Owen Riseley

Ethical and legal constraints with in the media sector

Video recording act: An Act to make provision for regulating the distribution of
video recordings and for connected purposes.

Copy Right law

Why is it important within your industry?
Copy right is important to the film industry as it prevents ideas being stolen,
Copyright allows the owner, and the owner alone, to share, edit or copy and if
anyone else would like to use it they need permission. Its purpose in the film
industry make sure that no film cant be stolen, so that the owners of the film or
properties are in legal ownership. If the law is broken it is broken a fee will have
to be paid, ranging from $200 to $150,000 for each work infringed plus all
attorneys fees and court costs.
Russian films are being made available through Apple's iTunes service without
the consent of the copyright holders

The Film Act

The first piece of British legislation for was the 1909 Cinematograph Act, which
introduced a system of licences for cinema owners to ensure the safety of their
buildings and audiences. From the passing of the first Cinematograph Act in
1909, the British government has tried to regulate the film industry across the
board:
Broadly speaking, film legislation falls into four categories:
Cinema legislation This legislation governs the running of cinemas,
specifically focusing on licensing and health and safety issues. These were
initiated in the 1909 Cinematograph Act and have been revised and refined
throughout the subsequent century.
Content legislation This legislation reviews the material for exhibiting on
cinema screens and decides whether it is eligible to be show. Examples of this
include the 1937 Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act, which bans unstimulated
animal cruelty, and the 1978 Protection of Children Act, which bans indecent
images of children. Copyright legislation also fits in to this category.
Quota legislation - in 1927, the Cinematograph Films Act was incorporated into
film legislation to enhance the British film industry by making it a legal
requirement for cinemas to show a minimum number of British films. But this
rule subsequently meant that the Films Acts had to make new rules to define a
film's nationality, specifically its Britishness.

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Financial legislation - in 1949, the Government established the National Film

Finance Corporation, this cooperation was aimed to support the British film
industry, most notably the 1957 'Eady levy', which ploughed a percentage of
box-office takings into production.
All these rules have been made to help the film industry, especially the British
film industry and have made it a much more secure industry and the cost of a
few minor irritancies like film censorship but they are there for safety of children.

Importance of ethical issues

In the UK there is a diverse range of cultures, accents and languages. In the film
industry there are laws that state that these ethical groups have to be
represented evenly and correctly. It is important that these laws are enforced as
the film industry plays an important part in shaping the way we understand race
and ethnicity. In 1915 the film The birth of a nation was released, the film was
a great success, though it was highly controversial dew to its portrayal of black
men (some played by white actors in blackface) showing them to be unintelligent
and sexually aggressive towards white women and how it portrayed the Ku Klux
Klan as a heroes. It was allowed to be shown in the cinema as there were no laws
against it but protests were made on its release and in todays cinema this film is
not allowed to be shown as laws have been made to represent ethnic groups
fairly and truthfully so no one can be offended. This is important so as the UK can
maintain it peace and diverse culture.
When casting for a film it is essential that everyone has an equal opportunity and
that no discrimination takes place, the caster for the film would be heavily watch
to make sure that there are no biased decisions. There was some controversy
when Daniel Craig announced that he wouldnt be doing any more James Bond
films, a lot of people wanted Idris Elba to be the next James Bond but others said
it wouldnt be right because he is black; the caster for James Bond would not be
allowed to use that as a factor as that would be discrimination and racism, they
would have to treat everyone equally and judge them on their skills so everyone
has an equal opportunity.
To encourage diversity in the film industry there are lots of issues to sort out like
the pay gap between men and women. Jennifer Lawrence banked $52 million
over 12 months to be the best paid actress but the best paid actor Robert
Downey Jr banked $80 million that is $28 million more, and once this pay gap has
been removed it will encourage more women to join the industry and be able to
work higher up and it will make the film industry a more diverse and ethnically
fair industry.
A study backed by the United Nations casts light on the troubling lack of progress
the film industry has made in its portrayal of women. Actresses command just
30.9% of speaking roles in cinema and are twice more likely to be overtly
sexualized than their male colleagues, but it is the percentage of female
characters in professional positions that is the most discriminating. In film 90% of

Owen Riseley
lawyers are male whereas in reality 66% are men and 34% are women and these
percentages go on; in film judges are play by men 95% of the time and only 5%
by women but in reality 27% of judges are female, Doctors in film are played my
male characters 85% of the time and by females 15% but the reality is that 70%
of Doctors are males and 30% are female. These stats show two things; that
women are not getting equal opportunities to men and that women in media are
shown to be less intelligent than they really are, meaning it portrays them
inaccurately.

Representation of gender
In film men and women have certain image they have to fulfil; The male hero,
the most common hero in film are portrayed as a masculine, strong and hansom
individuals, like in James Bond all of the Bonds were slick,
charming and know for getting the ladies. They were
also very manly or what the media portrays to be
manly, they are capable men who cope in the hardest of
situations and never seem to break down and cry and
due to the power of the film industry these traits are
what it means to be manly.
These manly or heroic traits have been taken to the extreme in some cases, as in
Guardians of the Galaxy; Chris Pratt played Andrew Dyer a shoe-shiner at
Pawnee City Hall in the TV show Parks and Recreation and Marvel decided that
he would be perfect to be the
humorous hero, Star-Lord in the
film Guardians of the Galaxy as
but they also decided that he
would have to work out for the
part as in media heroes have to
be what is classed as attractive
to save the day, and have to have
the best physique humanly
possible as shown by the heroes
in marvel.

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Women in film are also renowned for having good bodies and have to look good
and sexy for the part, the only exception is in comedies sometimes they use a
larger woman to add to the comedy. Women are often always sexualised, like in
the James Bond films they all seem to be sexual, seductive and most of the time
untrustworthy and helpless till Bond the man saves them, they also nearly
always sleep with the hansom Bond.
In some
films there are strong heroines like in
alien;
Sigourney Weaver plays Ellen Ripley
and shes
not a sidekick, arm candy, or a
damsel to
be rescued shes the hero but even
though she portrays women to be
strong and independent she still had
to be sexy and they has to show off
her body, showing women again to be sexualised
and seductive.
What I believe is that the film industry does not
represent men and women fairly but that they
shouldnt have to; they are making a film with
characters that they create, they choose what
traits, they have and what they look like and what
they stand for, so people should not see these
characters a representation of gender be as a representation of
that character.

The representation of religion in films has change a lot in the more recent years
of film as it was taken more seriously in films and used as a
portal of bad or good like in the film Barabbas from 1961, it
follows the story from of
bible strictly and is a sad
and heart-warming story
but also quite serious not
questioning Gods
existence at all. Whereas
in today films religion and
God are almost mocked
like in Bruce almighty
God is played by Morgan Freeman puts a comic twist on God
and makes him human, and a laid back guy who is very calm
and wise, but mocks his powers.

Owen Riseley