Hi and welcome to the final installment of Education Wise where today we will be talking about ethical, legal and regulatory issues with films, which we will be focusing on The Simpsons Movie.
Passive and Active Audiences:
When it comes to audiences there are two types; passive and active audiences. As said by Theodore Adorno in the 1930s, "Media has a negative impact because the mass audience believes everything they hear." this is known as the hypodermic syringe theory and is basically saying that these are the type of audience who will take it seriously or go out and do whatever they hear or see in the film. An active audience is the opposite as they are able to filter and adjust to the content in the media as said by David Gauntlett. The film doesn't show any form of sexual content so this doesn't cause any negative impact on woman, but there are traces of violence and representations of the audience. Firstly, the film has a negative impact on violence as the town come to kill the Simpsons Family as shown by the nooses, torches and the fact they are in an angry mob, this may be taken seriously by the passive audience and see it as unsuitable for the audience it's targeted at. then there is the negative impact of representation, which I see as though its insulting the target audience, which is Americans, and that this may be spotted out by the passive audience. The reason I think this is because the film represents Americans as immature, this may be because it's a comedy, and the active audience may see it that way, it also shows them as wasteful and uneconomical, as shown at the start of the film, where the town throw junk at a band, on a float in the middle of a lake, which is polluting the lake. As I will explain later in the video, Stuart Hall said that all representations are mediated which means that it's done on purpose, and maybe 20th Century Fox is secretly trying to spread the message that America is these things and so needs to improve in regards to protecting our planet and recycling. Next is the positive impacts of the film, for two reasons; it shows that family values are important and that you should all work together as a family and stick as a family, which the Simpson's do show in the film. Finally, the film shows a positive impact of role models, as Carl Rogers once said is you "Ideal self" and one strong characters who you could see as one is Marge Simpson, the wife, mother and carer of the family, she is the perfect example of a caring and selfless person and wants to save Springfield whilst Homer does not, as he is represented as the opposite, and this fits into the saying that "Opposites attract" and this is why Homer and Marge are perfect together.
Representation:
"All Representation are mediated" said by Stuart Hall in 1980, which he is basically saying that its done on purpose. Tessa Perkins in 1979 had a theory that not all stereotypes are false, and that there are stereotypes and counter-types in films. Stereotypes are characters with common characteristics that relate to a group of people outside the diegesis of the film. Counter-types on the other hand are challenged stereotypes, so the opposites of what a stereotype is, for example, males are dominant stereotypically, but if a woman comes across as dominant, the character would be a counter-type. The film doesn't show any representation of the woman stereotype which is that they are objectified, as Mulvey in 1975 said, but because this is a kids film, which families would go and see, this stereotype doesn't show up in the film. Then there is the representation of men, which is that they are dominant and in control, as said by Earp and Katz in 1999, saying "Equation of masculinity with pathological control and violence", an example of this from the film is when Homer Simpson strangles Bart Simpson, this also shows dominance as Homer is more masculine as he can use violence to gain control. Finally, in 1979 Stanley Cohen said the representation of the youth is "Folk Devil", so obviously this is a negative representation of the young aged characters. The representation of this in the film is Bart Simpson as he's the troublemaker of the film and is definitely shown as a 'folk devil'.
Legal and Ethical:
Copyright infringement is the use of content without the permission or rights to use it, you can prevent it by getting permission from the creator of the content by working out a deal normally with money, otherwise they may sue you and you'll have to pay a fee. So to get a song for example you'd need to seek permission to use it which isn't cheap. One song from The Simpsons Movie would of had to seek permission for was an A&M records song called "Close to You" which wouldn't of been cheap, as the company would want a lot for it to be used in the film. Another song could be "Happy Together" a song owned by Flo & Eddie, Inc. Like I mentioned before, Homer strangles Bart, and this can be seen as offensive to parents in the audience, but it's a cartoon, meaning that one; it isn't real and shouldn't be took seriously, especially when it's a comedy. And two; it's a running joke throughout the series.
Regulatory Bodies:
The BBFC is the British Broadcast of Film Classification, which are the people who rate a film based on the content of a film. The Simpsons Movie in Britain was classed as a PG-13, which means that kids with parents guidance are only aloud to watch it below the age of 13, this is is mainly because of irrelevant humour. The age rating didn't change once from it being in the cinema on the 2nd of July to it being released with full content on DVD on the 18th of December. It kept to the PG-13 age rating by no showing any discrimination, drugs and violence that he kids would likely copy, the film does contain one or two mild bad language, but this is acceptable with PG-13, the scenes with actual violence are not prolonged either and there is no sexual content involved either. The ASA are the Advertising Standards Authority and they regulate the Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing, also known as the CAP or Committee of Advertising Practice code. A CAP code that is a specific example to printed material and movie posters, is Harm and Offence, which is to ensure it doesn't cause offense to the audience, this includes avoiding offence to ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age, but the content may be judged on the context of the films reason for including it in the poster. The poster cannot cause fear to the audience, but can if it's justified and isn't over-exaggerated, the Simpsons Movie poster does not show any content of this. If it refers to a dead person, it mustn't cause any offence to them or the audience, and once again, the Simpsons Movie poster doesn't contain any content of this. The next rule is that it must not contain anything that encourages violence, the Simpsons movie poster does contain a mob with torches and weapons, but because the movie is animated it isn't as dramatic as if it was in real life, so its almost more humorous than offensive to the audience. Then there is the rule that it shouldn't contain anything to encourage children to cause unsafe practice, which the film poster doesn't show. Another rule is not to encourage drinking and driving, which the film poster doesn't contain any encouragement of drinking and driving. The final rule is to not to cause any photosensitive epilepsy to the audience who are affected by it, but once again, the poster doesn't feature anything like this. The reason behind not having any explicit content, and it being appropriate and inoffensive, on the posters is because the posters will be seen public spaces, in which anyone under the age certificate will be able to see it. It will not only be shown in public spaces, but public spaces internationally too and that's because of the mass audience the film is targeting, and if the poster is offensive and inappropriate then it will most likely gain a bad representation.
Thank you for watching this final episode where we learnt about what production companies have to consider in their films, which were ethical, legal and regulatory issues, this was Education Wise. Good Bye.
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