Stop Motion Animation

Stop Motion Animation

Model Based 

The first week we looked at clay/model based animation. This is a stop motion technique where either the models are all made out of clay or use inanimate objects. You then take a photo of one frame and then change the position of shape of the clay and take another photo. This then builds up to create a full animation sequence. For the example I created see Chris Palmers blog. Here is an example I created last summer as part of an introduction to the course.

The example we looked at was Morph:

This simple animation follows the adventures of the clay creation called Morph. This is created by making a model out of clay and putting a wire inside. Then an individual photograph is took. For each frame the clay is moved or shaped into something else. Then another photograph is took, when put all together it makes it look like the creation of movement due to the perception of the human eye. Morph was originally created in in 1977 by Peter Lord. The animation is also made by Aardman Animations and has been seen on TV and online. Aardman has also done other things such as Shaun the Sheep and Wallace and Gromit. Here is a clip from Wallace and Gromit a clay based animation.

Another model based animation is Game Over by Pes:

Pes uses a series of house hold objects to create a model based animation. For instance there is a scene where a candle holder shoots out candles to destroy cupcakes as if it was a Space Invaders game. They also recreate Pacman by using pizza, pretzels and wooden balls.  Last of all, in one scene he recreates the Crossy Road style of game. Where a frog must avoid the traffic and rivers to get to the end. The movement shows the frog moving, the traffic moving and items moving in the river acting as lily pads. This was made available online from 6 years ago on Youtube.

The last example we will look at is an extract from Community's Christmas episode.

Community, created by Dan Harmon, normally focuses on using live action to create there episodes. Although, on occasional episodes they will try a series of new techniques, such as making the episode look like a video game or using the techniques of Glee. In this extract the whole episode is made out of models and uses stop motion techniques. In this case, it looks like the use of clay. Using the techniques of claymation. Theres a lot of motion in this extract as there is Jeff, bee's and the other characters moving at the same time.  This made in 2010 and was shown on TV as well as being available on Yahoo and Netflix. 

Persistence of Vision

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The persistence of vision is an theory based up the idea that after viewing an image our eyes (specifically the retina); will retain an image. It is said that the eye will keep/retain 1/25 of a second (0.04 seconds) at a time, which is an explanation of how we perceive motion. This means that no matter what we see, it is a blend of what just happened and what is currently happening.  So if we have an animation that uses 25fps (frames per second) our brain will not be able to tell that there are 25 separate images , which creates the illusion of continuous movement.  This theory is one of the possible explanations to how our eye creates the illusion of movement.  

A good example of this, is when you rub two coins together. If done quickly, it creates the illusion that there are 3 coins. This is because our brain only see's 1/25 of a second so when we see both coins move, our brain displays one of the coins in the middle during the movement,then blends them together. Creating the illusion of 3 coins.

Early Pioneers

George Melies

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George Melies, who was a magician, was at the Lumiere brothers screening in the grand cafe. He tried to buy a cinematograph for 10,00 francs from the Lumieres. Although they viewed Melies as a threat so the offer was denied. Instead of buying the french device, Melies bought an english device called the, Animatograph. He then modified the device using his knowledge of mechanics and reversed the devices process to make his own camera; and it only cost 1,000 francs. A couple of weeks after the screening, Melies had turned himself into a filmmaker and showcased his films during his magic act. 

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In 1896, whilst out filming the film in his camera jammed after shooting a bus coming out a of tunnel. After sorting the jam, he began to crank his camera again, although the bus had gone and a hearse replaced the bus. After the shoot, he developed the film and witnessed that the bus had turned into the hearse as if it was a special effect. Melies had also did this to turn men into women, on screen. This technique got given the name of a "jump cut" which Melies started to use in his work. It seem that his favorite time to use this was for appearing and disappearing people. I.E dropping a smoke bomb and poof, your gone. Here is an example of this being used in his film, "The Temptation of St Anthony"

Although his films were shot at the same angle and appeared more as a stage show, in turns out that after all his films/animations he never moved the camera once. In one of Melies famous movies, " A trip to the Moon" a series of pulleys and mechanics were made to make a rocket go into the eye of the moon. If he decided to move the camera instead; it could've saved a lot of time and ease. There are also lots of effects that we cannot explain today. 

Norman McLaren

McLaren took the concept created by Melies and used it with people. He would take photos of humans for animation. This is known as Pixilation. As it uses the same principles of claymation but using humans instead.  For instance in his film "Neighbours" which was created back in the 60's: 

The film starts of being a normal film. Although the houses appear to be moving and the neighbours slide across the floor. This will have been done by taking photos frame by frame. So the actor would lay down and get a photo took. Move slightly and take another. Repeatedly doing the process until you have all the frames required. For instance in this case, it appears the people are levitating across the screen. Although in fact the actor would need to jump and get the photo took at the right time. I.E this is why it is called pixilation. This was seen as a marvel at the time, but is now easy to do due to advances in technology. For instance in the example we created, all it took was a webcam and clicking a button. 

Pes Pixilation 

In this other video by Pes, he creates the impression that a human is being used as a skateboard. The sound effects make it sound disturbing as it looks like a human is being dragged across the floor. Although the images will have been taken frame by frame and the actor would't of been harmed in the making. The same technique is done when spinning the "skateboard" around. Although it is still very disturbing. This was made 7 years ago.

This animation made by youtube user CehNehhDeh in 2011 uses pixilation to use the movement of hands to reproduce more and more people. These people are also animated and do things such as duplicate themselves. The people also interact with the hands. For instance in one part of the clip the hand pushes the human in the middle from the left side of the screen to the right. A group of people are also pushed to the fall as if they are being squished. Only to remerge with twice the people.

Cut Out Animation

Using the technique of cut out animation, we created a small animation in groups. The process was similar to the other techniques tested; although this was 2D/flat only. So you will cut out the figures from either a piece of printed paper or a standard newspaper. The background will also be stuck down to a table of which the animation will take place above it. For each frame you will move the cut outs to create the illusion of movement. Here is the animation we created:

I then looked into 3 different cut out animators.

Lotte Reinger

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Lotte Reinger was another animation artist who used black and white silhouettes in her animations; which often consisted of interpretations on myths and fairy tales. As a teenager, she discovered a hobby for cinema and took inspiration from George Melies.

