Those of us who love making movies with our MINIs and displaying them on the forums have a responsibility. It's the same argument that anyone in the television business has had to deal with for decades and that's trying to tell a story without having the viewer attempt to duplicate what they see on screen and then getting sued for it.
This fear of liability extends as far as the unreadable fine print on car commercials indicating that they are showing professional drivers on closed courses.
With NAM enforcing a policy on no street racing or excessive speed, exactly how far does this go? Does that mean that posting a little clip from the Italian Job where they are racing through the flood channels or maybe even the subway would be wrong, not from the sense that it's copyright infringement, but rather it might promote reckless driving? Oh but wait, it's only a movie!
I will be the first to admit that this post was prompted by the removal of my Malibu DVD from the NAM store. I can understand NAM's position, and that doesn't bother me. What does bother me is this:
To what extent as filmmakers are we permitted to make something more exciting? We all know that line crossing is dangerous and god forbid you capture that on video and show it to the masses!
But come on, squealing tires around a corner means excessive speed? Uhm, if you believe that, I'll be happy to show you what bald Yoko's do at Streets of Willow going 40MPH around a curve on my 10th lap in 100 degree weather.
Crossing painted lines on a one way road with no cross traffic and where the entire group is in radio contact?
What about speeding up the video to increase excitement and fight boredom? Have you ever watched a video of a MINI on a public road that is seen from the same camera angle for 15 minutes? It's boooooring. Now track footage is different. There are many variables changing all the time. Will the driver lose control? Will he overtake the Viper ahead of him? Will he get passed? But 30 minutes of this footage with no outside influences can get downright boring as well.
When I shot the
M7 Promo video, there were multiple places that I sped up the video to increase the pace and maintain continuity from scene to scene. One of the last shots was done at slow speed and sped up in post because the way we shot it, it couldn't have been done any other way.
The number of people shooting and editing MINI video for public consumption is extremely small. Right now, I can count on one hand the number of people that have been doing this for the past 3 years. Maybe what we need is a shift in content. It's hard making good videos, and maybe driving videos are a thing of the past, but since some NAM members are so bent on infringing on a creative filmmakers rights, I don't see a very bright future for us.
If we aren't allowed to enhance reality to make it more enjoyable then "hey why even go watch a movie?" I mean, maybe this wasn't known, but you do realize that even "reality tv" is completely edited to the point of "changing reality" just to make it more enjoyable.
Exactly where does the line get drawn? Please feel free to chime in with your own thoughts.
