D1 - Legal and Ethical Restraints

 LEGAL & ETHICAL RESTRAINTS

Regulatory Bodies:

ASA: 

Monitor all advertising to check it meets all relevant guidelines. Makes action to change these adverts to ensure that all adverts are responsible and good for people to see. If action isn't taken they will remove adverts. They also conduct research on public opinion of advertising.

CAP:

Rulebook for non-broadcast advertising, sales promotions and direct marketing communications.

Their members represent the advertising industry and cover media owners, advertising and agencies. They give instructions and guidance on how to create advertising to fit in with the guidelines.

BCAP:

Stands for UK Code of Broadcast Advertising. It applies to all advertising and programme sponsorship. This is the code enforced by the ASA, who then step in if the advertising does not meet this code.

OFCOM:

The communications regulator for the UK. They oversee TV, radio, telephone services as well as postal services. They are an independent body funded by the companies they regulate and with duties from parliament, set out to prevent harm to people by providing advice and information and taking action against firms which let their customers down. However, they do not have the power to resolve peoples complaints about their broadband, home phone or mobile phone. 

Consumer Protections from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008:

They protect customers from unfair or misleading trading tactics and set out to ban these. It was added to provide quicker and better solutions to customers dealing with these problems.

BBFC:

The British Board of Film Classification is a non governmental UK regulator of film and video, and give classifications of age ratings such as U, 12 and 15.

TV Trailer:

- copyright

I created an assets table listing all my assets and where I got them from. This ensured I was keeping track of everything I was using in my trailer and if I was allowed to use them or not. Most of these assets I collected copyright and royalty free from sources like Pixabay. However the background music I used would need further permission by the owner, I may need to pay roylties to the owner to ensure I am able to use this. If I do not follow these steps of ensuring I am allowed to use this music by the artist then my trailer may be taken down by the ASA for copyright infrigment.

- intellectual property rights 

I will need to ensure that my own work is created such as the shots i have filmed, as they are my own intellectual property. I will need these copyrighted so that other people cannot use them in their own work and take the credit. If this happens it will discredit my work reduce the meaning and professionalism of it. Any relevant refulatory bodies e.g. the ASA, BCAP or CAP will flag up any use of this or take it down. I may also be able to choose to recieve compemnsation for the use of work if I allow it.

- representation of victims of rape

My trailer gives one of the most in depth representations of victims of rape throughout thw whole campaign, being long and having both visual and auditory elements. It is established from the beginning of the trailer that Violet has experienced some form of sexual assault, although this is told quite ambitiously. Throughout the trailer and the show we then see Violet descend into more chaotic nature such as drinking, and being very emotional. We see the effects of this with Violet undergoing arguments with her friends and family who tell her how much she has changed. In the show we see the resolution to this, and more of an in depth explanation of why she is behaving this way and more of an explanation on the behaviour of those around her as well. An issue with the trailer is that the short time frame of nature of it means that non of these questions are answered and more stereotypes are leaned into because of this. Unfortunately this is inevitable with the nature of the theme of the show, however there are certain steps I could do to reduce this. I could add an element to the very end of my trailer which has help sites and recources for victimes of assault or those wanting to learn more about it to try and educate people on the topic and show that these stereoypes are created intentionally to show the effects of sexual assault people can experience in different ways. Interviews with the cast and crew before release will also reduce this, if the audience sees them also being educated on the topic and showing that all dramatic decisions are intentional. If i dont take these steps OFCOM may intervene and take the trailer down if they think it is causing harm to viewers.

- representation of sexual assault 

In my trailer there is an ambiguous sequence to suggest the sexual assault to viewers without giving too much detail away which may harm viewers. This montage allows me to subtly suggest to the assault however will create stereotypes of assault to viewers especially when showing it in such a short space of time like a trailer which leaves no explanation to viewers. It also causes a problem for those who have experienced sexual assualt feeling like they are misrepresented. To avoid this I could use a focus group to stream my trailer to before release to outline any queries about this element nd fix any issues. Similarly to the issues around victims of rape I could also add a screen to the end of the trailer with recources around assault otherwise my trailer may get taken down by OFCOM for harming viewers.

- representation of teenagers 

My trailer shows the main teenager drinking alcohol, with a boy and also very upset. These are all very stereotypical things for teenagers, especially girls. This creates a harmful view of teenagers for those who watch it - both for teenagers who feel they are being misrepresented but also for other age grouos who then get a skewed representation of this age group. I try and avoid these stereotypes by also presenting the whole narrative in the trailer and trying to give an explanation for these behaviours, and feeling like they are in the show for a reason. I have only used very short snippets of these scenes in the whole trailer to avoid focus being drawn to these things, and so they are only there for dramatic effect. Hopefully this will be portrayed to viewers and won't take an issue with OFCOM who will then take it down.

