Task 3 Rules and Regulations in Film TV

Task 3: Rules and Regulations in Film & TV BY MUSTAFA SAID AND JACK KILMINSTER

Codes of Practice Within the film/media industry, codes of practice and regulations are studied and practiced during pre -production within all projects whether it be films or television programs. This is because the productions given out to the public have to be contain suitable content for the given target audience in order to not get sued by other individuals or not have their productions banned or cancelled. For this reason two companies such as the BBFC and Ofcom exist. Even if a production has unsuitable content for certain audience members, they are given an age rating suitable for the right audience members. There are legal actions every production must take including having the permission to use copyright material and/or product placement. Just before production all cast and crew must be familiar with safety and hazard precautions and even be aware of who appears in the production as some people would not like being shown on camera. Public liability is another legal action every production company must take while filming such as having permission to film at certain locations and warn people that filming is taking place so that they are aware and not be in danger of any production. For example, if there is an action scene being filmed, the people near should be aware to be sure they don’t get involved or are not part of a serious injury such as getting hit by a car are getting involved in a fighting scene performed by professionals. Most companies would usually have insurance to cover the mess for example, if any of their employees get injured. Every company during pre production therefore take safety precautions and have a route for the nearest hospital and an ambulance ready on set just in case of an injury. Mustafa Said

Regulations in the film industry such as censorship exists. Censorship helps the industry to remove any content within the media text that may be too sensitive for the public target audience to handle. They would move any content that is politically unacceptable or a disgrace against a certain race or religion. Although most people agree and/or disagree there are many advantages as well as disadvantages towards censorship. One advantage is that censorship may prevent conflict. For example if a film or television program was to have hateful or disrespectful content aiming a specific religion or race, it may get those targeted audience angry therefore causing war or other problems. Censoring that specific content may be then helpful to prevent it. If a film for example included military information and secrets, that will tend to strictly be remove as if another country was plotting to attack that military, their classified information would be enough to give such terrorists intelligence to attack them. If a film or program was to have very violent content or sexual scenes, they can also be removed as children can be affected by it as it teaches or shows them things they should not know about at all as they would start to want to experience the same things they watch which can mentally damage and corrupt their minds. Mustafa Said

One of the biggest arguments with censorship is that people believe they are entitled to their freedom of speech and should be allowed to express their own views and opinions on things. Censorship however would stop that from happening as they would stop people’s freedom of speech being exposed to the public. People have different opinions amongst each other and have a different way of managing their lifestyle and work. Censorship believes to only promote the opinions and lifestyle that are morally acceptable. This may offend people with immoral roles such as a pornographic actor/actress. Mustafa Said

Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 is the current copyright law within the UK. This allows a creator of any work or project to have authority of not letting anyone copy their his/her work whether it be published or broadcasted or released to the public. In most cases, the creator is given permission to have authority over their work unless they give permission to others to use their material. Copyright protects written, theatrical, musical and artistic works. For example 2 brothers, Faraz Saddiq and Ayaz Saddiq from Leeds were arrested as they both had illegal film websites which were ‘www. filmzzz. com’ and ‘www. legalmovies. tv’. Both of these websites had copyrighted movies that the public were allowed to stream online but the websites itself was not granted by any of the copyright holders to upload or distribute such material. This known as Piracy which is illegal as the film production companies do not make money off their projects due to watching them illegally for free online. They were warned that they were committing a criminal offence under section 107(2 A) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and were asked to remove all such material. On the other hand some people are allowed to take inspiration from original work and projects. For example, If I was to make an action film inspired by the A team and have 4 main characters yet a different plot yet similar, that is acceptable. However, if I was to copy the whole story line and have the same characters and name, I can be sued for that as I am making money off of someone else’s work and ideas without their permission. If someone wants to use copyrighted work, they will need to seek permission to use it and pay a fee to use it. However, you can use someone else’s same work or ideas once the copyright has expired which is 70 years after the copyright is published. However, the author may renew the copyright to add an additional 70 years meaning you will need to seek permission. You cannot seek copyright protection for an idea, so before you decide to share ideas with a third party, make sure you make a sign a non-disclosure agreement. Mustafa Said

Bibliography https: //mrdedwards. wordpress. com/about/unit-1 -9 -codes-of-practice-and-regulation/ https: //www. nibusinessinfo. co. uk/content/copyright-media-industries https: //futureofworking. com/11 -biggest-pros-and-cons-of-censorship/ Mustafa Said

