The dangers of putting fan-shot movie footage online

[StrawberryBlond 13,970]

As many of you may know there was a clip filmed by a fan during shooting for JFAD that was put online months before the first trailer even came out. Warner Brothers was clearly furious about it as they got rid of it very quickly. There were concerns especially among Gaga fans that the clip looked like a finale and that it was essentially giving away the ending. And, lo and behold, it was a clip that turned out to not end up in the final movie. For those who haven't seen it yet, the situation is still there but has been clearly heavily edited and cut down so we don't get the full glory of what we were supposed to originally get from the scene. 

It is clear that WB realised they had to alter the scene so audiences weren't let down that they got such a big spoiler and that it might even harm ticket sales (little did they know it was a whole lot of things that ended up hurting sales). I don't now who uploaded that footage but I hope they now realise they shouldn't have done it. Because of that footage being put online, the movie lost what was potentially a really good scene. This should be a warning to anyone who wants to shoot movie filming if it's happening publicly. Keeping it for your personal use but to put it online is not only copyright infringement but could cause the studio to change their film for the worse.

Some years ago, the movie, World War Z, was shooting in my city and I went along to the location for the chance of seeing some scenes being shot. Most of it involved a lot of standing around and it was eventually obvious that we weren't going to see much and we'd been warned by the crew that if we did anything to disrupt filming, the studio could lose millions of dollars. So, after a long while of standing around, we decided to leave and just as we were reaching the top of the hill, we heard some sort of commotion at the bottom, turned around and that's when we saw a live action scene before our very eyes from the best vantage point. Sure, we didn't catch it on camera, but we saw it in-person and that's all that mattered. Experiencing it first-hand in the moment was the magic. So, as tempting as it may be to shoot this stuff, don't. Or if you must, just keep it on your device and show it to those close to you. Don't complicate things by putting it online, risking legal action and potentially causing the film to be altered to cover for your leak. The eventual movie's scene will be better than the one you shot on your phone with a wobbly hand from far away with background noise anyway.

[elijahfan 24,864]

Who ever said the scene was edited because of the leaked footage? Shooting outdoors is always a risk for filmmakers, especially when it comes to highly anticipated projects. There's a thousand other more valid reasons why a certain scene might be cut or altered, and this rings true to the scene that's being discussed. At this point in the film, there was tonally no point getting another big musical number.

Edited October 13 by elijahfan

[faysalaaa 2,911]

Only extremely dedicated Gaga fans saw that clip, I dont think WB were concerned it would spoil anything, even I never watched the clip

[Brooke Hoegan 1,018]

8 hours ago, StrawberryBlond said:

.

What (deleted/altered) scene are we talking about actually?

I think I never saw anything like that leak and now I wonder

[Oriane 19,710]

1 hour ago, Brooke Hoegan said:

What (deleted/altered) scene are we talking about actually?

I think I never saw anything like that leak and now I wonder

Gaga singing That's Entertainment on the stairs, as the police is coming.

OT, I actually prefer the way the scene turned out, it gives a whole lot other meaning to her character.

[StrawberryBlond 13,970]

17 hours ago, elijahfan said:

Who ever said the scene was edited because of the leaked footage? Shooting outdoors is always a risk for filmmakers, especially when it comes to highly anticipated projects. There's a thousand other more valid reasons why a certain scene might be cut or altered, and this rings true to the scene that's being discussed. At this point in the film, there was tonally no point getting another big musical number.

What other reason would they have for changing it? I don't think it was going to be a "big" musical number either, just Gaga giving it her all for one last time. What annoys me is that from what we saw, it looked really good and would allow Gaga an extra chance to do some acting, particularly with her facial expressions (a member here even has a close up of her crazy eyes at their avatar). 

16 hours ago, faysalaaa said:

Only extremely dedicated Gaga fans saw that clip, I dont think WB were concerned it would spoil anything, even I never watched the clip

The clip was online. Anyone could have seen it and we don't have data to show which people saw it.

7 hours ago, Oriane said:

OT, I actually prefer the way the scene turned out, it gives a whole lot other meaning to her character.

It was a good scene but it could have been so much more. It wasn't a worthy send off for her character. Arthur telling her to talk, not sing and her launching into a full on performance would have really taken it home. 

[elijahfan 24,864]

3 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

What other reason would they have for changing it? I don't think it was going to be a "big" musical number either, just Gaga giving it her all for one last time. What annoys me is that from what we saw, it looked really good and would allow Gaga an extra chance to do some acting, particularly with her facial expressions (a member here even has a close up of her crazy eyes at their avatar).

I just gave you a reason. Todd Phillips didn't alter his film because 10 fans saw some street footage.