Reinger was German and specialized in her silhouette animation, which she did by inventing a technique of cutting out sheets of lead and cardboard. These could then be placed on a light which would enhance the silhouette style nature. Each figure had a series of pivots, which meant the arms and legs could move separately to the body. To create the illusion of movement, Reinger would put the figure in one position and take a photo, then move the figure slightly and take another photo. All the photos combined created the illusion of movement. Here is a video which demonstrates the technique Reinger used to create her animations:

One of Reinger most well known works, is her feature length film "The Adventures of Prince Achmed which was released in 1926. The film was in production for 3 years from 1923 - 1926 and used 24fps (frames per second). Because the film was 65 minutes long, that would mean that 93, 600 photographs were took to make the  overall film sequence. (65 in seconds = 3900. 3900 x 24 = 93,600).  This was the first full length animation before Disney s "Snow White",  the film was based on  the book "The Arabian Night". The film follows the story of Prince Achmed who is tricked by a sorcerer to mount a flying horse; over the course of the film he joins forces with Aladdin and battles several mythical creatures. He is a snippet from the film: 

After the great success of her first feature, she created a second "Doctor Dolittle and his Animals " which consisted of 3 shorts. The films follows the journey of Dolittle and his acts of good nature of in the continent Africa. During her life time she also created a whole series of short films, such as "Hansel and Gretel", "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp". Here are some clips which come from these films:

Lottes work was groundbreaking, she had incredible skills with scissors. Unfortunate Reinger died in 1981 but her work didn't go unnoticed.  Her work created inspiration for many animators in the current day. In fact "The tale of 3 Brothers" scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows took inspiration from Reingers technique. In fact the animation supervisor, Dale Newton states "Newton: One of the things that got me excited about it in the early stages was the question of what it should look like. We knew it was going to be stylised, but not exactly how. The producers came along with the suggestion of creating something in the vein of Lotte Reiniger, an Austrian-born animator working in the 1930s and 50s doing silhouette style animations. "

Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam, one of the many Pythons from Monty Python, had his go at creating a stop motion cut out animation. This was before he moved on to direct feature length films. Here is a clip from his animation "The Miracle of Flight" which uses a similar style to Monty Pythons Flying Circus. 

Created in 1971, Gilliam uses recurring backgrounds and characters to tell a story out of paper cut outs. For instance the first shots of the animation are of the cloud background which is used not only for the flying birds but for the background of the mountain. The animation explores the antics of man discovering flight; but does so in a comical and slap stick way. The animation also harness the power of sound and narration; to create a compelling animation. This will have been done in the same way we created our animation, by having a series of layers. With each one being moved separately until the stills are put together and uses the illusion of movement to create a moving image. 

South Park

Last of all for this section, lets take a look at a TV show that harnessed this technique. The show was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone back in 1997. Although the modern day episodes have moved onto computer systems; the first episodes were created by using paper cut outs. For instance if we look at the pilot episode:

Warning there is strong language used in the animation, as this is aimed at an adult audience and will often mock over shows and current events. For example, South Park had a whole episode dedicated to slandering a typical episode of Family Guy. In the pilot you can how the faces have been drawn onto the papers. In order to get the facial expressions they will have used the same templates over and over but they will draw on different faces and  body movements. Such as an eye moving or raising of the eyebrow. In between taking the photos, they will switch out the faces to make it look like they are talking. 

How to set up Time Lapse

Timelapse is a technique used to compress/speed up time which is opposite to the slow motion technique. This technique is created when the intervals of the film frames (which is normally 24-30 fps) are captured at lower points, such as 6 frames per second.  When this footage/series of images is played at normal speed it gives the appearance that its moving much faster than normal, which creates the effect of lapsing time. This means your general recording time will be much longer, as more frames are needed to match the normal rate. I.E in one second you can record at 24fps, but using the mode of 6fps it would take 4 times as long to get the same amount of frames and seconds. This is done by taking photos and putting them together in post production. So you might take 6 photos every 10 minutes or a 10 seconds to depending on the effect you want/shutter speed.

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This is often used to film things that are slow moving when we see them and don't notice their movements. This can be applied to things such as clouds moving in the sky, to a sun set or a flower growing. This technique can be seen in "Just Like You" by Bosley:

Just Like You

Not only is the timelapse synced up with the lyrics, the whole video took 9 months to take. So the artist had to be in the same place everyday for 9 months without moving the camera. It also counts as a timelapse as time is compressed over a long period of time. In fact to stop the camera from moving the tripod/camera was cemented in place and a building put round it, to stop people from stealing it. We see the garden go through several seasons with the most prominent being the garden going from winter to spring. 

House of Cards

Timelapse can be seen in the introduction to the Netflix original series, House of Cards. Based on the UK's version, the show follows Frank Underwood's journey from congressman to higher ranks. The timelapse is used for the movement of clouds and vehicles in this introduction.  It also goes from day to night, showing sun rise and a flag being covered in the moons shadow. This is used for all the introductions to the show with only the music changing between the seasons.  Shots also include the traffic lights changing between colours whilst the traffic builds up and clears. This would of been done by taking a photo every couple of seconds and then moving the camera every now and again to get the wide depth of the timelapse. 

Simpsons

Last of all, timelapse can be used to track the growth of humans. For instance if you took a photo everyday and put them together in a timeline you could track your life from being a child to adult. In a comedic take by the animated show the Simpsons, the show follows the family getting up to all sorts of mishaps making the audience laugh along the way. The family is made up of: Homer (A bumbling husband), Marge (A caring housewife), and Bart (A kid who likes to create trouble, Lisa (The brains of the family), Maggie (A young infant) and the pets (Santa’s little helper and Snowball). In this timelapse you see key points of Homers life so far from birth to adult. 

Cel Based Animation

What is Cel animation? Cel animation is a form of of traditional animation where you draw on clear sheets of plastic frame by frame to build up an animation. Like every other animation you need 25 frames per second to create the illusion of movement. Each cell will be different, but key things like backgrounds will often be copied and the characters changing slightly.  Shows like Scooby Doo would often copy simple movements such as running whilst changing the background; which would reduce production time. Cel is a transparent sheet of celluloid plastic which is similar to film, this can be drawn on like stated above to create an animation.

Walt Disney

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Walt Disney was one of the biggest pioneers in the cartoon industry. His full name is Walter Elias Disney but was shortened down to Walt Disney. He was born in 1901, in the state of  Illinois and had 4 siblings, 3 brothers and a sister.  As a child he would draw, paint and sell pictures to his neighbors and family.  Disney went to McKinley School which was in Chicago and specialized in drawing and photography.  He was also a cartoonist for the school his cartoons focused on topics relating to WW1, he also took up night classes at a local art institute.  At the age of 16 Disney dropped out of school to try and join the army, but because he was underage he was rejected. Instead he spent a year in France, driving an ambulance for the Red Cross.

