Professional Behaviour
Introduction
OK, so the following piece is a breakdown of the legal and ethical rules and codes when working within the media industry. Now since this article is about professional behavior within the media industry i am going to be going through and breaking down the legal and ethical requirements when working as a part of and within the media industry, i am also going to be going through the consequences that you would face if you were to neglect, ignore or not follow these legal and ethical requirements for working within the media industry. So to begin with i will be discussing the legal side of things first where i will break down the legal elements of your requirements when working as part of the industry and then breaking down the consequences that come from failing to meet these requirements and then i will do the same for the ethical side.
Legal
Firstly when working on a project of any form within the media industry, However for simplicity sake i am going to be specific to a film or TV project as that is the section of the media industry that i am most knowledgeable in. You will need to read and sign a contract that you will be given by the people running the project or if you are the person running the project you will also have to sign a similar contract. Now this contract will more likely than not contain a large selection of boring logistic drivvle, however this seemingly uninteresting mosh pit of words will quite plainly lay out the legal requirements that you will need to meet and follow when working on the project, now some of these legal requirements can vary from project to project however the core ones will tend to appear on the vast majority if not every contract, An example of one of the legal requirements you will see on practically every single contract that you will be given to sign when working on a film is: Material produced as part of this project is owned by the production company. (This does have the odd exception). Moving on from that we are now going to go into talking about the consequences that you fill face if you fail to comply with these requirements, however these consequences can only be enforced if the person who has failed to meet the requirements has willingly signed the contract. Now the consequences can vary depending on which requirement isn't met and how important said requirement was. Punishments can vary in severity due to this and so the punishment or consequence can vary from just a standard telling off to something as severe as being fired from the project completely. But like i mentioned it's all the luck of the draw and what the requirement that you failed to meet was.
Firstly when working on a project of any form within the media industry, However for simplicity sake i am going to be specific to a film or TV project as that is the section of the media industry that i am most knowledgeable in. You will need to read and sign a contract that you will be given by the people running the project or if you are the person running the project you will also have to sign a similar contract. Now this contract will more likely than not contain a large selection of boring logistic drivvle, however this seemingly uninteresting mosh pit of words will quite plainly lay out the legal requirements that you will need to meet and follow when working on the project, now some of these legal requirements can vary from project to project however the core ones will tend to appear on the vast majority if not every contract, An example of one of the legal requirements you will see on practically every single contract that you will be given to sign when working on a film is: Material produced as part of this project is owned by the production company. (This does have the odd exception). Moving on from that we are now going to go into talking about the consequences that you fill face if you fail to comply with these requirements, however these consequences can only be enforced if the person who has failed to meet the requirements has willingly signed the contract. Now the consequences can vary depending on which requirement isn't met and how important said requirement was. Punishments can vary in severity due to this and so the punishment or consequence can vary from just a standard telling off to something as severe as being fired from the project completely. But like i mentioned it's all the luck of the draw and what the requirement that you failed to meet was.
Ethical
Following on from this i am now going to be moving on to discussing the ethical side of this, now when it comes to ethical standards during a film production, it is made very clear from the get go what these requirements are and for the most part they are your standard fair like Be kind and treat every one on set with respect, don't be inappropriate to other people on set (you know what i mean) and the list goes on but i think you get the jist. With the ethical requirements similar to the legal requirements you will be given a contract that will outline quite bluntly the ethical requirements for the project and will lay out what will not be allowed on set and during the production in general, You may be wondering, well why do you need to tell people to be nice to people while working on a film production, since it is something that most people would do without a second thought about it. However you will be quite surprised or not depending on your knowledge of the film industry that in fact there are quite a few people who have worked and some are still working within the film industry for some reason don't follow these ethical requirements and do need to be informed on what they should or shouldn't be doing whilst working on a film production. Smoothly transitioning into my next point i am going to be talking about the consequences that the people who fail to follow and meet the ethical requirements specified on the contract that is given to you, now unlike with the legal requirements that where if you fail to meet these requirements the range of consequences is far smaller than the consequences of failing to meet the legal requirements during the production. The consequences that you could face if you fail to meet the ethical requirements for a production is usually ranging from having to talk about your failure to meet the requirements with the person in charge of the project to being fired from the project and in a worst case scenario (usually if its an ethical issue in regards to consent and peoples personal bubble) you could be blacklisted and even potentially face legal ramifications which will make finding future work neigh impossible. However sadly there is somewhat of an exception form this in a sense as some people who have enough power within the industry do get away with ethical failures however the immunity is always temporary and in the end they will have to face the consequences regardless of their status within the media industry.
