Video Recording Act

The video recording act was first introduced in 1978

where video recorders were first introduced. In that
time, there was no legislation of what you could put
into a video. Public concern was increased in 1982 with
the release of certain films and those films were used
to cause offence and controversy.
However the video recording act in 1984, the BBFC was
created to consider whether or not video works are
suitable for an age classification certificate to be issued
to them. This changed the way films were made and
then socially and internationally approved.
But in January 2010, the video recording act 2010 was
made to correct any procedural errors made in the
passage of the video recording act of 1984.
Copyright Law
Copyright law is important in the film industry, because
it can prevent anyone from stealing a certain thing that
is involved in a film like: soundtrack, props and
character names and then claiming it as their own
work. Violation of a copyright is called infringement or
plagiarism. Another reason why copyright law is
important, is because it can give the last principal
director, author or composer when he/she dies 70 years
for the copyright to go away.
The purpose of copyright is to protect the interests of
the creators of the production against infringement and
to stimulate new ideas. However, to be eligible for
copyright protection, certain specific conditions must
be met.

The copyright law protects the original ideas and

creations made by authors/creators of the film and it
protects them against infringement or plagiarism.
When a copyright gets broken, you could get multiple
penalties. Like, you can get fined lots of money, you
could get thrown into jail for one year including fines
and payment of legal fees and also the infringed works
may have to be destroyed and that penalty could
seriously hurt the creators or authors.
An example of a copyright being violated is, William
Roger Dean VS James Cameron for the film, Avatar. In
June 2013, album cover artist William Dean filed a
copyright against James Cameron for the alien planet
design in Avatar.
Dean claimed that Pandoras look is extremely similar
to the fantasy landscapes depicted in his artwork. The
lawsuit cites a number of examples from Camerons 3D
film, including the alien worlds foliage, floating islands
and creature design.
The outcome of this situation was, that Dean was
seeking upwards of $50 million in damages. A court
order that makes it clear that James Cameron ripped off
his work.
Another example is Luxo VS Walt Disney Company for
the short film, Luxo Jr. In 2009, Norwegian lamp
manufacturers Luxo sued the animation studio Pixar
and its parent company Walt Disney for copyright
infringement. The company has filed a complaint when
Pixar started to sell the Luxo Jr. Lamp with a Blu-Ray
release of Up without their permission.

The outcome of this situation was, that a few months

later, Disney and Luxo reached a settlement and the
lawsuit was withdrawn.
What is the Films Act?
The Films Act was an act of the United Kingdom
Parliament designed to stimulate the declining British
film industry. It came into force in April on the 1st in the
year 1928. It introduced a requirement for British
cinemas to show a quota of British films, for a duration
of 10 years.
It is relevant to the film industry because, it ensures our
safety of seeing anything in films that might be
inappropriate for us to see. Those kind of films would
be rated with a film certificate to tell us if we should
watch those films or not.
I think the Films Act doesnt help the film industry,
because films that were made with the Films Act were
not British, not much salary were paid to British
subjects and it was blamed for the exposure of the
quota quickie, which are poor quality, low cost films
that were commissioned by American distributors.
Importance of Ethical Issues
For the use of language, there is no ban on using bad
language in any films, so they may contain bad
language but those films have to be rated with a
classification of either 15 or 18, because a lot of people
can get deeply or emotionally offended by the use of it,
if it is used too much.
For equal opportunities, it is important that you make
sure that you have an equal amount of people who do
the right job for your film. The way you can you do this

importantly, is making the best use of range of talent

and experience available with the film industry.
For the encouraging of diversity, it is important that you
make people of all socio-economic backgrounds feel
comfortable working within the film company. It also
promotes equal opportunities among all employees or
to be hired and promoted based on merit not race,
gender or creed.
I think all the ethical issues should be considered when
producing a film in the film industry, because you can
sure that you have an equal amount of everything in a
film (well maybe, decrease the amount of foul language
in the film)
Representation of Gender
Men and women are represented in different ways in
the film industry. Anyone that works in the film
industry, for example: actors, directors and
cinematographer, have experienced sexism when they
were working.
Most of them are seen as week people in the film
industry, because mostly men dont take women
seriously, they dont think they got the right crew
members involved for the making of the film and men
also think that women are not doing the right thing with
the necessary equipment.
Here are two examples of women who have
experienced sexism in the film industry are Agnes
Godard, cinematographer: The director of photography
was Robby Mller and I split my role with his usual
focus puller. One week Robby wasnt there and I set the
camera and did a frame. When Robby arrived, he said,
Who did this beautiful frame? Its really good, and the

grip, who was next to me, said it was the male assistant
who made it. I was just speechless I felt invisible. I
think I said something, but it was like a whisper,
because I was astonished.
And also Lexi Alexander, director: I can list an
example, from the driver who refused to take me
because he was told to wait for the director (which was
me) to the executives who insist they need a male
director for a film about boxing and fighting, then hire a
guy who never had a fight in his life, while I spent the
better part of my youth being an international
competitive fighting champion.
Men and women in the film industry should be
represented and treated equally. Because women
shouldnt be represented as the weakest gender in the
film industry, because women are just as good men
when working their jobs in the film industry, for
example: actors, directors, producers, editors, etc. and
who knows they might even be better than men at their
jobs which could encourage men who are working in
the film industry to do better.
Representation of Religious Beliefs
Religions are represented in all kinds of movies, for e.g.
documentaries, drama, comedies, horrors and thrillers.
The way films can represent the religions properly and
accurately, is by inviting people that have a job on
researching religion and media. Usually, these
stereotypes have been negatively portrayed, but now
films are beginning to include more diverse portrayals
of certain religions in an attempt to dispel these
stereotypes or generate awareness.
Explain what the following bodies do and why
they are important?

