The Toronto Star's Antonia Zerbisias on how the ownership of public space by private corporations is impacting documentary makers.
So you want to make a documentary?
After all, you can pretty much do the job for pennies on your PC, armed with scenes shot on your mobile phone.
Put it up on the Web and maybe it'll hit big. Even if you don't rake in millions, you might make enough of a name for yourself to have some big-time distributor call.
Oh, you'll get a call all right — a wake-up call from the corporations and performers' unions as well as licence, trademark and rights holders claiming you stole their property to make your film.
Say you want to shoot a scene of teens hanging out on Yonge St.
All around them is a Futurama-scape of corporate logos on chain stores, billboards, T-shirts. Hit songs spill out of doorways. Prison Break is playing on the TVs in an electronics store window. A ringtone raps out Akon and Snoop Dogg's "I Wanna Love You."
The way it's going, say Canada's filmmakers, some of whom have Oscars and Emmys on their mantels, ancillary costs for that outdoor public scene could soon cost more than making the entire film.
Indeed, it could take tens of thousands of dollars to secure the rights for all the trademarks, music and programs in that snippet.