Task 2

Job Roles Involved – Commissioning
Editors
The lowdown of a commissioning editor's role, is to approve and buy new ideas,
writers and stories for a television programmes and films, as well as make sure all
work is completed by writers on time. Commissioning Editors will quite often
research into developing in trends in the market, and seek to commission works
relating to what the audience is most likely to respond to. As a whole the role is
about buying into concepts and people that could grow your portfolio and your
company.
Be able to find new stories and writers that you can nurture into a successful book
or magazine article is a key role necessary in becoming a successful commissioning
editor. Making important business decisions based off of analytical data is also a
critical part of the job. Being a person of high authority which a commissioning
editor is, means that these important decisions have a large impact on the next
topic or subject to be published in the next book, magazine article or Television
programme that a company is tasked with. In some business’ the role of a
commissioning editor, may be split between a team of editors and therefore, there
are many types.

Editors
What is needed to become a commissioning editor? Being a more senior role,
obtaining a relevant degree is recommended. If you have a specific publishing
house in mind, it might be worth looking into a degree based around what they
publish, but English Literature is the most accepted degree for the field. To become
a commissioning editor, skills such as being firm yet honest are key. A
commissioning editor must be honest about whether he or she believes that a
piece of media has potential. In addition, they must be strict with budgets and time
deadlines, as well as be up to date with current public demands and popularity
choices in order to be efficient and successful.
The roles of commissioning editors, producers, scriptwriters and agents are all linked.
Once a producer is satisfied with a new talent, idea and script, a commissioning
editor is given the script and will then begin the process of making a script into a
production. They are they people who find the talent to be used in a production by
advertising jobs with relevant descriptions of what is ideal. They also find other
relevant material to help aid the production and ensure that it can happen.

Editors (Examples)
Shane Allan is a famous commissioning editor whose job title is ‘BBC
Comedy Controller’ and he works for BBC1 and BBC 2. As implied,
the genre that he focus’ on it comedy. He is in charge of finding
comedic trends in contemporary society that would draw people
into watching comedy programmes on BBC1 and 2 and so his job
role is to control what comedic ideas and programmes get shown.
As mentioned in job roles, he has the power to make important and
crucial decisions regarding what gets included from analytical
data that is gathered.
Ewan Angus is also a famous commissioning editor, who
commissions for BBC Scotland. His role isn’t as restricted as Shane
Allan's is, because his genre speciality includes; Arts, Comedy,
Current Affairs, Daytime Drama, Education, Entertainment, Factual,
Factual Entertainment, Popular Factual, Specialist Factual and
Sports.

Job Roles Involved – Producers
In a media context, a producer is the person who is responsible for the financial
and managerial aspects of making a film, a broadcast, show, opera or any other
staging production. They play an integral role in the television and film industries.
The role of a producer, is to oversee each project from its conception to its
completion and beyond. This means that they are involved in all aspects of its
production. During pre production they have the important roles of approving
locations, studio hire, the final shooting script, production schedule and the
project's budget. The day-to-day smooth operation of the team is also down to
the producer. One of the ways that they can ensure that all days run smoothly,
efficiently and effectively is by having constant communication and consultations
with the Director and other key staff, on and off set. During post production they
may also be involved in the distribution process and the marketing of the project.
As implied, producers usually tend to work closely with directors of a production as
well as other production staff on a shoot. They are also responsible for a have
overall control on every aspect of a film's production.

Job Roles Involved – Producers
As mentioned, all of the included job roles link in one way or another. The role of
the producer has a very close tie to all of these job aspects. The role of a producer
is to essentially be the boss. As the people who are usually under contract, they are
the ones who make the final and determining decisions.
They do the majority of the approval and confirmation that comes with
scriptwriting and writers. As mentioned later on in ‘Role of the Writer’, producers are
the people who are mainly in charge of the script, the people who negotiate the
terms and conditions of using a client’s piece of media and draw up a contract. In
addition, not only are they the ones who find a director for the new and upcoming
television programme or film, they are also the ones who allocate jobs to people,
whether it be to use freelancers or current employee’s who already work for the
company to either create a script or work for a production.
Sean O'Connor is a great example of a television producer. In June
2016, he replaced Dominic Treadwell- Collins as the executive producer
of EastEnders, and ever since, O’Connor has been well known for his
work on the infamous soap opera.