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When he returned from France, his brother Roy got Disney a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, were he met cartoonist Ubbe Eart Iwwerks or Ub Iwerks for short. To earn some more money, Disney worked for the Kansas City Film Ad Company. The adverts used the animation technique of cutout animation. Although after readings "Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development" Disney started to consider using the cel animation technique rather that the cutout method. This was the process where you actually drew onto the frames of film, you could also draw on paper and copy it across onto the film.

From this he opened his first company and started producing his first cartoon series "Laugh O Grams" with his employee Fred Harman. Because of the success who opened his own studio which was also called "Laugh O Gram". He then hired Ub Iwerks and a series of others to work for him. 

Although after becoming bankrupt, Disney, Roy and Iwerks relocated to Hollywood where they began the Disney Brothers Studio. During this they invented a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. They were distributed by Margaret Winkler who was from New York and they earned around £1,500 from each short. Although years later, it happened that Winkler had took the rights of Oswald the Lucky Rabbits and all the staff apart from Ub Iwerks. Here is a clip from the first Disney Film:

After this event, Disney needed a new character, this was where Mickey Mouse came in. The first animations to feature Mickey were the silent films "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho" 

After this came the world famous, "Steamboat Willie". Mickeys voice was actually Walt Disney and was animated by Ub Iwerks and others. This was the first debut of Mickey as the other 2 shorts were not distributed. It is also said to be the first cartoon that has synchronized sound. 

For the rest of Disney s life he continued to make animations using the cel technique. Creating other characters such as: Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy. In 1937 the first ever full length animated film (not included Reingers film) film was released "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". There were also more feature films such as Dumbo and Bambi. To this day the Disney franchise carries on, with living memory to Walt Disney who sadly died of Lung Cancer in 1966. Although Disney no longer focuses on just animation, it is still the core to the company. 

Walt Disney - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

In 1937 the first ever full length animated film (not included Reingers film) film was released. It was known as the first full length animation as it was a success, this was  "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".  This was created by Walt Disney productions, and was produced by Walt Disney. The content focused on Snow White living with Seven Dwarfs to avoid her evil step mother, the Queen.  The themes had lots of interaction with nature and focuses on how the innocent are targeted by the powerful. The target audience was for young children which was a new idea at the time, as the first animations focused on adult themes. This used the cel animation technique.

Walt Disney - Dumbo

Walt Disney also created Dumbo and released it in 1941 and was the 4th feature film by Disney. The content focused on a baby elephant who works in a circus, he is laughed at by his friends and his mother is locked up as she is thought to be mad. The themes also focus on those who are mocked to be successful and better off in the end.  This is also aimed at young children, like all animated movies released by Disney. 

Tom and Jerry

As television wasn't around at the time, short cartoons were often shown before feature length films. These shorts were often 5-10 minutes long. A good example of this was Tom and Jerry which was produced in the 40's by William Hana and Joseph Barbera. This focused on the combat between the mouse Jerry and the cat Tom.  The shorts follow the mishaps of the pair, such as playing with a fridge settings to form an ice ring. The two always fight and no blood is ever shown, although Tom has died a couple of times. The target audience was also aimed at children as is often shown on TV channels today.

Wacky Racers

Wacky Racers was another cartoon created by Hannah Barbara. The show focuses on the Villains who you love to hate, Dick Dastardly and Mutely. In every episode the pair try and fix the race so they win, but they lose every time and often come last. The same characters are used in every episode with some famous regulars being the "Captain Cavemen" team. The target audience is also children but is appreciated by older audiences today. 

Gertie The Dinosaur

In 1914 McCay created "Gertie The Dinosaur" Which showed Winsor McCay interacting with Gertie and was the first character not based on one of Winsor's cartoons. The interactions included such things as McCay asking Gertie to move her left foot; the animation would then show her completing the action. 

Each film had more than 10,00 drawings with were all drawn by McCay. All the backgrounds and other items in the frame had to be copied as there was no way of keeping them. Though his films were big hits, he had to spend his time working on cartoons as he was told by his boss, who was still William Hearst. The last two animations McCay produced before his death, of a stroke , in 1934 were "The Sinking of the Lusitania" and "The Flying House".  "The Sinking of the Lusitania" was one of the first films to use the cel animation process, where the animation was drew on a celluloid sheet/ raw film which could duplicate frames. This meant you could use the same background without redrawing it.

For more information on the development of Animation, check the link here.

My own Animation 

After looking into all the different techniques, I will need to decide on what theme I want to approach. The easiest one to complete was the timelapse as all you need to do was set up the camera and then press play. Moving your body every couple of seconds which then builds up to create a full sequence. Although, I don't think I will be able to fully explore my creative side by using this method.

Clay animation was also fun to do and is an area I might use for my animation. As you can create anything out of the clay, although this will take a long time to do correctly. This is one of the areas I am considering as I like creating the models and moving them frame by frame. I could also stick to using models, which requires me to move their position. One idea had was to recreate a Tetris game using stickers. This method is also very similar to cut out animation which uses flat cut outs instead of a 3D model. This was also fun to do as you could mix and match images to create a funny animation. Although, I still prefer using the models as there appearance is easy to change. 

Last of all, Pixilation was really fun to do. As you could use the human body to create an animation you would never think is possible. This was very similar to models, apart from the models are alive. I might consider this option as a viable one for my animation as I like the creative process. Yet, at the minute I am still wanting to do a model based animation. 

Matching theme to audience

Last of all, it is important to match the correct animation towards the audience. Animation techniques such as cut outs (Charlie and Lola), models (Wallace and Gromit) and Cel based animation (Scooby Doo) are generally aimed at younger audiences. As the simple animation appeals to the audience. Although other audiences may enjoy these animations, cut outs such as South Park are aimed at adult audiences because they contain adult themes and content. 

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Also, techniques such as timelapse aren't  used for children's cartoons. Instead timelapses are either used as part of animations or are put into films and TV. For instance, we saw how the House of Cards timelapse is used for the shows opening only. A timelapse was also used in the TV show Top Gear when the presenter James May had to make a car advert. Timelapses also appeal at older audiences as they understand whats going on and what its showing. Where the bright colors in childrens cartoons are used to draw in an audience. Pixilation is also aimed at the younger audiences as it is often used for comedic purposes and the use of may be disturbing to young children. For instance the skate board animation may put some viewers of as they think a person is actually being dragged across the floor. For more details on this subject, see the individual sections. Information on the influences are also included in the individual sections of this blog and the blog of 2D animation. 

