Legal and Ethical Issues
Laws and ethics in audio-visual media must be followed and respected in order to create an effective and successful video. This will be showing the regulators and ethical issues that must be understood or faced during the production of an audio-visual promo.
Legal
Legal media regulators overlook every video, song, sound, or advertisement that's released to the public. They are responsible for making sure this media follows the restrictions and regulations set by the government and regulators. There are different regulators for different types of media:
BBFC - The BBFC give ratings to films and TV based on how appropriate they are for an age group. This goes from rating U for Universal (suitable for all audiences) to Rating 18+ (only suitable for adults). This is based on the content that's in the video and how detailed it is; realism, setting and context also play a big part in this. In order for a form of video media to be shown on advertising during any time of the day, it must be at least PG rated (parental guidance if necessary) or under. This prevents people of younger ages from seeing explicit content that's not suitable for them. Although these are used for more professional productions such as a multimillion film or TV show, these also morally apply to online productions as inappropriate videos will be restricted from the viewing of children if necessary.
Ofcom - This regulator monitors all types of media, including TV, VOD, radio, film and more. They make sure to keep multiple types of media and technology safe and check that everyone is satisfied with what's being produced. However, they also make sure codes and laws are followed such as privacy, fairness and prevention of crime. Following these rules in the audio-visual advertisement will ensure the video will not be taken down or cause public outrage.
Royalties - Royalties are a payment made on copyrighted or owned music in order for it to be used in a product. If a song or sound is licensed, permission must be asked in order to use it and, in most cases, a royalty will need to be paid in order to access it. These are guaranteed if you want to use a popular song by a famous artists, and there's a very low chance they will grant permission let alone be able to afford the royalties as they're going to cost a lot. Royalty free music is accessible for anyone without any permissions being given. No royalties need to be paid for the song and it can be used as often as the creator wants.
Copyright - Copyright is one of the most prominent media laws in any form, especially audio and visual. Copyrighted content can range from songs to video and film clips and must be followed as such. When something is copyrighted, it means that work is protected and fully owned by the creator, which prevents others from using their content unfairly or copying and distributing it as their own. Although they are automatically placed on a piece of media as soon as it's released, this doesn't mean it's fully protected by people out there. It's easy for content to be stolen and put on the internet without permissions in which a copyright claim appeal can be placed and used to strike the offender from reposting that content.
ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) - The ASA regulates advertising standards and what's presented and promoted on all forms of media. When it comes to audio-visual content, they will be regulating any video media which has the purpose of advertising a product and analyses every detail about them to detect if they are following advertising rules and regulations. Like most regulators, it has a set of rules and codes that must be followed in order for an advertisement to be deemed as acceptable, such as not showing violent or harmful behavior, promoting dangerous or illegal products and anything else that can be deemed as inappropriate for daytime viewing.
Model release forms - A model release form is a type of contract given to the production crew of a video project to define what their assistance in a project is being used for. For example, it would be given to an actor to inform them of their role in a film or given to a photographer so they know what and where their photos are being used.
Ethical
Ethics area major part in how a piece of media will be interpreted and judged by those consuming it. When it comes to creating the audio-visual promo, it's vital to know what ethical problems could be faced and how to avoid them as much as possible.
The best way to follow ethics is by considering who's going to be watching and how they will respond to what's shown on the screen. A younger audience of children will need to be shown something that's not only safe and void of anything harmful or offensive, but also educational and of value, teaching valuable lessons they can follow when they're older. An older audience will be able to handle more content such as violence and aggression as they will be less influenced to replicate what they see.
However, no matter how old or what the audience of a platform must not be used to discriminate others due to their ethnicity or religion. This applies for other types of verbal harassment such as homophobia, sexism, transphobia, sexual insults and any other types of harassment and hate speech which is unacceptable.
Misrepresentation is the act of showing a culture, ethnicity or other minority group in a way that's untruthful and more harmful than representative. It's best to avoid creating content that misrepresents a group as it will upset them as well those who support them. The best way to avoid this is by researching into the group and gaining accurate information in their beliefs and culture.
Morals
Morals are different to ethics in the sense where it's conducted by the individual person or culture they follow. Certain subjects such as abortion or politics may have plenty of moral disagreements that can waver to both sides of an argument. It is best to avoid discussing, showing or reenacting subjects that can count as morally incorrect as well as doing said morally incorrect thing.
Defamation is the act of spreading untrue, misinformative or harmful messages towards a specific person or group of people and this is classed as morally wrong as it spreads harm towards that individual for anything they've not done wrong. It is best to avoid creating video content that purposely or even accidentally offends a person, group of people or brand as it could cause trouble and discourse.
However, there have been cases where morality had been used as an advantage to scare and fearmonger people through frightening topics or current issues. This is called moral panic and is used to make a specific person, group of people or thing threatening to the mainstream values.
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