Job Roles Involved – Scriptwriters
Script writers are simply people who write scripts for feature films, sitcoms, television
dramas, radio plays, cartoons, TV adverts, West End musicals and any other form of
media that requires actors. Creating characters, crafting dialogue and writing an
engaging plot are all part of a scriptwriter’s job, and it requires many skills. The skills
needed to become a scriptwriter include, having the ability to research, plan, develop a
character, and write well. All of these skills are necessary in order to create an engaging
and interesting storyline that captures a productions target and secondary audience.
Not only do scriptwriters write a productions dialogue, but also their stage directions too.
Most scriptwriters specialize in a particular film or television genre – just like commissioning
editors, such as comedy, drama, sci-fi, fantasy, horror or action. By specializing,
scriptwriters know the most about their genre, enabling them to make the best script
possible as they are so experienced.
Television scriptwriters must also take into account the watershed. The difference in what
is acceptable and appropriate for television viewers past the time of 9PM. This includes
swearing and other inappropriate content. In addition film scriptwriters must account for
age ratings that are allocated by the ‘BBFC’ or the intended target audience for the
production. The scriptwriter’s role/s are explained in more detail later on, in ‘The role of
the Scriptwriter’.

Job Roles Involved – Scriptwriters
(Example)
In terms of films, in most cases (but not all) scriptwriters are
freelanced. In contrast in most television production cases,
scriptwriters are employed.
Isla Grey is a BBC and Hollyoaks scriptwriter. Her career
started when she began working for BBC Switch. Here she
met a fantastic writer called Al Smith, who was then Lead
Writer on an online and BBC Two drama called ‘The Cut’. Al
was looking for another writer to write on the third series.
After reading some of her previous scripts, Grey was taken
on as part of the team.
After her time writing ‘The Cut’ my scripts got sent to
Channel 4’s Hollyoaks, where she them began writing for
two years as part of the core writing team.

Job Roles Involved – Agents
In terms of media production, being an agent entails representing any person
who works for the media industry. They take on an active role and act on
behalf of another person or group, this person/ people can be actors,
producers, scriptwriters, commissioning editors (and their team) or anything in
between.
As part of their job, their role is to represent their clients in business meetings
and conferences and other social events. They both promote them to
potential colleagues, such as directors, and book publishers as well as find
them new ‘gigs’ and jobs to further their clients career. Moreover, part of an
agent's job is to negotiate fees. Negotiating fees can include how much the
client may charge to showcase their talent – whatever that may be, (e.g. a
book, live performances etc.)as well as how much they earn from using their
talents or working as part of their job, for example an actor who is working on a
new and upcoming movie or theatre production.

Job Roles Involved – Agents (Examples)
As explained later on in the role of a scriptwriter, agents and scriptwriters, as
well as the role of a producer all link. Another part of an agent’s job is to
negotiate ownership of a script, for example whether it's shared by different
independent companies, or fully owned by either an independant company
or a conglomerate.
An example of an agent is Nick Quinn. Quinn work for an agency company
called ‘The Agency’ who agents thousands of people who write, produce,
direct ect. One of Quinn’s many clients is Barry Hines, who wrote all of the
scripts for productions including:
• Born Kicking (BBC/TV) 1992
• The Price of Coal (BBC) 1977
• Two men from Derby (BBC) 1976
• Speech Day(BBC) 1972

Commissioning Bodies – Corporations
A corporation is a very large, usually diversified, firm. The company or group of companies
are authorized to act as a single identity, and in the eyes of the law are seen as one. To be
considered a corporation, a firm must meet certain legal requirements to have legal
existence, as an entity that is separate and distinct from its owners. Corporations are owned
by its shareholders who share in profits and losses generated through the firm's operations.
They have the right to broadcast television programs and produce as well as have ownership
of films.
Corporations have three distinct characteristics:
1. Legal existence: a firm can (like a person) buy, sell, own, enter into a contract, and sue
other persons and firms, and be sued by them. It can do good and be rewarded, and
can commit offence and be punished.
2. Limited liability: a firm and its owners are limited in their liability to the creditors and other
obligors only up to the resources of the firm, unless the owners give personal-guaranties.
3. Continuity of existence: a firm can live beyond the life spans and capacity of its owners,
because its ownership can be transferred through a sale or gift of shares. As well as
shareholding, there are many other jobs that are offered in corporations. Considering
most use hierarchies, the jobs offered include, CEO’s, Producers and Shareholders etc.