End of Section

Task 10

All 2D Animation Tasks

For Other Examples, see folder submitted on Blackboard. 

Task 9 Example

Legal and Ethical considerations when working in the Creative Media Sectors

Legal Considerations

Within the media , there are 3 main legal laws/acts that producers must follow. These laws consist of: Libel Law, Copyright /Intellectual laws and Privacy laws. Laws are written, approved and enforced by the government. If a law is broken a series of consequences can occur. The 3 legal acts are: Health and Safety Act  , Obscene Publications Act 1959 and the Official Secrets Act 1989 . An act is also covered by legal and the act is in place as a guideline. If this guideline is broken then it could come into the other laws. Overall, breaking an act only means you will be fined as a producer.

If a producer fails to meet the law then the producer could be fined and court cases /police arrests may occur as a result. Producers will often also be fired from their job and may well be no longer accepted in the industry. This if often controlled by a judge in a hearing of your punishment/ fining. It is important that these acts and laws are followed to not only protect the audience; but to also protect those who produce the program or film. 

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Privacy Law

The privacy law is a set regulation that allows a person by right to be left alone, this means that people can live their lives without being scrutinized by being inspect/examined , by the public.
The privacy laws are defined as the right of the individual to determine when, how, and to what extent the person will reveal personal information. The only expectation to this is the government recording the situation to provide evidence to whether a crime has been committed or not. Which helps prove whether the person is guilty or incident. 

This can affect the production of your work in a series of ways. You must consider the content you're publishing when talking about people, you cannot tell people private information if someone is holding it back. If you do reveal information you must get clearance from the person involved before you do so. You must not snoop into peoples lives and try and get information out of them if they refrain from giving it to you. You must also not get information in illegal ways, such as hacking computers and phone calls. Most importantly, you must inform the person involved that what your recording is for a specific purpose, I.E an interview. Your right to privacy comes under the Human Right Act.

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There have been many cases of when privacy laws have been broken. The most recent example that illustrates this is the Icloud  hacking scandal; which released several nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence online. Whilst many people enjoyed this event, it personally affect Jennifer Lawrence who didn't make a statement for a couple of days. In her statement she states :  “I was just so afraid. I didn't know how this would affect my career.” Although there was no direct punishment to apples system as there services were hacked. Many twitter users got into legal troubles for re-posting the images after they were initially took down. Such as their accounts being removed and fined for the re sharing. This also applied to the website Reddit, after the images were took down; a series of users re uploaded the images. These images were shared and downloaded by millions; the post was then shut down and punishment was awarded to the uploader. Although many people lace over this event, Jennifer Lawrence still feels the effects to this day. There is no reason to why somebodies privacy should be exposed and means that this law applies to everyone, including celebrities.

Another prime example of when privacy laws have been broken, was the News of The World royal phone hacking scandal. This occurred  between 2005-2007 around the hacking of voice mails relating the royal family by a private investigator. On the 13th of November an article appeared in the News of The World claiming that Prince William was in the process of loaning a portable editing suite from  ITV royal correspondent, Tom Brady . After the story was publish, the two met and tried to figure out how the story was published as they had not spoken to the press. They concluded it was found out by listening in to their voice mails. This caused a mass investigation by the government and lead to 3 mean being arrested. Two men Goodman and Mulcaire were charged with hacking under offence of of section 79 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers act 2000. Goodman faced 4 months in jail after admitting he was guilty. This was the prelude to a massive scandal in the News of The World, where they hacked into a murdered girls phone to find out what had happened. Which ultimately lead to the paper being shut down.

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The closure of the News of the World was a massive event that occurred due to a series of phone hacking scandals. Instead of reporters going and asking the people involved face to face, out of fear they would not reveal personally information. Instead they would tap into phone calls and listen to their voice mails in order to get a "Juicy" story. The scandal start a while back with the two men we looked at previously, which was 4-5 years before the closure of the paper.

Although this all kicked off in early 2010, when the Royal hacking trial from 2006 was reinvestigated , this investigation was entitled "Operation Weeting". Which began to hint at the idea that there was attempts to pay public officials for information and a new series of computer hacking cases. Furthermore, the biggest turning point in the lead up to the shut down was when the Guardian, reported that TNOTW had hacked the phone belonging to a murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. In which they did so to try and get more information about the case, as she was abducted on the way home from school. On the 21st of March 2002 and was murdered as a result. Her body was only discovered in September which is 6 months after the abduction. It turned out that TNOTW had hacked her voicemail whilst she was missing.

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Not only did the scandal focus on the public, it focused on: politicians, celebrities, actors, sports players and the victims who were in the 7/7 bombings. 8 people from the company were charged with phone hacking. Charlotte Church was also one of the victims, who had 33 voicemails articles based on information gathered from her parents voicemails being hacked. As compensation, her and her family received £60,000. 

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 Another person who was targeted was Hugh Grant, he was told by the police that his personal details were found under an investigation. It included a recorded voice phone conversation between him and Paul Mcmullan, who use to be an editor. It was state by Grant, that McMullan had talked about hacking by the media, and was told that the Mail on Sunday had hacked his phone. All of this, along with many other victims caused the ultimate closure of the News of The World.

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Although, several people were still not happy about the closure. Such as Ed Miliband who states:

"What I'm interested in is not closing down newspapers, I'm interested in those who were responsible being brought to justice and those who have responsibility for the running of that newspaper taking their responsibility and I don't think those two things have happened today." As although the paper was closed, those who published the stories and were involved in the phone hack did not all face justice. Another person, Ken Clarke (Tory MP) states:  "All they are going to do is rebrand it". (According to the BBC).

This sums up perfectly why company's have to be very careful what they publish, as they can break several laws by the content they release. Ranging from court-cases, to arrests and leading to a shut down of a company.

Libel Law

The libel law is broken when someone publishes in print/ or broadcasts (Through TV, Radio or Film) ; something that is incorrect and may cause damage to a person's reputations. This may also bring the disapproval and hatred of the public who will then target said person. The print/broadcast must be in a statement format that claims to be 100% true/ a fact and is not an opinion. Social media often comes into this as a status update or tweet could possibly be libellous if it causes damage to somebodies reputation.  This can cause the organisation to be open to a lawsuit for damages by victim who can prove the statement is wrong.As as producer it could affect your work in a series of ways.

