I Saw Your Brassiere on Facebook

Jimmy Ludwig and I and an occasional column in Equity News called Ask The Geeks. 

Here's one from April of 2009.  We are all wending our way through the morass that is or digital world.  Theatre people have special considerations not only due to the public nature of our work, but our untraditional work places.

Equity’s Committee on New Media and New Technology (lovingly named The Geek Committee) cares about issues concerning our Members and New Media.  (And there are tons of issues) So to help clear up some confusion, welcome to another edition of: Ask The Geeks

Ask The Geeks

Q.   Last week, on my birthday, a bunch of people burst in to the dressing room and videoed me in my bra.  I posted it on my Facebook page.  I think it’s hysterical, but my dressing roommate went postal because part of her arm and the back of her head are in it.  You can’t even tell it’s her but now she’s really cold toward me.  Am I right or is she having a cow for no good reason?

A.    No, the cow is well deserved.  If this were at your house, your only crime would be insensitivity.  The problem here is that you were at work.  Delete the video.

Q.   I’m building a website.  I found a pirated clip from my show on YouTube.  I want to lift a clip (just me singing and nobody else in frame) and put it up on my site.  Problem?  After all – it’s my image and I didn’t pirate it.

A.    But you don’t own the show in which your image appears – the producer does.  If you use ANY of that footage, you are as legally vulnerable as whoever pirated it in the first place.

Q.   I’m really pissed-off!  One night we had to stop the show and improv some dialogue until our set started working again.  Somebody in the audience recorded the whole thing and now it’s all over the internet!  A friend told me there was nothing I could do because it was news and therefore “fair use.”  (The incident made all the newspapers the next day) Is that right?

A.    The Doctrine of Fair Use is an exception to copyright laws.  This is major lawyer territory but basically, the copyright law says that fair use of a copyrighted work without permission can occur if it is used as (1) criticism and comment, (2) parody and satire, (3) scholarship and research, (4) news reporting and (5) teaching.

That said, what the audience member did was to steal your image.  Period.  If it was during a performance, he not only stole your image, but the property of your show’s producer too.  Catching the thief is the hard part, but if you can, you may be due damages.  Equity has been successful at having such footage removed.

Q.   In trying to promote myself, some friends and me have made an online webisode.  We’ve had a lot of hits.  We’re not making any money and I’m giving every cast member a copy.  No harm – right?

A.    Depends.  Do you or any of the other cast members belong to either AFTRA or SAG [SAG-AFTRA]?  If you are, did you get the proper paper work?  You could be in violation if you didn’t.  So much trouble can often be avoided with a single phone call.

That’s all for this month’s edition of ASK THE GEEKS!

Remember: Your image has value.

Your image (this includes your voice, photo and any other reproducible part of you) is yours to sell or give away as you please.  But it gets complicated anytime other people are involved.

The media landscape changes literally every day.  Wrapping ones mind around the concepts of New Media can cause crossed eyes.  Equity is there to help.  That’s one of the things you pay dues for.  Producers have deeper pockets and better access to lawyers than most actors do.  If you’re not sure about an issues dealing with New Media, call Equity or email taping@actorsequity.org.*  Your union wants to protect you – not punish you.

Under Equity’s collective bargaining agreements, the ways in which a producer may exploit your image are laid out very clearly. † There are penalties for the use of your image outside of the parameters of your contract.

Under federal law 18 U.S.C. 2319A, it’s a felony to “transmit, distribute or offer to distribute” sound or video to anybody anywhere (including posting them on social networking sites) without the consent of the performer(s) involved.

Here are some rules of thumb:

·      Yours is the only image you have the right to promote, but…

·      Just because it’s your image doesn’t guarantee that you have that right.

·      If you tape (film/photograph) it – make sure you have the right to do so.

·      If you don’t have the right to film it – don’t.

·      If you didn’t film it yourself – you probably don’t own it.

Tune in down the road for more pertinent info.  Until then, stay in touch at taping@actorsequity.com.*

* updated email: capture@actorsequity.org

† this was written before many of the Media packages which are now standards in many of our contracts.

Unemployment Insurance Is A Right, Not Charity!

Unemployment Insurance – Get Your Money

By Buzz Roddy
Membership Education Committee

“Unemployment insurance is not charity – it is a right,” I hectored Members who attended AEA’s New York City seminar, “Unemployment Insurance – Get Your Money.” 
Many of us do not realize that while we are employed and drawing a paycheck, the employer is obliged to make contributions based on those earnings to the state Unemployment Insurance Fund from which U/I benefits are paid. To get it, all we have to do is put in a claim.

We are indeed entitled to this money, but how to navigate the byzantine protocols of the various states’ departments of labor?  What to do when Department of Labor claims specialists, unfamiliar with our category of employment, miscalculate or even deny our claims?