How does the Legal and Ethical side of filmmaking my career and future in the industry.
Now, since both the legal and ethical sides of filmmaking are very important and are things that you need to take into consideration when working on any project, i am going to be talking about how the ethical and legal issues of the process of a film production as well as the legal and ethical sides of the film industry in general and how it can affect my career and future within the film industry. So without the further ado lets begin by discussing how the ethics in the film industry will affect my career within the film industry. Now in regards to both ethics and legality you have to be quite careful when making a film or television series. You need to watch out for quite a few things while producing a film. In regards to ethical codes whilst working as part of a film production you need to make sure that your meets said codes otherwise it is likely that you upset people because it is unethical, this can also ruin your film financially and even potentially critically, if your film fails financially then it could make finding work much harder than previously, if your fails both critically and financially then it will make finding future work nearly impossible. There are two types of ethics in filmmaking. The first is on camera ethics and the second is behind the scenes/ on set ethics. On camera ethics are usually in regards to the content that the audience sees on screen, now on screen ethics usually apply to documentaries and films based on true events however they can also affect the films that are fiction but i will get to them in a moment. First i will focus on the on screen ethics in regards to documentaries and films that are based on true events.
There are a list of ethical guidelines that need to be considered when creating and producing either a documentary or a film based on true events, these can range from making sure that you are representing and portraying the people involved in the events correctly, respectfully and ethically as well as being respectful to the events themselves and portraying them in the correct light and not over dramatizing them. However when it comes to films that are completely fictional their are slightly different and in quite a few cases uncontrollable. What i mean by this is if you make a film where lets say a guy hunts down criminals and kills them and around the time the film is gearing up to come out and the promotion is high a shooting takes place, then you as the filmmaker has to decide whether it is ethical to still release the film at the original time or if you want to try and have the film delayed so that there is some time between the tragedy and the films release, now this cant always be done because of investors and studio heads as well as finances etc. This has happened a couple of times recently, first in late 2017 with the first season of the Netflix series The Punisher and then again in July 2018 with Death Wish. With the Punisher the first episode was set to be premiered towards the end of the summer at a convention however the Las Vegas shooting happened a few days before and so this screening was cancelled and no one saw the punisher till its official release in November of 2017. On the other hand Death Wish was set to release in i believe July of 2018 although it could have been march but regardless the Florida school shooting took place shortly before the films debut however unlike the punisher death wish released regardless and was met with poor critical reception and a major financial loss at the box office.
Moving on now to behind the scenes/on set ethics, Unlike on camera ethics which for the most part are exclusive to the media industry, behind the scenes ethics are more general and similar to ethics in other industries. Now there are three types of behind the scenes ethics in the filmmaking process and these are the following: Pre Production ethics, Shooting ethics, Post Production ethics. Firstly, the ethics that need to be considered during the pre production phase of the filmmaking process are your standard office ethics, these are making sure that the working conditions are up to an appropriate standard, make sure that all workers are payed properly and make sure that they have a safe work environment. The pre production phase of the filmmaking process is very similar to the average office job, however as we move into on set ethics things become slightly different. Ethical considerations for working on set are the following: Making sure that everyone on set has appropriate accommodation, make sure that every one on set has appropriate living standards. Make sure everyone is fed properly as well as everyone has good ethical working conditions. Post production has all the same ethical requirements as pre production.
However in regards to legal considerations during the production of a film, its a lot more specific when it comes to what you need to look out during a production. The majority of the major legal issues to look out for and avoid are during the pre production stage of the process however there are also some legalities to keep an eye out for in the other two stages of production. With pre production the biggest legal concern is in regards to two things the first is finances, now what i mean by this is making sure that any and all funding that you get for the project is legal and legitimate, while that may may seem like an unnecessarily precaution but you will be surprised and its always better to be careful than sorry. The other thing to watch out for is in regards to the script, now this only applies if the script for the film was written by someone else and you bought it off of them, You have to make sure that the script is legally owned by you otherwise you could risk someone else and doing whatever with it which could lead to a variety of legal issues. Moving on to the legal considerations during the filming process on set. These are more to with the way people are treated as well as the working conditions and other things in relation to the work environment as well as some legal requirements with locations if you're filming on set. Firstly, i am going to go through the work environment related laws and then the location based stuff second. So without further ado i am going to list and breakdown the legal considerations when shooting your project and they are the following: Making sure that you don't overwork people, make sure everyone on set is treated correctly and are provided with acceptable and good living conditions. However on the location side of things you have to make sure that you are legally allowed to film in the location, you have to have both permission and the correct legal paperwork, you also need to make sure that you keep the location in good condition because you do not own the property. The reason why you need to make sure that you meet these legal requirements is because you need to cover your back legally so that if someone tries to take you to court over something then you have the evidence to show that you are in the right and will avoid you potentially losing a significant amount of money and your reputation which could leave long lasting consequences on your career.