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You must consider the content you publish, it is about somebody make sure your facts are correct before you go an make presumptions. You must also make sure that if you are not sure on the facts make your point into an opinion and not a fact; to avoid breaking the law.  The editor must also be careful on how others are presented, if the edit makes a scenario become out of context the person may well speak out publicly about it.  Last of all, your should follow the guide lines set and should not cause encouragement on social networks. There has been several scenarios where the libel law has been broken.

Lord Mcalpine

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Lord McAlpine, Robert Alistair McAlpine was a British politician who was an adviser to previous Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He was born on May the 14th in 1942 and died in early 2014 at the age of 71.

In 2012, Mcalpine was involved in a libel law feud as it was alleged he was a peadophile and a child abuser. This feud began in 2012 when Mcalpine was said to be involved in a North Wales child abuse scandal, which the BBC Newsnight claimed was a "Senior Conservative; although no names were mentioned several rumours began and Mcalpines name started to appear on social networking. Although the people who were commissioned to write the story were not aiming to name McAlpine the guardians states: "they were not pursuing new evidence against Lord McAlpine, nor did they intend to name him. The goal was to look at the failings of previous police investigations and the supposed failure of an official inquiry into the scandal " 

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It occurred after a debate in the Oxford Union, people there were Michael Crick who was Channel 4's political correspondent and  Iain Overton BIJ's editor amongst others. Overton began to boast about how Newsnight was about to expose a senior Tory as a pedophile. Crick pushed Overton who revealed the name as Lord McAlpine. Overton took to social media and tweeted  "If all goes well we've got a Newsnight out tonight about a very senior political figure who is a pedophile."

The final statement made on the show was "A Newsnight investigation into the abuse of boys at children's homes in Wales can reveal that two victims say they suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a leading Conservative politician from the Thatcher years." The day after the broadcast the Guardian news paper denied the rumors and made clear that McAlpine was a victim of mistaken identity ,although they didn't reveal his name. A week after McAlpine went on to say that the victim , Messham , was mistaken and the allegations were false.  This was confirmed by Messham after seeing a photo of McAlpine and stated he was not the abuser. As a result of this the director general,George Entwistle , resigned and the BBC paid £185,000 in damages. Which means that we as a UK citizen were fined as we publicly fund the BBC. 

Not only were the BBC fined, but ITV also. As "This Morning" presenter Phillip Schofield handed a list of alleged peadohiles to David Cameron who was being interviewed at the time. But the list was a name of rumoured names that came from the internet. It was said that some of the names on the list could be seen when viewers pressed the live pause button.

Although, this story had only come out after the Newsnight broadcast. If this programme hadn't made the story out to the public then the matter would of never escalated. ITV, Schofield and McAlpine settled the libel claim and apologised and paid £125,000 in damage costs. McAlpine then went on to focus on "high profile"/ celebrity tweeters who had broke the libel law. One celebrity who paid a fine was Alan Davis, who is a regular on the panel show QI.

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After the BBC broadcast Alan Davis tweeted "Any clues who this Tory paedophile is...?". After this he received a series of links to websites and tweet saying "lord mcalpine some would say." The reason Davis was pulled over was because he retweeted the reply. Because of his status, this meant that it had a great influence over the public which made them believe even more that McAlpine was the culprit. Prior to this, Alan Davis apologised for the "Great damage and distress" he caused to him. To make amends he paid  £13,000 to the NSPCC to which McAlpine accepted his apology. He also warned others of the dangers of retweeting.

Any other tweeters over 500 followers were also fined. As anyone with under 500 followers doesn't affect the public as much with thier posts ; whereas celebrities tweets/comments have more viewers that causes a greater influence.

Ofcom heard the complaints by viewers of the BBC and ITV. They ruled that the claims made during internet speculation led to the false claim of McAlpine being a child abuser. Not only does this show a great example of the libel law being broken, but shows how easily it is to break. So when I come to produce content in my career, I will be careful and stick to the law. 

Social Media 

 As we saw in the previous example, libel laws can be broken on social networking. In this next example social networking is also the cause of the libel law being broken. In 2007 Keele University told students : "They could face legal action from staff for defamation and harassment". In fact “A number of students have already been written to by the university warning them of the unacceptable nature of their comments on Facebook and that any further activity of a similar nature will be dealt with severely,” Although the university is putting a policy in place as legal action may not be the best route to go down.  

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In a separate case a former teacher (I will leave names out of this, for names see links) sued an ex-pupil over libel claims after making comments on Friends Reunited which was an early social network site. He was given £1,250 in libel damages as the pupil made comments such as " ______ was dismissed from Ridgewood Comprehensive for making rude remarks about girls" and comments relating to strangling a pupil. Although the comments where removed when Murray could prove he was innocent as he retired in 1983 and was not fired whatsoever.

Other Cases

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Author and blogger Zoe Margolis won a libel case after newspaper company, The Independent, called her a "hooker" in one of their headlines. The headline was created by the paper after she wrote the article. Her articles and books often revolve around her sex life. The headline claims "I was a hooker who became an agony aunt". After the error the Independent published an apology they state "The wording of the headline was a mistake and seriously defamatory of Ms Margolis. We offer our sincere apologies to Ms Margolis for the damage to her reputation and the distress and embarrassment which she has suffered." Zoe accounts at the time that "It was devastating: within moments of the article going live, news alerts on my name were aligning my writing, and my career, with sex work. " Not only does it reveal that breaking the libel law can be really damaging to a person, but the number of those who see the claim is often a large amount of people who add to the ridicule. Which further builds upon to how libel law can affect a media production. Most importantly, before publishing any content I will check that the information is correct and will not cause damage to those involved; unless they are actually guilty. 

Copyright and Intellectual Property Law 

Copyright is a legal document/right that protects the creators work from being plagiarized by others. Copyright allows the creators to do what they like with their work and receive money for their content. This means only the creator can use the work, so if anything was copyright such as music or video footage I could not use it in my work. For example for a short film I wanted to use some music from YouTube, I would not be legally allowed to do so as the work is not created by myself. Anything that is protected under copyright displays the following symbol:

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In short, intellectual property is something that is original to you, for instance you physically created some thing. An I.P is not an idea but your creation written or in a physical form. Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects your creation. By being informed on what your rights are and you have the right protection you can stop people from stealing your creation, invention, design, trade secrets or any of your written work. 

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After all the law was created to protect a wide variety of content produced by: authors, artists, musicians, film makers and inventors. Which is controlled by a federal law, but the state may also get involved. It is used to encourage content producers  to continue to create original ideas without others plaguing their work. Other things such as trademarks protect noticeable features of a product such as a brand name or packing design.

