeline needed to get my film completed for the class for which I am making this film for, which is my first priority, but it is rather frustrating to have to make so many changes because of one person who does not follow the legality of being on a film set.

Finally, as a course of contingency, I have been madly working on replacing the canon costume piece, something which I hope looks enough like the stolen one to pass as the same one knit months ago. I hope that the original piece is returned, don't get me wrong, but after all of the very late night/early morning texts received from Snap Happy that were more than slightly threatening and vile towards myself and the project, I would be surprised if I get it back unharmed, if at all.

Did I get the parents to all sign releases for their kids on set? Yes, of course, I did. Even Snap Happy did this, so technically, I could still use the footage from the day Snap Happy decided to take a bunch of photos on their cell phone of their child. However, because a lot of what was shot and posted on social media was actually from the CLIMAX of the film, it gave away far too much, so severing all ties with this child's association with my project was the only thing I could legitimately do.

The need to finish it up for my class is still there. I have a deadline to at least get a decent edit of it done within the next 6 weeks. The goal is still Cannes 2019. My team of actors and crew realize this, and we strive to do this sooner rather than later. And unlike Snap Happy, who believed because I am from a farming culture in Western Canada meant that I was somehow "less than" anyone from an urban culture, they take the name and business image of FARMGIRL IN THE CITY PRODUCTIONS INC, a photograph taken of my mother's farm which is used on all of my business cards and stationary, as seriously as anything from other bigger production companies like Marvel, DC, or Paramount. And as this is the image I use professionally, and the film industry takes it as seriously as any other, it is one I am proud to use, even if people like Snap Happy look down their nose at people from a rural Canadian culture.

And once this film is ready to be OFFICIALLY released into the world, you bet we'll be saturating social media with the date and place of the release.

Looking forward to Cannes 2019. Au revoir!