RE: [Harp-L] Calling all Harmonica Vendors
I'm being too much of a crab. I'd like to back off that nasty tone I took
yesterday. (I really wanted to, but then I wrote the stuff below, and it's
still pretty crabby. At least nobody will be asking me what my real
feelings are.) I did not taking all the time it took to write this in
order to defend what I wrote yesterday, but rather to help Harplers who
are still trying to learn how to make a living playing harmonica understand
how serious the issues of rights and getting paid are.
A movie is a damn hard thing to get made, and a documentary is even harder
because almost nobody puts a documentary to bed and gets rich. The PFOS
filmmakers are going to have to wake up the day after the film is launched
and figure out where the next paycheck is coming from. I get that.
Further, when I describe the filmmakers as well-intention I do not use that
term in quotes. I respect, like and admire Michael Rubin, and his word
goes a long way with me, so I totally believe that the filmmakers are good
people with the very best intentions.
Here's why a bad feeling attaches to PFOS for me:
1. The Terms & Conditions of that song contest were just plain awful. As a
guy who has worked in publishing in the Brill Building, as a judge in a
national song contest, as a composer and a musician I will repeat what I
said in the original thread last year: that T&C did not meet the smell
test. Demanding all rights in perpetuity to everything that was submitted
was just plain ugly, especially when most of the people you are demanding
them from haven't the slightest idea of the value of those rights. Smiling
and saying in all sincerity that it's a great opportunity didn't make it a
great opportunity. But it's true that a lawyer drew the T&C up.
2. However, you don't pay a lawyer to be a decent human being, you pay him
to put you in the best possible position. Putting the filmmakers in the
best possible position against a bunch of penurious harmonica players was a
very easy billable hour for that lawyer. Still, I understand why, if you
shell out for a lawyer, you'd actually take his advice.
3. So, when Richard Hunter, Emile D'Amico and Ken Deifik, among others,
cried foul over that T&C, and tried to warn people about what they were
giving up, I believe that the filmmakers realized that their T&C might've
gone too far. Unfortunately, according to a very defensive and
non-apologetic post from the filmmakers, all they seemed to have done is
withdraw the T&C from the website. No mention anywhere in the Harp-l
archive that they changed it, however, as far as I can find. (I'd be
delighted to be pointed to the post that would correct my impression.)
The filmmakers were about to make me feel pretty good about them - like
they were completely well-intentioned, filmmakers who had no idea of what a
con game the music business can become, who had no idea that their
lawyer-created T&C was not actually the kind of T&C that a legitimate music
contest would ever require its applicants to agree with.
4. But finally, here's where the filmmakers lost me, and had me smelling
fish where maybe there wasn't any: I just searched through the archives on
the terms "PFOS" and "pocket full of soul" and the only communications I
have ever seen from them on this subject was defensive, and a little pissed
off that anyone would impugn their motives. No apology, no rewrite that I
can find, not even an apology for getting caught or for 'having offended
some people.'
If they wanted free work because they were well-intentioned but broke, then
they shouldn't have been asking for all rights for that free work, and when
they realized that that was what they were asking for they should have
apologized for the inadvertent insult and adopted a T&C where they took the
publishing and nothing more for the winning piece (a totally legitimate
condition) and left the non-winners alone. Maybe they did adopt such a
T&C, I just can't find any evidence of that in the archive.
Maybe there was a sincere and heart-felt apology from the filmmakers. But
like I say, as far as my archive search went, I couldn't even find an
apology for getting caught.
Pitting musicians up against each other to see who'll do the job for free
was an insult. It's hardly better than going down to a soup kitchen and
seeing if anyone'll work for two bucks an hour. Why? Because the
filmmakers still had to pay for all kinds of stuff, maxing out their credit
cards and touching up friends and family.
That means that some suppliers got paid.