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As a producer I will make sure all my productions use original content , that is not others work. If their work is used I would make sure I ask for permission before use, after using it I would also credit the original  artist giving them full credit. To get permission I would make sure I got a verbal and written clearance, and any product placements will be placed with a P (see ethical section for more).  If the content producer wants a fee for their work being used, I will understand their needs and pay the sum if I want to 100% use their content. If I go to use public domain content I will make sure that it falls into this category before use; again any creative commons footage will be doubled check for permission and fees. Although there has been times when producers have broken the copyright and intellectual law: 

BuzzFeed 

Social media website BuzzFeed, which is an internet news company , was sued for $3.6 million/ £2.3 million. The lawsuit came from a photographer who's photo of a women heading a football was used without his permission. Not only was it used on BuzzFeed's website, but over websites that used the photo after it had been on the website. The image is not very interesting and was deemed as boring by the media; here is the photo:

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BuzzFeed not only was sued for the lawsuit they also took down the photo which was part of a "30 Funniest Header Faces" which after being removed turned into "29 Funniest Header Faces". The image was found on over 30 different websites after the photographer searched the web ; after being angry that BuzzFeed had used his photo. The photographer states that BuzzFeed is : "unequivocally responsible both directly and indirectly for all subsequent infringements" 

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The photographer wanted BuzzFeed to pay him $150,000 in damage fees for each of the sites that went on to use his picture. He then also demanded for $150,000 for contributory infringement. He also states:"It is time for creatives to stand up and say 'This is enough'. We work hard at our crafts and others should not be able to profit from our talents without compensating us."

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The founder reacted by saying that the photos used in these are used in fair use, as each image is reproduced exactly as they are and in high quality. Which means  in short that he though  if the original is kept the same and hardly has a description, then they are allowed to use it. Although the photographer thinks that sharing is fine as long as the right actions are put into place. If BuzzFeed had asked for permission first then this case would never have occurred. It also shows how much money it can cost a business when it breaks the law. So as a producer I will always check the permissions before using copyrighted photographs or products; which will stop any law suits from occurring.  I would also credit anyone, if I used their work in my program/content. 

Apple VS Samsung

Since the creation of smartphones, mobile giants Apple and Samsung have been battled several copyright and intellectual  cases over the design and features of their products. When the first iPhone was brought out Apple filed a patent for 4 designs. Which would cover the basic shape and dimensions of the iPhone. There was also graphical interfaces , layout on a smart phone screen, that were patented. These are often used to use against Samsung when Apple claims they have broken the copyright and intellectual property  law. In 2011 Apple put in a complaint that state that Samsung s Android devices such as phones and tablets broke Apples intellectual property.

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In a German court, Apple was also trying to sue Samsung for using a similar design  and interface as there well known Ipads. In this case Apple won and has kept the ban on selling the new Galaxy Tab 10.1. Justice Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann stated that "The court is of the opinion that Apple's minimalistic design isn't the only technical solution to make a tablet computer, other designs are possible, " Apple also made the comment that Samsung's is stealing the look and the feel of the Iphone and Ipad with their Galaxy range of products.

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Another trial held in the US had Apple claim that Samsung had violated/broken 4 patents. Although the jury present only saw 2 patents being broke. One was to let users make calls from within an email and the auto-complete/correct function. The other 2 claims were one was the slide to unlock, which the judge deemed guilty in the trial and for Samsung innocent; for violating a patent similar to Apples voice command feature Siri. Apple was given $119.6 million pounds in damage for this, but they did not stop Samsung from selling the device in the USA. Although it was also convicted that Samsung had two of its patents broken, one of them was agreed and they were paid $158,000 in damages.

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Trails like these still go on today and both sides have won cases. The main thing to take away from this is that  time and money is being wasted, breaking a copyright and intellectually property. As staff from both company's will have to attend the court session, Jury and court staff will also be required. Each trial can take up to 2-5 days long to reach a settlement and there are often many trials. There is at least 10 countries that have hosted these trials and is a global war. So as a producer I would be very careful to what I create, so that a war would not start like this. The best way to do this, is to create original content and to copy ideas from present productions.

Health & Safety Act

This act applies to all work in the media industry in the UK. .Under the health and safety act a producer must provide and maintain safety equipment and safe systems of work. All devices must be stored , handled, transported and used properly. You must also have a system for managing health and safety, define the responsibilities and duties, assess and manage risks and review the risks before and after.

Define the responiblites and duties means that the producer puts up a system so the the employees can control the risk to others and themselves. The system for health and safety normally depends on the size of the company and cannot be delageted to anyone else apart from the employeer. To make sure that safety is kept you must: provide a safe working enviroment where equipment is checked and maintains its safety features, provide information, training and supervision in the work place, look after the safety of others and to take care of your own health. We also must manage the possible risk in an area; in order to manage the risks producers will use a risk assessment, but what is a risk assessment?

Risk Assessment 

A risk assessment is document that highlights the risks, dangers and precautions before filming commences. Each risk is given a severity rating which ranges from Negligible- Very Severe,  a likelihood rating  ranging from very unlikely- very likely. These factors then combine to create a risk factor  up to 5.  A rating 5 means that immediate action is needed. This process makes production safer as it sets up the plans to remove risks that could be potentially dangerous.It is often a requirement in order to receive insurance and can prevent companies from various law suits if an accident occurs on set. These risks are then further assessed on the day of filming and is kept in mind during shooting.

According to the HSE website, The producer/production company must " produce a written health and safety policy statement, including an arrangements section, including the procedures for risk assessment and monitoring of performance"  they must also " ensure that any concerns with the health and safety performance of employees, freelance staff and are addressed and communicated as appropriate" The main way the companies deal with this is by producing the risk assessment. Which underlines all the possible risks at the location and how they are dealt with, which reassures any questions the staff have. It also contributes to the written health and safety policy, so in terms the risk assessment is a legal document and the company could be at fault if they do not have one. The assessment is in place to not only protect a presenter or actor but to protect everyone involved in the production.

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My own Risk Assessment

For instance as a young film maker for every film I created I will need a risk assessment. In my one minute film I had several stunts and scenes which could of caused extreme risk. By producing a risk assessment it means that I can prepare for the worse and reduce the level of risk present. As a result of this no one was harmed in my production. Which not only made it a success in health wise, but also in money wise. As I've something had happened it would be my fault as a producer if I didn't have a risk assessment. Which could cause me to lose my job, face a law suit and a potential court case. Although there has been causes where the health and safety should of been improved. This risks must also ne reviewed before and after to see if the correct precautions have been made. Overall a risk assessment is done to protect everyone involved in the production and to avoid possible law suits.