BBFC The BBFC is a British based film regulation service, which is in control on the rating placed upon the newly released films meaning, films that are to come onto the screens are viewed by the BBFC, who classifies them on age rating depending on whether or not they include certain types of material, such as abusive language, sexual imagery, violence, and much more. This helps inform the audience, who wish to view the film, what the rating of the film will be, what the film will include, and who it’s suitable for. The BBFC was established as far back as 1912, and has universal symbols which allow the public to instantly know the rating of the film. For example, a film such as ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’ is clearly going to be rated an 18, due to the violence, nudity, drug abuse and more that really only an older, more mature audience would be able to watch this movie and understand it without it leaving weird thoughts on the brain, yet a younger audience might not understand what is going on and take it in a different way, this can affect uninterested, shocked at what they see, or it may just not be suitable for them to watch their social life , overall it’s best to just not let them watch it. On the other hand, a film such as ‘Cars’ is going to be rated at U due to it’s focal point of entertaining the children who watch it, and it’s also very family friendly overall, and is meant to cater to a younger audience. Jack Kilminster

OFCOM is the office of communications and was recently founded in 2003 upon the creation of the communications act, and focuses on regulating television programs that are broadcast to the public. Their aims are to make sure that the program sticks to the regulations and guidelines that OFCOM tell them to. They use a service called ‘The Communications Act’ as a basis of their whole company, and use them as a principal to help the consumer of their product see exactly what they want to. They make sure that British television, no matter the age, is regulated closely and doesn’t include things against their codes and conduct, such as specific views about ‘ Violence’, Violence is focused on whether verbal or physical, as they do not want children getting the wrong concepts of what they, see meaning there’s to be some sought of watering down so children do not take on board something they see, which is why children's programs are broadcasted before watershed so it enables them to not be able to view films or programs they shouldn't see. For example, during the month October 2017, OFCOM are planning to ban any product placement that appears within children’s programs for 16 year olds and below. Jack Kilminster

Watershed is the time when certain television program may or may not be broadcast, this is a method used to specifically help take television shows that are not acceptable for a younger audience, and decide when that program should be played. For instance, shows such as ‘Teletubbies’ will obviously be shown before the watershed time of 9 pm, as it has no violence, and language, is family friendly and is meant for the children. However, when films are broadcast on television, films such as ‘Legend’ this will be broadcasted after 9 pm for the adult audiences so that it will not be viewable by kids due to its violent nature. Watershed is also a part of OFCOM, so is regulated through the exact same way. However, sometimes people aren’t happy with the use of their watershed, which is shown by the viewers of ‘Coronation Street’ as many people complained about the use of swearing within the show in a particular episode that was shown before 9 pm, and forced OFCOM to keep an eye out for any episodes prior to this for a short period of time, in case of it including a similar increase of bad language used. Jack Kilminster

Defamation Act The defamation act was brought in to place in order to change the law surrounding defamation and to ensure that a fair balance between the protection of reputations and freedom of expression was being established. Defamation is when a false accusations are made on someone, causing the victim to retaliate against these false claims. In longer terms , the law of defamation allows individuals, groups of individuals, companies or firms to sue for damage to their reputation. You can defame someone by publishing material in various forms and people can sue so long as the material can be reasonably understood to be referring to them Via: newspapers or other printed media, Broadcasting on radio and TV, On the web, this also includes online forums and social media sites, and by email. In the UK the act of defamation can be defended in several ways, these are first of all proving the information that has been spread is true, some cases can include more than point these accusations have to have evidence backing up their truthfulness. Defamation must not include personal opinions so even if someone posts their opinion which due to their influence damages the reputation of the target they cannot be sued for defamation. Jack Kilminster

These are some cases of defamation: Cameron Diaz - The British Sun newspaper hinted that Diaz had an affair with Shane Nickerson, a friend. When the article was published, she and Nickerson were in relationships and the hardly recognizable imaged posted with the article caused damage to both relationships, so Diaz sued for defamation. But no one is sure of the amount of money Diaz Robin Williams - Williams sued his celebrity look-alike who, with the help of his agent, was pretending to be the actual Robin Williams. Under false pretenses, the look-alike was cheating charities under Robin Williams’ name and causing serious damage to his reputation. as awarded. David Beckham - A magazine printed an article claiming that Beckham had hired a prostitute, so he sued. Since Beckham could not prove the magazine acted maliciously, he lost the court ruling and his $25 million lawsuit was tossed out. Keira Knightley - The Daily Mail published accusations that Knightley had an eating disorder and had been responsible for the death of a young lady with anorexia. The actress went to court and was awarded several thousand dollars which she handed over to a charity. Jack Kilminster

Bibliography http: //www. bbfc. co. uk https: //www. ofcom. org. uk/about-ofcom/what-is-ofcom http: //www. insidecounsel. com/2014/11/18/6 -most-successful-celebrity-libel -and-slander-case? slreturn=1499181272 Jack Kilminster