LO4: legal, ethical and regulatory bodies

Ethical

Hypodermic Syringe is the thought that media has a negative impact on the viewer. This that a mass audience will believe anything that they hear or see. The things that are the big issues to do with this theory are violence, sexual content, religion, representation and role models. In relevance to the Warp film Dead Man's Shoes's the issues that are most relevant to the film are violence, sexual content and religion to a smaller extent.

Violence is easily the issue that is the biggest talking point in relevance to Dead Man's Shoe's as there are multiple scenes of the film where gruesome acts have been committed, the acts or not shown but the aftermath is such as the scenes where it shows a body that has been mutilated with an axe and another where a body has been crashed into a suitcase. If these had been shown in the film to their full extent there would have no doubt been some type of outcry by the viewer and the news as they would have been very difficult to watch, because they do not show these gruesome images are not shown in the film the regulatory bodies' (such as BBFC and ASA) will look at the film at give it a 18 rating. If the film shows thing that are to explicit they can block the film from being released, then the film has to be edited or have more content filmed so that it fits within regulatory bodies' guide lines. An example of this is Quentin Tarantino Kill Bill part 1, there is a scenes where the Bride kills a large group of Yakuza and the regulatory body for the film deemed That there was too much blood in the scenes so Quentin Tarantino dis sided to make the scene black and white to get around the regulatory body as in a film for something to be classed as blood it has to be red if it is black like in that scene from Kill Bill it is not classed as blood. Dead Man's Shoe's does he same thing as in different points of the film when character are being killed the shot goes a black, white and brown, this will have been done for the same reasons as Kill Bill. There is a scenes that have sexual intercourse in it. There is not any nudity shown in the scene and everything in covered up by a bed quilt, scenes like this are common in different film and the BBFC would have no problem letting this film throw at an 18 rating. The religious implications to do with Dead Man's Shoe's are very minor. It is mentioned at the begging of the film the views of the main character Richard. He states at the begging of the film that he can’t let them live because given the chance god will forgive them and let them in to heaven and he cannot let that happen, so he goes out and kills them all. I can’t see this being a problem with the BBFC as it is a very minor part of the film at the very begging but still the writer of the script would have had to be considerate with what was said as religion is a very touchy subject. All that has just been said is relevant because these are the things that would be considered relevant to hypodermic syringe. People may think that the action taken in the film are the actions that should be taken if someone would end up in the same circumstance.

There is a second school of thought that the viewer can filter out and adapt to any content in media so when they view particular things like in the film Dead Man’s Shoe’s. They will be able to tell that the actions in the film are just that actions in a film and they are not real or based on real character or event.    

There are no representations of any particular groups, sexes, ethnicity or sexual preference. As there is no humor in the film there is no Confucian         

Legal

All of the footage in the film was original so they would not have any problem there. Warp would only come in to legal problems with the music that is in the film, so they would have needed permission. When it comes to ethical issues Warp would have to think about offensive material and censorship. There would not be anything to be considered as offensive material but there could have been censored footage. The footage that would have been censored. The footage that would have been censored is where it show very graphic content. Like when he kills one of the members of the gang.          

Regulatory bodies 

A regulatory bodies such as BBFC are the major regulatory body with in Britain. The classification given by BBFC IS 18. So to see this in the cinema or purchase it you have to be over the age of 18. The rating of this film was never change at any time and I cant see it ever changing. The film stick to guild line. The guild lines that would have to be looked at are one to do with drugs, sex and violence here is a extract from the guild line of the BBFC

"where material or treatment appears to us to risk harm to individuals or, through their behavior, to society. For example, the detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals. This may include portrayals of sadistic or sexual violence which make this violence look appealing; reinforce the suggestion that victims enjoy sexual violence; or which invite viewer complicity in sexual violence or other harmful violent activities • where there are more explicit images of sexual activity in the context of a sex work or where the primary purpose of the images in question is sexual arousal"

As the film does not brake an of the rules stated in the extract above the film sticks to the guild lines of the BBFC       

LO 3:Understand distribution and Promotshion

Promoting a film

 There are multiple way to advertise a film, such as:

1. Trailers
2. Billboards
3. Posters
4. Websites
5. Social media  

These are a mix of old and new media (Analogue and Digital). The old would be Billboards, Poster (basically print)  and Trailers. New media would be Websites and Social media (anything that involves the internet). Trailers can be one of the first thing that is realised if there is a teaser trailer for the film, but most of the time poster are the first thing no come out.

Old Media

Trailers

Trailers where shown in cinemas first for a long time then they went on the internet (on a website such as YouTube) and then TV. Now as time has gone one all the different types of media get the trailer at the same time, except form some big Hollywood realises (like the Avenges 2) that have the trailer being released at the first showing of another film by the same studio. Teaser trailers are used to realise the first look of a film and tend to get the most hype behind them as a start point. Dead man's Shoes was Warp Films first feature film so it is likely that the trailer was only shown on local station and channels like Film 4. The trailer would have been on local cinemas such as the Odeon and the Showroom. It could have also been shown at film festivals up and down the country.

