Legal responsibilities, censorship and regulation

Filming people

 

As there is no general ‘image right’ or the right to control one’s likeness under English law, there are

other rights which apply to the use of a person’s image which filmmakers should consider. This is particularly the case when filming in the street, as it might be easy to inadvertently capture passers-by on camera. Ideally, before exploiting the film, you should obtain direct consent from anybody appearing on camera.

Where consent has not been obtained, filmmakers must make a careful decision if they can still include the image or whether they will need to take steps to obscure the individual’s face.

The following is a brief summary of the key legal issues to consider.

For the purposes of this guide, filming is defined as any filming or photography that will be used for either private or commercial purposes, including theatrical distribution and broadcast. For our production, we would not have any problems asking other people to be in our film trailer as it mostly revolves around my school.

 

Building locations

 

Buildings are protected by copyright under English law but there is a specific exception under section 62 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which permits you to take a photograph or film of a building without infringing its copyright. This means that you do not require the permission of the owners of the copyright in a building to make a film or take a photograph of it.
The exception does not extend to making a physical 3D reproduction of a building. If the building is still within the term of copyright protection (which normally lasts for the life of the architect plus 70 years) then you will need the permission of the copyright owner to recreate it as part of a film set.
It is worth bearing in mind that you may need to position yourself on private land in order to film certain buildings. This will require consent of the landlord and/or owner of the land in question. Many apparently public spaces are actually privately owned portions of land which are made open to the public for very specific purposes, not including filming. Additionally, if you want to film inside a building, you will certainly need the permission of the building owners. The exception under section 62 (described above) does not mean you can freely enter onto private land to photograph and record buildings. finding a setting for production would not be difficult as my school and staff is aware that we are filming in one of their faculties. We are also trying to shoot outside school as possible such as  a house setting.

Media Insurance

All productions, international and domestic, need proof of Public Liability Insurance in order to receive permission to film or carry out commercial photography.
This insurance covers the legal responsibilities of your production if your activities cause injury to a third party or damage to property.
You should obtain a policy in the earliest stages of pre-production and maintain it until the completion of all post-production activities. The policy can also be extended to include contingent motor liability for vehicles hired with drivers, and employees' own vehicles. As we get into the process of filming our trailer, as well as taking photographs for our magazine front cover and film poster for our media project, my school already provides thses things as it will be beneficial for my project.

Green screen
This platform enables productions shooting in the capital to set their own environmental targets, and provides them with an action plan to help them achieve their goals. It would give us the opportunity to manipulate our surroundings to make it fit for the trailer. However, we might not be able to use it as much as we are trying to find several locations.

Actors and actresses
For the trailer, all actors and actresses must sign a consent form in order to confirm their permission to take part in the production. within this form, we might need to consider the hours they need to work, crew work and how they get paid in return. Also, if one of them get an illness or is unable to film with us, we might need to consider our production or to find another person to take part.

All legal responsibilities
As filming our own horror trailer is for educational purposes, the school is aware of all the legal responsibilities. We will need some permission from staff to use their rooms for filming. Also, some of our scenes will need to be shot in different locations such as Corby Business Academy and Kent Close (which will be the house setting) and the Corby Boating Lake as we would not need much permission as it is a public community place.