Legal and Ethical for Promotional Video

Legal and Ethical Considerations for Promotional Video

I must consider the legal regulations and systems of advertising on television and social media, for tv like Ofcom (The Office of Communications), The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and The BCAP Code. This is to prevent damaging or misleading messages/imagery in advertising in this case a promotional video, this includes Privacy (Rule 6 of the BCAP Code) which overlooks depictions/references to an individual without their expressed consent or Ham and Offence (Rule 4 of the BCAP Code) to avoid causing widespread offence and use of unethical shock tactics.

I must make sure I have consent from my cast and crew in order to ensure protection for me and my client from the lawsuits (due to unpredicted injuries during shooting), I also have to consider if I want to pay my cast and crew living wage or minimum wage. For example for highering actors/extras despite them being unknown for this productions budget, they must be paid a minimum for 18 to 20-year-olds an hourly wage of £6.45 while the national living wage is now £9.50 an hour. But due to my wishes to keep connections with this cast and crew for future productions and to keep my payment fair to avoid action from unions, and to avoid conflict for myself and the client I will provide a living wage for my cast and crew.

Legal Requests for Location 

*Sent a letter in the post to the home wanted for filming the interior scenes

The Homeowner 

4 Rutland Avenue Kingsbury Tamworth 

CV10 9QH4th 

February 2021

Dear Sir/Madam am a director from R.R Productions hoping to make a promotional video with some scenes taking place in an area similar to your residence, we have scouted your property and think It would fit perfectly with our production. We would like to visit your property to determine to confirm if it fits our requirements of filming and with your permission, we can start shooting in late March. If we see the location as suitability you will be compensated for allowing us this opportunity. It will only be a small intimate crew and we shall not get in the way of any event of your daily routine outside of the designated shooting days. I would be grateful if you could let me know if it’s possible for us to do this and to discuss payment and what day will be best for shooting please email me using the link below so we can organize a meeting within the next few weeks. I welcome any advice/concerns you may have on the safety of my cast and crew and conditions when filming.

I can be contacted by email at roryrobinson@R.R.Productions.co.uk Yours Sincerely, Rory Robinson.

 

Response:

Location Permission E-mail from Mark.R@Gmail.co.uk 25th February 2020 10:30am

Dear Rory

I would be happy to arrange for you and your crew to visit and potentially film in my home, please ring me, I will email my availability so we can set up a meeting soon.  

Best regards, Mark Robinson 

(Signature was provided to grant permission for me and my crew to shoot on their property)

Music Copyright:

In order to expand my budget on visual elements of the production (Cast, Camera Equipment, etc.) so I decided to purchase royalty-free music from Stock Adobe. Royalty-free music is music that no one owns the copyright to and can be purchased for use and requires no royalty payments to an artist. Great for my production as I am already editing on Adobe Premiere-Pro and will allow for an easy selection process for the editor as it easily applies to the editing software with its built-in extensions and transferring file system. However, if I have enough budget to purchase the rights for music from an artist I can work with my client for an affordable option.

Legal Contracts with Cast and Crew

Cast Contract:

I agree to work on the film for the shooting period and to be solely employed by R.R productions as a part of the filming for the promotional video for the Ancestree App and for up to a week afterwards in case of reshoot requirements. In this time of employment, you will not make any drastic change to your appearance unless the costume/makeup staff says so and will not reveal any plot details that spoil the narrative for potential audience members until after the second week of its initial release. And that you will be paid the decided amount owed and discussed with you before you signed the contract (insert pay off the designated actor) and promise to not drop out of the project unless it is required for health (mental or physical) reasons and will not press charges if you suffer any injuries on set despite our safety precautions. 

Rory Robinson

(My consent to the terms of agreement with our client)

Crew Contract:

 

I agree to work on the film for the shooting period and to be solely employed by R.R productions for the film and for up to two months afterwards in case of reshoot requirements. In this time of employment. You will be paid the decided amount owed and discussed with you before you signed the contract (insert pay off the designated crew pay) and promise to not drop out of the project unless it is required for health (mental or physical) reasons and will not press charges if you suffer any injuries on set despite our safety precautions.

