L04 Task 5 - Ethical, Legal and regulatory issues

a) Impact and effect on the audience

Films can be represented in many different ways to the audience. Some people may see them actively; as a way to relax and get away from the working world temporarily - and others can see a film passively; as a way in which they believe it is possible to re-enact what occurs during the film. This can lead to the hypodermic syringe theory stated by Theodore Adorno in 1930. The theory states that a mass audience believe anything they see/hear and this can have a negative impact in the media industry; similar to being injected with a needle.

The media classify audiences of films in two sections; passive and active. An active audience is one in which views a film for pleasure or entertainment purposes only. This relates to the escapism theory Dennis McQuail which means for a viewer to escape the current working world, allowing recreational time for the viewer; however an active audience member would not take what happens in the film and apply it to a real life context. A passive audience member however, contrary to the word's meaning, means that the viewer will put the film's content into practice, which can lead to a negative influence on the media if the film contains violence or sex etc. 

The film contains violence through men and apes having war, which could be negative to a passive audience as a passive audience is more likely to go out and turn the films actions into the real world. This could lead to people believing violence is acceptable or potentially good.
The film also suggests about having no trust, with the humans being welcomed into the ape settlement on the condition that no guns are brought into the camp. Contrary to the decision a human brings a gun regardless which connotes being untrustworthy. This may impact upon a passive audience due to portraying no trust to be acceptable. 

The film however has positive impacts on the audience also. Overall the film shows the end of the war being brought to in a well done, civilised manor, with evil being removed and the 'good guys' taking everything right again. To the audience this shows that everything can become perfect in the end, and all wars can be defeated. This suggests living a more vigilant and active lifestyle; and also being more positive overall. 

b) Representations 

Films can easily portray stereotypes and representations which can lead to negative or positive impacts. A representation is a way that a certain group or type of person is portrayed in film or in a media product. This links to Stuart Hall's theory in 1980 about all representations being mediated. In which he used the word `mediated` to suggest the media create representations of purpose to portray their point. This can also be linked with stereotypes which can be justified as an oversimplified image or idea of a particular person or thing. Tessa Perkins in 1979 stated that not all stereotypes are false. In many films the stereotypes of people can be true of many people. For example it is stereotyped that men are more dominiant than women overall; and although this is not true in all cases, it is more common for a man to be more dominant in a household than a female.

In the film Dawn of the Planet Apes, a positive stereotype can be seen at around 1hour 31minutes in the film in which Ellie takes care of ape protagonist Caesar. This is a positive stereotype as it shows love and care towards Caesar and also provides the stereotype of women working in hospital/taking care of patients etc. Also in the film there is a negative stereotype of men causing war. It can be seen in the film that there are two men with beer and guns etc. This stereotype is negative as it perceives that men don't care about violence and see it as fun.
The film also contains a counter type. This is a feature that opposes a stereotype and counters the theory by Tessa Perkins in 1979 who stated 'not all stereotypes are false'. It also counters the binary oppositions by Levi Strauss. The counter type in the film Dawn of the Planet Apes is that Malcolm, the main protagonist, counters violence, wanting to stay peaceful compared to that of Koba, the main antagonist. Due to the stereotypes of men being violence, Malcolm is a counter type.

c) Legal and Ethical issues 

Most of the time, a film will use content such as music or locations that are not owned by the company. This means the company will require appropriate pemission to do as such without causing legal unrest. Copyright infringement is the name given to when a person or company uses content that they don't have permission from the author of said content to use. If the company or person proceeds to copyright infringe, though any way, it can be classed as stealing which can lead to being sued by the contents owner or legal prosecution. 

In the film Dawn of the Planet Apes, the location manager had to get permission from local authorities of New Orleans East to arrange three month long street closures for filming purposes. The team had to get permission for this as street closures would lead to disruption in transportation which is why the company had to pay for this. 

Also in the film Dawn of the Planet Apes, copyright would have had to be resolved for the songs played in the film. The film used the song 'The Weight' which was performed by The Band courtesty of Capitol Records, LLC. This song was licensed to be played by Universal, suggesting that money went to a close competitor of 20th Century Fox. 

