Bernard’s Watch “A Little More Time”

Copyright and health and safety issues

Health and safety is important on a set. Producers in the children’s drama have to ensure that the set is practical and that the people that are working with, and for the producers and not at risk of health and safety. So you should have at least one crew member that is experienced and aware of health and safety issues and how to overcome them. In a children’s drama, the children partially needs to be protected from hazards that may occur, dangers such as faulty props that may be a danger to the children, such as a lose set of lighting that could fall down, maybe wires are loose on the floor and someone could trip over and really hurt yourself, so to prevent that they are taped to the floor. Not all hazards are physical, you could have older crew members swear off stage and the children hearing them and repeating it. Also things like adult humour could also be a hazard as once again a child could hear it and maybe be affected. There should also not be alcohol on set, as a child might drink it by accident, so no drinks like alcohol is appropriate around the set.

 Children need to be safe on set as for a start if they get injured the production has to stop until they get better, also if a child gets hurt, where they are still looked after by their parents they may sue against the production company for their child getting hurt. Children also need to be careful because they may put other actors or fellow production members at risk, for example if they are running around on set, they may hurt someone, or damage equipment, so they have to be careful and mature on set. Other dangers are for viewers, they can film their child actors for example running into a busy road, as it may promote bad behaviour to a child viewer and they may get hurt themselves.

Children also need to be looked after on set, so children need time off to catch up on their education that they are entitled too, also there should be a food stand supplied on set so if anyone on set gets hungry there is food for them, so they don’t have to go off set to get good, which could also be dangerous for the children if they go out on their own.

Copyright is important when creating any film or TV series, as if it’s not copyrighted someone could steal their idea and put it as their own, however if it’s protected by copyright then another person has to ask before they can copy the work, rent, let other borrow or give out copies of the work out to others, perform, broadcast or show the work in public and adapt the work. To copyright your work you put the copyright “C” on your work, and post yourself it but don’t open it as if you open it it’s not proof of copyright if someone tries to use the work as their own.