Professional practice is very important when creating any sort of media if you and your production company want to look professional and abide by all the relevant rules and regulations.

Health & Safety, Risk Assessment and Insurance

We have to make sure we fill out Health & Safety Risk Assessment forms every time we film. These forms are very important because we assess what the possible risks are at each shoot and then list all of the safety measures that we will take to try to avoid these risks.  The forms are very important in the safety of the public as well as all members of the crew, if anyone gets injured it reduces the risk of getting sued as everyone should have been warned of any dangers.

We must also make sure to have the university insurance papers on us at all times when filming in case anyone asks to see them, this will also cover us against any law suits as well as help to cover all crew members.

Areas that we would have to consider, as risks in our documentary would be:

•       Tracks & Tripods- tripping hazard to cast, crew and the public
•        Trailing cables- Tripping hazard to all
•       Vehicles- Moving or stationary
•        General public- making sure that they are warned about hazards
•          Electricity- Lighting kits have take up large amount of energy, must make sure there is enough power in   plug sockets, can blow all of the electricity.
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Winchester University Rules of Ethics

This document is very important to get signed by the University in giving us final permission for our documentary to be handed in and marked. The document has to be signed to say that our documentary will not be breaching any of the Universities rules of ethics or terms of conditions in a film or media.

If someone in our documentary does not want to be filmed but we feel it is necessary that they be in the film, we would have to make sure that they are out of frame, unrecognisable or silhouetted, with their permission of course. 

Ofcom & The BBC

As well as following the BBC’s rules on Watershed and Right of Reply, there are a few other important rules to follow when making a documentary. We must follow both the BBC guidelines as well as Ofcom, both of these companies are very important. Their guidelines must always be followed when airing a piece of media on television or radio. The BBC is a very large and prominent organisation that try to follow the rules very carefully, so we will aim to follow all of the rules that relate to our documentary so that if we ever wanted to pitch our film to the BBC it would have the chance of being accepted. I found that both companies followed the same main rules, which we as a production company will try to adhere to. I have mentioned a few of the important rules and quotes by the BBC that need to be followed above but these are a few more that we need to follow.

Representation

We must make sure that we represent the subjects in the documentary in a fair light and in a way that is consistent with the truth and actual events. We must always aim to create a representation of the truth.

“3.4.11

We must not knowingly and materially mislead our audiences with our content.  We may need to clarify the nature of some content by labeling (for example, verbally, in text or with visual or audio cues) to avoid being misleading.” – This quote is an example of the rule we must follow- http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-accuracy-avoiding-misleading-audiences/

The Right’s to Reply must also always be given to subjects of any issues raised in the documentary:

“6.4.25

When our output makes allegations of wrongdoing, iniquity or incompetence or lays out a strong and damaging critique of an individual or institution the presumption is that those criticised should be given a "right of reply", that is, given a fair opportunity to respond to the allegations.

We must ensure we have a record of any request for a response including dates, times, the name of the person approached and the key elements of the exchange.  We should normally describe the allegations in sufficient detail to enable an informed response, and set a fair and appropriate deadline by which to respond.”- BBC Guidelines - Right of Reply  - http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-fairness-right-of-reply//

We have to give subjects within the documentary as well as companies featured in it the Right to Reply, they do not have to answer the Rights to Reply but the chance must always be given. 

Under 18 year olds & Watershed

Our film may contain strong language that younger viewers may find offensive so we will not be aiming the documentary at anyone under the age of 18. We feel that is the safest way in which we could protect under 18 year olds. The subjects within the documentary may use offensive language, which would not be acceptable for younger viewers. 

If our documentary appeared on the television then we would have to make sure that it appeared after the Watershed, if it did feature any offensive language, violence or nudity.

This is a quote from the BBC Guidelines on Watershed-

“5.4.7

Programmes broadcast between 5.30am and 9pm must be suitable for a general audience including children.  The earlier in the evening a programme is placed, the more suitable it should be for children to watch without an older person.  Programmes in later pre-watershed slots may not be suitable for the youngest children or for children to watch without an older person. “  http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-harm-watershed

Copyright

“Rights covered

The law gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films and typographical arrangement of published editions, rights to control the ways in which their material may be used.

The rights cover; broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public.

In many cases, the creator will also have the right to be identified as the author and to object to distortions of his work.

International conventions give protection in most countries, subject to national laws.”- A quote from the UK Copyright Service.

Copyright is very important to ensure that we as a company and individually own the sole rights to the documentary and everything that appears in it or someone else could steal it. The law on copyright in this country is very strict and must be abided by or there are serious consequences including large fines as well as prison sentences. When we source the music, archive footage as well as any other material we have not physically made we must make sure that is royalty free. This would mean that we are free to use the material without asking the owner for permission or paying them any fees.

Ensuring that our copyright notice is on at least one page of our website and appears on all images, videos etc that we create will protect our own copyright.

Creative Commons enables us to share work from others who have this licence on their work. By using a creative commons licence on our documentary it gives other people the ability to share our work and/ or build upon it.

Contact with Primaries

We must make sure that we keep in close contact with our primaries whether it be by email, phone and in person to make sure that we ask them all the relevant questions before we start filming them. This will allow us to plan ahead and think of questions that we would like to ask them, without upsetting them. We have to ask permission to film them as well as explain to them what it is we aim to convey through the documentary. During contact with primaries we must always think about their privacy and to not overstep the mark, if someone does not feel comfortable with us filming in a certain area or filming a certain person we must respect their choices.

By Zara Kirkpatrick.