Unfortunately, there are many people that take videos, edit them, and re-post them on their page calling them their own. When this happens, I file a claim with Facebook/Instagram and the video is removed immediately. Asking for permission or just tagging the festival/videographer would prevent me from filing copyright claims.
This situation is different, it’s not a random person - it’s someone who I consider a friend.
This friend got upset with SBKZ Media because we asked him to:
Give credit to the festival and SBKZ Media.
To not alter or change any videos we have produced.
I woke up one morning and received an invitation to join a new festival. I accepted and opened the page. I found at least 3 videos that I filmed for festivals that had been downloaded, changed (new intro, logo, and some effects), and credit was given to a videographer in Brazil.
I reached out to the festival and asked that they remove the videos (because they changed/manipulated the video) and did not give credit. After finding out that this festival is run by my friend, he sent me a message explaining what happened. I’ve worked with my friend in the past and really enjoyed creating content with him. I said no worries, if you just tag the festival and SBKZ Media we’re good.
Fast forward a week or so. I go back on the page and a new video is posted of Ry’el and Jessica. It’s a demo of them dancing at Zouk Me SF but with an entirely new audio track. The video was completely altered/changed.
After seeing this, I messaged my friend asking him to remove the video because his team had changed the sound. He got upset and said he would take down ALL of the videos. I asked him to just remove the one video that he altered and not the others. He insisted that he would take down all of the videos.
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I’m not upset with my friend at all. All I ask is that promoters tag the festival/videographer or reach out to me telling me what you’re going to do. If my friend had told me he was going to do this from the start, there wouldn’t be any issues. I’m really easy going and have worked with many artists and promoters. My goal is to strengthen the community by putting out great content, and maintaining the integrity of that content.
If my friend is reading this: you can use any videos of SBKZ Media. I support you, your event, and the Brazilian Zouk community 100%.
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Here are some tips for festival promoters:
-Share the original video from the festival and write a clever or catchy description of the video.
-Ask the videographer for the original video, create a really good description, and utilize Facebook/Instagram advertising.
-Instagram is hot right now. We are focusing a lot on creating short-form videos for IG stories.
-Content is important, but distribution(marketing/copywriting) is more important.
