Development: Regulations & Permissions

 This blog outlines the regulations we followed as well outlines the process of asking permission to use the song for our music video project.

Media Regulation:

Before starting the project our teacher reminded us about the rules that cambridge recommends us to follow such as avoiding sensitive topics such as Suicide and drug use and avoid dangerous acts such as harsh violence or shooting in or with motorised vechicles. Simultaniously we have to follow the regulations of the schools which meant our product could not contain explicit imagery nor explicit language These regulations aim to protect and keep us safe however some may argue that they limit and censor our creativity. However these rules did not impact our production or our image as we kept these rules in mind since the beggining and made sure our video did not involve content that would violate the regulations.

If we were talking in the sense of govermental regulation Indonesia uses Lembaga Sensor Film which is the regulatory body which sorts films and other content onto 4 age ratings shown below taken to from their website.

According to the age ratings of Lembaga Sensor Film, our music video would fall under 13 years above as it features implied violence with the execution scenes however we did not explicitly show the deaths of the prisoners but only implied they were hit by a weapon. However our music video does feature mature themes of political corruption which would make it a higher age rating however those themes are not as explicit due to the lack of dialougue and have to be interpreted by the audience and as mentioned by Stuart Hall audiences can have multiple readings of a text. This would aswell fit our target audience of Teens and young adults.

Permission:

Background:

Pierce The Veil:

To respect the artists copyright we wanted to write an email to the music label behind the song. After the quick google search we found that the Karma Police cover by Pierce the Veil was released under Fearless Records which is distrituted by Concord which is an independant music company which owns Fearless Records which is one of the world's leading independent rock labels. 

Radiohead:

However the song Karma Police which Pierce the Veil covered is made by Radiohead and released by Parlophone which was a subsidiary of EMI which was bought by the Universal Music Group in 2012 but Parlophone is now owned by Warner Music group, as in 2012 Universal Music Group wanted to buy EMI but the European commision would only allow it if Universal Music Group were to divest Parlophone which allowed Warner Music Group to aquire it. However as of 2016 the ownership of Radiohead's discorgraphy with Parlophone was transfered to XL records which is a birtish independant label due to Warner Music Group making a deal with Impala ( Independent Music Companies Association) a non profit trade assosciation to divest 30% of Parlophones catalougue to independant labels with artists approval. 

So to play it safe we decided to email both XL records and Concord/Fearless records.

XL Records:

Contacting XL records was quite easy they had a contact us page on their website where users could submit messages so I wrote a simple message stateting how I'm a year 12 media studies student in Bali making a music video for my final project which uses one of their songs.

Concord:

Finding the contacts for Concord was quite easy as they had a page on their website for License Request forms however the process was a bit long and tedious as it was letigious and very formal which is the right way of doing things.

The first page lists our the diffrent types of License Request forms as shown below. This required me to do some research on the types of License Request Forms which I found on

https://www.foximusic.com/7-types-of-music-licenses/

This helped me conclude that the one I needed was a Synch or Synchronization License Request Form as a music video has audio and visual elements and a synchronization license is required when music is used in combination with visual media. This includes movies, TV shows, commercials, YouTube videos, and more.

After clicking on the Synchronization License Request Form it brought me to the next page where I had to fill in general information regarding my production ( The Music Video).

This included a synopsis where I gave a little description of the narrative of the music video. As well as the location and where it would be published/uploaded.

Next up is the song request this had me explaining the song used which was Karma Police - Pierce The Veil and how and how long it was used including a description of how it was used.

Lastly They allowed me to upload a few files that would help them better understand the music video and such I uploaded the storyboard and Statement of Intent which would give them a good idea of what the music video is about.

Lastly Submitted YAY!

Reflection:

For the media regulation section it was quite easy as I was just rehashing what was told to me by my teacher about the rules by cambride and the rules by our school regarding the content we could/couldn't include. As well finding the indonesian regulations by Lembaga Sensor film was quite easy as it was on their website with an optional english translation their regulations are also very descriptive which allowed me to get a specfic understanding of the ratings.

For the permissions things got a bit confusing as it was hard to find the exact owners of the songs but for Pierce the Veil it was fairly easy as they had an independant record label which was owned by an independant music group. However for Radiohead as the song Karma Police is old and due to media consolidation where media companies buy out and aquire one another the song rights changed hands alot which caused me to go on a rabbit hole to find the history behind the record companies. 

For the asking permission part this was really intresting as it gave me first hand experience on how to license the use of a song from a record label however the process was somewaht complicated and letigious especially for a student however the experience I will find useful for the future.