Current Cultural Policies

Cultural policy relates to the government and other local governing bodies protecting, regulating and funding the creative industries. The creative industries are a huge part of national culture hence why it needs special attention and funding in order to make sure the ‘show must go on’. Since it is such a competitive industry, smaller and local creators can find funding very difficult to get their idea ranked with the big leagues. As a result, cultural policy levels the playing field to make the industry fairer and introduce further diversity.

However, a hot topic in the world this week reflects just how insignificant cultural policy is in the eyes of the government. Granted, in times of great emergency, everyone must do their bit to get the world functioning as normal again. However, in an iconic poster published recently by the UK government, there is a ballerina with the quote ‘Fatima’s next job could be in cyber, she just doesn’t know it yet’. This caused great outrage as this unintentionally rocked the entire creative industry stating that no matter what your passion, life goal and ambitions are, you should perhaps get a better job instead. I appreciate how ‘Fatima’ may be needed as a more relevant professional to the current national and global emergency, however it was worded in a way to presume what she’s doing isn’t relevant to the economy anyway. All performers bring great tourism, entertainment and life to the UK’s culture and brings in millions to the economy too, she is still very relevant. As cultural policy is perhaps at it’s weakest, it still needs to be protected to ensure the creative industry’s future stays intact.

A talent release form is a more personal and specific method of protecting your creative work, particularly within filming, photography and audio. The ‘talent’ simply relates to the personnel who is being used as the focal point of the production. The talent release form is essential in order for the talent to consent to their voice, video and photos of them being used for corporate use to be shown. This ensures the talent cannot be sued/sue as they claim it as their own work. For example, a photography producer uses a model to promote the new season at Gucci. It is the producer’s responsibility to organise the talent release form to be signed and approved by the talent, to ensure consent for the product to be used and to avoid being sued for abusing copyright protection. It is a simple document, typically one page which will consist of all the terms and conditions of the release and both the producers and talent’s signatures for full authority and clarity of the production.

Similarly to the talent release, the location release is a particularly important document that must be signed and approved by both the producer and landlord before the production can even begin. Simply, the location release confirms approval by the landlord for the production to take place within their land/building/studio. This compulsory document must be completed before work can begin, this is required for any filming or photography on site. For example, you want to do a full professional photography session in a cafe, you would have to require the cafe manager/franchise manager to confirm approval of the production beforehand. If this is not approved via the release form, the owner is able to sue the production company for using their premises without permission. For another example, you want to film a car chase scene on a landlord’s private land, the document will likely explain how damages will be paid for too by the producer if necessary. A location release form is not necessary for public land such as a public beach, park or road, however public law will apply if broken.

Cultural policy is all about ensuring the creative industries are in the Government's best interest and there is no doubt that the creative industries are a hugely significant income source for the economy. To have towns and city centres full of lively, exciting and desirable sectors of the nine departments for DMCS raking in the money daily, it is unsurprising to see that the industry in 2018 made £117b, with 5x faster annual growth than the average with 1 in 11 jobs in the UK a part of this huge growth, that’s roughly 3.2 million jobs nationally. For the data to be released for 2019, this is likely to grow intensely as projected, the same as 2020 was likely to be another successful year for the creative industries before the introduction of Covid-19. However, with such extreme collapse of the creative industries s a result of the coronavirus, it could take years and years to get the industry back to the form we saw in 2018 statistically. The talent experience and education has been taken away from the youngsters, people will still be afraid to go out as we saw in the summer of 2020 and the idea of being in crowds of people will still seem alien and uncomfortable for years to come. To keep the cash rolling in, many firms have had to result to complete rebranding and alternative options to keep the business simply surviving within government regulations.

As mentioned, comparatively, the growth of the creative industries was forecast to expand spectacularly year after year, as more education in the arts are available, interest for live performances grow and the experience of going out had never been better, before 2020 hit. The infographic below, obtained by The Creative Industries Council UK, proves this point further. The graphic specifies the hotspot stars, cash cows and problem child of what sectors are responsible for the growth of the creative industries. I highly doubt statistics will reach a peak like this for years to come, however, once the world opens back up again, there will be drastic need for the creative arts and entertainment.

youngcreativecouncil.com