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Infinity 9 Films Sketchy Filmmaker refuses to let me access footage after using my likeness Hagerstown Maryland
I acted in a short film by this filmmaker a couple years ago. I was never paid and, after asking several times, the filmaker has refused to allow me to see or access the footage of the short film I played a lead role in. It was supposed to be up on a website to promote a local group, and it never got uploaded or used by that group. The filmmaker refuses to let me see even a single bit of the footage I acted in. I even offered to buy a copy and they refused.
This is really dishonest and sketchy, especially since I was not paid. I am NOT comfortable with them taking my likeness, hard work, and acting from me for free and giving me nothing to show for it. I will be seeking legal recourses from this filmmaker via civil law in the future as a result of the use of my likeness in such a dishonest way, but am willing to drop the entire issue if the filmmaker offers to give or sell me a complete copy of the film I starred in (I'm even willing to pay full DVD price, I just want something to show for my efforts)
4 Updates & Rebuttals
A
Reading,Pennsylvania,
United States
Thank you
#5Author of original report
Thu, August 16, 2018
Hello,
Thanks for being willing to help me. I appreciate it. (I'm also glad to hear that I wasn't the reason they disliked the clip, but I suppose that's neither here nor there.)
I'll eagerly await to see if anything can be found/salvaged. Thank you for your efforts to assist me, and I apologize again for the trouble. In the meanwhile I'll contact this site's support and see if there's any way I can amend my initial post to explain it was a mistake on my part.
Darrin
Hagerstown,Maryland,
United States
Lets try to fix this
#5REBUTTAL Individual responds
Tue, August 14, 2018
I'm on messenger right now and trying to find you anything with you on it. If it exists, which it might not, I'll find it for you. Understand that this was not a short film... was never presented as anything more than a website promo video for those guys and you were never offered pay. As an actor myself, I understand wanting some footage.
I also understand as a professional actor that that is not always going to happen. So look. I'm going to go over and above for you as a FAVOR one actor to another to try to get you 'something'. I did not retain any copies as it was not mine to keep but I remain friendly with these WWII guys so I might have more luck than you with them.
FYI, they hated the clip for lots of reasons not related to your performance including the translator's Japanese. My email is infinity9films@yahoo.com
A.
Reading,Pennsylvania,
United States
Update - Misunderstandings on my part and an attempt to repair things.
#5Author of original report
Tue, August 14, 2018
I did attempt to email back...numerous times, ever since we last spoke via email. That's why after several more attempts I turned to this site. Guess the emails didn't go through if you didn't get them, I can't speak for your end of things but I know I sent many contact attempts via email over that time.
The people you referred me to back when we last directly spoke, largely did not respond back to me when I attempted to contact them except for one individual from that group who claimed that you were the one I needed to talk to, not them, so basically I was put in a loop so to speak. The other members of that group completely ignored all attempts at contact. That's when I attempted to contact you again, but didn't hear back for one reason or another, and I am now starting to suspect my email provider ate the messages I tried to send you, which is unfortunate. If that's the case, I apologize for jumping to conclusions.
As far as the website, I actually mentioned the website in my initial complaint. And it seems it was never uploaded to their site, like you said. If that group hated it so much, I wish they'd told me, I'd have been glad to do a re-take at the time if they'd asked me to, but they let me do the whole thing in one take and then sent me back home, which had left me thinking I'd done well.
Just as an aside, the statement that I'm not an actor is factually incorrect. I've actually been employed as a smalltime actor since about 2008 or so, and this is outside of WWII reenacting which I've only done since around 2013 or so, so I'd been acting before I even got into WWII reenactments. To my memory, this reenactment the footage was shot at was 2014 or 2015, which would mean I'd been doing acting gigs for 6-7 years before that. (I'm rather much older than I look/looked, even though you described me as looking rather young in your response.)
As far as the waiver, to my memory at the time, I was not given adequate time to actually read the legal notices in its contents as the reenactment group leader was kind of hurrying me (waivers are usually in legalese anyway but I don't recall if it was), but I wish at the time I'd known I might not have had something to show for it. The biggest reason I agreed to be in the footage was to have something to show my friends, who always asked me what reenacting was like but I'd not had video of my group to show them. So not having a copy of my own work in the production hit me pretty hard. Even though it looks like they cancelled the project, having a copy would be nice. You're free to contact the WWII group again about the footage, but I fear they may attempt to throw you for the same loop as the one it now looks like they threw me for. As I mentioned, they claimed your company were the ones I should speak to, even though you directed me to them. I'm more inclined to believe you than them, now that I think about it, so I'm really not sure what to do at this point.
If we can get this resolved, that would be ideal. I admit it appears some misunderstandings were made by me. In good faith I'll accept that you didn't get my emails, and I'll try and figure out a way to open up proper working communications. I apologize for using choice words, and I will try and find a way to edit, but it is currently looking like this d**n website doesn't offer any way to edit the post, which is frustrating. I wish I'd known that when I made the post.
I will attempt to email again as well; if you don't recieve the email that I send, it'll confirm to me that there are technical issues with my email provider (I think it's been "eating" my messages!), in which case I will make an account with a different service to attempt to communicate that way.
Darrin
Hagerstown,Maryland,
United States
Not sure what you're talking about.
#5REBUTTAL Individual responds
Tue, August 14, 2018
I believe (solely based on thr mention of Reading, PA) that I know what this is about. A number of years ago, I was asked as a favor to film some WWII reenactors during a weekend gathering. At these WWII weekends, in its perform reenactments of events like pilot briefings, etc. A unit asked me to film a reenactment of an interrogation of a Japanese pilot. The only one of a very small contingent of Japanese reenactors who volunteered to be in the 2-4 minute reenactment (for an audience) was a very young reenactor (I suspect the author of this complaint) who was excited to participate but not an actor by any stretch. That clip along with a few other random background shots and a bomber briefing were turned over to the WWII reenactors who requested it for use on their website...not a film.
Now, the guy signed a permission waiver before he could participate. And when he contacted me, I referred him to the owner of the footage which is not me. As far as I know, the clip was not posted because the WWII reenactor unit hated it. I did not retain a copy but will, if you still want me to, contact the owners of the footage to attempt to put you in touch. I take offense at being called "sketchy" as I have not heard a word from this person in the almost 5 years since this was filmed and assumed that he got in touch with the owners as I instructed. It is their footage...not mine. He has my card with my email and phone number and could easily have called rather than "Pearl Harboring me" on this site.