Creepy furry "filmographers"

[Ember]

To some on this forums this will not be a new issue. To all on this forums this is an issue that has never been properly addressed.

At every furry event, there is a small number of particular people filming away.

And yet the footage is never posted. Halloween was in October, six months ago. None of the footage was posted.

Elektrofuzz 2? No footage posted.

Far more people are filming video and taking pictures than are posting. I have to question their motives. At least one of these "filmographers" has had complaints about creeping female furries out. Without going into particulars those involved know the issues.

Why do we let this go on? What's the point of having these people at our events? They make at least a small number of people uncomfortable and absolutely nothing comes of it.

I call on event organizers to deal with this issue. The pussyfooting around this issue the last time it came up accomplished nothing but creating yet another outlet for the standard cavalcades of "people should be free to do whatever they want."

What I propose is that event organizers require people taking film/pictures to be vetted by the organizers. Anyone else filming can GTFO. The people vetted should be required to release their final footage in some sort of timely manner.

[Renwaldo]

I was curious about this as well. The people filming these events are actual furries aren't they? Or are they spies trying to tarnish the local famdom's good name?  :o

[Kitten]

I will speak saying that some of the people that have taken film/photos HAVE posted their media in a timely manner!! These are my favorite "filmographers"!!

UNIVADED painstakingly goes through all the pictures he takes and edits them to perfection then posts them within weeks of the event! He then makes a post saying that he has uploaded them and he tries to notify the subjects of his pictures!!(I have been on the receiving end of it!)

KHEETAH/BABY CHEETAH went through a recent loss of data stored on one of his hard drives that had TONS of footage from events. Unfortunately some of it was lost. :( He also works a very time consuming job in which he can't sink the HOURS needed to edit footage for some of our smaller events. When he does finish editing his footage he uploads it to youtube and he lets everyone know by posting a link in the original thread for the even or he links the footage through twitter!

TAI also posts his pictures rather quickly and lets people know by posting in the thread for the event.


As for other "filmographers" I don't know.

[FurryJackman]

Is this aimed to people in any way? Cause I was just deeply offended by this.

I've been in the community since 2009, and Univaded and Kheetah are two of my closest friends now. I may not be close to anyone else, but it doesn't mean I'm not part of the community.

I realize "The Dependent" article stirred up some nerves, so this had to be questioned. But I can say this to set the record straight right now: I have no intentions of freely releasing any of my footage to others I don't trust to risk it to be used for fandom attack purposes. I have no personal intentions for this neither.

I may be studying news and media, but that doesn't automatically mean I'm a suspect neither. Because of BCIT, I also have a usually busy schedule and won't always have the time to work on making videos.

Again, to some, I could still be perceived as a stranger. However, I would never want to lose the trust of the entire community by allowing my footage to do bad the image of the community.

As for specific bad social ties, that does not need to be brought up on a public forum, let alone mentioned at this point.

[zenia]

People taking pictures and video is something that scares me about cons... and is partially why I haven't been. I don't like being captured on film and I know it would be inevitable at a convention or large meet.

[Pat The Fox]

To some on this forums this will not be a new issue. To all on this forums this is an issue that has never been properly addressed.

At every furry event, there is a small number of particular people filming away.

And yet the footage is never posted. Halloween was in October, six months ago. None of the footage was posted.

Elektrofuzz 2? No footage posted.

Far more people are filming video and taking pictures than are posting. I have to question their motives. At least one of these "filmographers" has had complaints about creeping female furries out. Without going into particulars those involved know the issues.

Why do we let this go on? What's the point of having these people at our events? They make at least a small number of people uncomfortable and absolutely nothing comes of it.

I call on event organizers to deal with this issue. The pussyfooting around this issue the last time it came up accomplished nothing but creating yet another outlet for the standard cavalcades of "people should be free to do whatever they want."

What I propose is that event organizers require people taking film/pictures to be vetted by the organizers. Anyone else filming can GTFO. The people vetted should be required to release their final footage in some sort of timely manner.

What do you define as filming? Is the person holding their iPhone camera recording something funny filming or are you talking about someone carrying around a more sofisticated batch of equipment? Are you suggesting that all recording devices should be prohibited from events other than approved recording sources?

No one is oblidged to post media they record. A personal recording is just that, a personal recording. It's nice when people post it, but if they don't such is their perogative. As long as they aren't doing anything illegal in both the recording and the usage of the footage then really nothing should bar them from recording it either.

As a disclaimer, I don't record or photograph at any event, but I am perfectly fine with other people filming as long as they are considerate and are not breaking rules.

[Whitefoot]

Far more people are filming video and taking pictures than are posting. I have to question their motives. At least one of these "filmographers" has had complaints about creeping female furries out. Without going into particulars those involved know the issues.

Why do we let this go on? What's the point of having these people at our events? They make at least a small number of people uncomfortable and absolutely nothing comes of it.

