Report Ricky Speed

Types of contract
There are many types of contract in the workplace such as part time contract, full time contract and
fixed term contracts. These contracts are all different in their own ways, for example a full-time
contract is a job where you would typically work over 30 hours a week whereas a part time job
would be something under around 20 hours. Part time contracts are primarily used by younger
people who’re still in education as it allows them to work and still study. All of these contracts will be
utilised at Aardman as they have a lot of different job roles which will require different hours
worked.

Freelancing is one of the very best ways to make a bit of money if you are a college or university
student. Likewise, any other young people who are out of work but have access to the internet can
make decent money doing online freelancing using skills they already have – or skills that they can
improve over the internet.

Freelance work does not have to be just done online, it can be done in the real life too, finding the
work will typically come from the internet though as this is where most people find jobs these days.
Freelance is very common with graphic design as it allows you to have freedom with your work and
also work for yourself, if someone has posted online they want a logo you can give them your price
and they may accept.

Time management
Time management is very important in regard to meeting deadlines, in the workplace this is very
important as if you miss a deadline for a major contract then you might not see work from them
ever again, this could be a massive loss for someone like Aardman as they could lose a contract with
a major company like British Gas for an advert. This would be a major loss for Aardman as an advert
like this could make them close to a million pounds. Managing time is required by everyone in a
team like Aardmans as they all need to work together and help each other out, for example, the
animators can’t begin animating a scene with Wallace and Gromit in it if the person who creates the
model of Wallace hasn’t met their deadline and are still working on it when it should be done. A
manager of a business would usually be in charge of time management as it is their job to overlook
everything and all the workers and to make sure they’re do everything they should be.
Risk management
Risk management is an important thing to consider when you run a business, if anything bad
happens it’s on your hands and you could be greeted with a lawsuit which could ultimately end your
business, if someone is to get injured in the workplace they can sue for a lot of money and it comes
out of the business if it’s the business’ fault.

Risk assessments are a great way to manage the risks in a workplace, they highlight all of the
possible risks and give them a chance of probability and a severity rating, the numbers are usually
from 1-5, 5 being the worst and 1 being the best. An example of what may go in a risk assessment
for a company like aardman would be ‘Someone tripping over a wire’ or ‘electrical shock from water
spillage near equipment’. They won’t be incredibly farfetched risks but they will be relevant to the
workplace as something like ‘being struck by lightning’ is just not probable enough to even consider
for a risk assessment.

Censorship
Censorship is done to media products which are published publicly which are deemed to be harmful
to the public, something like propaganda which is hurtful to a religion or race would be subject to
censorship. Censorship is usually carried out by the government but can also be done by pressure
groups, the government have the most power to do this and censorship is actually a controversial
topic at the moment as people are being censored for things they don’t believe they should be thus
leading to the argument that the government is silencing the public.

If Aardman were to create a film which featured an African character which had stereotypical
attributes such as big lips, this could be subject to censorship as this would be seen as a racist film,
back in the early days of film making this was very common and wasn’t frowned upon at all.

Trademarks
Trademarks come in many shapes and sizes, you can trademark a logo, slogan, words and even
colours, this allows businesses to make themselves distinguishable from other companies as no
other companies would be able to use their trademarked material, Aardman have their name
trademarked which means no one else can use Aardman for their company name. This is very
important as if they didn’t trademark it then someone else could have trademarked it and forced
them to change their name, trademarking should be something you do at the start of starting a
business as it cements your business name and even your logo. If someone were to use your
trademarked material then you have the capability to file a lawsuit against them and sue them for a
lot of money, if their business was a LTD company then you would only be able to take money the
company had but If they weren’t then it would also come out of the pocket of the owner of the
business.

Office of communication
OFCOM otherwise known as The Office of Communications
regulates what is shown/played on ‘TV, radio and video-on-
demand sectors, fixed-line telecoms, mobiles and postal
services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices
operate. ‘In short they make sure that the people of the UK
are protected from scams and ‘get the best from their
communications services’. OFCOM runs under many Acts of
Parliament which includes the ‘Communications Act 2003’,
they must follow the duties set by the parliament in legislation. Some of OFCOM’s legal duties
include ensuring ‘viewers of video on demand services are protected from harmful content’ and that
the radio spectrum is used most effectively.

Health and safety policy

All businesses must have a health and safety policy, it will include agreements you have put in place
in order to help keep everyone safe, it will have a lot of information on it as a health and safety
policy is very important as is something goes wrong which isn’t in your policy then you might be
facing a lawsuit from whomever is injured. You must specify how to be safe in the workplace and if
you’re required to wear gloves or a helmet then this should be in your health and safety policy. You
should also give your employees training to prevent these hazards/risks from taking place. If your
business handles things like chemicals then this is a hazard and must be put in your health and safety
policy, for Aardman they handle things like clay and glue which could be a potential hazard but this is
highly unlikely, the glue could be a hazard but with the proper training this should not be a problem
at all, the use of gloves would also be very beneficial here.
Professional body codes of practice
Codes of practice are a set of rules which employees must follow while they work under that code of
practice, if a model maker from Aardman were to steal clay for his or her own personal use then
they would be breaking the codes of practice and would be fired of at least be given a written
warning. These codes of practice are very important in a workplace as they tell you what you can
and can’t do, this means no one could say ‘I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to do that’ as it will say it
in black and white that they can’t do it, this eliminates petty arguments and even serious arguments
which could lead to things much worse, there are other types of codes of practice but the main ones
are about the rules set in place for a workplace.

