- Database Documentary - 

On this page we have written about the important factors we need to consider during the planning and creation of our documentary piece.

     Copyrighting Work... 

     Copyright Law changes...  

Even though we have created the copyright document above, our work, thanks to a new copyright law change that may soon be passed, our work could legally be taken and used without our knowledge/permission.

The law, first presented to the House of Commons in May of this year, proposes to make it legal to "use foreign works without the knowledge and permission of the copyright owners". The bill should reach the House of Lords committee stage in early December. If passed, it will effect every kind of individual photographer and designer, rights owners, photography agencies, stock agencies and artists who want to make money from their work, as it will allow big businesses and corporations to just take their work without their knowledge for use in their own productions.

This could mean that any of the copyrighted content we produce on our site/projects could be freely taken by bigger businesses without our prior knowledge or consent, meaning somebody else could make money from our work.

     Health and Safety... 

Before doing any filming, we needed to make sure we wrote out Risk Assessment forms and gave them to Health and Safety Officer Mary Edwards to look over and sign. 

It is also stated in the University Ethics Document that we need to have these sorted. 

It is so that during filming, we take precautions where members of the public and people other than our group are involved, to ensure that any damage or injury would not be through our own negligence.

     Release Forms and Protecting the Under 18's...   

Under 18's...

Whilst planning and creating our documentary, an important thing for us to consider is the time at which the programme would air if it were to go on television. We need to be extra careful not to infringe upon any Ofcom ruling regarding the protection of under-eighteens from any inappropriate material. 

The material that cannot be shown without a strong contextual emphasis includes themes of violence, offensive language, nudity, sexual material and drug use. 

With our documentary, should we choose to go with the Sex Dolls idea, it may involve the use of sexual terms and footage of naked dolls, but no real offensive content that would break Ofcom rules. The documentary would most likely need an age classification, but only really for 15+. 

However, should we go for the Dog Show idea, we wouldn't have any offensive content unless the issue of animal abuse comes up. If that happens, we would need to make sure our footage isn't explicit and give warnings at the beginning of our documentary and perhaps before the section of our documentary where the issue is raised. We would probably give our documentary an age restriction of 12A just to be careful.

Our third idea, the Boys Don't Dance, should not include any content which would offend the under eighteens or anyone else, so should not infringe upon Ofcom rules, nor should it need an age restriction.

1.28 Due care must be taken over the physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of people under eighteen who take part or are otherwise involved in programmes. This is irrespective of any consent given by the participant or by a parent, guardian or other person over the age of eighteen in loco parentis.

1.29 People under eighteen must not be caused unnecessary distress or anxiety by their involvement in programmes or by the broadcast of those programmes.

     Misrepresentation and Breaking the Law...    

Our documentary will focus on one or a few individuals and their stories, so it is important that we do not misrepresent them. We cannot include patronising questions or footage/music choices, change the meaning or context of what it is we’ve filmed or recorded and most importantly cannot lie to our primaries about what angle we’re trying to take our documentary from.

Breaking the Law...

When we film our documentary, we have to be extra careful not to film anything that is considered to be illegal in the eyes of the law. This is because even though we won’t be participating in anything illegal, the footage we take can act as entrapment, which is illegal to do.

     Accuracy...    

The most important set of rules to abide by when making a documentary or reporting news is accuracy. As a production company, we need to ensure that this is top of our list when we produce our work as regularly misleading our audience would result in a lack of trust from our audience, less chances for our work to sell and lower viewing figures.

The BBC editorial guidelines (found here) has a section on this which states-

‘All BBC output, as appropriate to its subject and nature, must be well sourced, based on sound evidence, thoroughly tested and presented in clear, precise language.’ 

It also goes on to say that - 

‘The BBC must not knowingly and materially mislead its audiences.  We should not distort known facts, present invented material as fact or otherwise undermine our audiences' trust in our content.’

These quotes show how it is extremely important that our documentary remains factually correct and accurate to our subject matter when we present factual information. 

