Cover the Range:

Contractual 4 – Regulatory and Ethical Issues 6 –

All Professional Bodies and Ethical 5
When Aardman are making there animations they are mainly going to
have a contract which tells them what they need to produce at the end.
In common law legal systems a contract is an agreement having a
lawful object entered into voluntarily by two or more parties. One of
the parties then intends to create one or more products for the client.
The elements of a contract are offer and acceptance by competent
persons having legal capacity who then exchange a consideration to
create mutuality of obligation.
Aardman mainly do stop motion animations which they are in
partnership with DreamWorks and Sony Pictures animations.
For the advert side they will get contacted to make an animation for a
company that will need to follow some guidelines on what they want.
They also will have programme and channel contracts that they will
need to keep too.
Negotiation is between two or more people or parties intended
to make something happen, to get an understanding of
something, resolve points due to differences, to gain advantage
for an individual or collective or to get an outcomes to satisfy
various interests.
Aardman will negotiate when someone wants them to do a
contract and they thing something is wrong about the contract
they have received. This could be from the pay of the contract
isn't enough, there is clearly not enough time to create the
product for the contract and a lot more reasons why they will
want to negotiate.
When negotiating to make the contract to have an agreement on
both sides should be clear, specific and focused, also make sure
that the Objectives have a clear aim to get to.
A non-disclosure agreement can be also known as a
confidentiality agreement.
It is a legal contract that at least two company's that
discuses confidential material, knowledge, or
information that the company's want to show each
other for certain purposes maybe of making
decisions or making a product together. It is a
contract through which the company’s agree not to
show the information to other company's covered by
the agreement. An NDA creates a confidential
relationship between the company’s to protect any
type of confidential information.
Large companies like Aardman receive thousands
of ideas for animations from companies or people
who want to work with Aardman. Aardman will
look at the ideas and an estimate of the cost of the
total value. Aardman are a mainly a Stop-motion
animation company so they make all of there
models out of clay or any other materials. This is
be included in an estimate of the cost. Another
cost they will look at is voice actors which either
can celebrities or someone's voice they just like
which will cost less. Then they will also think about
how much then it will cost to make the animation.
When looking at the costing for contracts they will
make costing systems that will be planned out over a
long period time.
Someone will look at all of the costs in Aardman
from the Labour which will be all of the jobs in the
company from animations to storyboard artists,
materials the cost of the characters that need to be
made and the background scenes, the cost of the
equipment that will be used and etc. They will plan
what it will cost for Aardman to complete a contract
to see if they will accept a contract to do.
When looking at the Schedule for a Contract it will be in
place before any work is started. People will be able to
see what they have to do on a specific day so they don’t
go off contract which could cost them more money. If
things go out of place, there will be people that will be
change the schedule to either shorten the time or extend
the time on how well they have followed the contract or if
they think improvements can be made.
If something changes to the schedule someone will have
the job is making arrangements to the previous schedule
so the contract or animation will be complete on time
without any problems accruing. This would be done by
changing around flexible work hours or telling people
that they need to speed up with doing there part on the
contract.
Time Management will be linked into the contract schedule by
looking at what needs to be done and when it needs to be
completed on different days. This would be then given to everyone
in the company so they know what job needs to be done and to
what standard.
Someone will plan this out for the whole company for example in
Aardman the animations being made have different stages and if
one isn't complete the other cant start their part of the contract so
it is important that they keep to a time plan so everyone and
everything runs smoothly. If this happens and they go off contract
they will get a penalty which could costs them money.
Also by having a time plan being managed it saves any problems
that may occur in the future when creating the animations.
Another problem that could happen is if they don’t keep to the
schedule then the company that made the contract could go and
find another company loosing them money and reputation of being
a good animations company.
When an Organisation is looking at risks that can happen.
It is most important that they look at every risk possible.