Rory Robinson

(My consent to the terms of agreement with our client)

Peopleperhour

I used the site Peopleperhour to find my cast for a reasonable cost for the production, it also allowed me to easily contact them online for audition dates for the promotional video allowing us to get the best talent for the job.

Evaluation of Legal and Ethical Methods for my Promotional Video

My documentation and methods to ensure legal and ethical protections for me and my client, my consideration fro the regulations of advertisers on televisions like Ofcom allowed me to understand what I could and could not include in the video to allow it to air on television as my client intended. By breaking down these rules it allowed me to alter my ideas during the brainstorming process and my pitch to make them suitable for various platforms. However, if I was going to do this breakdown of regulations again I would include the regulations for certain social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to allow my video to be easily showcased on their respective platforms without issue.

My legal request for location, my openness with my locations managers/owners allowed me to better fit into their wants needs from my crew during production and the limitations of what we could do, without learning the conditions that our shooting locations were under I could have done something that could have made me and my client liable for a lawsuit. If I was going to do this production again I would also send a list of requirements to all of my considered shooting locations that they could fill out before shooting allowing me to save tie by asking them the particular conditions and permissions we needed to shoot on their site.

My use of copyright-free/royalty-free music through stock adobe kept me and my client from violating copyright law for the music we were using in the production but also saved us on a budget for purchasing music from an established artist, however, I should have included a pre-written permission form to send to an artist in case my client had a particular song in mind, if I was to do this project again I would have sent out a request to use music from non-lyrical artists songs/music like "I Monster".

Cast and Crew Contracts gave me and my client clear protection from legal action from my cast and crew, if I was going to improve them I would have included specific sections that included their allotted payment and liability for equipment damages. This would have been to ensure my and the client liability to equipment broken by my crew and if I included equipment insurance I could have better protected us from the unforeseen cost of the shoot (if accidents were to occur).

My use of the site Peropleperhour allowed me to vet and search for my desired talent without needing to hire a physical audition space, also due to the sites built-in system which told us the cost per hour of work for the talent we could accurately get talent for costs under our budget. However, due to it being through a site they also take a cut of the payment as introduction tax, if I was to do this production again I would include this clause and account for it during the hiring of my talent to ensure they are paid an ethical wage for the work.

Overall I think I have accounted for the ethical and legal considerations of my production and by creating these pieces of documentation I have ensured the legal safety of me and my client, if I was to improve and build on this paperwork I would do research on local unions and how hiring through them would change my requirements for employees on set.

Reference List:

www.asa.org.uk "Broadcast Code" (Online) Available at:

https://www.asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings/advertising-codes/broadcast-code.html

www.livingwage.org.uk "REAL LIVING WAGE INCREASES TO £9.50 IN UK AND £10.85 IN LONDON AS COST OF LIVING RISES" (Online) Available at:

https://www.livingwage.org.uk/news/real-living-wage-increases-%C2%A3950-uk-and-%C2%A31085-london-cost-living-rises%C2%A0%C2%A0#:~:text=Search%20this%20site-,REAL%20LIVING%20WAGE%20INCREASES%20TO%20%C2%A39.50%20IN%20UK%20AND,set%20for%20a%20pay%20boost

www.gov.uk "National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates" (Online) Available at:

https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates

stock.adobe.com "Discover royalty-free music from top artists" (Online) Available at:

https://stock.adobe.com/uk/audio?mv=search&as_channel=sem&as_campclass=nonbrand&as_campaign=UK%7CCPRO%7CStock%7CAWAR%7CAudio_Exact%7CGG%7C%7CmCPCexp&as_source=google&as_camptype=acquisition&sdid=P3KMQYXC&ef_id=Cj0KCQiA-aGCBhCwARIsAHDl5x84-1XSBrhyDfdLRQrwDineC0vORyauJw-BVnrywTXzhAeF1c-AqOoaAheIEALw_wcB:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!3085!3!451593228438!e!!g!!royalty%20free%20music!10653884335!104803017746&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-aGCBhCwARIsAHDl5x84-1XSBrhyDfdLRQrwDineC0vORyauJw-BVnrywTXzhAeF1c-AqOoaAheIEALw_wcB

www.peopleperhour.com "Hire a freelancer for freelance actors" (Online) Available at:

https://www.peopleperhour.com/hire-freelancers/freelance+actors