OK, at the risk of sounding like I'm pimping my ethics video again, I want to tell you guys a story about what happened to me this week and ask for your pro-pinion (I just made that word up):
At the awards dinner a couple of weeks ago the corporate sponsor played a highlight reel that contained the top three finalists as well as a few honorable mentions and snippets from the rest of the entries. Then they announce me as the winner. I should have been happy, but I was too busy being pissed off.
The guy who runs the festival is a guy who says he's a screen writer and uses phrases like "my treatment" but in real life is a corporate ethics officer and you would think he'd be a little sensitive on how to handle other people's work. As I watched my video start the first thing I noticed is he stripped off that old fashion countdown leader at the beginning...
Ok, I could have expected that even though I thought it added a bit of flavour. Then as the video starts and just as the little MTV style song title comes up he spashes on a crude blue box with the word "Finalist" inside (as if we all didn't know that's why we were there). He could have at least put that little notice before the video started (he did the same thing that last two times I won and I mentioned it to him then). This was very distracting but again, not a surprise.
Then to my shock the song ends and BAM he goes right into the next finalist's video - totally cutting the entire credits and little dog barfing ethics. Now I'm really steamed especially because there were two significant contributors to the video (the lead vocalist and Mark Croft's Acid Loops which I used by permission).
A week passed and I couldn't get over that fact that he cut the credits, so before he got a chance to distribute the DVD and post the videos on the internet, I sent him an email requesting that he replace the credits. He agreed and casually added "by the way, we edited your video because last month the company changed it's Ethics mantra and the words "Honesty, Integrity, blah, blah" are no longer the company's official ethics principles. It's now "Do What's Right, Respect Others, and Perform with Excellence."
"You edited those words out? How did you do that - it's part of the song?"
"Oh, no problem, the cut is almost seamless."
This coming from a guy who would dare put a blue box on top of a sepia video. He held the phone up to the speaker of his PC and played the video. I nearly puked... almost seamless... and Madonna is almost a virgin. Long story short (well I guess it's too late for that), I told him I was not happy and that if the words have to come out, I would do the edit myself...after all they're still good words are they not? Just because they aren't the official principles doesn't make them dirty words does it? The answer was yes, they are very dirty words and they must come out.
So last night I hacked together an "edited under duress" version including the blue box and posted it for him to download. Now had this been a work for hire, I'd say the customer is always right...and right is never wrong. But this was my work. Though technically the waiver stated they can use it in whole or in part, is it ethical to make poor edits to the content and perhaps mislead a viewer to thinking that was my editing choice? I can understand using a clip where it's obviously just a clip...but had I not contacted him about the credits, that F'd up video would have been distributed with my name on it looking like crap.
I feel better already. So in case you have not seen the subject of this rant here's the links to both versions:
Original Version
Edited Version
At the awards dinner a couple of weeks ago the corporate sponsor played a highlight reel that contained the top three finalists as well as a few honorable mentions and snippets from the rest of the entries. Then they announce me as the winner. I should have been happy, but I was too busy being pissed off.
The guy who runs the festival is a guy who says he's a screen writer and uses phrases like "my treatment" but in real life is a corporate ethics officer and you would think he'd be a little sensitive on how to handle other people's work. As I watched my video start the first thing I noticed is he stripped off that old fashion countdown leader at the beginning...
Ok, I could have expected that even though I thought it added a bit of flavour. Then as the video starts and just as the little MTV style song title comes up he spashes on a crude blue box with the word "Finalist" inside (as if we all didn't know that's why we were there). He could have at least put that little notice before the video started (he did the same thing that last two times I won and I mentioned it to him then). This was very distracting but again, not a surprise.
Then to my shock the song ends and BAM he goes right into the next finalist's video - totally cutting the entire credits and little dog barfing ethics. Now I'm really steamed especially because there were two significant contributors to the video (the lead vocalist and Mark Croft's Acid Loops which I used by permission).
A week passed and I couldn't get over that fact that he cut the credits, so before he got a chance to distribute the DVD and post the videos on the internet, I sent him an email requesting that he replace the credits. He agreed and casually added "by the way, we edited your video because last month the company changed it's Ethics mantra and the words "Honesty, Integrity, blah, blah" are no longer the company's official ethics principles. It's now "Do What's Right, Respect Others, and Perform with Excellence."
"You edited those words out? How did you do that - it's part of the song?"
"Oh, no problem, the cut is almost seamless."
This coming from a guy who would dare put a blue box on top of a sepia video. He held the phone up to the speaker of his PC and played the video. I nearly puked... almost seamless... and Madonna is almost a virgin. Long story short (well I guess it's too late for that), I told him I was not happy and that if the words have to come out, I would do the edit myself...after all they're still good words are they not? Just because they aren't the official principles doesn't make them dirty words does it? The answer was yes, they are very dirty words and they must come out.
So last night I hacked together an "edited under duress" version including the blue box and posted it for him to download. Now had this been a work for hire, I'd say the customer is always right...and right is never wrong. But this was my work. Though technically the waiver stated they can use it in whole or in part, is it ethical to make poor edits to the content and perhaps mislead a viewer to thinking that was my editing choice? I can understand using a clip where it's obviously just a clip...but had I not contacted him about the credits, that F'd up video would have been distributed with my name on it looking like crap.
I feel better already. So in case you have not seen the subject of this rant here's the links to both versions:
Original Version
Edited Version