The film also has a rating by the BBFC of a 12, (the BBFC being the British Board of Film Classification) which suggests that the film contains content that only a 12 year old or above can watch. This most likely will be due to violence in the film which is portrayed all throughout the film. It also could be due to some offensive language within the film however this is more common to make the film a 12a rather than a 12. A 12 or a 12a means the film may have some prolific language such as the world 'F***' however, it must not appear many times or be used acting as a common word. This is true within the film as only a few times do prolific words appear, such as 'oh s***' about half way through the film.

d) Regulatory Bodies

Film companies require a regulation board to view advertisements and films before release to suggest who the film can be watched by, or which print media is deemed acceptable. For reviewing films in the UK, the BBFC (or British Board of Film Classification) uses a set of pre-defined rules to give the film an acceptable age rating. The BBFC was an NGO (non-governmental organisation) founded by the film industry which is responsible for classification and censorship of films within the United Kingdom.

The age range of my film is a 12 which suggests that the film can only be watched if the viewer is 12 or older. This is due to moderate violence and prolific language within the film. Some of the trailers for the film were, however, classified for PG which means Parental Guidance or 8+ in age rating. Although this seems strange it is common for film pictures to have trailers this way, as overall it can attract a larger audience if the final film rating was a 12A.

Films may also not maintain the same rating over time, or within different countries which was the case for the film Dawn of the Planet apes which received a 12 rating in the UK by the BBFC, but a PG-13 rating by the MPAA which is the American film classification board, similar to the BBFC. 

The film keeps up to these guidelines set by the BBFC by only containing infrequent and small usage of prolific language, as well as only moderate violence with no major showing of blood and/or gore

Another regulations company is the ASA, which stands for the `advertising standards authority`. The ASA is a UK based company which was invented to regulate the content of advertisements through all different media. This includes monitoring adverts to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive material. The ASA also ensures every advert is responsible for being presented, which in turn protects the public to viewing unlawful material. The ASA also use third party sources such as advertising codes to provide a platform to judge adverts against. These advertising codes are used to judge non-broadcast media (such as print media) and also broadcast media (such as radio or television). Some of the advertising codes for print media include regulating misleading advertisements, preventing harm and offence in too much detail, creating relevant and appropriate advertisements for children, as well as ensuring privacy rights are kept to.

In the harm and offence section of the advertising codes for non-broadcast, harm and offence section 4.2 states that 'Marketing communications must not cause fear of distress without justifiable reason'. This suggests that no violence can be shown in the poster of the film as this violence in the film is un-justified which means that by portraying this violence in a film poster would be unnecessary as well. This links to the target audience of teenagers to young adults who have a stereotype of being quite violent. This makes the film more challenged to create content that could make teenagers more violent proving the stereotype to be true; for this reason there is a restriction harm and offence that can be shown to teenagers or young adults

Section 4.5 also states that Marketing communications, especially those addressed to a child, must not condone or encourage an unsafe practise. As the film is aimed at 12+, some may argue this is invalid although, by definition, a human remains a child until the age of 18 suggesting violence should not be shown as violence could be classified as an unsafe practise.

Section 5 for children also applies to the film as the age of 12 can still be classed as a child. Section 5.1.4 states that children must not be encouraged to copy practices that might be unsafe for a child. In the film Dawn of the Planet Apes where Koba is plotting to raid the human armoury, two men can be seen drinking alcohol and holding guns, which by definition suggests unsafe practise. The violence in the film is also an action that should be not undertaken or though of as correct by children which is hence the reason why the poster cannot portray violence or drinking or both at once.

Finally section 18 for advertising codes states about alcohol, and how it should not be used to observe dangerous aspects or encourage drinking in the poster of a film. In section 18.11 of the advertisement code, it states that marketing communications must not feature alcohol being handled or served irresponsibly. As the film Dawn of the Planet Apes contains the scene of the men drinking alcohol whilst handling guns, this falls under the handled irresponsibly section of this rule which means that and print media generated by 20th Century Fox for Dawn of the Planet Apes should not convey drinking irresponsibly as it would be seen in places aimed at a mass audience.

Thank you for listening to my fifth and final video on behalf of educational company Education Wise, which provided you the viewer/reader with a sample analysis of content in the form of and interactive style presentation or video. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and thank you for watching. I've been Matt Milan, good bye.