Lauren Whyte discusses several legal and ethical issues regarding her film Pursued. She believes the film does not break any laws as it does not include anything too extreme, and child actors were supervised. No animals were harmed during filming. The story is also original and does not adapt any existing works, avoiding copyright issues. Royalty-free music and sounds were used to prevent copyright problems. A health and safety risk assessment was completed prior to filming. The film would likely receive a 12 certificate as no visual violence is shown. Representations of gender and youth could be seen as stereotypical but may be broken as the film progresses. Representations of violence rely on imagination rather than visuals.

1. Lauren Whyte
Legal and Ethical Issues
Issue Notes
Legal Content During my filmI do not believe that there is anything
involved that would be considered to be breaking
the law. Whilst Pursued is a horror film, I do not
believe that I included anything that would be
considered to be too extreme. The actors that were
involved in the making of my film were fully
supervised at all times to ensure that they do not
witness anything that is too extreme for them to
handle, as they are under the age of 18. Finally,
Pursued did not feature the harming or cruelty to
any animals. No animals were featured in the film,
as a result there were no injuries inflicted to an
animal nor a human.
Copyright (Story) During Pursued I have tried to tell a completely
original story. I have not adapted an existing book
or any other source of material. I have generated
the idea entirely myself. As a result, I don’t think
that there will be any copyright issues regarding the
story of my film.
Copyright (Music/Sound) I do not think there will be any copyright issues
regarding the music and sound used in my film. I
have decided to use royalty free music and sound
effects to avoid copyright issues. If I was to have
used any copyrighted musicor sound effects I would
need to have reached an agreement with the
copyright holder.
Health and Safety Before I began filming Pursued I completed a
location recce and a risk assessment for health and
safety purposes. I then used my risk assessment as
a working document during Pursued to make sure I
minimised any possibility of anything going wrong.
Certificate I think my film would receive a 12 certificate
because there is no visual violence involved in my
film, it is left purely to the audience’s imagination.
Representations (People) I think my films representations of gender and youth
are interesting as a young girl is being followed by a
male. This could be seen to portray that a male
figure will often be the dominating and scary
character in films and the young girlwillbe the timid
and easily afraid character. However, as this is only

2. Lauren Whyte
the introduction of a film, these stereotypes could
go on to be broken as the film progresses.
Representations (Violence/Threat) I think my films representations of violence and
threat are interesting as the characters are never
actually visually harmed on screen. The threat of
looming danger is established purely through the
plot developing through the characters talking and
the audience’s imagination doing the rest. As the
audience don’t know what the dead boys motive is,
they are left to assume the worst, without having to
be shown any violence at all.