CINE Newsletter, March 2010
A Letter from CINE President Donald Thoms
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this edition of the CINE Newsletter. There's a lot of information here, so please enjoy the offerings!
We have two new board members to help us manage your interests in television and filmmaking. Sue Norton hails from the Travel Channel where she serves as Vice President of Travel Media Studios. Ted Garcia, Senior Vice President of Programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, also joins us. We are so excited to have them join CINE's Board of Directors.
Our loyal sponsors The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies have written a great article about defamation and new media; both new and experienced filmmakers should take note. We are very excited about our ongoing partnership with Chubb.
And speaking of great sponsors, the CINE Channel is now available on SnagFilms! Take a moment to watch some of these remarkable Golden Eagle Award-winning films, and if you'd like to see your film there, visit our website for more information.
PLEASE SAVE THE DATE for our Annual Awards Gala on Thursday, June 3, 2010. We will be returning to the Embassy of France, and we have a wonderful evening planned. We hope to see you there. We will also have some great panels and workshops in the days before the gala, so look out for them too!
Thanks, as always, to our sponsors - History, Chubb, Henninger Media Services, SnagFilms, Discovery Communications, CNN and Kodak - for their continuing support.
And finally, a special thanks to you.
Sincerely,
Donald Thoms
Save the Date: The 2010 CINE Awards Gala
CINE's 2010 Awards Gala will be held on June 3, 2010 at the French Embassy in Washington, DC.
Preparations are under way for the 2010 CINE Gala! The Gala evening on June 3rd will feature the presentation of CINE's Masters Series Awards to the top CINE productions of 2010, as well as honorary awards to three top industry leaders.
We're also thrilled to announce that in the days preceding the Gala, CINE will host a series of panels and screenings, including a panel on New Media and Liability with CINE Sponsors SnagFilms and the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies; a screening of the 2010 CINE Special Jury Award winners in the Student Division; and additional screenings and panels are in the works.
So save the date, plan your trip, and we'll see you in June!
Defamation 101 and New Media
By Ken Goldstein
Worldwide Media Liability Manager
Chubb Specialty Insurance
The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of CINE and do not constitute legal advice.
You may believe that it's harmless to informally Tweet about your production experiences or share content on YouTube or some other social media platform. But, what if you're wrong?
Casual commentary over electronic media can lead to formal trouble if the subject of your message considers it to be personally offensive. Defamation is considered "tortious injury" to another's reputation and is the basis of many lawsuits stemming from content appearing on social media.
As video and film producers strive to think about more creative ways to advertise and disseminate their work, special care should be given to the use and oversight of new media vehicles. While defamation liability is analyzed on a case-by-case basis, consider the following hypothetical examples:
- A director blogs about an actor engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct during filming.
- A documentary filmmaker posts an investigative piece regarding a "slumlord" on the internet.
- A production's Facebook page incorporates portions of a script suggesting the subject of a production engaged in criminal activity.
- Cast members of a reality television production use a corporate Twitter account to reveal intimate secrets about other cast members.
What do these examples have in common? They demonstrate how new media can be unwittingly utilized to give rise to a potential defamation lawsuit.
The CINE Channel on SnagFilms
We're delighted to announce the premiere of the CINE Channel on SnagFilms. SnagFilms, the innovative online distribution system that was the brainchild of entrepreneur and film producer Ted Leonsis, currently features over 1100 documentary films and has had over 2 billion page views of its virtual movie theatre widgets since its inception in the summer of 2008.
The CINE Channel on SnagFilms debuted with 6 films: Aerial Hunting, Jewels of the Jungle, Heart & Soul: The Life and Music of Frank Loesser, Africa's Daughters, A Horse Connection, and The Best Part of Everything.The films can be seen at www.snagfilms.com/films/browse/category/cine/
A recent SnagFilms/CINE partnership makes winners of the CINE Golden Eagle Award in documentary categories automatically eligible for distribution on SnagFilms. If your film is a CINE winner and you're interested in SnagFilms distribution, please contact us at info@cine.org.
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IN THIS ISSUE:
• CINE President’s Letter
• CINE's 2010 Gala: Save the Date
• Article from Chubb: "Defamation 101 and New Media"
• The CINE Channel on SnagFilms
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• The "Friday Film Quote" - a featured quote from a film or about filmmaking or creativity from a previous winner, CINE Board, Sponsor or staffer.
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