LO3: Contractual, Legal and Ethical Obligations in the television and film industries

Task 3: Understand contractual, legal and ethical obligations in the television and film industries.

The employment legislation are rules that all the employers will need to follow within their company, for example health and safety legislation, Employees rights, Equality, Copyright and others.

Contract is an agreement which is only between the employers and employees and no one else should know about it. Everything should be confidential because the contact will have terms and conditions of the job such as: legal agreements, responsibilities, salary and what the employee should do. The employer and the employee will need to sign and will need to understand that they have to do everything which is written on the contract.

Health and safety legislation is here to make sure that the environment is a safe place to work in, for example, you shouldn’t have things lying around in the place, such as: tripods, cables or any cameras. To avoid accidents you will need to make sure that you pick them. It is the employers responsibility to make sure that all the employees are working in a safe environment. All the companies should have health and safety arrangement which is meant to be followed all the times. There should also be nurses in case of an accident. The employers should make sure that they have more then one fire alarm in the work place.

Equality means that you should treat all the employees and employers equally. You should make fair decisions when you employ staff and you shouldn’t discriminate them because of their race, age, social class, sexuality, disability and religion.

Copyright is when someone uses someone else’s work without asking them. If a company decides to use a music for their programme which is produced by someone else without their permission, then this will be copyright. They can use it but first they will need to ask for permission and if the other company says yes, then they can use and it won’t be known as copyright. If they use it without permission then the company can charge the other company for copyright. Most companies have their own logos and slogans so that they can stand out from other companies and others can recognize the company easily, but companies cannot have the same logos because then this will be known as copyright.

Every employee is entitled to individual rights, when they are working in a company within the TV and film industry. For example, they have the freedom to say what they want if something is wrong. They will also need to know their rights because it is really important, if something does happen at their workplace. Someone at work might get treated differently because of their race, they will know what they have to do, what action they will need to follow.

The centre for Economic Policy research checks that all the companies are making sure that employees are being treated fairly. It is the employers responsibility to make sure that everyone is being treated equally and that they are being respected, if the employer fails to do this, then it might mean that he can lose his job.

The trade union is a organization which will represents employees In the term of employment. This could mean that they are supporting the people with work rights and pension. If you join the trade union, then this will mean that if you have a problem they will help you to solve it at the workplace.

Legal obligations is a law that the employees and employers who are working within the media industry will need to take. For example the libel law, Ofcom, broadcasting act and the race relation act. The broadcasting act is a law which requires TV licence is a tax on all the people that watch TV.

Libel law will help protect the image of an individual in the society. If a company broadcasts some information about an individual which isn’t right the person has the right to sue the company for doing this. Then the company will need to pay fine for doing this.

Ofcom is a communication, which controls the TV sector, and their job is to make sure that UK has a variety of electronic communication services. They also receive the complaints from the viewers.   

The race relation act will provide direct or indirect communication. It also stops people from getting discriminated because of their race in workplaces. No one says anything to them and now they are more likely to get jobs. It also makes it clear that no one should be discriminated because of his or her colour.

When a company is producing a programme they should make sure that they think about how the audience will feel. If company is planning on showing a inappropriate programme, then they will need to show it at night, when all the kids are sleeping because parents wouldn’t want their kids to watch it.  During the day time, they could show family programmes because at that time of the day families sit together and like to watch TV.

Codes of practice are rules that should be followed by the company all the time. This also helps the employers to become more professional when they have to make important decisions for their TV programmes.

People working within the media industry will need to make sure that they employ people who from a different race, different type of ages, race and sexuality. For example, the producer will need to make sure that they have different programmes for different people because they public pays to see it and there are different type of audience who will be watching it. 

LO2 The job roles in the television and film industries

Task 2

To know about the job roles in the television and film industries

Job roles:

Management

Within the television and film industry management is a group of people who get together to complete what they have to. A good manager will need to use all the things they have. The management team do not decide what happens on the set. The producer and the director will decide what will happen on the set and everywhere else. Other things also come under management, such as, organizational and financial. In management, there are a lot of different job roles, for example, catering, transport manager, producer and also the location manager.

Creative

Within the creation industry, they will help out with the sets, make the film accurate for audience who the film Is suitable for. For different types of films, they will make it interesting by using the correct make up and costumes. The job roles are: make up designer, prop master best boy, costume designer and others.

Editorial

Editing is a really important thing in the film industry. They will need to prepare for written, visual and film which is used to take important information through organization.  The job roles are: assistant editor, title designer and post production supervisor.