Billboard

Billboard will be next to main roads, motor way and in some cities. They can be on the side of a cinema if the film is big enough, this is done all the time at Cineworld in Sheffield retail park. Billboards tend to show all of the major character in any given film. Billboards tend to be the second thing that comes out in build up to the film first being posters or maybe teaser trailers. In relation to Dead Man’s Shoe’s they would have most like not had the money to be putting up billboards as they are very expensive and even at this time Warp Films are not a big enough name to get billboard on the side of Cineworld.    

Poster

Posters are the first thing to go up after a films is

 confirmed by a studio, poster can go up very early,

 the bigger the film the earlier the poster go up,

this is even more so if it is a pre-existing franchise.

Posters tend to consist of some type of cover

art for the Blue-ray box or showing the characters of the film.

New media

Social media

Social media is arguably the newest
 type of media and there for is being
 used to advertise products. As there
 are now profiles on FaceBook for
 films and studios and even fictional
characters. Now films are advertised
on social media by the actors,
 directors and produces. They tweet
and post thing on different social
 media to give little teaser and keep
the fans and other viewers interested
in a film that is not coming out for
months. As Dead Man's Shoe's came
out in 2004 thing and things like
 Facebook where still in there early
days so Warp will not have had the
full benefit of social media because
it was still in early day as Facebook
 had only came out early the same year.

 Websites     

Websites are a very useful method of advertising a product. They are useful because they can have a banner on a website or even the trailer for the film if your are on a website like youtube it will come up as a recommended video to watch and there are banner on the website, with some website the trailer play when you go on the website. This is an other thing that warp films will have not felt the full benefit of because of time of realise.    

Distribution

Distribution channels 

There are four classification for where a film can be sold local, regional, national and international.

Local = in the same city 

Regional = in he same county or state

National = in the same country 

International = world wide 

Dead man's shoe's would have been distributed nationally at first and then international later. The cinema will have been local and then regional. This is because that Dead Man's Shoe's was Warp's first feature film so they will not have had A massive amount of money to give it a national release.

Television networks

Dead Man's Shoe's will have not been on any television networks that will have aired this film, maybe 4 Films would air it when it is there indie mouth, but know Warp are a big name in British film makers so they would be able to show there films on a British network.

Retail outlets

Warp films will have used local retailers to sell Dead man's Shoe's HMV in Meadowhall and the Sheffield city center both have an indea category in which the film could have been sold. There are also smaller retailer thought the city center who would have sold it as well. The film would have been sold all over the country how ever as they had a distributor Studio Canal UK who would have been able to sell the film all over the UK.

Cinema 

At the time of release the film dead man's shoe's would have been shown in cinema s like Odeon and The Showroom as at the time Warp was not a big enough name to have there film shown in the bigger more commercial cinema. Letter on Warp did get there film's in commercial cinemas an example of this would be Four Lions.

LO2 : Understand the relationship between media producer and their target audience

Gender

I would say that the dominating gender for Warp Films is male because of the dark and gritty style of the film and the subject that are covered tend not to appeal to female. I think that it would be a %75 splint on the male side.  

Age

The age for War films will be 18 – 65, I say 18 because the age rating for nearly all of their films is 18. I don’t think anyone any younger would like it because there is not much action in any of their films. I think that it would go up to 65 because their films are aimed at the working class and the age of retirement is 65 in the UK. 

Lifestyle
If we use the NRS (National Readership Survey) who specialise in looking at the demographics, I would say that if we look at the demographics from NRS that it is urban ventures and producers that their films appeal to. The things that link these two demographics is that the people in them will be open minded to new things and will be more creative then other people this is more so on the producer then urban venture. That is because producers' as the name suggests are people who make something, such as films, games, books, magazines. Urban venture are the type of people who go out and try new thing and are very open to new ideas. Both demographics will be more then likely have an interest in indie film such as Warp Films.       

Spending power

The type of people who watch Warp films production will live within the UK and will be working class, there social grade of these people will be B, C1 and C2. They will have some to a lot of disposable income so they will be able to easily go to see any film when it comes out in cinema and buy it when it comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray. They will be manages or self-employed and working 8 to 10 hours a day 5 days a week.  The average person who works full time earns around £500 give are take £50. That means that their average viewer has some disposable income for things like going to the cinema, buying film, games, music.       

Mood board

 The main reason I think all of these thing to be true about the target audience of Warp Films is because in pretty much all of Warp Films productions all of the characters are working class or lower (at least to my knowledge). Good examples of this is This Is England, Dead Man’s Shoes and Four Lions. There Is not one character in any of these films that is in the social grade B are above. I think that if you look at the Uses and Gratifications theory by Denis McQuail is very relevant to Warp Films products. Denis McQuail stated that medias like film appeal to the viewer because of these four reasons Surveillance, Escapism, Building personal identity, Building personal relationships. I think that Warp Films product’s are a perfect example of Escapism. I do not think that there films fall under the others on the theory.  I think that Warp Films is very good at Escapism because of how well it imitates real life, the viewer will be able to identify and relate with the characters easily and therefore be more emersioed into the film. A good example of this is This is England. Presentation of the 1980 was that well done that for no moment in the film I thought that it was anything other then the 1980. I think it was because of the escapism of the film that it did so well and went on to have a tv show. The why that all of the character or protrude may be somewhat true to life but all of these character are from the perspective of someone from a social grad of B, C1 and C2. I say this because in nearly all of Warp Films film's they all make the lower class look like they all ways up to no good and that is just not true.