Legal and Ethical Issues of Corporate Video.

Corporate video is an umbrella term used to define all video communications used for internal or external corporate messaging. One way that corporate video can be contrasted from traditional video advertising is the target audience. Corporate video is often aimed at a specific audience rather than the general public. A corporate video might be created to present financial results to stakeholders or to highlight a new idea within the company. Corporate videos may also include employee training videos and promotional videos for new product lines or services, there are many, many more types of corporate video however these are the most common. Corporate video companies face a lot of obstacles to create a successful production. Although watching videos online made by these companies may seem like a walk in the park, the chances that certain issues came into play are very high. Obviously not every production involves serious legal issues to overcome, however it is always best that you are sure everything sticks to the legal criteria of corporate video allowing your current/future productions to be viable and able to be viewed by the public. I will begin to discuss all of the legal and ethical issues that corporate video companies have to face when producing content for their clients.

Copyright issues is a main focus when producing corporate videos, copyright protects written, musical, artistic and theatrical works. Also film, book layouts, broadcasts and audio. Databases and software can also be copyrighted because they can be classed as literary works. It is a widely held misunderstanding that works on the Internet are not covered by copyright and as a result can be used freely. Copyright law applies to online material just as it does to offline material, assuming the conditions for copyright protection are met. Video companies can get into a lot of trouble for producing videos that include copyrighted material, so much so, that they can potential get taken down from the eye of the public and even taken to court in some serious cases. In order to have a successful claim for copyright content you must be able to prove: you are the owner of a valid copyright in the work, or that you have had legal access to the copyrighted content, either through payment or other forms legality. Dragonfly is a corporate video company that are extremely popular within the UK, an example of legal copyright proven in one of their productions is "Royal Holloway - Dance - v1". The example is the soundtrack, they have used either their own produced soundtrack, recorded and edited by themselves or used royalty free music from the internet. either way this is perfectly legal and allows them to feature it in their video. If however, it wasn't their own material, they would have had to claim permission from the owner or would have had to face issues with the law for having illegal use of material.



Privacy is an important part in the media industry and especially corporate video companies. Producers must make sure that they do not interfere with peoples personal lives and not to broadcast any material that the persons do not approve of. For example if you were shooting a scene in a hospital and one of the patients personal documents were on show, people who watch the video will find out information which they are not meant too. For these reasons footage has to be checked through thoroughly just incase there are anythings hiding which may reveal someones personal identity. Because corporate video productions are normally for organisations, privacy is a key thing to take care of during filming as it normally covers a more people than just one. There may be people in your specific scene that may not actually want to be featured, this is an invasion of privacy and will lead to you having to re-shoot without them in it. Everyone in your scene/film will have to have talent releases to prove they are okay with being in the production, unless you are filming a massive crowd of people it is okay, because having 1,000's of people sign a form for you will be super difficult.

Defamation laws vary between different countries but usually concern content that damages the reputation of another person or corporate video company in this case. Although the meaning of defamation varies around the world, generally, defamation is any incorrect statement that is harmful to someone's reputation or causes someone to be dodged or avoided. Companies take into account the problems and issues they face with this process as in some cases, it can require a court order. For a defamation blocking request to be successfully processed, the claim needs to be specific and strongly supported. For example, it needs to explain why you believe that the statements are untrue and how it damages your reputation. However this should never have to be taken forward if you stick to the legal guidelines and follow the rules properly. In some cases, corporate video companies willingly remove harmful content. Because obtaining a court order can be costly and time-consuming. Normally if someone does submit a defamation complaint against you, they will do it directly instead of contacting someone else about it. A perfect example of a complaint in the industry is for the Wolf of Wall Street studio, a stockbroker who worked at the brokerage depicted in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street filed a £15million lawsuit against the producers of the Oscar-nominated black comedy for allegedly portraying him as a depraved criminal with an appetite for drugs and sex.

Fair Use is used as a defense to Copyright Infringement claims. Usable on a case-by-case basis of alleged infringement to determine if infringement actually occurred. This is slightly different to Copyright as Fair Use gives you exceptions to use certain material where as Copyright just tells you what you can't do. It is complicated and only applies absolutely on a case-by-case basis. Basically, it allows exceptions to be able to reproduce part of a work, for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching and research etc.  Parodies are often considered part of criticism. When producing a corporate video you need to be careful when using materials from different sources, it is more than likely you will want to use music someone else has created or include footage from the business or event you are promoting. If so, checking the Fair Use "rules" for the owners material is essential as you may be sued if using them without going by their guidelines. This video example from YouTube combines many different pieces of music form different owners, classing it as fair use material. In the description, the sources are clearly stated and guidelines have been followed allowing this person to use the numerous owners content.