Technical

Within technical, this will include that they make sure everything is working properly for example, they will need to check if the lights work and the camera, if they don’t then they will need to get them fixed or get new ones. This is an very important role because without them nothing on the set will be right and they won’t be able to film properly.

Research

Researchers within the media industry will need to solve problems, investigate and develop new ideas. The main purpose is to develop and discover ways for the progress of the human information. The different job roles are: location manager, transport manager and the casting crew.

Financial

People that are dealing with the finance will need to save money and will lead money. Finance will also need to deal with money, risk and then they will need to know how they are connected. They will also need to know how they would want to spend that money and will need to spend it properly. Within finance, there are other job role, for example, production accounting, sales agent and others.

Organisational

The organizational jobs will want to have people that will know how to manage people in a group, make sure that everything goes right and that in the group no one makes a mistake. They will need to make sure that everyone knows what they have to do. There are different job roles such as, unit manager, location manager, transport manager and others.

Administrative

Administration involves the management of the business to make big decisions. Administration will need to organize people with in the film production. If they do this, then this will mean that everything is going to plan and that they accomplish their goals. There are different job roles such as: casting, location manager and transport manager.

Working patterns

Film and the Television industry are prepared with of a lot of different working patterns. The working patterns within media industry are: Shift work

fixed team, office hours, freelance, irregular patterns, hourly rates, piece work. Shift work will mean that people will need to work for longer hours of day so they know that their job is done for 24 hours. You can work in the morning till afternoon. Some people would like to work at night, which is irregular patterns.  An employment will have the start and finish dates, It expire as soon as they complete the work, this is piece work. Fixed term means that you will have a contract with the organization only for a maternity leave.

The freelance workers are normally self-employed and they work for different companies. 59% of the freelance workers are men because they have more energy to work from one company to another. They do not work for a long time and their income is not fixed. Office hour is when people will work one company. Also you do not get paid if you do office hours. If they work properly and have enough experience, then it might mean that they will get a job.  There are people who get paid for the hours they work and that is hourly rates. 

LO 1: Ownership and funding in the television and film industries.

BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma Creative Media Production.

Unit 8: Understanding the TV and Film Industry.

LO 1: Know about ownership and funding in the television and film industries.

In this assignment I will talk about the ownerships and funding’s of the television and film industries.

Ownership:

In the creative media industry, ownership is some that owns a company or a group of companies. The television and film industry is made up of a lot of different companies. This will involves, Independent companies, Private companies, Public Service Broadcasting, vertical and horizontal integration and Commercial ownership.

The Public Service Broadcasting Company is owned by the government. It is funded by the TV license that the public pay. The TV license for a year is £145.50. An example for Public Service Broadcasting would be ‘British Broadcasting Corporation’; they are funded by the public paying them their TV license every year.

Private companies are not owned by the non-governmental organisations or company members, it is owned by a private individual or a small group of people. For example, Aardman is a private television and film animation company.

Independent companies are not owned or controlled by any conglomerate companies, so this will mean that they won’t make any profit and then they might end up being bought by a Conglomerate company. These sorts of companies usually don’t survive in the media industry because there is a lot of competition with other conglomerate companies. For Example ‘So Television’ is an independent company and they were bought by ITV because they ran out of business.

Vertical integration are companies that produce a product from start to finish and they also make, exhibit and design the product. For example, Disney produces their product without the help of other companies. Disney does not give their product to anyone else to produce or distribute it for them.

Horizontal Integration is a company that will want to pass on their product to someone else, so that they can produce it for them. The other company will  then have to do everything about the company, for example, they make, distribute and the make the movie. Horizontal integration is when other companies help another company to make a movie.

Funding:

In the TV and film industry, funding is how a company receives its money. For example Subscription, Advertising, Product Placement and Pay Per View.

Subscription is when the viewer’s pay for a channel on their television box set that they would want. For example, is that if  Virgin customer see’s that Sky have better deals than Virgin, then they won’t be able to subscribe with Sky because they are already paying Virgin for certain time and until their contract doesn’t finish they can’t subscribe with Sky.

Advertising is when a channel might get their funding through advertising. For example channel 4 will pay for their product to be shown on TV. This will mean that their product will be on halfway during the ad breaks and it last for about 2-5 minutes.

Product placement will pay for films to be placed on the screen. If they get paid more, then it can be placed on the screen for a few more days. They will need to see if the audience likes it or not. If the audience does not like it, then they might have to take off. It is important In TV and film industry because you can advertise your product so the public will know about it and it will also be good for the company because then more people will buy their product.

Pay per view will allow the viewers to add other channels they would want would watch. To do this they will need to pay the company more money every month. For example, Now TV is a ‘new pay – as- you-go’ internet television service that some people would want to add.