I feel like some of this hostility has been leveled at me, and I'm a little hurt by it.

I took photos and videos with my camera at the February bowlmeet (my first event) mostly to prove to myself that I had actually been there. Only 1 of those photos (of Fazar, in suit) ended up online. At the February dinnermeet a took a few group shots as people were getting ready to leave. I didn't ask all of you for permission beforehand, and now I realize I may have overstepped myself; I apologize if this made you uncomfortable. None of those photos will ever end up online. But people who don't know about my furry side (and who would probably prefer not to know) sometimes ask what my friends are like, and I wanted a few "safe" pictures to show if the topic ever came up.

I don't think the issue is whether footage and photos end up online, but rather the content of said footage and photos, and whether that violates others' wishes for privacy.

People taking pictures and video is something that scares me about cons... and is partially why I haven't been. I don't like being captured on film and I know it would be inevitable at a convention or large meet.

This is precisely why I've been careful to focus on fursuiters when I take pictures. Furry events are chaotic, and inevitably there are non-suiters who sneak into the background. In these cases the photo either gets cropped or it never ends up online. If I haven't met you, and I haven't asked your permission, I won't post it. Period. If you find yourself in one of my photos and you'd rather protect your privacy, by all means let me know and I'll take it down.

[Silvermink]

I usually don't end up posting my pictures because I'm lazy and I hate postprocessing, personally. I rarely end up posting my pictures from anywhere. I'd be pretty annoyed if I was told I needed special permission just to capture memories from an event I'd attended just because I'm not taking them to post somewhere.

I was curious about this as well. The people filming these events are actual furries aren't they? Or are they spies trying to tarnish the local famdom's good name?  :o

I assume you're joking. If not, your tinfoil hat is slipping there.

[Coal Silvermuzzle]

I would suggest that for those who do film at events, post them on this forum which is where they should be posted ... that's what this forum is for, among other things. If you are posting them on youtube I do believe that you are able to keep them to friends only and not public. If you do post publicly they try to make sure you do not post RL faces with out permission from that person, fur suited people should be ok with the postings as long as done in good taste. The anonymity  of the fur suit does make a difference. As for people attending furry events, they must try to understand that they may be photographed, the photographer/filmographer should try to respect the fact some do not want to be filmed.

If you are attending an event, have someone filming and do not know that person, then ask ... if you don't like the response you get the it is recommended that you talk to on of the event organizers and ask them to check it out.

I do not believe that the statements of concern about photography  and such are aimed at anyone in particular. As a courtesy if you are going to film or take photos, please take into account that there may be some that don't want photos. This is just my opinion and thoughts.

Coal Silvermuzle

[Apoxon]

Ember, would i be correct in assuming that you're talking specifically about furs with higher quality recording devices, not the average fur with a pocket panasonic camera, or an iphone/etc?

if so, then yes, i agree 100% with you.

Keetah, Univaded and Tai are all FANTASTIC when it comes to posting footage, but there are a few furs who film entire events, and post nothing. which, to be honest, i (like many others) find offsetting.

While we're on this topic, i would like to add that i have asked particular furs to STOP filming me for specifically this reason, and while it's worked for a few months, the warning seems to have worn off. so yes, i agree, perhaps event organizers should be a little more firm in this regard; ie. you've been warned/asked repeatedly and you continue to do this, so now you're being asked to leave/are not part of this event. please go away.

(yes, i do realize that it's also up to the individual to address the issue, however, there are only so many times a person can beat their head against a wall. Sometimes, people just don't -get it-.)

[Torwin]

I haven't been able to find any footage of Howloween or Electrofuzz 2, despite there being 5 or 6 high end camera's being around while I ran the lighting equipment. I've been specifically hunting for footage of my setup so I can see how it looks from an outside perspective and make improvements to the rigging and effects usage. My fog machine use is a perfect example, I can't really see how much is in the air when I have all the lights overhead and camera's are pretty good at catching that sort of thing, lol

[Renwaldo]

I assume you're joking. If not, your tinfoil hat is slipping there.

Only partially. I don't think it's ridiculous to worry about that sort of thing, it has happened before.

[zenia]

make sure you do not post RL faces with out permission from that person, fur suited people should be ok with the postings as long as done in good taste.

I agree with this. If I was a fursuiter, I would be totally ok with being in pictures or in videos... but since I am not, I don't. :P

[FurryJackman]

Whenever I do post, I password protect all my fur related videos and limit where I post it to this forum. I'm abiding by those rules.

I'm still getting the feeling this attack is heavily targeted. For everyone's sake, let's not mention any specifics.

[Apoxon]

without mentioning specifics,

i would like to clarify that those posting videos and photos that here on the forums should be posting on specific threads (for example, bowling picture links on the Fursuit Bowling Pictures thread. ElektroFuzz pictures on the current ElektroFuzz thread, etc), rather than obscure locations within the forum. Post where the people attending will logically look.