Beyonce Knowles-Carter unleashed ‘Lemonade’ on a HBO special feature without much advance hype, a week before her album release posting the trailer on YouTube.
According to a new lawsuit filed in New York, this trailer was copied without permission from a short film titled ‘Palinoia’. In the suit, he says his project also depicted a "tumultuous relationship."
The plaintiff in this case is Matthew Fulks, who identifies himself as both an independent filmmaker as well as the creative director at Kentucky news organization WDRB. Fulks says he conceptualizes, writes and directs TV advertisements for the Louisville, Ky.-based news station
Fulks says he was contacted about the opportunity to direct a video by the Columbia-signed musical group MS MR, and as a result, links to Palinoia were sent to others including Bryan Younce, who has created videos for Beyonce and has been credited on her self-titled 2013 album.
The lawsuit claims that in July 2015, Younce requested Fulks' email and that later he sent the plaintiff a note acknowledging that he had received his "info" with an invitation to submit a treatment for consideration by Columbia.
Five months later, the filming of Lemonade began.
Fulks is sour at what he sees.
"The number of aesthetic decisions included in Plaintiff’s ‘Palinoia’ work that are parroted in Defendant’s’ ‘Lemonade’ trailer demonstrates that it is substantially similar to the ‘Palinoia’ work," states the complainant. "The misappropriated content includes both the particular elements that the Plaintiff chose to comprise the ‘Palinoia’ work and the coordination and arrangement of those particular elements."
Specifically, the plaintiff cites nine visual similarities comprising 39 seconds of a 60-second trailer. The visual similarities cited are "graffiti and persons with heads down," "red persons with eyes obscured," "parking garage," "stairwell," "black and white eyes," "title card screens," "the grass scene," "feet on the street," "side-lit ominous figures," all adding up to a supposed total concept and feel substantially similar to the short film.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Amy Cahill at Cahill IP along with Robert Clarida, also claims similarities in auditory time and includes an unusual graphical element to demonstrate this.
Fulks is demanding all profits attributed to exploitation of his work, including from sales of the “Lemonade” album. A representative for Parkwood Entertainment hasn't yet responded to a request for comment. Watch the Lemonade trailer and the Palinoia film for full comparison and share your thoughts with us.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com