Camera Tax

[PortalGamer]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 10:06pm

Would you pay an amount of money to bring your camera in ?

It would be for back seating and under actors agreement.

[Huss417]

Posted: 5/14/11 at 3:04pm

What does this even mean?

[BroadwayBound115]

Posted: 5/14/11 at 3:08pm

I think what PortalGamer is trying to say is, would you be willing to pay a fee to bring your camera into the theatre to take pictures/videos and that you would only be allowed back seating and it would be under agreement with the actors. But I could be wrong.

[abitoftap]

Posted: 5/14/11 at 3:27pm

and spoil it for other theatre goers with flashes... maybe people could pay to bring in their phones and chat at any time they like?

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 5/14/11 at 3:33pm

Since everyone has a camera, often even a video cam on their phone now. that would be pretty hard to enforce.

What are they going to do? Have a bunch of guards in the aisle to enforce it? The teens will just hand the camera to their friends under the seat to hide it. Technology and the internet are hard to, even out of, control.

People won't want to pay more to sit in a worse seat.

Even museums now let people take pictures of their art and paintings, just no flash as that would damage the art. I gather they've given up, as they would not allow photography before.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/14/11 at 3:38pm

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!

Updated On: 5/14/11 at 03:38 PM

[CapnHook]

Posted: 5/14/11 at 3:44pm

What a stupid idea.

I say you should FINE anyone who snaps a photo or whose cell phone goes off during a performance, and then donate that money to BC/EFA.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/14/11 at 3:49pm

For anyone who is brain dead enough to think cameras are a good idea, let me be very blunt...

IT'S ILLEGAL. PERIOD.

Stop being so dumb about it.

Next Subject, please...

[PopAria]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 11:00pm

I think it's a brilliant idea.


It makes sense, kinda like when you go to a concert and everyone around you has a camera and it ends up on youtube?

Wouldn't it be awesome if we could upload shows on youtube and not be worried about if it's legal or not?

and 10 years from now, we could look back on how amazing Wonderland was!

[binau]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 11:25pm

I don't get a F$#$ whether it is illegal or not, it's so goddam disruptive. Please, record under your jackets, thankyou.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 5/19/11 at 12:06pm

"Even museums now let people take pictures of their art and paintings, just no flash as that would damage the art. I gather they've given up, as they would not allow photography before."

Ummmm. No. Museums have always allowed pictures of most of their collection, without flash. And museums aren't a giood example anyway, since many of the works on display aren't actually owned by that particular museum, and their display may be conditioned on certain criteria. But generally speaking, I don't know of any museum that didn't allow pictures.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 5/19/11 at 12:07pm

"Even museums now let people take pictures of their art and paintings, just no flash as that would damage the art. I gather they've given up, as they would not allow photography before."

Ummmm. No. Museums have always allowed pictures of most of their collection, without flash. And museums aren't a giood example anyway, since many of the works on display aren't actually owned by that particular museum, and their display may be conditioned on certain criteria. But generally speaking, I don't know of any museum that didn't allow pictures.

[pwar]

Posted: 5/22/11 at 11:07am

'Ummmm. No. Museums have always allowed pictures of most of their collection, without flash. And museums aren't a giood example anyway, since many of the works on display aren't actually owned by that particular museum, and their display may be conditioned on certain criteria. But generally speaking, I don't know of any museum that didn't allow pictures.'

This is so tangental, but...

Not they haven't - many museums don't allow photos to be taken, although it depends on the context. Firstly, museums do somewhat own their objects, for example the Mona Lisa couldn't be easily moved to another French government museum even though the government owns both the museums and the painting itself. This issue has come up with the Rosetta Stone, which is going to be lent to the Egyptians when they open their new museum.

Generally the way it works is this: Private museums have their own policies, public museums share the policy of which ever government institution owns them (for example local, state, or federal in commonwealth countries; similar in America).

Outside of that, visiting objects which are owned by another museum may have different rules. For example the Cairo museum doesn't allow photography without permission, so when objects from it go overseas in exhibitions (as is happening at the moment), you can't take cameras into the entire exhibition.

Similarly, whilst a composer may own the intellectual property to the music or lyrics of a show, the producers own other things, the theatre itself other things, and arguably the actors and musicians other things still. It would be impossible to get legal permission to take in cameras because you'd need to seek permission from so many different people and groups. The problem is that when a TV station or asshats like Digital Theatre record a show, they say 'We're recording it and distributing it like x.' The same couldn't be said about audience members going in with cameras; who knows where and how their recordings may end up?

That being said, why would you want to institutionalise taking a camera into the theatre? Isn't the whole point of the theatre that it is live? If you want recordings of any sort, why not encourage a single good-quality recording which can be sold to make money for the production?

[spike3]

Posted: 5/22/11 at 11:22am

forgive me but that is the stupidest idea i have ever heard. Besides that, there are many union (AEA and IATSE) rules prohibiting it.
Years ago at Three Days of Rain,and another show at the Schoenfeld if you came in with a camera, it had to be checked in the coatroom. The bartenders really loved that! It is a union rule to protect the performers and any others involved in the show, ie: safety and copyright abuse.

[PopAria]

Posted: 5/22/11 at 10:05pm

Any show at Disney world can be recorded. They say cameras ARE allowed into the theatre. As many times as ive been to Disney, I've never thought cameras were a problem; until I moved to NY and experienced broadway theatre ushers.