Cultural issues and language

There can be many cultural issues and language problems in a workplace, some employees may not
understand someone’s religion and the way they live their lives, for example someone may eat a
bacon sandwich in front of a Muslim and not see a problem with this, however, this is very
disrespectful as people of the Muslim faith do not eat pork. It would also be rude for someone to eat
a banquet in front of someone who is currently going through a fast as this could be seen as teasing
or offensive. In some places there may be a language barrier as they might have a specialist in clay
modelling who isn’t very good at English, this would require you to have a translator in the
workplace as you would need to communicate with them or you would have to know the language
yourself which isn’t very probable.

Working to a brief
Working to a brief requires you to work to someone else's requirements, this can make things much
harder as you don’t have the freedom you would have if creating your own work, it can also help you
out massively by giving you a guideline, it allows you to not have to think for yourself and just get on
with the work at hand rather than come up with the ideas and execute them.

The brief has a scenario which will run you down what the fake situation is, it is usually something
like ‘IceFire gaming has asked you to create them a website, the website must have 4 pages and
feature an array of tools and functions’. You will then create the website using these guidelines, I
prefer to work to a brief as it allows me to get on with the work, the brief also has a deadline which
makes it easy to finish your work on time and not get behind which will make things a lot harder in
the future than it needs to be.

Copyright law
‘Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988’ is currently the UK copyright law. This law gives the
creators of media, music and many other things the authority to decide how their product is used.
The authority the creator has for the product ranges from copying and editing to issuing and renting.
Copyright comes into place if an individual or group creates work which is original and features a
degree of judgement, labour and skill.

Certain things aren’t covered by copyright, for example, you cannot copyright colours, names or
short phrases. Someone may still create an interpretation of your creation as copyright just covers
your independent product rather than the idea behind that product.

Even though I am the creator of this product, I am an employee of your organisation therefore the
copyright belongs to you. This ensures that an employee cannot steal the work they were hired to
do for a company if it becomes beneficial to them.

The duration of copyright lasts for the life of the creator plus an additional fifty years, if the creator is
anonymous then the duration is just fifty years from the time of creation.

The criminal penalties for infringing copyright worth up to £1,000 by means of making profit or to
gain financially, if discovered to be guilty can result in one year in prison and ‘payment of financial
damages and payment of legal fees’. If the infringement is worth over £2,500 then you can be facing
up to five years in jail and made to pay legal fees and financial damages.

Freedom of information
Freedom of information is associated with the laws involving using, storing and regulating personal
information of an individual or group. These laws are commonly thought of as being human rights as
breaking these laws can be embarrassing and endangering for the individual involved. There are six
different types of privacy laws:

Online privacy laws

Financial privacy laws

Health privacy laws

Information privacy laws

Privacy in one’s home

Communication privacy laws

As you can see a few of these laws could be linked with the product we’re creating, we don’t want
content of ours to disclose personal information about someone, or perhaps post an image which
has a phone number in the background.
British interactive multimedia association
BIMA or British Interactive Media Association is an organisation which represents the whole digital
industry in the United Kingdom, BIMA is ran by a committee of an elected thirteen members who
are voted in at the annual general meeting. BIMA supports those who deliver creative and
innovative content at a high quality, they strive to increase commercial growth and generally want a
better future for media in the UK. BIMA hosts many events where awards are presented to those
who produce outstanding work.

Policies and procedures

Libel laws cover defamation of an individual via written statements. ‘Defamation is a statement that
injures a third party’s reputation. The tort of defamation includes both libel (written statements) and
slander (spoken statements).’ We must take libel laws very seriously as breaking these laws don’t
just lead to prosecution and possible lawsuit. Slander is telling a lie about someone to have a
negative effect on their reputation and we must ensure we don’t do this as this is possible without
even realising.

When gaining the usage of music from my chosen artist I have to ask his permission and get this in
writing. First of all, we must gain permission from the song’s publisher, this will usually be from the
record label. We would also make use of contacting the artist’s manager as he can easily point us in
the right directions to gain the clearances we need. Once we have contacted the correct individuals
we can begin to create the waiver which will give us access to use the videos, images and music we
require from our artist.

Ethical requirements
When producing media for this product we need to consider ethical considerations, this means we
must think about the effects of what we do have on people. For example, we cannot disclose
information such as a home address or phone number of someone in our product as this can clearly
be harmful to the person involved. Thinking about the people you are affecting when publishing
work is very important as publishing something about someone that is hurtful or offensive because
that could cause a potential lawsuit which could result in the company your working for going out of
business and even yourself going out of business as no one will want to work with you if you have
caused a previous client to have a lawsuit.
Representation of gender
Gender representation is becoming more and more prominent in today's media with the uprising of
transsexuals and ‘non-binary’ individuals. When considering gender, we must include both males
and females, we could then go on to represent the transsexual community and in fact be ahead of
the curve. This is a very touchy subject at the moment so we must go about it carefully and take
baby steps, the representation doesn’t have to be obvious and could simply be a man who has had a
sex change in an image.

Representation of religious beliefs

Diversity is very important for our product, we must be sure to include a variety of races, genders,
religions and sexuality. We don’t have to go overboard but including one person from each category
will make us a respected company who represents everyone equally.

With religion, there are a few key distinctions which express a person’s beliefs, a follower of Judaism
may have a kippah (small hat), a female follower of Islam may be wearing a burka and a Sikh
follower may wear a turban. Including just one of these will make our product much more
respectable. Depending on the amount of people in our product we will want to make sure we have
a good ratio of religions and not just white British Christians/atheists.