The document discusses the roles and processes involved in commissioning a social action media project for the London borough of Redbridge. It outlines the key roles of commissioning editors, producers, scriptwriters, agents, and commissioning bodies. It also covers important legal and ethical considerations around censorship, libel, and watershed laws that must be addressed during the commissioning and production process.

1. Unit 4- Task 2

2. Overall
We have been tasked with creating a social action project, in which we have been commissioned by the
london borough of redbridge to help our local community through use of media.
To do this we need to understand the mechanics behind commissions of this kind, the corporations as well
as the independent companies they commission, as well as what roles will be needed.

3. Commissioning Editor examples
Jan Younghusband: commissioning
editor for BBC music and events,
Michelle Chappell: Commissioning
editor at Channel 4

4. Producers
Producers turn ambition into money, essentially marketing the product and making sure that it will
be as profitable as possible. They also assemble the cast and crew in conjunction with the director
and writing teams. Oftentimes producers will be the ones with most control over the production,
making changes to ensure the sale of the movie, sometimes making it more marketable by changing
the script. They often worked in the film industry, having prior experience, and organizational skills
in order to make sure the production works smoothly.

5. Producer Examples
Jason Blum: Producer for paranormal activity, SInister and the purge.
Harvey Weinstein: Producer for Pulp fiction, Clerks and the crying game.

6. Scriptwriter
Scriptwriter: Put simply, the scriptwriter is the person who wrote the original draft of the script and
story, though this script may go through many drafts with more people working on it as time goes
along. These people are often the original writers who are picked up by commissioning editors,
though sometimes they are supplementary writers who help the main writer.
William Goldman: Princess Bride, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

7. Agent
An agent is a person who finds work for those in creative media roles, They represent a certain
amount of people in these roles as clients (actors, animators, scriptwriters) and gives them access to
companies who are looking for said role. Some agents specilise in certain roles, some companies
specifically find work for Actors, or some might find work specifcily for directors.
William Morris Endeavor- An acting agency, they recruit actors, film companies contact them in
order to find actors right for their roles
United Agents -An agency for almost all roles for film, actors, Directors, Voiceover artists and camera
crew. They are affiliated with ewan mcgregor, tom hardy and many more.

8. Commissioning bodies
involved.
Corporations
BBC, ITV, Channel 4, all of these are corporations, some commissioned productions via independant
companies, some of them create the production themselves, with higher ups in these companies
working as producers. They are well established and famous companies, they own many subsidiaries
and have publishing rights for television, meaning they themselves can put shows on television.
Corporations are allowed to broadcast television nationaly, some, such as BBC have in house
production creating television shows, others look for outside componies to produce for them
Screenwriters will often receive briefs from corporations, though they pay a lot better than
independents, they are also harder to get jobs from.

9. Independants
Independent production companies are private creators of media, sometimes larger companies will
commission these independents to make productions for them. They have no publishing rights, and
thus must get noticed by a larger company to be broadcasted on TV, scriptwriters will more often go
to independants for jobs.
One example is Hat trick productions, who produce “have i got news for you”, and “Cheap Cheap
Cheap”

10. Legal and ethical considerations
Before the script is published and made into a movie/show, it must first be made sure it does not contain
any legal issues. Censorship for “adult “ content, Making sure the show avoids Libel or Slander, and keeping
to watershed laws, meaning adult content cannot be shown before 9pm.
It is the law to keep these censorship laws on any free channel in the UK, at least until watershed, were
more sensitive content can be shown. The censorship laws allow the government to tailor media they
consider inconvenient.

11. Commissioning editor
In charge of approving and buying new ideas from writers to produce via the Commissioning body or
independent producers. They find stories or writers they feel they can mature into a successful
media project, making sure to choose things that will be financially viable, looking at trends to see
what sort of media content these production companies should be creating. Commissioning editors
should be good researchers, capable of looking into market trends in order to decide what is worth
investing time into creating, aka what will be financially available

12. Censorship
Censorship is the censoring of material deemed inappropriate, often this is decided by the commissioning
body, for vocal censorship, such as sensitive material or swearing, they will use noise to cover it up, known
as a bleep. For visual stimuli, such as Obscenity, Nudity or writing deemed inappropriate, Black bars will
often be used to cover up the visuals in post production. Most forms of media can be censored, News is
often not allowed to go to press, and Radio stations who say things the government deem “unsavory” can
be shut down.

13. Libel
Libel or Slander is the act of doing damage to an individual's reputation unfairly. The Defamation act (2013),
states that media cannot misrepresent someone, or lie about events relating to that person in a negative
light. Satirical genre’s and comedy often do blur the lines between satire and slander, and sometimes incur
court sentences.
When a scriptwriter writes a script, they must make special consideration to not slander anybody at the risk
of being sued. Opinions cannot be classed as slander, it must be a fact that has been lied about

14. Watershed
9pm is the watershed, a time after which it is okay to show programming meant for mature audiences. Pre-
watershed, you cannot show graphic violence, profane language, nudity,or sexual intercourse, or strong
references to these themes without necessarily portraying them. After 9pm, you can show most of these
things depending on the network, this is so children are not accidently exposed to things deemed
inappropriate, as mostly children will be asleep by 9pm.