Our third task questioned us about the constraints that we experienced whilst creating our project. We were also asked to speak about how we managed to overcome these experiences. 

1. Task 7: Evaluation pt. 3 (Constraints)
By Millie West
Finance:
One of the most important and primary stages of creating any media production is the
finances. Do we have a budget? If so what is it? Do our finances make it physically possible
for us to create our production and are we able to fulfil our production needs with the budget
that we have? Is there a need to make cuts to our allocated finances? Do we have more
money than anticipated to create our production? All of these are important questions that a
producer/s must consider before being able to beginning to plan a media production.
We budgeted to spend £105 on our production, with a contingency rate of 10% - in case of
any financial crises; this brought our total maximum budget to £115.50. As a production
company, we all played a role in creating the budget, we accounted for travel, wardrobe,
food, equipment and actor expenses, as well as others. Our budget is linked in the above
documents.
As seen, we specifically needed costumes for our hosts. We allocated ourselves £20 to
spend on 2 outfits for the 2 main hosts, which we decided we would buy at Primark. As a
group we went to Westfield in Stratford, London to buy the outfits that we thought was most
appropriate for our hosts to wear. We also allocated ourselves £10 as part of our budget to
go towards a makeup kit, so whilst we were there, we decided to buy the kit too. Speaking of
travel, we didn’t allocate ourselves any money because all of the places that we went to,
were either in walking distance from our base location of King Solomon High School, or we
offered a lift by car by family or friends to local places, meaning that we didn't have to spend
any money. However I realised that the only thing we did
not allocate for on our budget was the cost of a train fare -
which was necessary. Although we only went on a train
once, it costs each member of the group 75p each way to
get from our base to our desired location. (Stratford City)
I believe we overestimated on the cost of food. We allocated ourselves £75 for the cost of
food; however we spent nowhere near as much as this. This is because it was not every
day, it was necessary for us to eat out or at the specific time we were filming. For example,
some days, instead of going out to eat, we would do so either before or after filming, or in
our home capacities, meaning that we spent no money on food. Furthermore, our crew may
not have needed or wanted to spend £3 on a meal each time we had scheduled to film our
documentary, resulting in an unnecessary amount of our budget spent on catering.
In conclusion, we over compensated for our budget and in turn I believe that we did not
spend the £105 that we had allocated ourselves.
Legalities:
After a production company has configured an idea as to whether it is practically possible for
them to create a production, and then must then consider the legal side of things. Is the
group aware of legal issues that must be considered in the media industry? Do you have the
legal precautions in place to ensure that your production can be created in a legally
appropriate manor? Again, these questions must be considered before creating a
production. Before we began our documentary journey, we researched into the legal side of
creating a production and because of this, we were able to make a legal issue free social
action project.