Dealing with Ethical issues is very important within corporate videos as the video producers have to consider race, gender and religion. Race is what country, culture and background you come from and what colour you skin is. Someone’s race is considered to be what ethnic group they fall under. Most ethnic groups usually have the same religion, heritage or language/dialect, or if not the same very similar. In basic terms race is a classification system used to put human beings in to large and distinct sectors or groups. So in corporate films, producers or yourself have to try their best to not discriminate against or be racist to any cultural or ethnic groups. For example they need to appeal and respect everyone, so no one is harmed or offended by what is in the video i.e including mixed races and not singling anyone out in particular. Also you want to make sure your product, company or whatever it is applies to gays, straights, females and males, then you get as many employees as possible or as many sells of a product as possible. Like before, don't single out any particular group, including a mixture will make you much more successful. This corporate video is a great example:

Before shooting a video it is really important that you have all released signed for the production (Materials, talent, location). It will do more harm to not have a signed release when you need one, than to have one that you do not need., better to be safe than sorry. Always have anyone appearing on camera in your video sign a release form prior to shooting. The release form will protect you against legal issues and gives you permission to use the video of the person for commercial and non-commercial purposes. If a person is part of a crowd of 4 or more people it is most likely you wont need them to sign a release, as the camera won't specifically be focused on them. However if you feel like they appear more frequent than others in the crowd you may want them to, to settle your mind and ensure you are fully protected. Whenever a film is being shot outside a studio, the producer may need to obtain one or more location releases from the owners of the property where filming takes place to prevent any illegal actions to be taken ahead by owners of private land. If you are shooting in a park, on public land, or in a street you should get permission from the local council. Even though these are public spaces, the council can still charge  you certain amounts so it is best to check just incase you get into trouble. Like before, it is best to be safe than sorry.

The technology you use for your production is something worth
thinking about before you go ahead and start shooting. We use this word to describe all the electronical equipment and software that is used during a production. Every day, more and more companies are balancing the issues of technology with the right to privacy, information, and security. Because newer technology is more expensive it requires a higher budget and because you want to provide the best video possible for the consumer you need to obtain the best you can. the variation of technology you have will depend on whether you can expand your corporate company to do larger projects or just different types in general, like animation as well as IRL footage. This will make your company appeal to more people as you would be offering more services. But because other companies will have the same idea, your competition will increase making it harder for you. Offering something innovative will make you stand out from other standard corporate video companies. The Black Magic 4K Production camera is something that is used by a lot of corporate video companies, this is what you would call a high end camera as you would need a high budget (£2,000 for camera) and would be able to shoot very good quality videos. As said before this camera does shoot in 4K resolution, meaning crystal clear visuals, Touchscreen feature, standard mono microphone and up to 1.5 hours battery life per charge. although this is an excellent production camera, there may be shots that require some other camera to be used. for example if you need night shots or another specific camera that would be perfect for what you need. The Canon 750D's are also great cameras as they are very lightweight, great quality and affordable for low budget companies and producers. They also have lots of peripherals like lenses and battery packs which makes the camera even better to take filming.

Aside from cameras, lighting and audio equipment is another essential part of production, the room may be too dark, built-in camera microphone may include too much background noise or static. I could list all the different types of lighting equipment but I would be here ages, the most common type of lighting that can be useful in all sorts of different occasions is "Soft Box Lighting". You are able to mount these box lights onto a stand to rotate and adjust to get the exact lighting you desire. With many you can light a whole room, with 1 you can create a cool spotlight effect on the subject or environment, these light are really so useful for any situation. As well as there brilliant use, the price is also very affordable for low budget productions, or even high budget depending on what you need it for. They range from around £10 all the way to around £100. These are probably one of the most cheapest types of light you can buy which is why most corporate companies use them. As for audio recording, there is not really any exact model or make corporate video makers commonly use, this is because there are a whole range of sound equipment that sound almost the same and are the same to use in terms of complexity and easy to learn how to use. The main mics we use and the mic we used for a James Paget AHP Corporate video is the "Rode Video Mic". These are easy to use, plug into the camera and mount it on top. They are good to use for interviews if set up well as the quality of the sound is noticeably different, also the max sound pressure it can withstand is 120db which is really good if you are needing to record something really loud but want to prevent it from crackling or breaking up in the video. You can pick these mics up from around £60, which is considerably good for either a low or high budget company.

Now, software,  Adobe Premiere and After Effects are the best to use for accessibility and affordability, infact they are sometimes used by big time movie companies because of the great services they provide. After effects is more commonly used for 2D design and intros whereas Premiere is better used for the piecing together of the footage and colour correction etc. Of course these aren't the only pieces of software you are able to use, there is Final Cut pro 10, Adobe Audition for audio, Sony Vegas, and so on. Each program handles differently and takes time to get used to and understand how everything works. Most corporate companies do use Premiere Pro but may use other software to edit other pieces of footage if they want something done differently.