The October 7, 2013 seminar was hosted by the Membership Education committee. On hand was Unemployment Insurance (UI) expert Brian Curtis, Supervisor of Labor Disputes for the NY State Department of Labor.  Mr. Curtis walked us through eligibility, filing a claim, and getting ones benefit rate correct.  Possessing 36 years of experience and a gift of clarity, Curtis succeeded in delivering information in bite-sized chunks and answered members’ questions.  (In other hands, these two hours might have been a snore-fest, but the discussion was lively and enlightening.)  The seminar left Members empowered and even smiling with the knowledge that opening and managing an Unemployment Insurance claim is fully within their capabilities.

Some insights and advice:

•  UI is not charity.  It is a right.
•  UI applies to W-2 wages, not 1099 jobs
•  Your UI benefit rate is based on your past earnings
•  You can apply for UI benefits in the state that you live or in the states where you have worked
•  Keep good records (paystubs, W-2s, etc)
•  Can I work while collecting UI? (Answer: Yes—in certain circumstances)
•  Never send original documents to prove a claim
•  Learn the time constraints in opening or appealing a claim
•  Know your benefit rate to the penny before you file
•  If your benefits are denied – appeal. Never give up

So many actors who ask me about UI are either intimidated or ashamed about collecting.  There is no reason to be either.  Learning your states’ UI system and eligibility criteria, though daunting is not impossible.  And you, as a dues-paying member have help—and she has a name: Valerie LaVarco, Equity Business Representative for Unemployment/Worker's Compensation. She is your go-to unemployment insurance specialist. If you have a problem or question, contact her atvlavarco@actorsequity.org or at 212-869-8530.

Unemployment Insurance is for most of us a necessary bridge between jobs which allows us to keep up that dance class; pay the rent; eat.  And this money has been set aside for your use.

Now - get your money!

Reprinted from the Actors' Equity Website, October 2013

The Blacklist

The Blacklist

Actors and Stage Managers live in fear of it.

Many suspect that they're on one already.

Or on several.

The Blacklist (I capitalize it in appreciation of its enormity and ubiquity) looms huge in the consciousness of so many of my fellows and enmires them in a fen of fear and inactivity.  All of us seek to put on our party manners when coming face-to-face with a potential employer.  Once we have the job, we want the employer's experience with us to be positive enough that we might be considered for future work.  I am astounded at some of my confreres, normally gregarious and capable of manipulating the emotions of an audience of hundreds, that they attach so much significance to the slightest gesture, comment, article of clothing and are possessed with the idea that one of these bits of minutiae will affect their employment opportunities.

I can tell you, from experience, that barring something absolutely egregious, like sleeping with the director's wife or blowing the theatre up, that there is no blacklist. I will go further.  Our own individualities and quirks are what keep us ever present in people's minds - especially employers.

An example. I did a stunt in a feature film that I won't now name.  I was young and hungry, and this was a big Hollywood film. A nice feather in my cap. After my stuff was wrapped, I got a call from a casting director who casts background players, asking if I wanted to work. I said, 'yes,' and went for a wardrobe fitting.  The address seemed a familiar one, and when I arrived it was indeed, the wardrobe department of the same film I had just worked on.  Since I was fairly anonymous in the stunt I performed, I figured that this background work would be icing on the cake and no one would get hurt.  Well, I got busted. The background casting director called me, furious that I had taken this background work when I was already a principal.  I repeated to her my rationale about no one getting hurt.

It took a few days for my eardrum to recover from the sound of the phone being slammed down.  I figured that I had entered the oft-referred to blacklist which I was sure this casting director kept on her person at all times.  I could not have been more wrong.  For weeks afterward, that casting director called me constantly for work.  After some time she forgot why I was foremost in her mind.  I guess it proved true that old bromide that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

I was talking to a Stage Manager just yesterday who was asked by the artistic director of a theatre where she was working to do additional work out of the purview of her Equity contract, and for no additional money. She complied, thinking that if she refused, that artistic director might find a more willing (and cheaper, as this SM had been there for quite a few seasons) employee.  I got apoplectic for her.  "That's why you have a deputy!" I yelled.  She acquiesced and was later replaced.  A fellow SM who took umbrage and spoke up, did not submit to the boss's request and stillworks there. Coincidence? Luck?

Sometimes the only thing we have is the courage of our convictions.  Most of us have that voice in our heads, or in the pits of our stomachs that tells us when things are right or going wrong. Yes, the possibility always exists that we might piss someone off.  More often I have found that standing up for oneself is more respected than blithe complicity.  It also seems not only to not emplace one onto the non-existent blacklist, but on the whitelist (?) which seems to increase the frequency of work.

If we heed Polonius' advice and are true to ourselves we might find more and better work in the aggregate. I want to shake Actors who sell themselves short. There is one school of thought, too, which says that it's better to be feared, than liked. Let us not give up our considerable power.