(i) Both Docs Offered Billy McFarland Money

Chris Smith threw shade at Hulu when he said he rejected a deal with Billy McFarland — the millennial goon now in jail for fraud charges. It wasn’t until after Netflix aired its doc that Eliot Trebele, the fuckjerry founder and EP, tweeted that their team brokered a deal with Billy before Hulu. They negotiated “a deal for 12% of film’s proceeds” in exchange for Billy exclusively interview with Netflix but “Billy broke this contract and accepted [Hulu’s] money.”

Billy McFarland owes millions from multiple settlements. Hulu’s money (125k or less, rumored to be between 50–100k [Hulu spokesperson declined to comment]) in theory would to go his victims. Still, it’s hard to imagine any money passing through Billy making its way to victims. Billy isn’t living large on Hulu’s dime, he is currently serving a six year sentence for wire fraud.

(ii) On Hiding Disclosure

Three of six executive producers appeared in the Netflix documentary. You wouldn’t have noticed unless you have a photographic memory and that photographic memory avoids looking at supermodels.

Looking at executive producer names?

I’ve made several documentaries. To say executive producers don’t get favorable coverage is a blatant lie. The Executive Producer role IS A PREFERRED ROLE. Typically, an EP provides funding or something worth money (eg: footage, access) in order to be tied into the financial success of the film. EPs have direct and indirect influence over the final cut. Producers roles vary quite a bit… but typically are paid problem-solvers involved in most aspects of production, they can typically provide suggestions to the final cut.

Gabrielle, James, Mick and Brett in Fyre by Netflix

(iii) Netflix Had EPs Complimenting Themselves

Fyre Festival was about the follies of vapid, millennial hype, and the doc shouldn’t have included any.

In the Netflix doc, Brett Kincaid, EP / Director of Matte Projects, said they “were hiring the best of the best in each category. The best talent, the best distribution, best social media company”. Just as Brett said “best social media company” Jerry Media’s Instagram appears on screen showing millions of followers.

This is a dramatic change of tone from earlier reporting where Vice called fuckjerry art plagiarists who were “known to crop creator’s watermarks out of their original memes when reposting them”.

Jerry Media is experienced in blocking criticis who accuse them of stealing. When they aren’t blocking they get combative, telling one critic to “get a face transplant” and calling another “a cumbucket of salt” and “bitch”. In 2016, when Comedy Central video editor Vic Berger asked James ‘krispyshorts’ Ohliger, the CEO of Jerry Media to credit him for the video he stole the response he got was “Shut up” followed by a block. Vic relies heavily on fair use, when asked to confirm the story he shared correspondence about the arduous take-down process — something he would have overlooked if ‘krispyshorts’ hadn’t commercialized his Instagram feed.

Matte Projects got the velvet glove treatment too. Matte Projects, the team behind Brooklyn's boutique, Full Moon Music Festival on Governors Island has been covered by Vice in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017. How could Vice let seasoned festival experts act as if they were hoodwinked?

(iv) Brushed Over Deleting Comments

Both documentaries spoke with Jerry Media but only Hulu had a “whistleblower”. Hulu showed how Jerry Media was complicit in covering up fraud.

In the Netflix doc, Jerry Media CEO said they and Matte Projects “didn’t have any visibility into what was happening on the production side” of the Fyre Festival. He made a hand gesture to illustrate his point.

Mick Purzycki, Chief Executive Officer, Jerry Media [fuckjerry]. Subject/Producer. (Netflix, Fyre | 43 min)

In the Netflix doc, Mick Purzycki, Jerry Media CEO, in defense of purging comments stated that they were “degrading the brand”. He also says that comments were screen-grabbed then deleted but this is a distortion of the truth. The Hulu documentary and court documents, naming Jerry Media and Matte Projects as defendants, show how comments containing certain words were automatically hidden.

How can words like “artists, details, info, lineup, performers and playing” be degrading a brand?

Instagram filters that Jerry Media used beginning March 26 2017. (via. Oct 12 2017 court filings)

Hulu put emphasis on the many red flags. Viki Segar summing things up well saying “if you’re a partner in [Fyre] and you have the information that this is going to be a shit-storm you should tell somebody”. As vendors began to drop away Oren, the Jerry Media whistle-blower, said “this is one of those things that you question if they are doing something — why aren’t we?”.

Netflix’s documentary producer, Mick, the Jerry Media CEO, says in the doc, off-camera, that Grant Margolin, was “trying to use our employees for customer service but isn’t what we were hired to do”. The image shows a blurred out Slack message that matches the profile of “oren_fuckjerry” (see below).

Netflix documentary blurring out whistle-blower’s Oren Ack’s face from Slack Messages. (Netflix, Fyre | 44 min)

Still, Jerry Media’s story doesn’t add up. It’s difficult to understand how Vice would have missed this as their own doc shows an Instagram message saying “DM us directly on Instagram!”. A casual viewer would have missed this because Mick is there repeating “email concierge” and the video highlights “email concierge”. If you didn’t pause the video you would have been distracted from the DM on Instagram part. Fishy.

