Year Two Project

A student on year two who generally does really excellent work has managed to sign up with one of the political parties in a southern constituency (this is anonymnised so that the politicians don't see the question - unlikely though they are to check with the coursesite). So this is source protected! Anyway he asks the following questions, and I think the answer might be of use to all. The question/s:

"There is their campaign in CONSTITUENCY NAME DELETED tomorrow morning, I will join NAME DELETED in their car and follow them for a day. The said that there will be moments that I will not be allowed to film , "conversations on the doorstep" - as they called it. And they want to see my footage and the final peace before I publish it onto my blog too.

I am writing to ask if you have any tips for me before I film. I looked through your notes on uni website but they are quite brief and with no details, and you advised in one of your posts to write you an email if any details needed.

I have a few questions:
Will I need to include a proper interview with my MP? Question - answer form?
Should I include my conversations with him in the movie? Like questions about the future party plans etc?


The answer:
If they won't let you film certain things that's not good, but it is OK so long as you point that out in your piece, maybe with a caption or a voice over - but try and avoid that. You can describe in general terms what they would not let you film. But if you don't need the excluded scenes to make a fair and balacned report, you don't need to mention the ban (eg if they won't let you film them when they were getting dressed or something).

There's no confidentiality issues here at all - the politicians are on a "clear public duty" so they can't stop you filming them, even if they wanted to (so long as it wasn't too intimidating/ threatening/physically obstructive etc).

The people they speak to (who come to the door) are more of a problem. Nothing is confidential, but they do have a section eight HRA privacy right. If they appear on camera you will need at least implicit consent (eg them acknolwedging the camera and looking happy with that). I think you should not film any members of the public and - if you do - you should anonymise them.

You should NOT give them the right to edit your piece under any circumstances. You should be very wary about agreeing to show them the film before you edit it. There is a difference. If they get to edit the film then it is not journaism is is PR / political propaganda.

That means a clear FAIL (fatal errors list) no matter how much effort and initiative you put in to this.

BUT - you can show them the film before they edit is - ONLY TO MAKE SURE THAT THE FACTS ARE CORRECT. Since you are making a purely observational piece that won't really applky (you are not doing a piece to camera for example).

So in practical terms I would say to them you can not allow them to influence the editing of the piece or the selecting of the material because that would mean the piece was propaganda and a big FAIL on your course, and against OFCOm and every code of conduct, etc.

You can say that your piece will be FAIR and BALANCED because the very sxame Fatal Error system and regulation requires that.

Basically they have to trust you will do a fair and professional job. They might not like every moment of the film (it is not a PR film)

You can say if there's issues of fact that arise in the film then you would be very, very happy to show them that and check anything factual, so that anything factual is correct.

Many people don't understand the difference between PR and journalism. So once again you are learning a huge amount just from the conversations you are having here, and it is fantastic learning material for all other students when you share these experiences.

Excellent, excellent work!





ON the conversation in the film - in this generic style YES you can have this so long as he is interviewing you - trwating you as part of the scene.

We will do more about this next year - in these sort of 'fly on the wall' you can't do any exposition at all - but if they start spontaneously talkig to you then you can film that because it is really about them, and not about you... if you see what I mean...