Someone stole my credit!

W

wmiller@csulb.edu

Well-known member
I worked as a DP on a film and on the poster the Director of Photography is credited in the Directors name!!

I did all the camerawork, i brought my camera, Lighting and sound equip to the set. The credit is undoubtedly mine. Director of Photography: That is what i was brought onto the project as.

I dont want it to have an impact on my use of the footage for my demo reel.

It has already appeared at one festival.

What can i do??
 
Nope that was a problem with some money they owed me too.

Basically its a situation of friends making a film and having a falling out afterwards.

Regardless of contracts, how can someone claim to do work that they did not do?
 
wmiller@csulb.edu said:
\Regardless of contracts, how can someone claim to do work that they did not do?
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The world is full of di(ks. Unfortunately, you may be in a live and learn position...:Drogar-Smoke(DBG):
 
Regardless of contracts, how can someone claim to do work that they did not do?

For some people it seems relatively easy...I went to college with a girl who claimed to have done all her own work and the truth was she maybe contributed 30%. Karma yanked her chain in the end though. I don't think a lot can be done without a contract in your case but I'm no lawyer. It is probably one of those lessons you'll have to remember in the future. On the plus side...It's good to get those lessons out of the way before they get big enough to do you real harm:)
 
Have you never read a resume? Those are full pages of people claiming credit for work they didn't do. :thumbsup:

Or, have you never worked at a job where you had a boss? Read Dilbert; if it's good, they claim credit for it, if it's bad they blame you for it.

The world is full of those types. ESPECIALLY the video/film industry.
 
Sorry to hear what happened to you.A little something to add to Barry's accurate post.
I once got a call from a producer friend in Vancouver (western Canada)when I was working in San Fran. He was in the process of doing an interview with an 'up and coming director". This director presented his reel to my friend and on it were two not one but two network projects I had directed in Toronto(central eastern Canada)which he claimed to be his own. My friend told the fella he had to make an important call(to me) and it would only take a minute. He put me on the speaker phone and explained the situation. The guy didn't flinch, I then recognized who he was, he had been an intern from a university on the project. He said that he might have overstated his role but made no apology. He didn't get the gig. He is now, however a senior producer at a network in Canada . All of this to say, not just cream rises to the top...sh_t floats too.
Call the person up and tell him he has lots of class, mostly 4th.
 
wmiller@csulb.edu said:
I worked as a DP on a film and on the poster the Director of Photography is credited in the Directors name!!

I did all the camerawork, i brought my camera, Lighting and sound equip to the set. The credit is undoubtedly mine. Director of Photography: That is what i was brought onto the project as.

I dont want it to have an impact on my use of the footage for my demo reel.

It has already appeared at one festival.

What can i do??
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Do you have witnesses to you being DP, like the cast and the rest of the crew?? If so then make a statement of claim.
 
That happened to me once too. At a festival screening, I screamed, "F*CK YOU TONY MILLER." He then got up and left the theater. I never got paid either.
 
Rezfactor said:
That happened to me once too. At a festival screening, I screamed, "F*CK YOU TONY MILLER." He then got up and left the theater. I never got paid either.
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Hahaha...that made my night, Ralph!!!! :beer:
 
Note: none of us are saying that this is "right" or that it's an acceptable practice. It's low down dirty lying skunkiness. We're just saying that it happens all the time.
 
About the only thing worse than not getting proper credit for your good work would be to get a credit for someone else's crappy work!

Seriously, sorry to learn that this happened. Did you receive a screen credit at all (camera op or anything)?

I would look for someone who took any behind the scenes stills to substantiate what you did on this project.
 
Barry_Green said:
Note: none of us are saying that this is "right" or that it's an acceptable practice. It's low down dirty lying skunkiness. We're just saying that it happens all the time.
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ALL THE TIME. We've had a lot of out of state company's (N.Y. - L.A? yes, but not exclusively) coming down here to Dallas the past couple years, and it didn't take long for our hometown crew to realize that they will skip out on you every chance they get.

Don't even work on friends' projects without at least a simple agreement on paper... just to cover everybody's arse's.
 
If you shot the footage with no contracts and no payment then it's quite possible that you still own that footage. TAKE IT ALL BACK!
 
Sorry for the thread jack but you think that's bad, here's my situation.

I'm sure some of you remember the film I did awhile back title Tears which I directed, edited and scored for. Well..... On IMDB, it's directed by someone who I have no idea is. WTF!!! Talk about getting really skrewd over! Plus some dude which I never met also got editing credit. They're several names there that I've never even heard of. What the ****! This "producer" is a ****en idiot! :) I don't care too much about this movie but this is like a stabb in the back! No respect! Bastard!

you should of seen the credits last week, the entire crew was different. I guess he's slowing getting emails from the cast and crew about this. It looks like he may change but knowing this fool, he probably won't.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0884867/combined
575675330_l.jpg


It's a long story and I'm going to just let this one go. I'll explain details later..


.Miller, Just make sure you have all the raw footage and give me his name so I can put him on a hit list....kidding, but whats his name?

duce!!
 
That blows big time. I have seen IMDB listings where someone worked in a single unearned credit for a role that didn't even exist, but multiple erroneous listings? Thats just wrong.

Contact IMDB and with enough supporting documentation you can get them to correct it.
 
If you want to play a little rough--or maybe at least give the guy a well deserved scare--you should send him a letter from a lawyer (find a lawyer friend who will put a letter on his letterhead). Because if you don't have an agreement, this producer doesn't have the right to use or reproduce your creative work either (i.e., your cinematography). You can simply state that without a reasonable credit you will seek to recover damages and prevent any further exploitation of the film. (Now, you'll probably never ACTUALLY do these things cuz it's too expensive and not worth it...but receiving this letter with a lawyer's letterhead might convince him he's done something wrong and get him to "voluntarily" correct your credit.) He can't even get it into festivals if he hasn't cleared the rights to use YOUR cinematography work.
 
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