#26
Posted: 2/16/04 at 7:37am
I've seen it happen at closing performances, and I don't find it a problem if it's during the final curtain call, the last time someone is on stage -- legalities notwithstanding. If they can okay TV crews taking video and pictures, what exactly are they terrified about with respect to the sets and costumes? It's commerce, plain and simple. After all, if you've seen something and you're trained in that area, you can copy it without a photograph to refer to. But why would you? If you're trained, you're also creative and want your own work on stage, not a copy of someone else's.
They release photos of this stuff. They perform on TV in costumes, with set pieces. They don't guard it for any reason but so THEY can make the profit from it. But most people taking pictures are not going to sell them, nor diminish the chances that other people will go to the show. (In marked contrast to filming video footage of shows or films and putting them on the web. I know someone who videos every show she goes to. But even if you were next to her, you'd never know she was doing it. -- which doesn't make it okay, but heck, I've asked for a copy of one show she taped!)
The problem is bothering other people in the audience. During that last performance of Taboo, there were people in front of me taking flash picture after flash picture. Flashes only reach 8 feet in front of the camera, so in a final irony, they're ineffective anyway. Finally an usher came over and said they must stop. He then went on to chastise the woman for about 5 minutes about how he could take her camera, but wouldn't if she would stop, but it was really his right and she had to promise ....
I MISSED FIVE MINUTES OF THE SHOW BECAUSE HE WAS LEANING IN FRONT OF ME TO TALK TO HER.
Would I miss any of the show if she'd confined her picture taking to the curtain call? No. SO I wouldn't object. Then again, the woman next to me used her picture cell phone to take pictures and while that shouldn't have bothered me, since there's no flash, the phone lit up with neon lights when she opened it so it WAS distracting.... that and the rustling in her purse to get it out and open.
To be honest, I've taken pictures at curtain calls. They're usually pretty boring. But if the press is there, filming and taking pictures, it's at least a form of protest for me to do it, too. Even if I never look at the pictures after the first time.
It is illegal, but it's not illegal for artistic reasons, it's illegal for commerce. And I'm not against commerce. But no high horses for the sake of it, please.
They release photos of this stuff. They perform on TV in costumes, with set pieces. They don't guard it for any reason but so THEY can make the profit from it. But most people taking pictures are not going to sell them, nor diminish the chances that other people will go to the show. (In marked contrast to filming video footage of shows or films and putting them on the web. I know someone who videos every show she goes to. But even if you were next to her, you'd never know she was doing it. -- which doesn't make it okay, but heck, I've asked for a copy of one show she taped!)
The problem is bothering other people in the audience. During that last performance of Taboo, there were people in front of me taking flash picture after flash picture. Flashes only reach 8 feet in front of the camera, so in a final irony, they're ineffective anyway. Finally an usher came over and said they must stop. He then went on to chastise the woman for about 5 minutes about how he could take her camera, but wouldn't if she would stop, but it was really his right and she had to promise ....
I MISSED FIVE MINUTES OF THE SHOW BECAUSE HE WAS LEANING IN FRONT OF ME TO TALK TO HER.
Would I miss any of the show if she'd confined her picture taking to the curtain call? No. SO I wouldn't object. Then again, the woman next to me used her picture cell phone to take pictures and while that shouldn't have bothered me, since there's no flash, the phone lit up with neon lights when she opened it so it WAS distracting.... that and the rustling in her purse to get it out and open.
To be honest, I've taken pictures at curtain calls. They're usually pretty boring. But if the press is there, filming and taking pictures, it's at least a form of protest for me to do it, too. Even if I never look at the pictures after the first time.
It is illegal, but it's not illegal for artistic reasons, it's illegal for commerce. And I'm not against commerce. But no high horses for the sake of it, please.
and besides that, a camera) in a Bath and Body works bag, which I knew COULDN'T be discovered or else I might have gotten in trouble. When I was going to Avenue Q, I waited until a woman getting her bag checked was having some trouble, and I ran past the people outside the doors.
