Unit 8: Understanding the television and film industries: Contracts and legal obligations

In this report I will look at the ethical, legal and contractual obligations faced in the film and television industry. The purpose of this report is to explore the different types of contracts employers offer and what restrictions they contain.

A contract is a form of agreement between two or more people, often employer and employee, and these contracts include the responsibilities and duties of the employment working pattern and payment, this includes working hours and holidays available.

Permanent Contracts

These types of contracts don't have a time limit, the only way a permanent contract is terminated is through self termination by the employee who originally signed the contract or by the employer due to poor performance by the employee, these are getting less common in the film and television industry as more people simply want to do the required job and then move to other companies.These contracts have a start date but wont have an end date as the termination of this type of contract is determined by the performance of the employee or if the employee chooses to leave. These contracts contain a probation period, these usually last 30-90 days and within this time the employer can choose to terminate the contract if for example the employee isnt up to the standard expected.

Fixed Term Contracts

These types of contracts tend to apply to jobs which have a task to complete and have a set start and end date which allows the employee to move onto other jobs easily. These contracts end when a task is completed, once the task is completed the employer can choose to either end the contract or promote the employee. These types of contracts encourage fast work as employees will receive bonus cash rewards for finishing their required job. Fixed term contracts are commonly used in specialist short term jobs, and often possible employees will be offered a fixed term contract to cover for an absent employee due to for example maternity leave or sick, this type of contract then ensures that the company can run efficiently without and complications. Employees working on a fixed term contract are protected by The Fixed Term Employees Regulation (2002), this regulation entitles fixed term contracted employees equal treatment with permanent employees in the same establishment, this covers terms and conditions of employment, including pay and pensions, as well as training and development. If employees are successful during their time on a fixed term contract they can be upgraded to a permanent contract, the employee however must have been on a fixed term contract for at least 4 years to be considered, even then the employer can refuse to upgrade the employee to a permanent contract.

Hourly Paid 

An hourly paid contract is when the employee is paid by the hour, these types of contracts are temporary and the terms and conditions must be agreed to by both the employee and employer, these terms can be hourly pay, the number of hours worked weekly and the location they will be working at. During the viewing of the terms and conditions a minimum hourly rate and hours worked a week will be agreed upon, this can change as employers can ask employees to work extra hours, this is not compulsory and can be refused if the employee s unavailable.

Shift Worker

Another type of contract is a shift work contract, these are commonly found in businesses such as grocery stores, prisons and nursing homes. Shift workers tend to work in shifts at businesses that run 24 hours a day 7 days a week, on a shift work contract it is common for employees to regularly work on Sundays and during holiday periods. These contracts entitle 4 weeks annual leave per year plus 1 years leave per year, so someone working for 6 months would be entitled to half of the entitled annual leave plus an extra half a week due to the 6 months worked meaning they would get 2.5 weeks leave.

Equality act 2010

This act legally protects people from discrimination in the work place and wider society, this act replaced previous anti-discrimination acts making the law much easier to understand, this act clears up the different ways in which a person can be discriminated against

"Before the Act came into force there were several pieces of legislation to cover discrimination, including:

• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• Race Relations Act 1976
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995

If you were subjected to unlawful treatment (eg discrimination, harassment or victimisation) before 1 October 2010, the Equality Act won’t apply. Instead, you’ll be covered by the legislation that was in force at the time.
For example, if you experienced race discrimination on 30 September 2010 and want to make a complaint or bring legal proceedings, the Race Relations Act 1976 will apply, not the Equality Act.
This is also true of any legal proceedings. They will go ahead according to the legislation under which they were brought, even if they may have continued after 1 October 2010."

Any complaint made after october 1 2010 would go under the equality act 2010 , be it sexual discrimination, racial or disability. 

The race relations act

This act protects against discrimination of employees, this includes race, nationality, ethnic and national origins in the field of work. This act was introduced alongside the commission for racial equality to ensure the acts rules were followed.