If one is missed it could cause lots of damage. Aardman is
uses lots of camera, lights and computers to make there
animations so there are going to be lots of wires around,
so for health and safety it is important they are not in the
way when people are moving about. There also should be
checks on people, not just the equipment to check if
everyone knows what they are doing so it doesn’t result
in a risk or during a risk that could be happening like a
fire. To manage all the risks they are going to have
checks every now and again which could waste time and
money but in the long run better as a risk could be
stopped saving more money, time or injury to staff.
When a outside person or company subcontracts
they enter into an agreement or contract with a
company to do work. Sometimes this can also be
called freelance or independent contractor. Many
companies like Aardman use subcontractors to do
some parts of their animation processes for
example editing, story boards, rigging and a
freelance artist or animator. Just like a contract
there will be a certain time that the freelancer will
have to complete the task with the same standard
that Aardman produce.
Outsourcing is when the company uses a third party or any other
company. This is used to get people to help them either make the
product or to join up to do something. Aardman may have used
people to make the animations when they were not a big company
like cameramen and light technicians to help out. This would then
cost them money to produce the animations rather than using their
own people to make them.
Aardmans animations have been made also for international
countries but most of their animations have been made for English
audiences so other people might not get some of the things going
on in their films. Aardman has got a worldwide reputation with
everyone this was also helped by DreamWorks and Sony Pictures
Entertainment. Also by working with them brings them a bigger
audience of people which showed from the income of their films.
Aardman also got Editors to make the animations available in
International countries which will bring them in more money from
changing the films to match them.
Penalties clauses in contracts allow for a party to charge
extra money if the other party fails to follow the terms of a
contract. The contract specifies the sum payable if a
company or person fails to complete a piece of work.
Damages clauses are an estimate of the loss to be suffered
by the company or person in the event that a contract is not
completed and can be classed as a penalty clause. Whether
the term is a penalty clause or not is determined at the time
the contract was formed and not at the time the contract
was breached and not completed.
Aardman often use these contacts and penalties to make
sure work they have contracted out is done on time and to
their high standards. Aardman can also have these penalties
against them by the companies they work for to make sure
deadlines are kept.
Consumer choice relates preferences for consumption goods,
consumption expenditures and ultimately to demand curves.
Consumer choice is a way of checking how consumers may act
between preferences and expenditures by maximizing utility as
subject to consumer budget constraints.
Preferences are the desires by each individual for the
consumption of goods and services that translate into choices
based on income or wealth for purchases of goods and services
to be combined with the consumer's time to define consumption
activities.
Consumption is separated from production, logically, because
two different consumers are involved. In the first case
consumption is by the primary individual; in the second case, a
producer might make something that he would not consume
himself. Therefore, different motivations and abilities are
involved.
The Freedom of Information is an Act that
creates a public right of access to information
held by public authorities. It is the
implementation of freedom of information
legislation in the United Kingdom on a national
level.
They establish a right to know what the legal
processes by which requests may be made for
government held information to be taken freely
or at minimal cost barring standard
exceptions.
Censorship is when things are left out on purpose which people might object of this
could be because the age of the player. It could mean Aardman have to leave out
bad language or material that might be aggressive.
Moral censorship: Most country's will have a law about showing pornography to a
certain amount. This could include things like child pornography.
Military censorship: Some military facts might be censored due to a guarantee that
the enemy side will hear the facts and the information of might be going on which
they can then solve protect them selves from an attack.
Political censorship: A government or a political party will not give out certain types
of information due to it could make rebellions or embarrassment to the government.
Religious censorship: Some things can be banned in different countries due to it
going against there religion. So it is most likely that you will only show a certain
subject in one country or more that don’t go against what you are trying to say.
Corporate censorship: Company's may stop different information getting out which
show what the business might be doing which people could take their ideas or shows
what an employee might have done in a bad way.
Aardman do animations for TV and films so it will be important for them to follow
the different censorships as it could result in them getting bad reputation.
Ownership is someone's that owns a something that other
people may not use or go onto.
This could include products that are made, private land / real
estate or intellectual property.
Aardman will have Ownership over the animations that they
make. They will own the property of the films, programmes and
animations they have made for them selves.
