Apprentice Digital Video Production Producer Response Letter

To whom this may concern, 

I am writing this letter in response to the job advertisement you placed, looking for a producer to help produce a short film about date rape for a campaign. Initially, I was very drawn in by this job opportunity and I immediately read through the entire page but to my disappointment, I came to find many unpleasant and unprofessional sections.

One such example would be when you give a very unclear and puzzling range of hours that one would have to work if hired. You state that a person will have to work 'between 10-45 hours'. This is a huge difference in time and there is no further detail or explanation on what factors may effect these hours. As well as this, you also give an indefinite salary estimate of '£15,000-£30,000 per annum', but give no reasonable answer to give a potential applicant an idea of the work to pay ratio and what effects it. This kind of unsatisfactory content is a breach of a working contract and can be used as evidence if taken to court. It is an employees right to know the exact pay and hours that they are undertaking when applying or obtaining a job.

The segment in which you request a person 'aged below 30' could be considered discrimination against anyone over that age, even though it may not have been intentional. The fact that you asked specifically for a 'male or female' and have no mention to anyone transgender, could also be considered discrimination as there are many people that are now in the transgender community which breaks the The Equality Act which that protects people from discrimination ,based on age, gender or race, in the workplace. Despite all this, the one thing that many people will take the most seriously, is the fact that you state that applicants must have 'Christian beliefs'. This will enrage many people as religion is a huge part of many people's lives so them seeing that they're unable to even apply for a job if their views are not Christian, will put them off and possibly lead to a complaint being made.

Further into the job description, I found the brief of the video you would like to have made. One statement that you made that particularly offended me was the one in which you said you want 'female victims and male offenders'. This could also offend many other applicants, as females can be offenders and males can be victims too. To add to this, the very topic of the documentary and the request that we interview real rape victims could cause many problems for the interviewee, as it could cause flashbacks and triggers for them, leading to mental health problems. As the applicant is not officially working for you at this point, if anything were to go wrong either to them or the interviewees during the production, your applicant would have to take full responsibility for that whilst you have no inclusion whatsoever. To combat this, you should have inserted some codes of conduct to guide the applicant through a safe route of producing the documentary.

Another point that may cause legal issues is the fact that you ask us to interview teenagers in high school which means they are under 18 which is the legal age to give consent to be featured in a film. This means forms and consent would have to be given by parents, but if any of the interviewees were to lie, this would have a huge backlash on the applicant. The Communications Act and the Broadcasting Act given by Ofcom would be helpful in this situation as it is in place primarily to protect under 18's. This leads me  to feel obligated to mention the Obscene Publications Act that was put into practice to increase protection against pornography, which reenacting a rape situation, might be considered as, especially when it includes people under the age of 18, which you have requested be done. In a way to combat this in some way, I suggest you contact the BBFC, as they will give you an official age rating for the documentary, so that people know what it may include, such as graphic scenes and content of a sensitive nature. 

During this brief, you also state that the applicant must include a 'popular music soundtrack' to go along with the video. This could and most likely would violate the Intellectual Property as well copyright laws. This is due to you only giving a £20 budget for the entire video, which by itself is not enough to buy the rights to use a popular song. This could cause even more legal issues such as law suits filed against your applicant. 

I hope you take my points and concerns into consideration and choose to withdraw your job advertisement and change these problems before re-posting it.

Yours sincerely, 
Sebastian Lear.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equality-act-2010-guidance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obscene_Publications_Acts
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/a_to_c/communications_offences/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property