"The Race Relations Act 1976 applies to discrimination on the grounds of colour, race, nationality and ethnic and national origins. It applies in Great Britain but not in Northern Ireland. Religious discrimination is not explicitly covered in Britain but separate legislation covers this in Northern Ireland. "Ethnic origin", however, has been interpreted broadly to cover groups with a common or presumed common identity such as Jews or Sikhs. There are important exceptions to the legislation which, for example, allow discrimination on grounds of nationality to preserve immigration controls. Both direct and indirect discrimination are covered by the legislation which applies to all stages of employment: arrangements made for deciding who is offered a job; the terms on which the job is offered; opportunities for promotion, training and transfer; the benefits and services granted to employees; and in job termination or other unfavourable treatment of employees. The Act provides for a few, specific exemptions where it may be a genuine occupational qualification (GOQ) to be a member of a particular race, ethnic group, etc. The list of genuine occupational qualifications includes actors, models, personal welfare offices and certain jobs in places like restaurants where "for reasons of authenticity" a person of a particular racial group is required, for example a Chinese restaurant."

Employee liability act

This act covers current employees who are injured at work and previous employees who become ill due to working for your company, these employees may want to claim compensation and the employee liability act ensures that you have at least minimum insurance over such claims.


Health and safety act

Health and safety is the most important for of legislation in the film and tv industry. This legislation checks working conditions and makes sure that they re suitable and safe for employees to work in, the health and safety legislation also protects employees from possible accidents. As of 2011 the health and safety act is encouraged and enforced in the work place, this act also originally covered excessive emissions being released into the atmosphere but was removed and placed under a new act. The health and safety of employees is regulated by employers, this includes safety during lifting of heavy objects and the handling of dangerous substances, the health an safety act doesn't just protect those at work, it also protects those affected by work being done, for example construction work, this can be a hazard to the public and the health and safety act is there if there is an accident caused by an employee which affects a member of the public

"Securing the health, safety and welfare of persons at work;

Protecting persons, other than persons at work, against risks to health or safety arising out of or in connection with the activities of persons at work;

Controlling the keeping and use of explosive or highly flammable or otherwise dangerous substances, and generally preventing the unlawful acquisition, possession and use of such substances.

As originally enacted, there was a fourth objective:

• Controlling the emission into the atmosphere of noxious or offensive substances;

— but this provision was repealed when control of emissions was brought under a uniform scheme of legislation by the Environmental Protection Act 1990. In general, the other provisions about emissions in the original Act have subsequently been repealed."

Harrassment and discrimination

Harrassment and discrimination covers sexual and racial discrimination, employees are prtected by the Equality act of 2010, this covers recruitment, acess to training and promotionsThis act protects against discrimination of employees, this includes race, nationality, ethnic and national origins in the field of work. This act was introduced alongside the commission for racial equality to ensure the acts rules were followed

Copyright


Refrences

Equality act 2010- https://www.gov.uk/equality-act-2010-guidance
Race relations act 1979- http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/emire/UNITED%20KINGDOM/RACERELATIONSACT1976RRA-EN.htm
Health and safety act- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_Safety_at_Work_etc._Act_1974




    

Archies Final Project Review

I usually stay away from 'found footage' style films as I like to see nice cinamatography and good use of equipment, but I enjoyed Archies Final Project as I related alot to Archie and Sierra as charcters. I really enjoyed the use of editing done by the character during conversations especially the movie refrences. Archies Final Project is a teen comedy/drama that touches on very serious subjects, Archie is a typical lonely teen, he's not in with the popular kids so instead he spends his time playing with cameras and editing videos.

 

The cmaera work in this film is almost 100% found footage and the screen ration changes alot which sometimes pulled me out of the film, the film is very funny, mainly due to Archies imagination during serious conversations.

 

Archie goes from beinjg a no-one to being the most talked about kid in school when he announces that in his next film project he is going to kill himself, this turns his world upside down and suddenly everone wants to know him even the most beautiful girl in school, who also turns out to be the most twisted. 

 

This film takes some extremely dark turns, combined with consistant humour makes for a very enjoyable watch even for those affected by the issues raised in this film.  

Unit 31: Social Action & Comminity Media Production Task 1

In this blog I will look at social action and community media production and the effects is has on its target audience. I will look at the purpose and impact of these campaigns looking at specific examples and looking at how relevant social action and community media is in today's society.

 

Social action looks at the reactions of an individual, social action related films are designed to evoke a response, anti-smoking videos for example are designed to stop people from smoking. Social action and community media productions can affect three different areas, locally, nationally and globally 

 

Purpose

 

Social action and community media is designed to change peoples perspectives and thoughts about a specific issue, these range from child abuse to anti-drug campaigns. These are often hard hitting and difficult to watch particularly to those involved in the issues. The intended purpose of the production depends on the issue present. An anti-smoking campaigns purpose is to stop people from smoking who already smoke and those who may be thinking of starting. Anti-smoking videos for example are aimed at people who are likely to smoke and those who already smoke depending on the advert types, those aimed at people already addicted tend to show the long term effects smoking causes. Anti-smoking videos can have a varied level of impact, from local to global depending on their effectiveness.