Commissioning Bodies – Corporations
Also commonly known as conglomerates, corporations have many
advantages as well as disadvantages. One of these advantages is that by
being commissioned by one, means that if a scriptwriter is to be recognised,
then they could earn a huge sum of money and a large amount of
recognition for their work. Conglomerates have incredibly large budgets and
world wide reputations for the work that they do.
In contrast, one disadvantage of submitting work to a large corporation such
as the examples below is that it is increasingly hard to get recognised by the
company as there are such a large number of people who also submit work,
hoping to be discovered. This means that the competition is extremely
difficult.
One of the only ways to become recognised for a person’s writing talent is
through continuously submitting work to a specific conglomerate or a
number or range of various conglomerates - depending on the style, genre
and intended audience of the submitted work.
Some examples of corporations include Channel 5 and The BBC.

Commissioning Bodies – Independents
An independent business is a business that is free from outside control. It usually
means a privately owned establishment, as opposed to a public limited company,
which are owned by investment shares traded in the stock market - shareholders.
In many cases, independent businesses are sole occupant companies.
In contrast to conglomerates, a benefit of independent companies is that there is
not as much competition, as not as many people may apply or submit work. In
turn, this makes it somewhat easier to be discovered in comparison to a large
corporation. On the other hand a possible disadvantage of independents is that if
a writer was to be discovered, they would not receive as much funding or
recognition as the company is smaller than that of a conglomerate, so itself is not
as well recognised and probably has a significantly lower net worth.
An interesting example of an independant is ‘Bwark Productions’. ‘Bwark’ was
submitted the scripts of the famous comedy show that we know as ‘The
inbetweeners’. Later on in the recognition of the scripts and show, it was picked
up by ‘Channel 4’ who have made it into the world class show that we see today.

Role of the Writer – Planning
Screenwriters create screenplays for films. A screenplay is the script of a film or
television program, which includes acting instructions and scene directions.
Being a writer involves many different aspects. One of these is planning, to
write a successful script, a scriptwriter must effectively plan one. Planning
includes an initial idea or brief storyline, the invention of characters and their
actions, as well as the plot and other events based off of a brief. Planning is a
crucial part of being a writer as the initial idea and first draft of a script is what
could make or break a potential investor, investing in you. Once an idea has
been planned or the first draft has been written, a writer must begin creating
the final and completed script.

Role of the Writer – Writing
Writing a script can take a while. The screenwriter would usually show some a
rough draft of the script to a potential investor. If they then get backing from
an investor they would work closely with a script development team to finish
their script and to ensure there are no mistakes.
As in most cases, many drafts must be created before presenting and
submitting an idea to an agent for them to publish it. Therefore as mentioned,
once gaining backing from an investor, they would get a script development
team to finalise the original script. Once the script is completed and has been
checked, It’s the person in the middle with the contacts who talk to potential
companies about selling their clients potential product to them. If the talent is
wanted by the companies, then these people will then take a percentage of
what the scriptwriter earns - for having the ability to get the script published.

Role of the Writer – Negotiating
Considering screenwriters are usually freelancers that have come up with an
idea, once they have a completed idea, and final draft of a script they must
pitch that idea to producers for it to be sold. Alternatively a producer can
commission a screenwriter to create a screenplay from a concept, true story,
comic book, short story etc.
Negotiating is a huge part of scriptwriting. In all parts of the script, a producer
is necessary. To begin, a producer must confirm (from the pitch) that they
believe that this script could be successful and that they would like to invest in
it. The scriptwriter and producer must then negotiate under what terms the
script may be used, and discuss how much the writer will charge for the
producer and company to use it. A contract will then be drawn up.

Legal and Ethical Considerations –
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
(1988)
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988), is the current UK copyright law. It
gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the right to
control the ways in which their material may be used. The rights cover:
Broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and
lending copies to the public. In most cases, the creator will also have the right to
be identified as the author and to object to distortions of his work. The
Copyright, Designs and Patents act is used to ensure that people's intellectual
property is protected.
Scriptwriters must be aware of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act (1988)
because if the law gets broken, the talent, and possibly the company that they
are working for, may get sued. There is a strong likelihood that the scriptwriter
could both lose his or her job, as well as have to pay a significant fine.

