I recently had an Indian couple contact me wanting a "wedding portrait session". He mentioned that he wanted to copy a pose from a popular Bollywood movie poster for one of the pictures. I told him this was ok and we scheduled the session. Immediately after scheduling, he emails me back to inform me that he wants *TEN* movie poster poses copied. Keep in mind this would take the entire session.
...
I obviously am not going to do this for multiple reasons. There are serious ethical/legal issues involved. It is also moderately insulting as it seems they are not interested in my work at all, only to use me to copy someone else's work.
This is a couple who've I've worked with in the past on an "engagement party". They were very happy with my work and wanted to hire me again for future work - which is the basis for this inquiry. They have said they wanted to hire me for the wedding, but at this time only seem interested in hiring me for individual sessions instead of everything at once in a package deal.
So while I know that I risk not getting hired for the wedding booking by turning this session down, it's looking like that might have to happen if I can't get the couple to agree on something different for the session.
Well if you really want their business you could compromise with them.
Tell them that if they book your normal package .... or whatever you want out of them... that you will agree to do the shots they want if they also agree to let you do what you normally do. This may take a little longer than normal but you both would end up happy. They would get the movie poster shots and you would have a legit session to blog without worrying about showing all the shots that were "copied".
I understand where you are coming from but working with them may salvage the relationship.
But then again I do not work with Indian clients so I really have no basis for what I am saying.
I've seen this done being that I do mostly South Asian weddings. It's a great idea at first but dude, the ones I've seen online are HORRIBLE! I would never do them myself. Just not my thing. I don't want my brand associating with such.
Although I do promote "bollywood" to my clients, to some extent. But not copy of posters. Eeeek!
I've seen this done being that I do mostly South Asian weddings. It's a great idea at first but dude, the ones I've seen online are HORRIBLE! I would never do them myself. Just not my thing. I don't want my brand associating with such.
Although I do promote "bollywood" to my clients, to some extent. But not copy of posters. Eeeek!
This is why you could compromise with them. You can shoot crappy Bollywood posters all day long...but that does not mean they EVER have to see the light of day.
Actually, I kindda take that back. Are they simply asking for poses or do they want the whole shebang with edited posters from the movies? The ones I'm talking about, they literally took Bollywood movie posters, did the exact poses, and had them replaced with their pictures. Very tacky man.
Just to play devil's advocate, why not do it? If they are happy with the outcome, and you earn income, what is the loss? Your talents are not an end in themselves, but a tool to an end (happy clients, and personal sense of accomplishment). If you treat this as an photo exercise, for which you get paid, why not?
It seems like they want me to make the entire poster (fonts, etc).
I had originally said yes without fully understanding what he wanted. Now that I realize what they actually want me to do, there is NO WAY I'm going to do this.
jstephens62 wrote:
Just to play devil's advocate, why not do it? If they are happy with the outcome, and you earn income, what is the loss? Your talents are not an end in themselves, but a tool to an end (happy clients, and personal sense of accomplishment). If you treat this as an photo exercise, for which you get paid, why not?
- Making cheesy movie posters of couples isn't my specialty.
- Duplicating copyrighted work is illegal
So those are two very good reasons not to do it. I'm sure there are others as well.
I mean I would do it, actually it would be kinda fun since I NEVER do anything like that. Would I blog it or show it...NO, Never.
I would have it in writting that they were going to do a normal shoot for me as well so that I had something to show and that the movie posters were not going to be advertised.
If done right and with the help of a designer you could end up with something pretty cool that they will LOVE if that is what they want.
hardlyboring wrote:
I mean I would do it, actually it would be kinda fun since I NEVER do anything like that. Would I blog it or show it...NO, Never.
I would have it in writting that they were going to do a normal shoot for me as well so that I had something to show and that the movie posters were not going to be advertised.
If done right and with the help of a designer you could end up with something pretty cool that they will LOVE if that is what they want.
Would you have no issues with blatantly copying someone else's work for pay?
I'm not sure why there would be "ethical/legal" issues, well, at least the "legal" side. I mean, if you were ok with doing one, what's wrong with 10? We occasionally get requests to recreate a particular image a client has seen somewhere else, and we try to accommodate them if possible. I for one enjoy working with clients who are excited enough to put a lot of thought into their session.
The other side is, that yes, they are only using you for your technical skill, and not your artistic vision. Commercial photographers are all saying "so what?" for the most part. There job most often is to create the vision that the client has laid out.
If you don't want to do it, I wouldn't do it. Working with this couple might be a bad idea in a wedding situation, but only you can judge that at this time.
deepbluejh wrote:
It seems like they want me to make the entire poster (fonts, etc).
I had originally said yes without fully understanding what he wanted. Now that I realize what they actually want me to do, there is NO WAY I'm going to do this.
I replied before I saw this. Yeah, I'd probably do the images, but I wouldn't get involved in re-creating the actual posters.
deepbluejh wrote:
Would you have no issues with blatantly copying someone else's work for pay?
I would also do it for the challenge and for fun and maybe never show it.
I wouldn't have a problem with this "blatantly copying someone else's work for pay" because I don't believe THIS is the kind of thing that copyright laws were made to protect against.
It's not like the couple could go to the bollywood studio and realistically hire them to make the poster for them, right? So you're NOT in the same line of business, you'd be recreating something for this couple, who are just fans of the movie (or the genre).
Guys, its not about you showing the work, it's about them showing the work and telling everyone you did this. I don't know about you but I wouldn't want another 5 clients come to me down the road asking me to recreate 10 movie posters.
deepbluejh wrote:
Would you have no issues with blatantly copying someone else's work for pay?
That is the ONLY reason I would have a potential problem with it. I will most likely never encounter this situation so I can safely say that it would be a fun experiment for me. Jamie I totally understand where you are on this and I think your position is justified.
Just playing a little devils advocate.
hardlyboring wrote:
That is the ONLY reason I would have a potential problem with it. I will most likely never encounter this situation so I can safely say that it would be a fun experiment for me. Jamie I totally understand where you are on this and I think your position is justified.
Just playing a little devils advocate.
Don't worry about that, Bollywood copies enough content from Hollywood as it is. They have been taking movies from here, using their actors and putting them up in theaters, it's a joke man. But that's a whole diff story.
Can you just tell them that you researched the legalities and aren't comfortable with it? You can word it in a really great way that lets them know how much you love working with them, but as a business, need to make certain that you aren't doing anything that could be construed as illegal. You could even suggest coming up with their OWN movie poster... conceptualized FOR them.