 

 

This anti-smoking video is aimed at people who already smoke as it shows the long term damage caused by smoking, this type of ad wouldn't work for young smokers as young smokers don't care about whats going to happen to them in 30+ years time, they care about the effects that are going to affect them in the near future such as hair loss, stained fingers etc. This anti-smoking videos purpose is to stop people who don't smoke from starting and to persuade those who do smoke to quit. This anti-smoking video is one of a collection of 'tips from former smokers' which features former smokers which have been affected by smoking, this is a very dark and hard hitting anti-smoking ad 

 .

 

Do anti-smoking videos work?

 

According to research there are more smokers now than there were 30 years ago, however a lower percent of the population are now smokers, this is due to an increase in population over the years. Surveys for smoking began in 1948 and these surveys found that 82% of men smoked compared to 21% in 2010, the most dramatic reduction in the percent of smokers was between 1970 and the mid 1990s, the first anti-smoking ad was released in 1976 there is a clear relationship between the release of the anti-smoking campaign and the reduction in the number of smokers. The huge reduction in smoker numbers may also be due to the lack of knowledge of the effects of smoking and so it wasn't seen as being a bad thing.

 

Impact

 

To see the impact of social action films we just need to look at the changes brought on with these films/campaigns. There has been a dramatic change in the number of smokers since 1970 to the mid 1990s, this however isn't as rel event today, anti-smoking videos are seen almost everyday on the TV and people have become de-sensitised and aren't affected as much by them even though there is more information available.

 

Social action films have had a huge impact on the smoking population but have become irrelevant in the last few years, the public are exposed to horrific images of lung cancer, heart disease etc everyday which has caused people to become de-sensitised. In order to continue with the positive influence on smokers social action films will have to be changed to be effective once again.

 

My thoughts

 

I believe that anti-smoking videos have had a very positive effect on the smoking population but if this is to continue film makers are going to have to think outside of the box, being shown the long term effects of smoking doesn't affect anyone anymore as we see it everyday, especially those who smoke as they see the pictures on the cigarette box. In order for social action films to be effective again film makers are going to have to focus on other effects of smoking other than damage to the smoker themselves.  

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unit 31: Social Action & Community Media Production-Production Blog

Monday 27th January 2014

Today we received our Social action assignment, our task is to produce an anti-smoking video along with full pre-production paper work and an active production blog. I also produced some research that will assist In the production of my idea which is in development.

Thursday 30th January 2014

Today we pitched our anti-smoking video ideas, two of these ideas will go on to be made into a short film. Once everyone had pitched their idea Neil and Kelly decided that three films would be made instead of two. The three ideas to be chose were Ryans, Isaaks and mine

Monday 3rd February 2014

Today we had a short production meeting, we made the decision to have attempted some form of filming by Friday the 7th of February and that if not filming would commence Monday the 10th of February. We also chose our cast, this was based upon whether people smoked, their appearance and whther they fit the character profile. We decided on 2 actors, Sam Hitchcliff and Jacob Hanson

Tuesday 4th February 2014

Today I produced a shot list for my short film which is set to be filmed on the 7th of February. As well as the shot list i also produced a make-up ideas page for my make-up artist(s)

Wednesday 5th February 2014

Today me and my production partner, Dale Whyte, performed a location recce and risk assessment as well as gaining permission to film at our chosen location, the Dubliners pub, after this we had a short informal meeting with the actors, discuccing our plans for filming

Thursday 6th February 2014

Today was our planned filming day, we went to the dubliners and began filming, we had planned to film from half nine to twelve which turned out to be too long as all the necessary footage had been filmed by twenty past 11. After filming I captured the footage and began putting the footage together, after assesment of the footage I decided a reshoot was in order for 3 of the shots as there was some poor framing and acting that I feel could be improved

Tuesday 11th February 2014

Today was our planned reshoot day, we arrived at our location, the dubliners, at half nine and began filming at twenty to ten, we filmed all the shots we needed and were done just after ten o clock. We returned to college and captured the footage.

Thursday 13th february 2014

Today I finished off my edit, replacing poor shots with the re-shoot shots and tidying up clips that were on screen for too long and replacing poor audio.