2. Task 7: Evaluation pt. 3 (Constraints)
By Millie West
Firstly, we ensured that the music we used was royalty free. We
retrieved our music from YouTube, an online streaming website,
which allowed us to download the pieces of theatrical music that
we wanted, royalty free, meaning that there are no copyright
claims, and we were free to use this music as long as we credited
the people/ person or company who had put it on YouTube,
which we did - covering ourselves for music legalities. Our logo
consists of a picture of a globe. This picture was found by a
member of our production team, using a search engine to find a picture, such as one like
this. Again, the picture was royalty free and was found on pexels.com, when searching for
“Globes and space” in the search box. My colleague then put together our logo (using the
photo that we had found) on Photoshop.
In terms of the Defamation Act of 2013, we made ourselves aware of what it meant and how
to prevent ourselves from breaking the act and getting in any kind of defamatory trouble. As
a result of this research, I am aware that we didn’t break any of the surrounding laws,
regarding legislation and/ or slander. An example of this is the news and information we
retrieved, we mentioned was from The London Borough of Redbridge website, and The
Metropolitan Police. We credited them for the information that they gave us, in a positive and
creditable way, meaning that there was no risk of us defaming the companies mentioned.
However, we did recognise that although we concentrated on the Redbridge region, as the
brief told us to, it may appear that we were very negative regarding the rates of crime. It was
never our intention to portray the Barkingside or Redbridge region specifically as a crime
ridden or dangerous area and we only intended to give accurate and honest information on
the topic of crime. Similarly, using our vox pops style, we learnt that the employee at
subway, had been assaulted just outside of the shop on Barkingside high street, again it was
never an intention of ours to damage the company and the employees who work there, it
was simply an example of crime, to back up our statistics shown in the documentary.
Considering the story was only shown once and our documentary did not revolve around the
specific incident, I am of the view that the Defamation Act of 2013 was not broken.
During the pre-production stages of our short film, we allocated each member of the group
specific tasks to complete. The production schedule will be shown on screen now.
As you can see linked in the above documents, two of the tasks that were needed to be
complete were the location and talent release forms. These are legal documents that we
created that entitle us to use a specific location of talent as part of our documentary.
Location release forms, as you can see on screen are individualised documents that go to
either homeowners or the council, asking permission to use the land in which they own.
Talent release forms are legal documents that any person must sign if they will be broadcast
and shown in any media production. Without this individualised document signed by the
talent him or she, they cannot be involved in the production. In addition to the talents
signature, each member of the production team must sign the document too, to authorise
and approve of the talent used. If a member of the public we intend to use is 18 (or younger),
but still in education, the document might be signed by the parent or guardian of the talent
needed. However, if the talent is 16 (or older), but not in education any longer, then the
talent release form is able to be signed by the talent his or herself. Acceptable forms of

3. Task 7: Evaluation pt. 3 (Constraints)
By Millie West
requests to reply and responses include physically handwritten documents and signatures
as well as computerised emails.
Regulatory:
There are many regulatory factors that must be considered, when creating a production.
These must be considered during all 3 stages of pre-production, production and post
production. One of these regulations includes the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Commonly known as simply ‘Copyright’, it is the current UK law and gives the creators
of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the right to control the ways in which
their material may be used. As previously mentioned with music, all material used in
our production was copyright free, meaning that we were fully entitled to use it.
The production that we created will be protected by the Copyright Designs and
Patents Act (1988). This means that members of the public will not be able to use
our content and sell it or distribute it as their own. If a member of the public were to
do this, penalties are put in place by the government as consequence for breaking
the act.
Another regulatory factor that as a group we ensured we went by and planned our
production around was OFCOM. The Office of Communications is the UK
government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting of
the TV, radio and video-on-demand sectors, as well as other media and technology
based platforms. We followed the OFCOM guidelines, which will be shown on screen
now. Following this guide ensured that our content was suitable to air at any time of
the day, and not solely after the watershed (9pm). Some of the communications
guidelines include the inclusion of factual
and newsworthy content. We produced a
short film that was factually correct,
informative and up to date, meaning that we
conjured together and put forward news to
the public that was relevant and relatable to
those who intend to watch it, whether that
be in terms of the audiences location, or
age.
On the topic of age, another regulatory factor includes ensuring that the media
production did not include any ‘bad’ language, sexual scenes, alcohol, drugs, racism
etc. This is a factor that as a production company, we stood by. After doing our
research, we were determined to create a piece of media that was suitable for all
ages to watch, understand and grasp, and for us to do so, this must happen.
Although some sexual themes were used, there were no graphic sexual images
produced as we knew that this was unacceptable. We only intended to imply a
sexual assault incident, not portray it, which is why the reconstruction is short and

4. Task 7: Evaluation pt. 3 (Constraints)
By Millie West
snappy and the narration is mild. We did this in order to allow the audience to
understand the incident in a modest way, and ensure that the production was
suitable for all of the public, those of any age. Some may contradict the racism point
and explain that we used subtitles for one of our vox pops style interviews. However
it was never an intention of ours to create a racist theme; we simply used subtitles to
allow our audience to understand the victims story on another level as it was brought
to our attention that due to the employees thick accent, some may find his interesting
story more difficult to understand. If need be, we would have also included subtitles
on some of the other talents’ interviews, although we believed that this was not
necessary as they were relatively clearer, when expressing themselves. All of these
factors made it a suitable production for OFCOM to accept and as a result, we had
no regulatory issues.