You can't play Mobil off Shell and expect to get free gas, but you can tell
harmonica players (who also like to get paid) "Unless you want to work for
free and give up all rights, go home because the guy behind you
will. We're very well-intentioned, but we only pay people we can't play
off against each other." I'm willing to believe that they didn't actually
think of it as playing people off against each other, and in fact they're
probably insulted right now because I say that's what they did, but in the
end they got free work by playing people off against each other, whether
they can admit it to themselves or not.
And yet I do free work from time to time. I try to help out friends and
people who are doing things that aren't half as cool as PFOS. But those
people don't also demand all rights for everything in perpetuity for a buck.
The fact that the filmmakers worked their butts off in a labor of love
doesn't absolve them from stepping up and making things right. How about
just acting a little contrite for getting themselves into a position where
they had to pay Exxon/Mobil and the company that made the camera and the
editing software, and the restaurant and the DVD duplicator, but not being
able to pay people for music to help promote your labor of love, and for
adding ugly demands into the bargain. (For that matter, why not ask
friends and family for a hundred bucks to pay the contest winner, in
exchange for a piece of the publishing?)
So there's where I got pissed off about "inviting" people to play for free
at an event intended to promote the movie.
Free promotion is a very big deal. We all need it. I'd have been
delighted to submit something to the contest if the filmmakers humbly asked
for help rather than demand all rights forever in perpetuity for a buck.
And if the filmmakers feel the impulse to reply that most Harplers were not
insulted, my reply is that anyone on Harp-l who doesn't feel insulted by
their 'offer' has not been screwed enough yet.
Of course I intend to see the movie. It's not a movie about the filmmakers
- it's about a subject I love. I'm excited to see great footage of
musicians I admire. If it's a good movie, and I have a sense it may well
be, I intend to rave here and elsewhere. If it's not so good I won't say a
thing. It's too damned hard to make a movie.
But I absolutely take personally the filmmakers' lack of contrition for
giving us the choice to work for free or take a hike. It's the lack of
contrition and the lack of any evidence that they made things right and
fixed the T&C that bothers me and makes me feel that their continued
project to get harmonica players to work for free is not quite as cool as
if they had.
To the film makers: I sincerely wish you the best of luck with your
movie. But try and be a little more humble when you are asking for free work.
Ken
At 11:57 AM 12/8/2008, you wrote:
Ken:
I am sorry to hear that our project makes your blood run cold. We have
been working very hard to make this project a reality. Do we wish we
could pay players? Sure. But with little or no sponsors, no production or
film company supporting us, and no major source of revenue to support this
film, it is difficult, however, this has not stopped us from working
diligently to make an incredible film. As you may or may not know, we
have spent a significant amount of our own money and have sought investors
which are basically friends and family so that we could try to make a
great film about a very important subject. We are not Hollywood. No
matter how much money, time, or energy that we put into this project, we
still occasionally receive negative comments from people like you. This
is what makes my blood boil. You have not seen the project and from your
comments you probably never will, but it is special and the players and
performers that have seen it appreciate our hard work. Hopefully the
players that have gratefully participated in the film will receive a
benefit in record sales, tour revenues, etc. It is certainly our sincere
hope that they do.
Regarding the event in Houston, we are not shelling out any money because
we are out of funds. Hence the reason to partner with the City of Houston
and the House of Blues. We hope we are able to make this event a positive
reality, if it occurs at all.
Thank you.
Todd
> Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2008 11:00:20 -0800
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> From: kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Calling all Harmonica Vendors
>
> I've been hearing some promotion of the movie in LA, and here's some promo
> going on in Houston.
>
> Does anyone else find it remarkable that the filmmakers are able to shell
> out for promotion (and prints of the film and tools to make the film) but
> somehow they couldn't pay the harp players?
>
> I'm normally a very cheery guy, but this project makes my blood run cold.
>
> > > Pocket Full of Soul: The Harmonica Documentary is working with the
City of
> > > Houston, its amazing downtown park Discovery Green
www.discoverygreen.com,
> > > and the House of Blues in Houston to create a harmonica blues
film/music
> > > festival in Spring 2009.
>
> _______________________________________________
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