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification,

http://www.bbfc.co.uk) is an independent body that
doesnt belong to the government, that classifies
cinema films with age certificates (U, PG, 12A, 12, 15
and 18) since it was set up in 1912.
The reason why the British Board of Film Classification
is important to us, is because it is used to protect
children and sensitive adults from harmful or
inappropriate content they might find in a film. Another
reason why, is it is used to empower consumers
especially parents with children to make viewing
decisions.
The BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts,
http://www.bafta.org/film) is an independent charity
that supports, develops and promotes the activities of a
variety of films by rewarding excellence and benefiting
the public.
The reason why the British Academy of Film and
Television Arts is important to us, is because they
promote the visual arts by identifying and rewarding
supremacy in the field. Without the BAFTA, we wouldnt
know what films are extremely good to watch.
The FDA (Film Distributors' Association,
http://www.launchingfilms.com) is the trade body for
stage film suppliers in the UK. Basically, the companies
that release films for UK cinema audiences.
The reason why the Film Distributors' Association is
important to us, is because they are responsible for the
marketing of a film. They set the release date of the
film and the way the film is to be made available for
viewing.

What the Regulator Bodies may face with

Regard?
Consumer Choice
What Consumer choice is, is that it refers to the
decisions that consumers make with regard to products
and services. When these bodies study consumer
choice behaviour, we examine how consumers decide
which products to purchase.
The way the BBFC deals with consumer choice, is that
when they classifying films, they have to watch the
films all the way through before they are officially
released, looking at issues such as drugs, horror,
language and nudity when making decisions. And when
they have reached an age rating, the film can be
released on DVD and maybe Blu-Ray.
The way the BAFTA deals with consumer choice, is that
when they are creating nominees for the film awards,
they need to look at really great films for each genre
and choose at least 4-5 films that are the best in that
genre and put those movies up for nomination, and
then the public can vote for their favourite film out of
those genres. And when the most voted film wins the
award, that film will gain more popularity among many
people.
The way the FDA deals with consumer choice, is that
they work to increase and broaden the UK cinema
audience across the board, by working filmmakers and
audiences. And when they are releasing films, the
movie first has to be regulated by a business model (a
strategy to keep examples of a movie from rivalling
with each other), then the movie is released into
cinemas and then after probably 16 weeks, it is

released to DVD and Blu-Ray with a reasonable release

date for customers to be happy with.
Freedom of Information
What Freedom of Information is, is that it gives the
general public the right to request documents or
information from public services.
Actually, The BBFC is not subject to the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 but it performs public functions
when classifying films and videos.
The way the BAFTA deals with freedom of information,
is that they provide useful information for the general
public on their website
(http://www.bafta.org/television/awards/televisionawards-information) and they make sure that they
provide the public with very detailed pieces of
information for each section of the website.
The way the FDA deals with freedom of information, is
that they also provide information on their website
(http://www.launchingfilms. com/about-us) and they
make sure they provide enough information for about
what they do in the film industry.
Censorship
What Censorship is, is the suppression of particular
speech which may be considered objectionable,
harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient.
The way the BBFC deals with censorship, is that they
need to watch the whole film through, marking down
the potential words/ sentences in the film that be
offensive to sensitive people and the time in the film
that they can be heard. The BBFC will then edit out the

words and replace the harmful words/sentences with

something else that isnt going to make sensitive
people angry.
The way the BAFTA deals with censorship, is that when
awarding the film awards, they will have to show small
clips of the films that are being nominated for the
specific award. The clips will have to be scenes that
have no threatening content in them, because the clips
will be shown in front of a large audience and if the
audience saw inappropriate content on the big screen,
they will want to complain.
The way the FDA deals with censorship, is that when
they are making films available for viewing, if there is
seriously inappropriate content in the film, that is not
suitable even for the target audience, they will have to
ask the company who is producing the film to remove
or change that specific scene in the film to make it
acceptable, because otherwise the Film Distributors'
Association will get lots of complaints about the film.
Taste and Decency
What Taste and Decency is, is that it is the particular
content in films that are either appropriate or
inappropriate to be shown in cinemas and on DVD.
The way the BBFC deals with taste and decency, is that
when the final stage of filmmaking begins (distribution),
they will have to watch the film the whole way through,
and decide what age rating to give it (U, PG, 12, 12A,
15 and 18) and on the back of the DVD case, they will
have to give a tiny bit of information of what to expect
in the film, when you watch it. For example, 18,
contains strong, bloody violence.

The way the BAFTA deals with taste and decency, is

that when they are preparing the clips of several films
that are being nominated for the awards, they have to
make sure that they didnt choose a scene with
unsuitable content, and more importantly, they would
have to choose a scene that everybody loved,
otherwise they would be bored in their seats.
The way the FDA deals with taste and decency, is that
when they are releasing films into cinemas, they will
have to put information about what is going to be in the
film before people start watching it, because the film
might contain unfitting stuff in it that some people tend
to avoid. They might also have to say on the film, what
genre it is so people can know what the film is all
about.

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