Aardman animations Century special

Contractual:
Types of Contracts:
A contract is between two people or companies (etc.) enforcing an
obligation to do/not do something, for example contract builder would
have an obligation to build a structure after signing a contract with the
employer etc.
The different types of contract are: Contract under seal, Express contract,
Implied contract, Executed/executory contracts etc.
Contract under seal is where the contract is effective when it is stamped
with a seal, without the seal the contract wouldnt be effective/work.
Express contract: the parties talk about/write about the contract terms,
this type of contract wouldnt use a seal like the contract under seal.
Implied contract: Implied contracts are mutual agreement or a promise
from one party to another. An implied contract lacks the requisites for a
contract.
Executed/executory contracts: a contract where nothing is done by either
party. This type of contract is when the original contract no longer
exists/not in effect but a future act/obligation is written in the terms of the
contract.
Aardman uses a number of different types of contracts with different
companies, these contracts include partnering e.g. when they partnered
with Nathan Love, also contacts with all of the employees etc.

Negotiating contracts:
Contract negotiation is the process of both parties reaching an agreement.
Contract negotiation is a contract awarded on the basis of a direct
agreement between two parties.
A definition of negotiating contracts is: Act of two or more parties
discussing points of a potential partnership arrangement/contract.
Negotiating contract is reaching an agreement on a contract as
negotiating is two parties discussing points/topics until both parties are in
agreement and can sign the contract meaning both parties benefit from
the contract this also means is one party doesnt agree to the terms the
contract wont apply as it isnt agreed.

Aardman has a lot of contracts with all of their films,

partners, employees etc. The contracts they have with
their partners (e.g. Nathan Love) would have been
negotiated so that both parties benefited from the
contract/partnership.
Time management:
The definition of time management is the ability to use
your time productively e.g. for work.
An example of this would be creating a film/game/media product this
would include planning, creating, editing publishing etc and allocating the
right amount of time to all of the areas.
Time management is a subject in management to reach goals and
improve productivity as the tasks have been given a guide to how long
each task should take productive instead of wasting time on one aspect
and rushing through the rest.
In 1994 a book was published about time management, it was called:
thinking smarter: skills for academic success. In the book subheadings
included: setting goals, prioritising the goals, deciding how much time to
allocate the specific tasks, adjusting plans as they change, revisiting the
goals and priorities regularly and observing results.
Aardman animations will use time management a lot so that they can plan
out how long it will take to plan, film and edit a feature film or an advert
etc. This is so that creating the film is as efficient as possible instead of
wasting time on filming and running out of budget just of the filming
without editing.

Risk management:
Risk management is evaluating and assessing the potential risks, this is to
avoid the risks, an example of this is in catering as in the before the
exams several documents are created, one of these is a risk assessment
where everything that could go wrong is listed down and all of the ways to
stop the risk are also listed down.
In businesses, the risk management would include all the potential things
that could go wrong, such as producing a product or film or game etc. that
no one buys risk of losing money and reputation then the business will
look at ways to avoid the risks e.g. creating an advert for the item and
seeing is people like it or not etc.
Risk management is a two-step process, analysing the risks and finding
ways to prevent the risks this is the only thing in risk assessment risk

management accrues everywhere in the financial world so that the

businesses will succeed and wont run into any risks.
Aardman animations use risk management on all of their video
(adverts/sketches and films) this is so they dont run into any problems,
an example of the risk assessment is what if the editing software breaks?
What if the budget doesnt cover all of the costs? Etc. All of the risks ae
written down and all of the solutions are written down so that Aardman
have a solution for any problem.

Regulator issues:
Freedom of information:
Freedom of information is an act of Parliament in the Uk that created
public right of access to information held by public authorities in 2000.
The long title for freedom of information is:
An Act to make provision for the disclosure of information held by public
authorities or by persons providing services for them and to amend the
Data Protection Act 1998 and the Public Records Act 1958; and for
connected purposes.
Freedom of information basically means that the public were given access
to the authoritys information/information which they werent
allowed access to before the act in 2000. Under the freedom
of information act, anyone can request information under the
act including; legal entities, such as companies, also they do
not need to give a reason for requesting the information.
Aardman isnt really connected with freedom of information,
they are part of the public and receive information, they are also releasing
the films and videos to the public for a cost.
Censorship:
Censorship is mainly used to bring age ratings down on video, film, game,
music etc. Censorship is the suppression of speech most of the
supressed speech is harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect etc.
Censorship is used to bring down age ratings by censoring out graphic
images and bad language, in text this is mainly done with either **** or
can be done with a series of !?<>:$ type symbols one symbol replacing
each letter s it is easy to guess based on the number of letters and then

context/sentence. Censors are used in lots of different formats, including:

Video, Film, game, magazine, newspaper, CD/mp3 etc.
Some films and video will sensor racial attitudes and political correctness
in order to avoid ethnical stereotyping/offense.
Music can be censored from a variety of different things including: moral,
political, military, religion or swearing, most of the time it will be swearing
in music/music videos, religion will be censored to avoid offending certain
religions.
Video games have been censored since 1980, most games only have to
censor a small amount of content to comply with the regional ratings
standards, other games such as No More heroes in Japan was censored
a lot and most of the content was blocked and implied instead most of
the gore scenes were taken out.
Aardman produce family films and videos, so none of the videos need
censoring. Most/all of the video produced by Aardman are family friendly
Claymation (stop motion) so there isnt any content that needs to be
censored out.

Copyright laws:
The copyright designs and patent act was designed in 1988. The
copy right law gives the creator of literary, dramatic, musical,
artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films and
typographical arrangement of published editions the right to
control the way their content/material is used (e.g. allow people
to use their material and stop people from using their material).
The copyright law covers: broadcasts, public performances,
copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public.
The duration of the copyright depends on the item that is being
copyrighted, for example:
Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work has a 70-year copyright but is
also released to the public during the copyright being active.
Sound r3ecording and broadcast has a 50-year copyright but is also
released to the public during the copyright being active.
Films have a 70-year copyright but are also available to the public whist
the copyright is active.
Typography arrangement of published editions have a 25-year copyright.

Broadcast and cable programmes have a 50-year copy right.

Crown copyright have a 125-year copyright.
Parliamentary copyright has a 50-year copyright.
Aardman use copyrights, most of their content is film and video so the
majority of their content has a 50-70-year copyright (film is 70 years and
broadcast/cable programmes have 50-year copyright).

Intellectual property:
Intellectual property or IP refers to creations of
the mind, for example: inventions, literary,
artistic work. Design and symbols.
IP is protected in law similarly to patents,
copyrighting and trademarks which give people
recognition for their work and stop others from
using it as their own.
Intellectual property is something that you
physically create, just the idea is not intellectual property, an example of
this is an idea for a book doesnt count as intellectual property but the
words you have written down do count as intellectual property.
You own intellectual property if you can create it and it meets the
requirements for copyright/patent/trademark etc. Or if you bought
intellectual property rights from the previous owner.
Intellectual property can be owned by more than one person, it can belong
to people or business and it can be sold/transferred.
Aardman animations have copyrights, patents and trademarks on all of
their videos, characters, graphics, names, ideas etc. As well as this
Aardman also has intellectual property rights over all of their creations, an
example of this is Wallace and Gromit is copyrighted, trademarked,
patented by Aardman animations and Aardman are the intellectual
property owners.

Trading standards:
Trading standards professional act on behalf of
consumers and businesses. The trademark standards
law covers a wide range including: consumer safety,
counterfeit goods, product labelling, weights and measures, under age
sales and animal welfare.
Trading standards law is made to stop people trading outside of the law in
unethical ways, this is to stop unethical trading. Trading standards mainly
focus on the standard of items being traded and the standard of how they
are traded, e.g. reporting counterfeit goods to the trading standards which
will then shut down production of counterfeit goods.
Chartered trading standards institute was formed in 1881, it represents
trading standards in the Uk and overseas. This company exists to promote
and protect modern economy and to safeguard health, wellbeing and
safety of the public.
Aardman animations will have trading standard inspections annually, this
is so that trading standards can see that all of the products are to a good
standard and that the trading is at a good standard. As well as this,
trading standards will stop the production of any counterfeit Aardman
animations products e.g. fake toys of the Aardman characters etc.
Advertising standards authority (ASA):
ASA are a company that monitor all adverts, they then either allow them
online or remove them if they are offensive, not truthful (e.g. new car
$5,000 on the page the car costs $50,000 etc.) non truthful ads will say
one thing like in the example or new computer all modern expensive
components listed but not actually used in the product.
As well as blocking non truthful adverts, with childrens accounts ASA
blocks all adverts that are inappropriate for children like gambling site
adverts or explicit content.
If the same company create multiple adverts with harmful or non-truthful
content, they can be referred to the trading standards or OFCOM (similar
to trading standards) to stop the company creating ads.
The ASA is funded by an arms length levy on advertisement space ASA
is not funded by tax payers.
Aardman animations have created adverts for their: products, films,
series, other companies products, films and series all of these adverts
made by Aardman were viewed by ASA and allowed online as they were
all truthful and werent offensive, if Aardman made offensive or incorrect
adverts they would have been taken don, if a few of them were taken

