Click here if you are having trouble viewing this email/ of if there is no video.
Know anyone who might be interested in our newsletter? Forward this email
Q: What is a movie you love that depicts a community rocked by changes in the world?
A: The Ice Storm. It's Thanksgiving weekend in the affluent community of New Canaan, Connecticut, 1973, during which we observe the effects of the sexual revolution of that era on the traditional American nuclear family. It questions whether complete sexual freedom is necessary for happiness, or if it, in fact, is a detriment to it. There are no clear-cut answers offered by the film, but it makes a case for keeping an eye on the kids, no matter what happens at that key party.
- Andrea Lopez, Receiving Clerk, Salt Lake City, UT
Anita Durst, Founder of chashama
You Shot it— Now Protect It
Points for you if you already know to protect your filmed work by registering it with the U.S. Copyright Office. You're probably among the majority of creative professionals, however, who are unaware that if your work has been infringed, there's a better solution than either an often-toothless cease-and-desist letter or an expensive copyright suit. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), passed in 1998 but still not well known, dictates that if a website refuses your request to take down any portion of your work that it's posted without your permission, you can contact the ISP to have the site blocked. The ISP must comply with your request or it becomes liable itself for the infringement—which makes most ISPs rather responsive.
Daniel Abraham, an intellectual property attorney in Brooklyn who specializes in representing creative professionals, explains: "The DMCA gives you the ability to go over the head of a website admin who ignores you when you tell them they're infringing your work. When they know your next move is getting their site blocked, it's pretty effective." The DMCA is also the bane of people who steal parts of films on DVD, because the legislation outlaws decrypting of the discs. You say you've always heard your work is copyrighted even if it's not registered? "That just means that the copyright exists until you protect it, which you do by registering the work," Abraham says. "You can't enforce an unregistered copyright." Since registering is easy and inexpensive, he advises doing it yourself. Steer clear of private agencies that handle it—particularly those that claim to offer registrations that "substitute" for registering with the Copyright Office. Abraham adds, "And please, do not mail your work to yourself. All that'll do is waste a perfectly good envelope." Visit the U.S. Copyright Office at http://www.copyright.gov/ for more information. Filmmakers should be sure to consult Copyright Circular No. 45.
A Brief Look into chashama
In a seven-part series, we'll document the changes that occurred over time on a New York City street known as 42nd. Our first segment explores the block between 6th Avenue and Broadway as it was from 1996 to 2004, a time during which chashama ruled with its colorful artistic endeavors. A variety of galleries were erected and performances produced in that period. Founder Anita Durst began chashama based on a vision revealed by a dear friend who had just passed away. Click to see Part 1.
Tod Lautenberg, writer, director, editor, and actor for his debut feature "psychedelic comedy," A Bob Marley Joint, offers his Trade Secrets in this issue.
"My mission in life is to write and direct movies that use music and comedy as a life-affirming glue. The lesson in music is that there is strength in something if it is experienced by a large number of people together. A concert is like that and a movie can be like that. I remember when I went to see There's Something About Mary, and the whole theater was a riot of laughter. I guarantee the audience brought that laughter home with them that night. In a film, the pictures represent emotion, and a break in the picture can be easily forgiven by the audience because emotions are like that. Sound is shared experience. It reminds people of things that physically happened because the wave of sound itself is physical. A break in the sound is a break in the mise en scene, or the thing that makes people believe it's real. If an audience can be made to feel the experience together through the prism of music, then a string will be added to the shared experience of the audience through the sound. A film is like a phone conversation. If you tell someone to fuck off or look down on them, they will hang up. If you make an audience laugh or give them music, then you are giving something. You first thank people for choosing to spend time with your story by infusing it with life, laughter, and music, and then maybe, just maybe, you might be able to impart some wisdom without being pretentious."