Unit 27: Factual Production Diary

4/11/13

Today we received our assignment brief, to get the assignment under-way I began by creating a schedule of when I would finish each criteria, I used this so I could manage my time well, giving me plenty of time to work on the actual production of my programme

11/11/13

We gave a rough basic idea of what we could possibly base our factuals on, I decided on a factual based on the bikers and skaters who congregate in stockton town, I wanted to find out peoples opinions on them and whether something should be put in place so they can practice in a safe environment

04/12/13

Me, Ryan and  Shemar went out to interview the people of stockton for our docs, while out my idea changed from being about bikers to re-discover stockton, this was due to an interview we did which ended up being a rant by a local. After this my question changed from "is there a problem with bikers in stockton" to "what are your views on the re-discover stockton project", this produced much better interviews and would make an all round better doc.

11/12/14

I began putting my documentary together, this included creaating a title sequence in after effects and putting my interviews into a timeline

13/01/14

As part of my assignment I had to produce a soundtrack and a voice over, my soundtrack was completed but the recording equipment was faulty and so I couldnt record my voice over

14/01/14

Today i was able to record my voice over, after putting this into my doc Kelly my lecturer recommended I record a concluding voice over to close off my doc, so that is what I did, after doing this and putting it intoi my doc I was ready to export and burn my documentary to a disc

  

Unit 64-Motion graphics and compositing video Task 1

Motion graphics is the use of virtual images which are added to a production during post production, these can range from simple titles to advanced complex special effects. In this blog I will look at current uses of motion graphics and analyse a range of film and television programmes which use these motion graphics.

Tv Idents

The first BBC ident

The most recent BBC ident

In television programmes there is a form of motion graphics called Tv idents, these are short motion sequences that inform the viewer of what channel they are watching, these started out as very simple black and white images but with recent developments in technology Tv idents are sophisticated pieces of film.

 The BBC have used Tv idents since the early 1950's and were very simple compared to the ones we see today. As the BBC began creating more channels there Tv idents changed to accommodate these different channels, after the launch of BBC 2 the original BBC channel was named BBC 1, this was reflected through the new BBC 1 ident.

 
The BBC Tv idents are distinctly different depending on which BBC channel is being viewed, the ident gives an indication of what types of programs are going to be shown, this is most noticeable in BBC 3 as the Tv ident contains the characteristics of a humorous channel, this ident prepares the audience for the types of programmes included in the BBC 3 channel.


Unlike the BBC ITV used colour to differentiate between their programs, each ITV channel such as ITV 2 had their own coloured ident, this was until the 1990's when ITV chose to unify its identity and created the idents we know today, these TV idents however are not as complex as the BBC's but instead are simple yet effective, they often contain smooth camera sweeps of an area or for example a building being worked on.



These idents are automatically recognised and always contain the program name fading in and then fading out at the end. These idents appear before and after the program and always contain music


Another form of motion graphics is title sequences and in programme motion graphics, these are commonly found in music programmes such as Kerrang! Tv. Kerrang! Tv uses a very simple title sequence, although very simple it is dramatically different to any other title sequence, this title sequence always features a yellow ninja giving the viewer an idea of the nature of the show, the ninja is often shooting a futuristic gun at a giant purple rabbit, this shows that the show is going to be casual and not serious which is true for the programme.


Kerrang! Tv also contains a range of in programme graphics including a graphic appearing in the bottom corner which tells the viewer the name of the song and where it appears in the countdown (eg number 4). Another form of in programme graphics featured on Kerrang! Tv are small graphics in the top right, these tell the viewer what they are watching such as top 100 anthems of the decade, this simply lets the viewers know what songs are going the be featured in the programme, Kerrang! Tv will also often have special guests on who will show there top 10 songs or something similar, when these are talking there is often graphics on screen such as a border which makes it look like the guests are on an olden style television.


News programmes are often filled with motion graphics ranging from small graphics such as the time to completely virtual studios. BBC news relies heavily on motion graphics during the programme and in the title sequence, in the title sequence for BBC news (which can be seen on the left) motion graphics have been implicated, most notable is the red signal flying through various areas, this is a recurring effect throughout the sequence, although it looks simple the movement involved would be quite complex to create, making it look like its actually happening in the environment. Also included in the title sequence is a countdown and the BBC news logo, the logo would have been created in photoshop and then imported into the title sequence. This title sequence includes different known locations, showing what regions and  are going to be covered in the programme.