down then Aardman would have been referred to OFCOM or trading

standards as they made a few inaccurate/offensive adverts.

Professional bodies:
British interactive multimedia association (BIMA):
BIMA is the UKs digital community, it was founded in 1985 and is one of
the most known and respected names in the digital industry.
BIMA help to support current and future talent, they help connect talent
with a passion for digital and they celebrate excellence and reward great
digital work. BIMA support creativity by hosting an awards event every
year and finding around 30 people/companies to award for the best digital
creative products, films series etc. BIMA have an awards event on July 18th
2016, on the website you can enter for the award, this award is given to
the best creative digital work. On the website they talk about how every
award event the eve4nts grow as the online community grows every year.
In the 2016 event they awarded 33 prizes and premium awards are given
to the top few out of the 33.
Aardman animations went to the 2010 BIMA awards event with their
Home Sheep game and Tate Movie website, Aardman did win a prize along
with a few other companies for their website and game. Aardman could
also be nominated again in 2017 as they are always making creative
digital films/animation/Claymation products.

Professional body codes of practice:

In the UK, the professional body codes of practice are a set of rules that
explain how people working in a particular profession should behave. An
example of someone violating the codes of practice is a auctioneer
dealing with/selling stolen goods.
Professional body codes of practice or codes of professional practice is
ethical principles and professional behaviour when practicing.
The professional body codes of practice have a set of standards/rules that
all members of the institute of consulting have to follow. The institute of
consulting (or IC) are the home of professional consultants and the
national consultants register. On the ICs website you can find a
consultant and you can become a consultant. ICs missions statement is
achieved through a strong vision and supporting values.
Aardman are a company based in the Uk and have to follow the set of
rules in the professional code of practice explaining how they should

behave. This will mean the rules such as not discriminating or offending
anyone with the videos or slandering other companies with their content.
As well as this the code of practice will stop them from selling or using
stolen ideas or designs e.g. a stolen character cannot be created by
Aardman or action figures cannot be created based on a stolen idea as it
is breaking the codes of practice. The same as if Aardman stole a design
off of another company, if someone steals an Aardman idea/design or
concept and uses it they will be violating the code of practice.

Ethical:
Policies and procedures:
Policies and procedures define what organisations do certain
things. Clear policies and procedures support effective
decision making as they provide guidance on what people can
and cant do what decisions people can make and what
actions are appropriate. Policies and procedures provide a
framework for organisations to operate.
Policies and procedures will vary for each organisation based on a number
of different factors like the type of work the organisation does or the size
of the organisation etc.
One of the policies Aardman show on the website is their private policy.
On the website their private policy basically states that they protect and
respect your privacy. Aardmans private policy also states that Aardman
will not sell the personal data they collect from you or release it without
your consent people have to give Aardman permission to release the
personal data. Also, Aardman do not collect any personal data from
children, when children send them personal data children try making
accounts (personal data email, name, phone number etc.) the childrens
data is deleted.
The data Aardman will collect includes: fist name, last name, email,
country (where you live), phone number and any other data they request
when you file a complaint or request technical support. Aardman will also
collect data on what you view online as they use cookies in their website
this will also collect data on what computer you are using as it collects all
of the data on what computer/phone/tablet you are using to view the
website in order to optimise the performance, size and display of the
website.

