Will Grimmer's TV & Film Blog: Understanding Codes, Conventions & Current Practice in Corporate and Promotional Programming

Codes & Conventions:

Organisation #1: BBC Three (‘Blob’ Idents)

Organisation #2: Sony (PlayStation 5 Reveal)

Organisation #3: Multiplay Events (Insomnia65 Gaming Festival)

Legal Issues:

Two legal terms related to corporate and promotional video creation which are both very important to know and understand are 'libel' and 'copyright'. Libel is used to describe a false statement that has been publicly published which possesses the possibility of damaging the person and/or businesses' reputations it is about (Oxford Languages, libel definition). When it comes to corporate videos, it is important if mentioning a competitor's brand or product not to explicitly defame them, as this will count as libel and you could get into a lot of legal trouble due to it. Not following copyright law could also get you into a lot of trouble, like if you were to include a copyrighted piece of material like a song without asking for the correct permissions from the rights holders to do so. 'Copyright' refers to the exclusive and assignable legal right a creator has to be able to use and distribute something they made for a fixed number of years (Oxford Languages, copyright definition); often, unless stated otherwise, like with 'royalty-free' pieces of music, others are not instantly allowed this right unless they directly pay for or ask for it.

There are legislations currently in place in order to protect employees and workers, such as the one relating to race, disabilities and discrimination on a person's characteristics which are made to prevent discrimination from occurring in workplaces and interviews. This specific law is known as the 'Equality Act of 2010' and states that an employer is not allowed to treat people in their company or business any differently on account of characteristics such as the ones listed above (Gov.uk. Equality Act 2010: guidance, overview).

'The Obscene Publications Act 1959' is a similar act, instead addressing what is broadcast and included in pieces of media that may offend any viewers and acting accordingly by censoring or removing anything that is against this law (Legislation.gov.uk, Obscene Publications Act 1959, introduction). However, this law, unlike the equality act mentioned, is a bit problematic, as it is quite dependent on other factors that can change whether or not something is breaking the legislation; for example, things like the context of the content (like whether or not it has been made for educational purposes), the time the programme was aired (before or after the watershed in the UK), and the channel it is aired on (a children's or 'adult' channel) are all factors which can affect whether the law has been broken or not.

Television and film regulation has become very important, as these pieces of media need to be regulated and ensured that they are okay and suitable for viewers and audiences. Due to this, there are bodies responsible for doing these exact tasks, such as OFCOM (Office of Communications) who are responsible for all printed and aired material in the United Kingdom (Ofcom, About Ofcom, What is Ofcom?) and the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) exclusively for film in the UK (BBFC, Who we are, The trusted go-to guide). This relates to the current unit due to the fact that promotional videos which are aired on television also need to be regulated, making sure they are appropriate to be aired in general and what channels they will be suitable to be played on.

Ethical Issues:

As media students, it is extremely important that we consider representation in any media product we create and are a part of. This is partly due to the fact that if we were to represent a certain type of character in a negative light and associate it back to their characteristics (such as the person's race, gender, age, and so on), we may put across the message to the viewers that we believe that all people of that characteristic are like that, leading to the alienation and/or offence of specific viewers, or even more dangerously encourage the belief of those offensive ideas and influence viewers opinions on those types of people. When it comes to more specific cases, when it comes to non-fiction pieces of media mostly, portraying a person in rather an inaccurate or untrue way may affect that person's life in the real world, perhaps causing other's to feel differently about them and treat them different due to how they were perceived in the media - we must be very careful not to take part in a libel.

When it comes to real world examples of problematic misrepresentation occurring in the media, it is very common for public figures to be shown in a specific light on TV and in newspapers in order for those publishing the stories to gain more attention and in turn, money. Specifically, stories that may really be quite small and unimportant may be blown out of proportion and twisted in ways to make the figure be seen in as negative a light as possible, creating outrage from the reader. An example of this happening recently would be what happened to the actor Johnny Depp. A huge number of media outlets began running stories telling everyone that Depp was an abuser and had abused his ex-partner (another public celebrity), ultimately leading to him losing many acting roles he had lined up to be a part of, as well as the respect of many people, causing him to be called out and verbally abused by many online (The Mercury News, 2020, ‘Wife beater’ ruling pushes Johnny Depp out of Harry Potter film). Eventually though, it ended up coming out that the situation was actually a lot more complicated than once reported, with Depp even being the one in the relationship being physically abused himself at times (BBC News, 2020, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard: She was 'the abuser', says Depp's ex-PA), and while many outlets attempted to correct their storylines in future headlines, the damage has already taken place in a lot of ways.

Current Practices:

In order to fully and properly produce a corporate/promotional video, there are multiple pieces of equipment which are important and needed to do so, each for their own reasons. Once the ideas are ultimately decided on for the videos and the budget is set, you should get a hold of (at the very least) a camera in order to capture the visuals wanted, an external microphone as to capture the dialogue planned at a good quality and a computer equipped with an editing software somebody on the team is well versed at. These are all the bare minimum pieces of equipment which are absolutely needed to create a video of this sort. Also though, it would be extremely helpful and recommended that the project also uses a tripod for the camera in order to get still shots at a good quality, some type of lighting so to have the clips lit to the degree you want, and extra little things like batteries and storage media (like SD cards or micro SD cards) so you are able to store every piece of footage recorded with little to no issues. Of course, on top of all the recording equipment needed, basic things which should have been completed during pre-production like the script should be brought to each filming too.

