In 2014, photographer James Marcus Haney sparked a controversy about his documentary “No Cameras Allowed.” Many people were questioning the morality of what Marcus was doing. Marcus was breaking into music festivals while thousands of people were paying a pretty penny. People were saying that Haney was cheating the paying festival-goers and musicians by sneaking into music festivals.
James Marcus Haney is a 27 year old photographer and film maker. In 2010, Marcus snuck in Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival by using a fake wristbands and using cameras as decodes. Marcus and his friend Adam even carpooled with a guy named Chris that they met off of a Craigslist advertisement.
Once Adam and Marcus reached the festival grounds, sometime around midnight, Marcus and Adam hopped a fence and slept underneath a trailer all morning. When the festival had started, Marcus and Adam realized that they were actually backstage at Coachella. Throughout Marcus’s time at Coachella, Marcus managed to get into photo pits and take photos up close of Marcus’s favorite musicians. Marcus and Adam managed to sneak into the festival all three days. From there Marcus was hooked on sneaking into music festivals.
After Coachella, Marcus made photo album on Facebook called “Jipchella: How Broke Kids Do Coachella.” One of his friends who was interning at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival asked if they could use Marcus’s photo of Jay-Z Marcus captured at Coachella for promotional purposes. Marcus agreed and because Bonnaroo did not have much money to pay him, Bonnaroo gave Marcus two passes to Bonnaroo instead. Marcus sold one of the passes to buy a flight to Tennessee. Instead of flying into Me, Tennessee, Marcus flew in Memphis, Tennessee by mistake. Marcus ended up hitch hiking to Bonnaroo.
When Marcus arrived to the Bonnaroo festival gates, Marcus realizes Bonnaroo only gave him a regular festival ticket and not a photo pass. Therefore Marcus could not bring in his cameras into the festival. Marcus then used his cameras as props and put on a bunch of fake wristbands as decode and entered through the exit. Marcus pretended to be on the phone and pretended to be running late to work. For the next four days, the same security guard let Marcus through the exit because Marcus made a relationship and made his face known.
At Bonnaroo, when Marcus was looking for a place to charge his phone, Marcus found a Canon tent which ended up being a photo gallery. Out of the corner, Marcus saw his Jay-Z photo from Coachella. The photo was blown up and framed in a giant frame with red velvet rope around the frame. The photo was even credited to Marcus. The very last day of the festival, two security guards cut off all of Marcus’s wristbands and drove four miles off site and dropped Marcus off the side of the highway and told Marcus to not go back.
Shortly after Bonnaroo, Marcus decided to go to Las Vegas and sneak into Ultra Music Festival. Using fake wristbands and sneaking into the festival, Marcus ended up getting on stage with Moby, Deadmau5, Martin Solveig, Skrillex, 12th Planet, David Guetta, and Tiesto. Marcus managed to sneak in all three days and hang out backstage with the artists. Marcus also captured many clips and photographs of the artists.
After Ultra Music Festival, Marcus realized that he had many of short clips and photos of all these artists and musicians from the music festivals Marcus had been sneaking in. Marcus decided to put together a short film for his friends to watch in the basement of his home so that his friends could see what they had missed. Marcus decided to call the film ’Connaroo: How Broke Kids Do Bonnaroo.”
When Mumford and Sons announced they were performing at the Palladium in Hollywood, Marcus did something he had never done. Marcus bought tickets to the show so he could take his girlfriend because that was the band Marcus and his girlfriend Kelly fell in love to. Marcus just happened to have a copy of “Connaroo: How Broke Kids Do Bonnaroo,” in his coat pocket when he went to the show. At the end of the gig, Marcus handed his short film to a roadie. The roadie watched it and passed it onto Mumford and Sons and Mumford and Son’s band manager. The following week, Marcus received an email from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Mumford and Sons’s tour manager telling Marcus to keep his April open. April was also Marcus’s last semester of school at University of South California where Marcus was studying film.
In April 2011, Coachella not only hired more authorities than ever to enforce festival grounds but Coachella also modified their wristbands to make sure people would not be able to sneak into the festival. This was the year that Coachella added RFID chips so that people would have to scan every time patrons entered and exited the festival. Marcus and friends gathered photos from people they knew were going to Coachella. Marcus and his friends complied the photos, fixed the photos in Photoshop, printed them onto Iron-On paper, and then ironed them onto cloth wristbands. For the RFID chips, Marcus and his friends took lighting gels and cut them into squares to make it look like the wristbands would have RFID chips.
The first day of the festival, Marcus and his friends charged a security guard and acted like they were late for shooting a band who was performing right that moment. The security guy caved and let them through, therefore Marcus and his friends didn’t have to “scan” through the main entrance since a security guard let them through a side entrance did not require scanning to enter and exit through festival grounds. Marcus and his friends even snuck in a helicopter with an HD camera so that they could capture more footage of the festival. That night, Marcus received an email from Mumford and Sons asking him to meet them outside of Coachella the next day. For the first time, Marcus drove into Coachella on a tour bus with Mumford and Sons. Marcus was then invited by Mumford and Sons to go on the Railroad Revival Tour with Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show.