Moving on to the post production stage of the production process, this is where the majority of the legal requirements and considerations lay. However almost all of these legal requirements are to do with copyright. Now just in case you don't know copyright is defined as "a law that gives the owner of a piece of work the right to say how other people can use said work". Now during the post production stage of a project you will spend most of your time editing your project together, now when you are editing a project it is likely that you will be looking for some music to use and well virtually every piece of music that isn't royalty free with have a copyright and if you want to use that piece of music then you will need to pay royalties to the artist and or composer of the piece and to show that you have been given the permission to use said piece of music you need recorded evidence be it written, audio or video. Another thing you make sure of when editing is the use of other copyrighted material and you need to make sure that you have the proper permission to use said copyright material. If you fail to secure the permission to use even one piece of copyrighted material then you are putting yourself in serious risk of being sued for copyright infringement and this would lead to a huge financial loss for you as well as possibly leading to your project being scrapped and never seeing the light of day although that is a worst case scenario.
Finally i will be talking about how the legal side of the filmmaking process will affect my career as well as my future in the film industry. Now as someone who is working towards being a writer and director the legal side of the industry is something that i need to pay very close attention to because if i dont secure all the necessary legal paperwork for any of the things that i have talked about throughout this entry then i could face serious and very damaging consequences that will strongly affect my career negatively. Working as both a writer and or director requires me to make sure that both i personally am covered from a legal stand point. However whilst i have to for the most part make sure i am legally covered when needed if i am working on a production especially a larger one i am not the one responsible for covering the production legally and securing all of the necessary legal documents and paperwork, that is the responsibility of either the legal department of the production company or an external law firm brought in by the the production company and hired to work on the legal side of the production.
How does the Legal and Ethical side of filmmaking my career and future in the industry.
Now, since both the legal and ethical sides of filmmaking are very important and are things that you need to take into consideration when working on any project, i am going to be talking about how the ethical and legal issues of the process of a film production as well as the legal and ethical sides of the film industry in general and how it can affect my career and future within the film industry. So without the further ado lets begin by discussing how the ethics in the film industry will affect my career within the film industry. Now in regards to both ethics and legality you have to be quite careful when making a film or television series. You need to watch out for quite a few things while producing a film. In regards to ethical codes whilst working as part of a film production you need to make sure that your meets said codes otherwise it is likely that you upset people because it is unethical, this can also ruin your film financially and even potentially critically, if your film fails financially then it could make finding work much harder than previously, if your fails both critically and financially then it will make finding future work nearly impossible. There are two types of ethics in filmmaking. The first is on camera ethics and the second is behind the scenes/ on set ethics. On camera ethics are usually in regards to the content that the audience sees on screen, now on screen ethics usually apply to documentaries and films based on true events however they can also affect the films that are fiction but i will get to them in a moment. First i will focus on the on screen ethics in regards to documentaries and films that are based on true events.
There are a list of ethical guidelines that need to be considered when creating and producing either a documentary or a film based on true events, these can range from making sure that you are representing and portraying the people involved in the events correctly, respectfully and ethically as well as being respectful to the events themselves and portraying them in the correct light and not over dramatizing them. However when it comes to films that are completely fictional their are slightly different and in quite a few cases uncontrollable. What i mean by this is if you make a film where lets say a guy hunts down criminals and kills them and around the time the film is gearing up to come out and the promotion is high a shooting takes place, then you as the filmmaker has to decide whether it is ethical to still release the film at the original time or if you want to try and have the film delayed so that there is some time between the tragedy and the films release, now this cant always be done because of investors and studio heads as well as finances etc. This has happened a couple of times recently, first in late 2017 with the first season of the Netflix series The Punisher and then again in July 2018 with Death Wish. With the Punisher the first episode was set to be premiered towards the end of the summer at a convention however the Las Vegas shooting happened a few days before and so this screening was cancelled and no one saw the punisher till its official release in November of 2017. On the other hand Death Wish was set to release in i believe July of 2018 although it could have been march but regardless the Florida school shooting took place shortly before the films debut however unlike the punisher death wish released regardless and was met with poor critical reception and a major financial loss at the box office.