- age rating of tv trailer

When creating my TV trailer I had to carefully consider the fact that the age rating of 15 of my show does not translate to the TV trailer as this is streamed to a more public audience and will need to pass certain criteria in order to be shared on the TV as well as on the BBC iplayer site, the internet and social media sites like Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. This means that the content in my trailer needed to be thought out as to fit a lower age requirement more like a 12. I didn't include any swearing in my trailer for this reason. I also kept any inapproapriate images to a minimum. This is why i created a montage to suggest  the sexuak assault to viewers rather than showing in a little but more detail which would have been inappropriate to share to a mainstream audience. I also didnt include any images of Violet smoking or taking drugs as I felt this would be too inappropriate.  There are images of Violet drinking alcahol however this could be combatted by the trailer only being streamed on TV past the watershed of 9pm when adult content starts to be streamed. If i dont follow these rules the BBFC may take down my trailer if they deem it inappropriate for viewers.

- consent forms 

I ensured that consent forms were filled out by all of my actors and that I had permisson to film in all my locations as part of my pre-productaion documents. This ensured I avoided any legal issues by non gaining consent, and ensured I would be allowed to release the footage to the public becasue I had permisson.

- misleading?

I want to avoid misleading consumers by giving them a false representation of the themes in the show. Because the trailer is only a short snippet of shots from the show and I can only use so many sue to the short time frame of the trailer, I need to think carefully about which scenes to include to give a succesful teaser of the complete narrative. To do this I have carefully planned my trailer in pre-production documents such as scripts and storyboards. I wanted to include a mix of calmer scenes as well as areas of drama as this is what the show will be like. If I dont represent this correclty consumers may become disatisfied and feel as if the trialer misled them. If this is the case I would be going against

Risk Assessment: 

 

Consent Forms:

Asset Table:

Radio Trailer:

- copyright 

For my radio trailer I used sourced assets including the police siren. I listed these in my assets table to ensure that I had covered if I was allowed to use each element or not. These were all free to use as I had sourced them from free sources like Pixabay which were royalty and copyright free. If I had not covered the fact that these were free to use then my trailer may be taken down by the ASA due to not meeting all guidelines. 

- intellectual property

For my radio trailer I recorded my own dialogue with actors. This intellectual property is my own and needs to be protected otherwise other people may take it in their own work and ASA or CAP would not be able to take this content down as they would have full rights to it. One way of protecting my work would be to copyright it.

- representation 

One ethical issue of my radio trailer is that all of the voice actors in my trailer are women, there are not any male voices. This is a representation of the cast - with the main voice actor being the main female protagonist. However, it may still be contraversial not to have any men in the trailer especially with something so simple as a radio trailer. Although this wouldnt provide any legal issues OFCOM may flag up the ethical issue. To resolve this I could include some dialogue from the male cast in the trailer or make the announcer male. 

Social Media:

- representation

I had to take into consideration how my characters are presented, especially on social media as this will also take reflection on the cast. I am portraying mainly a young female girl who people may create stereotypes of if she is presented a certain way. I tried to create posts which didnt feed into the online stereotypes of young girls especially alongside the themes of the show, by using images that were ambiguous but felt like someone you might be friends with - someone relatable. If I presented the character using images from certain scenes e.g. her drinking or partying this would have created stereotypes and set the character in a bad light, which could leas to these stereotypes also being placed on the actor if people on the internet just saw the post and were not informed of the relevance. This would cause issue with CAP and OFCOM from breaking guidelines and causing harm to viewers as well as the BBFC for showing age inappropriate content.

- age category of social media

Similarly to the issues of if the character is presented in an age inapporpraite content, I needed to consider that all of the content from the platforms will be seen by a much wider audience and therefore the content will have to abide by a lower age rating from the BBFC, more like a PG or 12. This also includes not using strong language in the captions or quotes on the posts.

Poster/Billboard:

- representation

I have presented a teen girl slouched on a bed with vodka and ciggarettes on the poster. This presents the character in a ad light which may create stereotypes if audiences see it without being informed of the purpose and the narrative of the show. This puts the show in a bad light but also misrepresents the themes within it. If the stereotypes created about young women are seen to harm viewers then OFCOM may take the poster down.

- distribution

I will need to abide by CAPs marketing guidelines for how the poster is distributed. If I don't abide by these by marketing fairly then CAP might take the poster down.

- showing alcahol/ciggarettes

Although my show is rated a 15 I needed to be aware that the poster will be seen by a much wider mass audience and therefore needs to be more appropriate. There is alcahol and cigarettes shown in my poster. These may cause an issue with the BBFC if they deem thesw too inappropriate to be shown on the streets or online where more children has acess to it. If this is the case I may need to change these elements of the poster or be ordered to remove the poster from being mzrketed completely by the BBFC.