Ethical requirements:

Ethical and moral requirements and basically standards you

rely on when making decisions. The ethical requirements
define what s right and wrong and outline the behaviour a
business should have and the type of behaviour a business
shouldnt have. Ethical requirements also promote values such as
trust, good behaviour fairness etc. Each business uses a different
ethical requirement all businesses dont follow one set of
ethical requirements; each business will develop their own
ethical requirements that are meaningful to the business. An
example of a business being ethical is regularly donating to a charity or
setting up their own charity to raise money e.g. Aardman and they
Wallace and Gromit childrens charity.
Ethical standards are not always easily enforceable most of the
requirements are vague and open to interpretation, other requirements
are very simple and easy to follow e.g. men and women should be treated
equally or treat the customer with respect etc.
Aardman animations have their own set of ethical requirements just like
any other business, this would include basic things like: all employees get
at least minimum wage, men and women treated equally, no
discriminating people based on: gender, religion, ethnicity etc.
One of the ethical things Aardman do is support a childrens charity, along
with supporting other charities. Aardman have a range of childrens
charities they own, such as: Bristol childrens hospital, Gromit unleashed,
Cots for Tots and Wallace and Gromits childrens charity. (image above to
the right of the ethical requirements title). (other image below)
As well as the image above this
is another logo for Aardmans
cots for tots charity, the logo
above is for the Wallace and
Gromit childrens charity.

Social issues and sensitivities:

There are a lot of different points with social issues ranging from mental
health, discrimination, wars, politics etc. In media (broadcasts, theatre,
arts, print media and the internet). One of the topics the media have to
show sensitivity for is war journalism, e.g. when showing images or names
of victims etc. In media they need to report on social issues but they cant
offend people at the same time, so each script has to be carefully wrote
out an example of this is in 2012 when Stephen Fry disclosed his
attempted suicide, the media had to report on this subject but also had to
be sensitive about it as the topic affects a lot of viewers, if they

accidentally insulted the viewers the broadcast would be unethical and

everyone would stop watching that channels or show.
Aardman help with some social issues as host charity events and have
three of their own charities focused on children these charities are
called: cots for tots, Wallace and Gromit childrens charity and Bristols
childrens hospital. As well as being involved in a lot of charity work,
Aardman create family/childrens films/shows so they very rarely have to
go into any sensitive subjects however if they had to they would simplify
it as the shows are for children, meaning they wouldnt show anything
graphic or inappropriate etc. In the films and shows they also have male
and female characters with different ethnicities, this shows that Aardman
arent discriminating anyone by not including a certain race or gender in
the shows.
Representation of gender:
Especially in media representation of gender has changed, years ago
women didnt have equal rights as men and this was portrait in media, in
modern times this has changed as men and women have equal rights and
this is portrait in media e.g. male and female characters/main characters
etc. Most/all current shows and films made in modern times will include
male and female characters and display them both as equal rather5 than
one being better than the other this is because it is showing equality
between the different genders.
In Aardman animations most/all of the videos, series and films will show
male and female characters and it will show them as equal, an example of
one of the Aardman films that does this is Wallace and Gromit (Image to
the right).
(Image to the left) This is an example
of an Aardman film where both genders
are shown as equal if Aardman made
a film (in modern times) where there is
a male or female character that is
shown as worse than the other gender
Aardman would get a lot of abuse for
the film as both genders are equal and
should be shown as being equal instead
of one being better than the other. However, Aardman is aimed at families
and children so they do not discriminate on gender, race religion or
anything this is because children watch their videos and are suggestable
to the content they watch so Aardman wouldnt be following ethical
requirements or standards by discriminating against gender.
Representation of religious beliefs:

In the media religious beliefs are all represented differently, this is due to
the articles based on religion, for example some religions are shown as
being bad by the media as there has been a group of extremists from that
religion killing people. This is difficult for the media to present without
involving the extremist religion which then gives that religion a bad name.
The problem with news reportings on religions is that they will only report
bad aspects of the religion e.g. terrorist attack or crisis etc. Because of
this the media will only represent religions in a bad way, he only way the
media will not represent a certain religion in a bad way is if that religion
hasnt done anything to cause a crisis or attack etc.
With Aardman animations this doesnt happen as Aardman isnt really
involved with religious representation, this is due to their content being
made for children, because it is made for children it is just stories being
told with clay figures with no discrimination or link to any religious views,
apart from one of the film attack of the ware rabbit where there is a
church scene however this doesnt show any religious activities apart
from a priest etc.