For instance if we take the show "Game of Thrones" there are a series of dangers that could harm the cast and crew. Lets take a look at a scene and I will break down the possible dangers:

For a start the whole scene is based around combat. Because the actors are not trainned proffesionals it is more that likely that these are stunt doubles; although the danges are still there. If the fight scene isn't well praticed or tried that people can still get hurt. They are also wearing heavy and warm armour, which could mean the actors could over heat. In order to do this they would need to have lots of breaks and cooling systems between takes. The location also offers lots of tripping hazards such as rocks and uneven ground; combined with height if the two occur somebody may fall off the ground. Which would cause serious damage. There is also the risk to the camera man as all he can see is whats through the lenses, not whats around him.

The show is also known for having horses and other animals in there scenes, so animal trainners and handlers would be needed on set. One to protect the animals themselves, but two so the actors known how to horse ride in the correct and safe manner. Another risk that also poses a danger is open flames as the main source of light is candles and lanterns so any flamable materials will need to be kept away from them. This is why risk assessments are put into place to avoid the danger to the cast and crew.There has been many examples where health and safety has not been up to scratch:

The Conqueror

A prime of example of where the safety precautions weren't though through were on the film "The Conqueror" . When filming on location in near Utah , 91 out of the 220 cast and crew managed to contract cancer. Including the main lead, John Wayne.  There wasn't a full explanation but nearby there had been US atom bomb tests in Nevada and could of been the source of radiation. If the location had been checked properly the 46 that had died, could of lived. 

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The Dark Knight

Another incident relating to poor risk assessing, occurred during the filming of "The Dark Knight". Special effects technician, Conway Wickliffe died after sitting in the back of a Nissan when the car crashed into a tree at 20mph. At the time he was operating a camera out of the window, filming a stunt car which was opposite the Nissan. The collision with the tree was due to the fact the driver had missed the turn at the end. "Instead of turning on to the service road it carried on and I saw it impact the tree. It appeared to be a glancing blow." - Ian Mitchell , colleague of Conway.

If the driver had followed the risk assessment and knew what he was doing by practicing the shoot, then a live could of been saved. A vital live lesson is to actual use the risk assessment during production and not just completing the document for the sake of doing one.

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Deadly 60

In the second series of the CBBC TV show Deadly 60  , a wildlife documentary aimed for children;  host Steve Backshall was injured during filming. Whilst out looking for the the dangerous snake, the anaconda. After coming across a bog, he finds something moving so he unmounts his horse and inspects the area.  He cannot see through the murky water so he does not know what is hidden underneath. His foot comes across something so he keeps tapping it, only to find it is a Caiman ,  a type of crocodile/alligator.

As he a result he was bitten in the leg and had to cancel the rest of the hunt. He had the right treatment afterwards so he didn't get his leg infected. Although this could of easily been prevented if he was wearing the right protection, in this case it would of been leg protection. He shouldn't of also kept hitting the object under ground as he could not see what it is, another thing that could of been done was to inscpet the area for what wild life is around. So he could of been aware a Caiman was around.

Anthea Turner

During  a live broadcast of the children TV show "UP2U" Andrea Turner was involved in a pyrotechnic accident. Turner was doing a piece down in Londons Earl Court for the show. She was going to present a piece about a motorbike display, and would reveal the bikes when she gave the right cue. She was sat on the tail gate of a lorry, which had a backing of black paper which the bikes where hidden behind.

When the cue was given the bikes would emerge. Although the controller had mixed up the cue for Turner to speak and told the bikers to leave. This all happened whislt she was still sat down. This was down to a last minute change which had not been explained very well. Viewers saw life what happened to Turner but someone stepped in to say she was ok. The injuries she received came from when the biker had knocked her into a pyrotechnic; which set fire to her hair and her clothing. She had then fell off the tail gate as a result. This could of been avoid if the last minute check was explained and the stunt was praticed. As if they had practised then the people involved would of knew the cue and the mix up would not of happened.  

Official Secrets Act 1989

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This act means that people are legally obliged to maintain secrecy; even if there is a public interest defence you are not allowed to publish to content.  This applies to all employees in government, including the armed forces and civil services. This covers the disclosure of information and if this act is broken it can have serious consequences; depending on the type of secrets disclosed. A person found guilty of breaking the act may be convicted to jail for 2 years/more or  a fine or both. The act came into place to replaced the official secret act of 1911. It sums up that any one with official information who discloses it without lawful consent. The type of information that is covered is:

• Security 
• Defence
• International Relations
• Foreign Confidences 
• Information of Crimes

Official information means that the person has received any information,article or document during their role in their job. As a producer I would make sure that the content I release is public information and is not under the official secrets act.  To do this I would check the history of my staff, so they do not reveal any content from their previous jobs. That may well come under the act. I would also check with the authorities to make sure that the information is given to go to be released; if not I will not publish the content. There has been many cases by Ex's SAS members and other people have broken this act:

Edward Snowdon

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Edward Snowden is an American who is a proffesioanl in computers. In June 2013 he leaked secret information relating to the National Security Agency. His jobs have ranged from being a system administrator in the CIA to being a counterintelligence trainer at the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency. He was put in a NSA outpost in Japan for the firm Booz Allen Hamilton.  In 2013 he released infromation from the NSA to several outlets, which he gained access to from his NSA past.  The information was a series of leaked documents from vairous global surveillance programs; which most of them being run by the NSA and various telephone compaies ran by over goverments.

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Snowdon became a figure of conteoversy as the information he revelaed was for the public intrest; although as we saw earlier this till breaks the law. His leaks also caused big debates over mass surveillance and the balance between the security of the nation and the information privacy. In the May of 2013 Snowden started to notice the goverment programs used by the NSA spying on Americans phone calls and internet histroy. So he began to opy the documents at work, with some coming under a program called PRISM. Which was the documents with all the vast information on the things Snowden began to notice.

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After leaving his job he flew to Hong Kong to meet with journalists to get the documents printed. He would remain in China during the early stages of the reveal. On the 5th of June newspapers (Guardian in particluar) released the docuemtns given from Snowden.  The Washington Times also released the information on PRISM the US goverment were split between the choice of finding out more about it or arresting Snowden. Snowden stated "I'm willing to sacrifice [my former life] because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building,".