The tour was at the same time as finals and Marcus’s professors were not willing to work with him. Marcus chose to go on tour with Mumford and Sons and failed two of his three classes. This was Marcus’s his last semester of school and because Marcus failed his last semester, Marcus was not able to graduate. Marcus’s family were somewhat disappointed because Marcus did not graduate, but when Marcus’s parents saw that Marcus’s photo from the Railroad Revival Tour was published in Rolling Stone, Marcus could see the pride in his dad’s eyes. Marcus’s published photo almost meant as much as a diploma would have that night.
During the summer, HBO contacted Marcus to shoot the Running of the Bulls in Spain. Marcus had HBO change his itinerary so that Marcus could spend two months in Europe instead of spending one week in Spain for work. Marcus hitch hiked to Pilton, Somerset, England and managed to sneak into Glastonbury, even though it is the hardest music festival to sneak into. Marcus was capturing all this great footage of these well-known artists and musicians but Marcus was not doing a great job of keeping in contact with his friends and family.
When Marcus was shooting the Running of the Bulls, Marcus attempted to photograph at angle that no photographer had ever dared to shoot. Marcus succeeded at capturing the perfect photo but the bull rammed into him after he capture the shot. Marcus was rushed to the emergency room and had internal bruising. At that moment, Marcus realized that he was taking his friends and family for granted and that his priorities were off. Marcus was not really keeping in touch with his friends and family while Marcus was away because Marcus was very work focused.
On Marcus’s flight home, Marcus wrote an email for his friends pitching an idea to road trip in two R.V.’s from Los Angeles to Austin. This was Marcus’s way to apologize to his friends for taking them for granted. During their road trip, one of the R.V.’s broke down, so Marcus and his 12 friends squeezed into one R.V. to make it to Austin. Marcus and his friends all managed to sneak into Austin City Limits Music Festival.
In Austin, Marcus met Young the Giant and told them how he had snuck into multiple music festivals, road tripped to Austin in an R.V., and managed to sneak in Austin City Limits. A few weeks later, Young the Giant contacted Marcus to direct their music video for their song “Apartment.” The video is almost a reflection of Marcus’s road trip to Austin from Los Angeles. Since then, Marcus has been working as a photographer for musicians in the music industry. Marcus shot the Mumford and Sons album cover for their album “Babel.” Marcus is Mumford and Sons official photographer and has even directed a few music videos for other bands as well. Marcus has even been featured on Connan O’Brien, MTV, film, and music festivals around the United States.
The reason that this documentary sparked up so much controversy is because a lot of people were questioning the morality of the film and the credibility. People were shifty eyed because it was an MTV film. Therefore people were wondering if the film was fake and staged. But for the first time, MTV did not touch or even edit the film.
In an interview with Marcus Haney last summer, Marcus clarified some of the questions I had about the film. Marcus stated that the film was not made by MTV but MTV was solely a distribution partner. MTV had nothing to do with the creation of the documentary but MTV helped him clear the music he could use in the film so he could it legally use it in the film. Every single piece of footage in the film is shot by Marcus or his close friends. 90% of the footage came directly from Marcus’s camera while the rest of it was passed on by Marcus’s friends.
At the beginning of the film, Marcus even says, “In a way, I am a thief. I am stealing from the festival because in order for all this to happen, people have to pay for it to happen. Every time I sneak in, there’s that moral dilemma of me withholding something that’s ultimately going to this thing that is being existence.”
Although there are some unethical aspects about what Marcus was doing, I find this film very inspiring. In the film, Marcus’s parents even say that they always knew that Marcus was the type that was not meant to be put in the box. In an interview with MTVU, Marcus said, “I’ve realized that things that seem out of reach, aren’t that far out of reach, if you work really hard, and you look outside of the normal ways you’re supposed to be doing things.”
The first time I saw No Cameras Allowed was back in March 2014. It was finals week, I was super stressed out with school, and I was just thinking about spring break. I was kind questioning what I was doing with my life and if I was even in the right major. Watching “No Cameras Allowed” really inspired me and helped me find my calling in life. After watching the film, I realized that I was more passionate about wanting to study Public Relations at Central Washington University. I was trying to study education as well. At one point, I was a double major in early childhood education and public relations. Just last quarter, I switched my education major to a minor because I am more passionate about studying public relations. Public Relations is my calling and comes more naturally to me. “No Cameras Allowed” also inspired my friend who is a music major.
This film helped me realize that I can make a hobby into a career. The way that Marcus was doing things outside of the box, reminds me of myself. I feel that with the things I am doing toward building connections for my career makes me different than most of my peers. When I go to a concert, I treat it as a job. I network with different people in the industry because I not only want to make a connection, but also because I genuinely want to get to know them as a person. For the last four years, instead of partying, I have been choosing to travel and go to concerts so I can make dreams reality.
Once you get past the ethics of this film, this film is really about how you can get something out of doing something differently if you work really hard, if you are passionate about what you do, and even though it may seem unrealistic to people. I believe this film is about thinking outside of the box even though society does not agree with thinking outside of the box all the time. And in the end, recognizing doing things differently than the rest of our peers because eventually we will meet people who are like us along the way and when we reach the finish line.
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