Censorship and Watershed (1)
The watershed means the time when TV programmes which might be unsuitable for children
can be broadcast. The watershed begins at 9pm and material unsuitable for children should
not be shown before 9pm or after 5.30am. Some of the unsuitable material that cannot be
shown is everything from sexual content to violence, graphic or distressing imagery and
swearing.
Although the watershed allows unsuitable material for children there is a limit to what can be
shown.The transition to more adult material must not be abrupt and the strongest material
should appear later in the evening. But Ofcom’s rules protect viewers from offensive and
harmful content.
If broadcasters break the rules then given broadcasters can be given a fine and the content
aired will be removed. Since 2003 Ofcom has taken action on more than 300 occasions when
broadcasters have scheduled unsuitable content before or immediately after the watershed.
Similar to the watershed, censorship is the prohibition of any parts of books, films, news,
television programmes and articles etc.. that are considered obscene, politically
unacceptable, or a threat to security - Media that is unacceptable for viewers and/ or
audiences..

Censorship and Watershed (2)
An example of a programme that is shown before the watershed is ‘The Chase’. It is a quiz show
presented by Bradley Walsh. It is shown before the watershed as it does not contain any
inappropriate content, it is an education show which is on at 5 - 6pm.
An example of a programme that is shown during the watershed is ‘Some Girls’ - BBC 3. This show
contains strong language, and is therefore not eligible to be shown prior to the beginning of the
watershed. ‘Some Girls’ target audience is intended for viewers aged 15+ and so the show is more
suited to more mature audiences.
Sometimes a show that is usually shown during the watershed can be shown before 9 o’clock if the
innapropriate content is edited out of it to make it suitable for children and youth to watch. If a show
has too much inappropriate language or too many inappropriate scenes, then editing to make it
suitable to be viewed before the watershed will not be possible.
Scripts must be written with Censorship and the watershed in mind, because the content of a
production must be suitable for those who view it. It the script for a show that is due to be aired prior
to the watershed, it must not include any inappropriate language, or scenes.Failure to comply can
lead to the cancellation of a production, a large fine as well as the possibility of losing the
accountables job.

Libel
The Defamation Act was introduced in 2013. Its aim is to protect individuals from their
reputations being damaged by other people or companies. Someone may be accused
of act or name that could harm their reputation out of the simplicity that it may be true,
meanwhile a person could be accused of an act or a name in order for their reputation
to be damaged. If a person goes out of their way, to lie and put another person's status,
role, or occupation at risk, and they are found to be lying, then they may put themselves
in the firing line for being sued, because then have tried to harm another person’s
repute. In these instances, both the accuser and the company that he or she may work
for, are the ones who are most likely to get into trouble.
There are 2 types of Defamation, these are Libel, and Slander. Libel is the form of
defamation that includes written and published work. For example, newspaper or
magazine articles, diary entries, or blog posts. This form tends to get accusers in much
more trouble than slander does, because of the ease of proof. Slander however is much
harder to prove, unless there are many whiteness’. Slander is the act of spoken or oral
accusation of a person.

Libel
Defamation is usually acted towards people who have a high standing status in society,
for reasons mentioned before, such as the truthfulness of the accusation, or to harm the
accused’s position. For example, celebrities; not between a friendship group. In the case
of comedy, the act of defamation is considered to be okay up to a certain point, if it's for
humour. But if a comedian is seen to be constantly accusing another person, and it could
be seen as potentially damaging their status, then that would be considered defamation.
“Frankie Boyle wins more than £50,000 libel damages from Daily
Mirror”
This was the headline in ‘The Guardian’ from Monday 22nd October 2012 . The headline
refers to a huge case of defamation, whereby the Daily Mirror accused Frankie Boyle of
being a racist. As a result of this accusation the jury decided that the comedian was
libelled by the above claim and that he was 'forced to quit' BBC show Mock the Week. This
form of defamation entitled Boyle to receive over £50,000 worth of compensation for the
damages caused.

Bibliography
• http://www.mediapughq.com/isla-gray-bbc-and-hollyoaks-scriptwriter-on-
how-to-get-started-as-a-professional-writer/
• http://www.jengovey.co.uk/screenwriters_friend/screenwriter_agents_uk.h
tml
• http://theagency.co.uk/the-clients/?filter=writer
• https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/oct/22/frankie-boyle-libel-
damages-daily-mirror

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