PHP copy failed to open stream: Permission denied

I have a basic LAMP server that works as I expected it to...
I tried doing something and I am having permission errors.

When I attempt to copy a file from:
      $file = "/media/user/yMedia/Movies/Family/movieName/movieName.avi";
to here:
      $newfile = "/var/www/html/home/movies/temp.avi";
using the copy function:

      if (!copy($file, $newfile)) {
        echo "Failed to copy $file...<br />";
      }

I get this error:
Warning: copy(/media/jkcbwpnet/yMedia/Movies/Family/movieName/movieName.avi): failed to open stream: Permission denied in /var/www/html/home/movies/index.php on line 58

(line 58 is the copy function I posted above)

I have been scouring the internet and most solutions are very similar and they have not worked for me.

I have temporarily made directory /var/www/html/home/movies/ chmod 777
I tested that on the source directory as well.
I looked at owner of index.php and saw root was owner even though www-data is the server user
      $user = posix_getpwuid(posix_geteuid());
      var_dump($user);
Is
array(7) { ["name"]=> string(8) "www-data" ["passwd"]=> string(1) "x" ["uid"]=> int(33) ["gid"]=> int(33) ["gecos"]=> string(8) "www-data" ["dir"]=> string(8) "/var/www" ["shell"]=> string(17) "/usr/sbin/nologin" }

so I tested chown www-data:www-data index.php

I created an executable file
/var/www/html/home/movies/launcher
which contains:
#!/bin/bash
cp "/media/jkcbwpnet/yMedia/Movies/Family/movieName/movieName.avi" /var/www/html/home/movies/temp.avi
and in the index.php I use:
        $k = '/var/www/html/home/movies/launcher';
        $command = 'nohup '.$k.' > /dev/null 2>&1 & echo $!';
        exec($command,$op);
        $pid = (int)$op[0];

        $command = 'ps -p '.$pid;
        exec($command,$op);
        if (isset($op[1]))echo 'It worked...'.$pid;
and it says it worked and shows a pid that looks reasonable (I never see it appear as I am watching task manager.)
The temp file does not get made.
I can run launcher from a terminal as myself and it creates the file with me as user:group

so somehow www-data can't do it
or php can't do it or what?

I checked my phpinfo and safemode and basedir and sestatus...
I haven't pulled my hair out yet, but I would if I thought it were relevant...