Content lifting

I have spent years creating media content at a great expense of time and money.  I have had a camera in my hand since I was in my teens and have always created what is called "content" now.  When I started taking photos I took photos of my friends and weird things in my environment.   It has changed over the years to shooting food, artistic things and making short films and even working on a documentary.   I had to stop making short films because I couldn't afford to do it anymore.  I had to sell my video camera at a huge loss and haven't had the time it takes to assemble the things and people needed to do it justice.  I have also stopped because I started feeling ripped off.  I would spend a huge amount of time trying to create a short film and expense of submitting it to film festivals to receive nothing in return even if it was accepted into a small festival.  But what is getting to me now is finding my images or trailers on other people's websites but no notification has been sent to me and sometimes not even credit.   Have you ever googled yourself?  Try that and see what comes up on other people's sites.  

My images have appeared on BLOGTO, and I just found one on TORONTO LIFE and an old image I took in the 80's appears in a video promotion for an artist.   These are professional entities that get paid for their work.  I created the content but have not received any compensation for any of these images.

I found one of my short film posters and trailer on some website asking the question is it offensive?  How would they know unless they had seen the whole thing.  It has not been sold for distribution anywhere and it hasn't even been shown at a film festival.  It has only been submitted to a few festivals so what gives them the right to propagate my materials for their own gain?

I admit that I have used some images on my blog but if I am able to credit the author I do.  I usually only use images that promote events and illustrate something like a holiday or a logo to promote an event and most of the time the event producers are aware that I am promoting their event.

Taking photos comes naturally to me.  I am constantly striving to take better quality images with very basic tools.

I am going to try to only use my own content but I hope that other people stop using mine for their own gain.  I can honestly tell you that I am not compensated for my content on this blog.  The only compensation I may receive is a ticket to an event where I can create my original content.   As I said I have invested a lot of time creating content and I don't want to have to stop because everyone decides to steal it.   Make your own content or pay for it or at least give the creator credit.

Sorry.. this rant has been building up and I had to put it out there to those people who do not understand copyright and content respect.

I suppose I should be flattered that people have noticed my content and thought it useful enough to steal it but I also find it disturbing to have to find it by accident online.

thanks for reading this whole rant..

Opening Night ICFF - Qualcosa di Nuovo

For the third year in a row I have had the great fortune to be able to attend the Italian Contemporary Film Festival (ICFF) a great festival in Toronto that is very young in years but it is very big in scope.
It has grown so much in a few short years.  It now spans from Toronto to Vancouver to Montreal.  It's more than a film festival, it's a celebration of Italian Culture and along with the films there has been loads and loads of Italian Food and fashion and Italian centred art.

The Opening Night film was a hilarious comedy called QUALCOSA DI NUOVO.  It stars Paula Cortellesi.  Although I am not familiar with her work I understand that she is very popular and is a great singer.  She is a very good actress and I really enjoyed this fun and interesting look at 2 Forty something women who were best friends since childhood.  One is a responsible and repressed Jazz singer and the other is a wild child single mother with 2 kids.  In an interesting twist of fate the mother meets a young man on an alcohol fuelled night out and after they spend the night together the young man who doesn't remember all of the details of the previous evening but knows he had a great time but mistakenly thinks it was with her friend the repressed Jazz singer.  Through a serious of mixed up circumstances the 2 women get to know the young man and realise that although they think they are teaching him a few things about life he is actually teaching them some big life lessons.

This was a smartly written piece that was adapted from the theatre and the dialogue and the chemistry between the 3 characters is incredible.

It's great to see women over 40 in attractive, desirable and smart roles and it was very entertaining at the same time.  A great start to the film festival.

From the films I have seen so far at the festival I think that Italians really know how to do comedy well and make their films both hilarious and smart.  They remind me of the films like the old Hollywood film with Carey Grant and Sophia Loren.

Paula Cortellesi and ICFF artistic Director Cristiano de Florentis

You still have time to see some films at ICFF.  for more information and tickets  http://icff.ca/