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On June the 14th 2013, he was filed with a criminal complaint which charged him with goverment theft andtwo counts of breaking the US espionage act. The charges could of made him be in jail for at least ten years for each charge (which was 3).Snowden remain in hiding for a while afterwards and tried different countys, asking for Asylum. It was reported that Snowden was offered asylum in Venzezuel.Nicaragua and Bolivia.  In the October of 2013 is was made clear that he no longer had the leaked documents on him. When asked for mercy, the U.S goverment rejected him. Snowden currently resides in Russia.

Richard Tomlinson 

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Was a previous MI6 officer who was sentenced to pirson for a year in 1997, for giving away confidnetal secrets to an Australain publisher.  At the court case the chief prosecution witness, claimed that Tomlinson "had gravely damaged national security" and "had put agents' lives at risk". After 6 months in jail he was sent back to his native homeland, New Zealand. It was also attempted to be arrested in Paris in 1998 but was released as there was a lack of evidence. In order to stop Tomlinson breaking the act even more, an injunction was placed on him.

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After living in exile, he start to work towards a book called "The Big Breach" which was realeased in most countrys but the UK in 2001. Although was made avaible in the UK after failed attempts at blocking it. Although after the publication of the the UK goverment created an order to remove all proffit created from the book, as the content belonged to the goverment. It took 7 years until MI6 released the procceds to Tomlinson. Tomlinson is now free to travel in the UK. For some more examples of shorter cases check out the link. Such as:

Cathy Massiter

As the former MI5 officer told Channel 4 , in a documentart, that MI5 had been illegally putting bugging devices on phones of politicians, human right protesters and groups of people for the campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Obscene Publications Act 1959 

The overall concept of the obscene publications act is to not publish any content which may 'deprave and corrupt, those who read/see it. Things such as torture, child abuse , violence and beastiality may come under the corruptible and depraved description. It is one of the acts used to strengthen the law against pornography and to strengthen previous laws for preventing the publication of obscene products (portrayal of sexul content). Which is normal deemed offensive or disgusting by accepted public standards.

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The act was first introduced to fix problems where obscene legislation could be applied to literature. The purpose was to clarify the laws and "provide protection of literature". To break the act the work as a whole must corrupt and deprive the audience. Although in part of the act works such as science, literature and art became exempt; and the act did not apply to them. Although the act was made to cover the works of literature, it was brought across that the BBFC (British Board of Film Censor) was covering the same areas as the act. So the act also put films under the act as well as books/literature. As a result of this any BBFC-approved film has never been pulled up for being too obscene or corruptible. This was act was improved in the year 1964. The BBFC is a film board that is a non governmental organisation responsible for the national classification (of film/video game ratings) and censorship for film in the UK. 

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The main thing to note is that a film as a whole must be deemed as corruptible and depraved and not scenes on their own. Meaning they can not be judged out of context of the film. A film labelled obscene is allowed to be shown if " it is in the interests of science, art, literature, or learning or of other objects of general concern".

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As a producer I will chose to avoid having whole films focus on sexual nature that is deemed as obscene, depraved or corruptible. To do this I would get my film approved by the BFFC before public release and I would also watch the content to make sure if its appropriate. To do this things such as screening tests could be used ; if the overall content is not appropriate I may consider scrapping the content or editing the production in a way which no longer approves of the corruptible content.In the a previous year the BBFC issued 1,159 films with an age rating of 18, 27%  of the total 1,159 , which is 313 films rounded up, required cuts.There has been many occasions where films have broken the obscene publications act:

Human Centipede 2

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The sequel to the first Human Centipede, which featured a large chain people being stitched mouth to anus to create a large "Human Centipede",  was banned by the BBFC as it was "just too horrible to show" and "poses a real risk to cinemagoears".  They denied the film to have an 18 certificate because of its obscene content. The affect of this meant that it could not legally be supplied to anyone or anywhere in the United Kingdom. The film focus's on a man who becomes sexually interested in the first event and wants to try the idea for himself. Which is already a red light as it is promoting horrible events of torture and corruption. 

Some of the scenes involve rape, which is inflicted by the male to a women on the end of the centipede whilst his privates are covered in barbed wire. The BBFC sums up the film as the "sexual arousal of the central character at both the idea and the spectacle of the total degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture and murder of his naked victims". The decision was made that not only would it not get the certificate but also that no amount of cuts would make the film better. This was done by the BFFC to prevent the film from breaking the act as it has very good chances of doing so. If the BBFC hadn't have stepped in then this film could of had a huge , negative, impact on the audience. 

 This film was also banned in Australia for a while and in New Zealand; but after some thought and 32 cuts were made the film was given its 18 certificate in the UK. Which removed 2 minutes and 37 seconds from the original film. For a full list of scenes that were cut check out the link here (at your own expense): link.

A Clockwork Orange 

After the release ,of Stanley Kubrick's 1971 "A Clockwork Orange" a series of violent crimes relating to murder and horrific activities occurred. As a result the film  Kubrick took the film out of cinemas in 1973 and stated that it may only been seen after his death. In order for a British person to view the film you would have to buy a VHS from another country. In 1993 a cinema club in London screened the film without Kubrick's permission so Warner Bros sued them and caused them to become bankrupt.  After his death in 1999 the film was re classified from a rating of an 18 by the BBFC. The film was brought back out in cinemas in 2000 and was brought out on DVD and VHS later that year. So the film wasn't available for the years between 1973 and 1999.

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The series of crimes included a 16 year old boy murdering a tramp, another 16 year old who dressed like a gang member from the film stabbed a younger boy. The last one, was gang rape which involved a Dutch girl and a group of males from Lancashire who sang "Singin' in the Rain" whilst doing so. When the one of the 16 year old males was sentenced the judge described it as a "horrid trend ' caused by "this wretched film". Kubrick received death threats for this and got warned by the police to do something. So as a result it was kept from UK cinemas like we looked at earlier.

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This didn't have a good effect though, as when it was released again it led to another spree of crimes. The most known one was by the "Clockwork Orange" gang.  This was were a gang of youths were found guilty for killing a bar manager. Which was why the film was deemed that the movie inspired a copycat behaviour due to the films overall content. Which is why this example comes underneath the obscene publication act.  Another film that was also band was the The New York Ripper from the years 1982-2002.  Which to this day is still censored for its content.

Summary

Overall, in this section we have look at the acts and laws that affect the world of media. Not only are these laws to protect the audience, but the creator and the producer. If any of these acts or laws are broken serious consequences can occur. From the arresting of those involved, to fines, to court cases, to closing of a company and your reputation as a producer.  Which highlights the importance of why we have laws and acts in the first place, everyone is treated fairly in these circumstances. The examples we looked at  further illuminate this statement.