Moving on now to behind the scenes/on set ethics, Unlike on camera ethics which for the most part are exclusive to the media industry, behind the scenes ethics are more general and similar to ethics in other industries. Now there are three types of behind the scenes ethics in the filmmaking process and these are the following: Pre Production ethics, Shooting ethics, Post Production ethics. Firstly, the ethics that need to be considered during the pre production phase of the filmmaking process are your standard office ethics, these are making sure that the working conditions are up to an appropriate standard, make sure that all workers are payed properly and make sure that they have a safe work environment. The pre production phase of the filmmaking process is very similar to the average office job, however as we move into on set ethics things become slightly different. Ethical considerations for working on set are the following: Making sure that everyone on set has appropriate accommodation, make sure that every one on set has appropriate living standards. Make sure everyone is fed properly as well as everyone has good ethical working conditions. Post production has all the same ethical requirements as pre production.
However in regards to legal considerations during the production of a film, its a lot more specific when it comes to what you need to look out during a production. The majority of the major legal issues to look out for and avoid are during the pre production stage of the process however there are also some legalities to keep an eye out for in the other two stages of production. With pre production the biggest legal concern is in regards to two things the first is finances, now what i mean by this is making sure that any and all funding that you get for the project is legal and legitimate, while that may may seem like an unnecessarily precaution but you will be surprised and its always better to be careful than sorry. The other thing to watch out for is in regards to the script, now this only applies if the script for the film was written by someone else and you bought it off of them, You have to make sure that the script is legally owned by you otherwise you could risk someone else and doing whatever with it which could lead to a variety of legal issues. Moving on to the legal considerations during the filming process on set. These are more to with the way people are treated as well as the working conditions and other things in relation to the work environment as well as some legal requirements with locations if you're filming on set. Firstly, i am going to go through the work environment related laws and then the location based stuff second. So without further ado i am going to list and breakdown the legal considerations when shooting your project and they are the following: Making sure that you don't overwork people, make sure everyone on set is treated correctly and are provided with acceptable and good living conditions. However on the location side of things you have to make sure that you are legally allowed to film in the location, you have to have both permission and the correct legal paperwork, you also need to make sure that you keep the location in good condition because you do not own the property. The reason why you need to make sure that you meet these legal requirements is because you need to cover your back legally so that if someone tries to take you to court over something then you have the evidence to show that you are in the right and will avoid you potentially losing a significant amount of money and your reputation which could leave long lasting consequences on your career.
Moving on to the post production stage of the production process, this is where the majority of the legal requirements and considerations lay. However almost all of these legal requirements are to do with copyright. Now just in case you don't know copyright is defined as "a law that gives the owner of a piece of work the right to say how other people can use said work". Now during the post production stage of a project you will spend most of your time editing your project together, now when you are editing a project it is likely that you will be looking for some music to use and well virtually every piece of music that isn't royalty free with have a copyright and if you want to use that piece of music then you will need to pay royalties to the artist and or composer of the piece and to show that you have been given the permission to use said piece of music you need recorded evidence be it written, audio or video. Another thing you make sure of when editing is the use of other copyrighted material and you need to make sure that you have the proper permission to use said copyright material. If you fail to secure the permission to use even one piece of copyrighted material then you are putting yourself in serious risk of being sued for copyright infringement and this would lead to a huge financial loss for you as well as possibly leading to your project being scrapped and never seeing the light of day although that is a worst case scenario.
Finally i will be talking about how the legal side of the filmmaking process will affect my career as well as my future in the film industry. Now as someone who is working towards being a writer and director the legal side of the industry is something that i need to pay very close attention to because if i dont secure all the necessary legal paperwork for any of the things that i have talked about throughout this entry then i could face serious and very damaging consequences that will strongly affect my career negatively. Working as both a writer and or director requires me to make sure that both i personally am covered from a legal stand point. However whilst i have to for the most part make sure i am legally covered when needed if i am working on a production especially a larger one i am not the one responsible for covering the production legally and securing all of the necessary legal documents and paperwork, that is the responsibility of either the legal department of the production company or an external law firm brought in by the the production company and hired to work on the legal side of the production.
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