In many Tv shows a virtual background will be used, most commonly found in news type programmes especially the weather. During a news programme at some point there will be a section on the weather, these take place in front of a green screen with a presenter, a green screen is used to allow complex graphics to appear behind the presenter without the need for any complex masking, this also allows the presenter to walk around freely. These weather sections are edited before the weather section is shown and are played on a screen off camera so the weather reporter can see where he/she should be pointing and when to speak. These weather sections rely heavily on motion graphics and composting video to  create the graphic the viewers will see, these graphics are almost always 2-D layers but will consist of many layers used together.

Moving to more complex virtual backgrounds, some news studios are completely virtual, combining 3-d and 2-d layers to create a realistic looking studio with the ability to have presenters interact with graphics, this is done very much the same way as the weather but at a much more complex scale, graphs and bar charts showing statistics are added after in post or live on the fly. These studios are able to display graphics anywhere allowing for interesting viewing. These virtual studios are much cheaper and easier to maintain as everything is done through editing, this also allows any type of studio to be created, meaning expensive looking studios can be produced simply through editing.

A common use of motion graphics is film titles, these tend to set the tone for film and give some information about the film including actors, director etc, these can range from very simple to extremely complex, often using 3-D editing programs paired with programs like After Effects, the title on the left is for The Thing, the title uses similar music to that which is used in the film, the inclusion of the earth in the background gives the impression of an alien type movie, the way the title comes in implies that this is a horror film, and the inclusion of John Carpenters name at the top anchors the thought that it is a horror film. The way the title seems to burn in is a major part of the film, the inclusion of this wont mean anything to the audience unless they've seen or know what happens in it.

One of the most complex ways motion graphics and compositing video are used is through special effects, this is done by combining live action with graphics and other video, for example to create the effect of a gun shooting you need to use many layers to give a convincing effect, you need a muzzle flash layer, a smoke layer, a layer of light cast on anything that would be affected by the flash and possibly a cartridge being ejected, this is a simple effect compared to what can be achieved with After Effects, the ability to create these special effects in post means that effects can be done for free and as many times as needed, this also creates a much safer environment for actors and crew.

All these motion graphics sequences will have been made with different editing software, from basic programs that most home PCs will have such as windows movie maker which can import pictures and text into video, very simple and basic, lacking the tools available in more complex programs. For complicated advanced motion graphics sequences a range of programs will be used, if the graphics used are 2-D then Adobe After Effects would be ideal as it has the tools to create almost anything you can think of if you take the time and effort, but if any 3-D layers are needed programs such as element 3-D and cinema 4-D could be used, Element 3-D works in direct link with Adobe After Effects and allows 3-D graphics to be exported from element 3-D and into After Effects. Although these programs have much more editing power and capabilities there is a much higher price tag and some people simply cant afford these programs, meaning they cant produce the effects they require.

Unit 38-Production diary-Multi-camera 'Cinderella' live show

27/11/13

We had our first production meeting, deciding on job roles, I took on the role of  the vision mixer, every member of the group had to operate a camera aswell, vision mixing involes putting footage from multiple cameras into one sequence synced together.

To become more familiar with the 'vision mixer' role I researched the role on the skillset website, i found alot of information which can be found below. A lot of the information found here is irrelevant as we don't actually have a vision mixer, instead the production will be vision mixed in post.

11/12/13

We went to the theatre to perform a location recce, this involved a risk assessment and a camera plan so we knew where the cameras were going. While filling out the risk assessment we pointed out a number of risks that would apply to the crew, audience and cast of the production. These included trailing wires which had the potential to trip up participants and audience members, to avoid this we decided it would be appropriate to tape the wires down minimising the risk.

17/12/13

Today we went to a rehearsal of the show, this allowed us to prepare for set changes and charcter positions. We were also able to identify any problems we would find with the camera positions and get a general idea of the running time. We found that our selected camera positions were suitable and that our plans could go ahead. 

 

18/12/13

 

Today we filmed the cinderella production, we stuck to our previous camera plan which gave us sufficient coverage of action, half-way through the production we all swapped cameras so we were filming from a new angle

 

09/01/14

 

We began capturing the footage, we only had 4 tapes so the rest of the tapes would have to be captured another day

 

13/01/14

 

We captured 3 more tapes today, leaving only 1 tape to be captured at a later date

 

14/01/14

 

we captured the last tape today, aswell as editing the entire show, to ensure we all got assessed for the edit we did a quarter of the edit each, we also exported the production

 

15/01/14

 

Today we buint the production to disc, this is the way the the production is assessed.