After doing research on the legal and ethical aspects within media, I will now be linking them to my work and thinking about how suitable my concept is in this sense.

In my opinion, my show is almost completely ethical. “Almost” because there are aspects that could technically be deemed as unethical, even though I believe that nobody would consider them so. Since my show, Age of Umbra, is quite dark and made for an older audience, it deals with heavier themes and is not supposed to be a light-hearted fantasy. It is dark and high fantasy, meaning there is a portrayal of war, murder, crime and racism. These subjects are not included to horrify the audience, but are mainly for educational purposes; to show why they are wrong, and how they negatively affect so many people’s lives, they have to be realistic and slightly unsettle the audience, otherwise, there will not be as a strong of an impact. In order for the messages to get across, the fantasy world has to have these types of subjects and a relatively dark aesthetic, as these things reflect our world and would really make the viewers think. Also, considering that my target psychographic is strugglers, I need to include characters who have had similar experiences, in order for them to relate to them and see their stories through the screen. This way, when characters go through ups and downs, the problems are similar to those of the real world, and strugglers will be able to see this and understand how things could go terribly wrong and how there is always hope. I’m hoping to provide a perspective that allows them to view their lives and understand what could be changed. So, the themes need to remain quite dark, and the scenes may be quite sensitive (which is why the target audience is 18 – 28). Another ethical consideration is the portrayal of culture, which is a somewhat prominent part of the show. Not completely, as the cultures are fictional, however, they are still inspired by real-life cultures and therefore reflect them in certain ways. This aspect of my show is completely ethical, as I plan to portray cultures in a positive light, and as realistically as is possible in a fantasy-based world. I want to send the message that differences are things to be celebrated/ and that no matter the different lifestyles, beliefs and traditions, we are all one, and we need to respect each other in that way. The Unitarians forget this after magic disappears for a while, but ultimately, Kreo is only beaten when the different races of magical creatures unite, and they realise that their greatest strengths are uncovered when working together.

As for legalities, I can say for certain that there will be no obscenity or blasphemy, as my show doesn’t really have a focus on religion, and there will definitely be no explicit scenes. This was an easy decision – I feel that these things are unnecessary to my show specifically, in that they aren’t linked to any messages I want to portray and they wouldn’t really add to the emotional depth of any characters (at least not in the way that is beneficial and/or relevant to the story). Defamation also won’t be an issue as all of my characters are entirely fictional, and there is nobody based on a real-life person. This ties in nicely to my next point, which is “true stories” of which there should be none. Again, the world and story are completely made up and I will make a point to clarify that any events which may correspond to those in real life are coincidental. The reason behind me choosing not to have true stories is because I feel that firstly, I would not be able to do justice to the people involved as the experiences are very personal and raw (those would be the kind of stories I’d include if I chose to do this, because of their links to my heavier themes), but secondly, because it is likely that someone is offended by the translation of a real-life event into a fantasy world. It is much safer and easier to think up everything myself and I believe that my target audience would also enjoy this more. Copyright is a very important thing to consider, as a lot of music that would fit well with my title sequence could be copyrighted and I use it without realising this, in which case my video would probably get taken down from any platform I choose to post it on. For Netflix, if they don’t have a contract/deal with the artist, it would cause problems for them as well, and I would be the one to suffer the consequences (fines). This is why, like my previous animation, I will make it a priority to find and use only non-copyright music in my work and give credits where necessary. Finally, we come to possibly the biggest legal issue I may face: consequences for including illegality. A big part of Kreo’s life and what helped him become Lord Umber was discovering his talent in trickery, manipulation and hiding in the shadows. As he grows, he becomes a gang leader, and his group commit many crimes, essentially doing whatever they want to grow in power. Whilst crime is not encouraged, the show definitely shows how someone could grow more powerful because of it. In the end, of course, it is shown that this was the wrong path, but some people may not understand this right away or not at all, and it would have the opposite effect to what I want. But, as I said, it is not encouraged, and there are also many other shows and films out there which portray similar things. As they are mainly for educational purposes and to show character development, I don’t think there would be a problem, even if it is the biggest risk out of them all.