Aardman also have ownership of all the characters that they
make for their animations. Meaning that no one else can use
them for their own little series to making money of them.
They mainly make animations for adverts and programmes that
company's have told them to make for them by applying a
contract so that company will have ownership over the
animations that Aardmans creates for them.
Every organization must have a methodology in
place for identifying, maintaining and updating
all applicable statutory and regulatory
requirements. These requirements are what
ensures that a business operates within the
confines of the law. The organization must
ensure that statutory and regulatory
requirements are utilized as ‘process inputs’
while monitoring ‘process outputs’ for
compliance with requirements.
In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as
a specification, policy, standard or law.
Compliance is a state of being accordance with the
guidelines made, specification, legislations or the way
forward to becoming so.
Different types of software may be made to the compliance
with the specification created by certain standards.
Due to the increasing number of regulations and need for
operational transparency, organizations are increasingly
adopting the use of consolidated and harmonized sets of
compliance controls.
This approach is used to ensure that all necessary
governance requirements can be met without the
unnecessary duplication of effort and activity from
resources.
The copyright, design and parents act 1988.
The copyright law is giving the creator of his own original work rights to it, so that only he
can use it and hold the rights for them to control the way they want it to be shown. This is
so that the copyright holder is credited for his/her work. But if the work is produced as part
of employment then it will belong to the person/company who hired the person. Also if
someone tries and steals the work or claims it as their own, the copyright law covers it. The
law also covers and protects ICT work as it’s a lot easier to steal from the web. The ICT
work covers things like songs, videos, images, text and a lot more.
Names, titles, short phrases and colours are not considered to be covered but if all of these
are part of a creation it can be covered like a logo. If anything is taken which is covered
without permission by the copyright law is a breach of the law.
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, that grants the creator of an
original work exclusive rights to its use and distribution, usually for a limited time, with the
intention of enabling the creator of intellectual wealth e.g. the photographer of a
photograph or the author of a book to receive compensation for their work and be able to
financially support themselves.
You can buy the rights to use someone’s work so that you can use it. But if you offend
anyone by using their work or offend the copyright owner the copyright law would come in.
Aardman will have a copyright to the animations that they create so that no one can use
them and earn money from them without paying for them.
A trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression
which identifies products or services of a particular
source from those of others. The trademark owner can be
an individual, business organization, or any legal entity. A
trademark may be located on a package, a label, a
voucher or on the product itself. For the sake of corporate
identity trademarks are also being displayed on company
buildings.
The owner of a trademark may pursue legal action against
trademark infringement. Most countries require formal
registration of a trademark as a precondition for pursuing
this type of action.
The usage of trademarks by the owner of the product can
cause legal issues if the product is used in the wrong way
this shows that they have used the product in false
advertising or if the trademark is offensive.
Intellectual property (IP) rights are the legally recognized exclusive rights to
creations of the mind. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted
certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary,
and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and
designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyright,
trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, trade dress, and in some
jurisdictions trade secrets.
Intellectual property rights cover a variety of things patent acts where things that
are taken and used in their own work like inventions, trademarks taking other
peoples logos or slogans like the logo M for McDonalds for their slogan I’m
loving it as you own or even making your logo similar to their logo. This is also
linked back to copyright as it is taking their work and using it as your own.
Aardman will need to take care in all of their animations that they don’t copy any
ones else's designs in there work. They will do this by not putting it into there
work unless they are making the animations for that company then they will use
there logo and slogan maybe to promote them.
Accessibility is the degree to which a product,
device, service, or environment is available to as
many people as possible. Accessibility can be
viewed as the ability to access and benefit from
some system or entity. The concept often focuses
on people with disabilities or special needs such
as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities and their right of access, enabling the
use of assistive technology.
Aardman will make sure that there animations are
access able to the public as they will be watching
their animation.
The Employment Equality Age Regulations 2006 is a piece of
secondary legislation in the United Kingdom. This prohibits employers
discriminating against other employees on different subjects about
there age.