Another factor we need to consider is the accuracy of information that we receive from the subjects we choose to interview. During post-production we will need to double check any facts or information put forward by our subjects so that we do not include any footage which has somebody misquoting something or giving the wrong information about an important issue. 

     Language...    

An important thing that we as a group need to consider when filming our documentary is strong or offensive language. The BBC editorial guidelines (section 5.4.20), has a section which explains some of the cases where strong language could be offensive to a viewer.

‘Strong language is most likely to cause offence when it is used gratuitously and without editorial purpose, and when it includes:

·        Sexual swearwords

·        Terms of racist or ethnic abuse

·        Terms of sexual and sexist abuse or abuse referring to sexuality

·        Pejorative terms relating to illness or disabilities

·        Casual or derogatory use of holy names or religious words and especially in combination with other strong language.’

As we will be interviewing and documenting various individuals for our documentary, we need to be aware of the fact that interviews can be extremely unpredictable in that our subjects may suddenly use strong or offensive language which will need moderating when it comes to the editing of our work. 

If one of our interviewees swears whilst talking passionately about a subject, we would most likely keep it in and include a ‘strong language’ warning at the start of our piece. However, if what they said was considered to be offensive to an individual or a group within society, we would have to remove it from our final piece. 

The only reason why we would consider to keep it in, was if it was of important significance to our topic, in this case we would most likely bleep or censor the word/s.

     The Right To Reply... 

BBC and Ofcom guidelines state that if a filmmaker or a subject were to speak badly of somebody, or a company in the documentary, then that person or business have the right to reply in order to respond to the allegations made against them. 

Section 1 

To not show content that could harm the mental, physical or moral development of a person under the age of eighteen. This also applies to if they are involved in the documentary that anything they do, see or participate in should not do the above either.  

"7.12 Where a person approached to contribute to a programme chooses to make no comment or refuses to appear in a broadcast, the broadcast should make clear that the individual concerned has chosen not to appear and should give their explanation if it would be unfair not to do so."

Section 2 

"Factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience." 

Also any content that has footage that could cause offence must be justified by its context. 

News clips used in the documentary must remain in the context they were broadcast in.

Section 7 

“…avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in programmes…”

We must make sure that we clearly outline what we expect them to do, what their contribution is and inform them of all areas of questioning. 

According to the University Ethics we must also make sure that we tell them that we are students from the University and copy in a module/course leader. 

"7.7 Guarantees given to contributors, for example relating to the content of a programme, confidentiality or anonymity, should normally be honoured."

"7.8 Broadcasters should ensure that the re-use of material, i.e. use of material originally filmed or recorded for one purpose and then used in a programme for another purpose or used in a later or different programme, does not create unfairness. This applies both to material obtained from others and the broadcaster's own material."

"Before broadcasting a factual programme, including programmes examining past events, broadcasters should take reasonable care to satisfy themselves that:

16.  material facts have not been presented, disregarded or omitted in a way that is unfair to an individual or organisation;

and

17.   anyone whose omission could be unfair to an individual or organisation has been offered an opportunity to contribute."

Section 8

"8.1 Any infringement of privacy in programmes, or in connection with obtaining material included in programmes, must be warranted."

"8.2 Information which discloses the location of a person's home or family should not be revealed without permission, unless it is warranted." 

"8.21 Where a programme features an individual under sixteen or a vulnerable person in a way that infringes privacy, consent must be obtained from:

22.      a parent, guardian or other person of eighteen or over in loco parentis; and  wherever possible, the individual concerned;

24.      unless the subject matter is trivial or uncontroversial and the participation minor, or it is warranted to proceed without consent.

25.      Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent states from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises."

     Creative Commons...  

 “Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.”

Most sites include a ‘Creative Commons’ License, which grants permission for others to use their work without worrying so much about getting written permission.

We have chosen not to include a Creative Commons License on our site as we have produced content which we may later want to use to promote ourselves or make money from, so do not want it up for anybody to take and use for their own work.

All content on page © (24/11/12) (J. Hallett).  All Rights Reserved.