D1: Legal and ethical issues for components

Actor and location consent forms

There needs to be location and actor consent forms made and signed before any images, video or audio can be taken and used. This will allow me, the actors and the owner of the sites I use know what the content gathered will be used for and where it will be shown/available to see. The forms have to be filled out by the actors before any images or recordings are taken as proof that they've given me permission to use the images and recordings of them in any way mentioned on the form. Actors 18 or over can sign the form for themselves, whilst people under 18 have to have a parent or guardian signing their form. This is important for me as two of my actors will likely be under 18 and permission from their parents is vital for promotion and following ASA regulations. The location forms is proof that I have permission from the owner/manager of a building that I can use their premises to film in and use any footage or images to promote the show on any platform/way mentioned in the form. Without this, I can't release anything that I filmed or shot in the location so getting the form signed is vital and is a big deal if I'm to avoid any penalty fee or lawsuit from the owner. Both the actor consent forms and location forms will be signed once before I start any production and won't need to be signed multiple times. They will be used for all social media posts, teasers, posters and billboards, the trailer, radio interviews and adverts as well as any newspaper articles.

Risk assessment/health and safety forms

There needs to be a detailed health and safety form filled out before any promotional video or images are taken, this is to ensure the safety of crew and actors on set as well as the surrounding public and environment. The form has to detail all the things that could possibly go wrong, a way to combat the possible issue, a contingency plan for if things don't go as planned a list of who or what may be damaged or hurt/at risk and the level of risk that the issue is (low, moderate, high or extreme). This will be applicable for the social media posts as the images will need to be original pictures to avoid copyright issues, in addition to this there needs to be a recce done to assess if the locations are suitable and safe for use. The same process will be used for the trailer, teasers, posters and billboards.

Intellectual property

After some research, I've found out that there are no big TV show that genuinely look at the perspective of what an immigrant from Africa or Asia goes through to find a new country they want to call home. The shows or films that I have found all focus on people from Latin America and often include other plot lines like drugs. This show that there is no other TV shows that are like "Promised Land" on TV which means there is likely no need to be sued or told off by any other business or production company about stealing their idea. In terms of property with the same name, there's a TV show that was aired between September 1996 and May 1999, and a 2012 Matt Damon film that failed at the box office with a budget of $15m and box office of $8.1m meaning that the show I'm promoting probably wont be associated with either as they were either short lived or a commercial failure. A more thorough search will need to be taken to ensure this, but it seems that the show won't get in trouble for infringing any intellectual property laws. This means I have more freedom with marketing the product as I don't have to worry about offending, being linked to or seen as copying any other show with the same title or concept.

Copyright, Libel and Slander

To avoid getting in trouble for any copyright reasons, all the content for all the promotion has to be original, which means all images need to be taken by photographer - that's images either just characters or locations - and the social media posts will need to be original as well. There also needs to be communication between the marketing team and musical artists to see if it'd be possible to use their music to help with the promotion as not all artists would want their music to be linked to a show, especially if it could make or break their career. There needs to extensive research done to ensure that the slogan and tag-lines that are used to market the show aren't already taken by another show or brand, in addition to this the style of font that is used throughout the marketing is important and needs to either be original or cleared by the owner for me to use as there needs to be a good amount of continuity throughout as well as reducing the chance of being sued for using another brands font. All the text and language used in all promotion has to be accurate, not misleading and should be factual in order for it to follow ASA regulations and avoid a libel lawsuit. Slander is when false information about someone or something is spread through speech. This is something that I want to avoid happening with the marketing as it can be misleading for the potential audience, it can ruin the reputation of the show before it even airs. To avoid this, only the facts of the show will be said for the promotion, this includes on the radio interviews where the actors and crew will be told beforehand what they can and can't say just so they don't end up confusing the audience when they watch the show.

Representation

I believe that I've got a good amount of representation in all the marketing as all the main characters from the show are seen in the marketing posters, trailers and social media. The only area I think there could be a lack of representation is the radio adverts, interviews and newspaper/magazines as not everyone will manage to get some time to appear on them. This is because with so many people appearing on the posters (seven people), having everyone appear on the interviews and magazines is going to be too much for a listener to hear or read because its so many voices and opinions in one go, so the roles will be switched around so people do different things e.g. 3 people will help make the radio advert and then the same three will do the newspaper and magazine interviews/articles and the other 4 will do the other advertisement methods (radio interviews and newspaper and magazine appearances. The characters are primarily black and white with no other races really being represented or shown in the advertisements although there may be an Asian character shown in posters and billboards.

Tone of ads

The tone of the adverts is vital as it'll show the audience what the show will feel and look like. For such a serious show with very public advertising methods I can't make the adverts too dark as it'll be seen by many people of different ages and cultures so the best action will be to make the colour scheme dark, the characters look serious and also offer a contrast to this by making more light-hearted posters and billboards by using colours like white. The hard thing will be trying to make the ads not too dark for people.