Instagram comment highlighted by Netflix. Green highlight by not vice. (Netflix, Fyre | 44 min)

Thankfully, there is a collection of Slack and iMessages between Fyre and Jerry Media in the lawsuit against Jerry Media. There were “very confidential” messages “about a date change” from Grant Margolin months before the festival. These messages reveal credit card issues and requests to purge mentions of the fyrecay.com – the ‘Wikileaks of Fyre Festival’.

Slack messages (via. Oct 12 2017 court filings)

(v) Didn’t interview non-Vice Journalists

Gabrielle Bluestone, Vice News journalist / EP, was the one-stop-shop for all journalist comments. Her reporting was good but only publicly announced interest the day before the festival started. She filed her first story: A complete “s — t show”, April 28 2017, the day after people arrived.

Earlier reporting came from:

(vi) Missed out on Key Subjects

Michael Swaigen was asked to participate in both films. He told me that he carefully considered both filmaking teams and decided that morally he could only participate in the Hulu doc.

“I have final cut on the film” — Mick Purzycki (Jerry Media CEO) to Michael Swaigen. March 25 2018.

Michael was the cinematographer who filmed behind the scenes of the supermodel video and floated the idea of filming the whole process. Michael sought permission from Matte Projects but they rejected the idea (NOTE: imagine if someone had documented the whole Bahamas fiasco?). Michael didn’t return to filming until after the festival, when Billy called Michael asking him to film a bizarro redemption documentary.

When Jerry Media CEO Mick, was seeking Michael’s participation, both for footage and a possible interview in the Netflix film, he wrote in an email “I have final cut on the film and will not be approving anything that is not done with integrity”. A contradiction to Netflix’s filmmaker statement on preferential treatment of its subjects. (Chris and Mick have not respond a request for comment)

Michael turned down the Netflix team and only participated in the Hulu doc. He licensed the failed redemption footage with permission of Billy and received an ‘Associate Producer’ credit. Unlike a ‘Producer’ credit, associate producers get no control over the final edit — Michael was okay with this since he implicitly trusted the Hulu directors because of their past work.

(vii) Producers Are Named in Four Lawsuits

Ben Meiselas, the lawyer featured in the Hulu doc, added Jerry Media by name in an amended complaint. It argues Fyre’s Chief Marketing Officer “worked with a social media marketing company called “F*ck Jerry” to identify negative comments from the public on social media, including Facebook, and then hide those comments from public view.”

Quick summary of the lawsuits (DOE defendants are yet-to-be named defendents):

(viii) No Perfect Victims

When asked “Who’s guilty?” Oren, the whistleblower in the Hulu doc says “Everyone”. The documentary ends with an almost surreal montage of people’s lame attempts to avoid being culpable.

The Netflix doc has a much different story. The narrative arc transitions between ominous, suspense-building music and a montage of locals getting angry which gives way to light piano music of Fyre staff pleading ignorance and dodging fault.

One particular moment, during the ominous music, shows a local worker, looking up while raking seaweed in slow motion. The worker is dark-skinned and in silhouette, he looks towards the camera and dissonant keyboard music plays. An editing decision that Gavin McInnes would be proud of. (The film has two editors and neither responded to a request for comment)

Martin Howell says “after the locals realized they weren’t gonna get paid some of them started putting hits out on people either to take them hostage and then get ransom or just to hurt and injure.” No evidence was provided, just stories of staff escaping the island unharmed. (H/T Tyler A King)

Conclusion

While it may be true that nobody asked for ‘favorable treatment’, the filmmakers gave favorable treatment by hard-wiring its subjects as producers. Ultimately, Chris Smith a hero of the documentary world, use his integrity to sell millennials on a false narrative.

Despite their flaws, both are worth watching if you know the inherent conflicts of interest. It would be great if Hulu had an edit with Andy’s interview (BJ for water) so viewers could forego Netflix entirely.

Damage Control

Everyone likes a good redemption story — unless the people seeking redemption are joke thieves. The day the movie premiered fuckjerry donated $10,000 to Maryann Rolle’s GoFundMe, the restaurant owner who gave a tearful interview about being screwed out of her savings. Two days later, fuckjerry founder Eliott Tebele wrote on Twitter “Just gave every dollar my agency earned from the Fyre Festival back to the go fund me. Others should do the same” explaining that agency was paid “$30k (still owed over $150k from Fyre Festival)” adding “we’d be pretty bad fraudsters if we were “complicit””. (OK, I guess they are pretty bad fraudsters.)

Oren Aks, the Jerry Media whistleblower, took to Twitter and Instagram calling his former employers tactic “a scam”. He captioned jerrymedia’s Insta with “Don’t be fooled by this. Jerry media is trying to bounce their bad image” and highlighted employee comments saying they were “to make Fuckjerry look good”.