For the company/event that the corporate video is made about to be effective and successful, it is important that the video is distributed well and correctly so it reaches the target audience of the company. For example, if the corporate video has been made as an instructional video to new employees at a franchised store, it is common nowadays for that video to be sent digitally (through email for example as opposed to physically like as a DVD) to each of the stores under that franchise, so it can be shown to each new employee when they start new there. In terms of public event promotional videos though, advertising a type of concert or convention for example, they are often posted on online social media websites where the type of audience they are intending to reach will often be found using; concert promotions will often be posted on Instagram or Facebook while gaming convention videos will be posted on YouTube and Twitter respectively for example.

In a lot of cases, many methods of shooting and shot types are shared between many corporate type videos. A big example would be for the promotional types, which often try their best to make whatever is being shown on camera seem as luxurious or as epic as they possibly can. Their way of attempting this often includes shots like extreme close-ups in the case of new product reveals, and smooth, moving shots, which are included for a lot of types of these videos. Another feature of these types of videos which can sometimes be expected will be the use of colour and/or music, chosen specifically to appeal to the target audience of the company and to fit the style and feeling of whatever the video is showing off, like a white colour scheme for a new piece of technology, or a variety of bright colours to show off an event.

Pre-production is an extremely important step to creating any form of visual media product, especially for professional productions. All promotional videos usually begin with a brief from the client, which details exactly what the company is looking for to be made for them and what kind of video it should be - the more specific the brief is, the better. Keeping on the same theme, it is often extremely helpful for productions (definitely including promotional ones) to have a storyboard developed for it before filming begins, outlining the ideas for how each shot will look and consist of, making it a lot easier to keep to the envisioned chosen idea when the filming and/or editing has begun. This is of course as well as all the other important pieces of pre-production documentation, such as location recces and talent releases; all of these are integral for a media production to be completed well and properly.

The 'client liaison' of a project is very important, especially for media productions such as these. They hold the responsibility of keeping up communication between both parties of the promotional/corporate video creation: the company asking for the video (the client) and the people creating the video for them (Reference, 2020, ‘What Is a Job Description for "client Liaison"?’, Para. 1). The liaison will ensure that the client is kept up to date on the progress of the video's creation and any issues or updates that they made need to be aware of, as well as letting those on the production know of any notes from the client.

Before any past of the actual production is begun and put under way, there are many pieces of documentation involved during the pre-production phase that must be completed; depending on the document, this is a legal requirement (IndiaShoots.com, 2015, The Legal Aspects of Pre-Production a filmmaker should keep in mind, Para. 2). As mentioned above, recces can be made for location scouting, in terms of where the production could potentially be filmed and whether or not that place would be suitable for filming and taking all of the equipment needed to. Once a location is found and decided on, releases will need to be signed for each one, giving you permission to legally film in that location by the owner; releases should also be filled for each 'talent', getting permission from each actor (or their parent/guardians in the case of them being below eighteen years of age) present in the production. The last piece of documentation that should definitely be done if the production is wanted to take each step seriously is a 'risk assessment', outlining each job or process that will be included during the production that has any possibility of causing a hazard and/or accident with the intent of coming up with a solution or way to better prevent these issues from happening. As for pieces of documentation that is not integral but is often found to help productions, we have the storyboards and production schedule; both will give the crew a much better idea of what to plan for and do when filming eventually begins (what to film in terms of the storyboard and when to do so for the production schedule for example), but unlike the documents listed above, are not legal requirements.

When it comes to screenplays, there are two main types, each holding their own importance to the project: the 'shooting script' and the 'spec screenplay'. Spec scripts/screenplays (short for 'speculative screenplay') are done completely by the writers for free. The basic idea is that the writer will make it on the assumption (or 'speculation') that it is good enough to sell in the open market, with the purpose being to showcase the screenwriter's talent at telling stories through structure, dialogue and action. This type of screenplay is a great way for writers to get noticed, as they start off free to be made by writers, even if they are not allowed to be made into a product by a company or studio until they pay to do so. Generally speaking, spec scripts are "naked" scripts, empty of any attachments like stars or directors, with their main function being to just purely deliver its story. A 'shooting script' is usually made by the project's cinematographers and directors, incorporating scene numbers, camera directions, detailed special effects & action sequences, information on sets, costume & lighting, as well as simple notes regarding the acting in the scenes, and following a specifically set out number of procedures specifying how any revisions to the screenplay should be implemented among the crew and the cast. This type of script will often be made while a project is still in pre-production, after the spec script has been done, with the director and cinematographer lining the script with all the kinds of camera angles and movements they plan on using while filming each scene, then breaking each up into shots using the correct names and jargon for each. All the changes made on the script will be marked with asterisks and with pages changed to be put into revision colours and numbers (The Dialogue Architect, 2015, ‘Spec Script vs Shooting Script: What’s the Difference?’, Para. 2 onwards).

Spec Screenplay