The issues that are mainly addressed by the legislation include the
provision of a national default retirement age set at 65 and the ability
for employees to request work beyond the retirement age.
This is very similar structure to existing legislation concerning sex,
race, and religion. They provide a defence and a wide range of
exceptions which have been criticised for discrimination.
Aardman will have to make sure that they follow this when letting
people work for them because it will be going against this and could
end up costing them money.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an
international community where Member
organizations, a full-time staff, and the public
work together to develop Web standards. Led
by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and CEO
Jeffrey Jaffe.
The W3C mission is to lead the World Wide Web
to its full potential by developing protocols and
guidelines that ensure the long-term growth of
the Web.
Some companies try and thing of these things to
protect people one of them are the Offices of
Communications normally known as Ofcom. They are
approved by the government regulatory for
broadcasting, telecommunications and postal
industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom operates
under the Communications Act 2003. Ofcom has a
wide range of things they can do across television,
radio, telecoms and postal sectors. Ofcom represents
what citizens and consumers are interested by and
promoting competition. They also protect people from
things that might be harmful and offensive to them. So
they are protecting people from the abuse they might
get some things people might put or say.
Another company is The Advertising Standards
Association checks thought the UK’s advertisement
across all types of media. We investigate and
adjudicate on potential breaches of the Advertising
Codes, and monitor compliance with the rules. The
work that they do is to make sure there are no
harming or offensive advertisements to the public
which they follow from the advertising codes which
are written by the committees of advertising
practice. There work includes acting on complaints
and proactively checking the media to take action
against misleading, harmful or offensive
advertisements.
The British Interactive Media Association is an
industry body representing the digital industry in
the United Kingdom. They support the individuals
and organizations which deliver high quality,
creative and innovative and the interactive media
solutions. BIMA aim to do four key things Support
and promote the British digital industry, Share
knowledge and best practice, Reward great work
and Encourage the next generation. One thing that
BIMA provides is access to market data and
intelligence by the links that they have with the
government departments, professional bodies and
holds regular talks and conferences on key
industry issues.
An ethical consideration refers to the ethical principles that are
used when tackling a particular issue.
Ethics are codes or rules which govern those practices of a
profession. It dictates how information and client’s
relationships should be managed.
Ethical considerations occur when you are required to use these
rules to better serve your clients.
A company will be looking for not to have in there products
would be racism, sexuality, stereotyping, exclusion disability,
cultural, religion and violence.
Aardman will make sure they follow the ethical considerations
when creating there animations as they don’t want to offend
anyone with there work which could give them bad reputation
and even cost them money if people don’t like what they are
doing.
Aardman will have complaints procedure for members
of the public and employ customer service staff to deal
with any complaints.
Training policy
Staff will be trained in equal opportunities and attend
regular in service training sessions to improve their
skills with software and the latest technology.
They will have policies and procedures for advertising
the films.
Aardman have to be aware of the age and religion of
the people that will be watching the films so that they
do not use anything that cause offence and ethical
issues.
Today people live in very diverse families
which have cultural differences and beliefs.
They have to show this in their films to
reflect real life situations and promote
different cultures and diversity.
Aardman have to be careful not to use
anything that maybe offensive.
The way business can be done is changing
nowadays. It is important for the businesses to
make sure that they know about the new ways of
conducting and are aware of the changes that are
taking place and are impacting the business.
Learning about these changes will help them to
know more about what has to be done in order to
make their business a success and to ensure that it
is growing. New technology can help business,
reach more clients and save money.
People and business have less money during a
recession. Aardman will can reach global
audiences without the help of big-budget
advertising firms.
When Aardman are designing and creating films
they have to be aware of peoples cultural
differences and diversity. They have to be careful
not to offend peoples religious beliefs.
Because their films are shown in different countries
Aardman have to change the language on the
animations to the language they speak or add
subtitles. The films are often shown in English
speaking countries first then released to other
countries later.
Aardman employ staff whose responsibility it is to
edit and add the subtitles to the films.