Date:

August 23, 2022

Censorship 101: Five Tips for Telling Your Story Your Way

Creativity happens typically without the oversight of laws, regulations, and guidelines. That is unless you live in a country where government officials look over your shoulder (they do exist). For most writers, however, you can write whatever story you want, up to a point.

The challenge writers face is that oversight is inevitable if the objective is international distribution, even in the most open societies. For content creators who think about sets, locations, script writing, lighting, and even the score, consideration of potential global restrictions must be part of the creative process.

Here are five tips to keep your creation in the good graces of international content reviewers.

Write for a global audience

No script should be censored before you write the first word. Regardless of the genre or subject, content creators should be able to tell their stories their way. That belief, however, often runs contrary to the economics and realities of the marketplace or contract show writing.

Writing with an understanding of your intended global audiences, specifically language, customs, and cultures, is imperative if you want your story to relate to and reach them. Some things can't be "fixed in post."

Your double entendre wasn't that hidden

Understanding to use of humor or language to address sensitive content is one way to address regulatory or cultural concerns. Musicians have used double entendre to talk about sex for decades to get around censors. Songs like Gertrude "Ma" Rainey's, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," Little Richard's, "Good Golly Miss Molly," and Bessie Smith's "Need A Little Sugar in my Bowl" got by censors because the singers didn't use explicit language. But the audience understood perfectly.

Robin Williams said during the production of "Mork & Mindy" that he made an effort to " try different things to see what could get under the radar. " That said, don't underestimate the regulator's observational skills ; they may be more aware than they let on, but they are also humans and can let things slide.

Recognize that different cultures see things differently

You might think themes like drug addiction, rape, child abuse, sexual assault, and suicide are viewed similarly across cultures, but they're not. Suicide, for example, is perceived differently in film and TV ratings in the US, UK, and Japan because the public's attitudes toward suicide vary significantly. In other words, howsuicide is portrayed matters. Is it an integral or minor part of the story? Is it depicted with care or callously? Is it graphic or in the shadows? Is it glorified or discouraged? Is the context "historical, fantasy, realistic, or contemporary?"

Accept what you can't get away with

It doesn't matter where the story is written, produced, or distributed; some subjects literally won't play in some countries. Titles like "West Side Story," "Lightyear," and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," among others, have been banned for featuring LGBTQIA+ characters and stories.

Disney's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" was banned over an actor's comments about the Chinese government. We can cite many examples , but the point is to accept that even the most carefully written positive portrayal of characters or plot lines won't get past censors.

Pick your battles wisely

Scriptwriters welcome opportunities to include political and social commentary in their stories. It contributes to the development of essential storylines and characters. Sometimes they get away with it, and sometimes they don't. The challenge is determining where and when to try and predict whether or how their points land with audiences. While some studios, platforms, and distributors are willing to stand up and fight for stories, that isn't always the case.

Every scriptwriter's objective is to create a story that entertains as broad an audience as possible. Knowing the audience and what engages them while also understanding regulators' concerns can help develop a script that doesn't raise anyone's ire. Sadly, it is not a skill many scriptwriters possess. The good news is that tools and expertise can provide the insights they need to assess scripts for known problematic events.

While it isn't common to utilize localization and culturalization so early in the production process, it is a practice worth considering.

Contact Spherex to learn how to incorporate its content analysis services into your workflow.

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Spherex Classification Tool Now Approved for Home Entertainment Content in Australia

Spherex

Regulation

Classification

The Albanese Government has updated the Spherex Classification Tool approval to include ratings for theatrical releases, home entertainment, and streaming content in Australia. Spherex was previously approved to classify online films.

The update underscores the Australian Classification Board’s confidence in Spherex as a tool to help Australian viewers make informed choices about the content they consume. This means Australians can now access a range of new films sooner than they might across all formats and windows.

Spherex has a longstanding relationship with the Australian Classification Board. Since 2020, Spherex has collaborated closely with the Australian Government to ensure its technology reliably generates classification decisions that meet Australian standards and viewers' expectations.

As the world’s only commercial provider of local age ratings, Spherex has successfully produced classification decisions for high volumes of online content in over 100 countries. Since 2018, Spherex has issued over one million age ratings for digital content, including films, TV shows, and trailers, distributed by its clients worldwide.

Spherex customers, including Umbrella Entertainment, Madman Entertainment, and Sugoi Co., rely on its AI-based platform to obtain local age ratings in Australia and significantly improve efficiency, cost reduction, and market reach.

Discover how Spherex's cutting-edge AI-based platform can streamline your content classification process and enhance your market reach while reducing costs.

Visit spherex.com today and see how we can support your content distribution needs.

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nScreenNoise - Interview Spherex: Avoiding the cultural dead zone

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Culture

One of the conundrums of streaming is that although a service can deliver content globally, it is not guaranteed to be acceptable in a particular local market. Netflix found this out when it announced global availability in 2016 at CES and was quickly banned in markets like Indonesia, where some of the content was deemed too violent or sexual. In 2016, without boots on the ground in a local market, it wasn’t easy to assess whether a show or movie would be culturally acceptable.

Today, global media companies are acutely aware of the importance of their content’s cultural fit. Moreover, they have a company like Spherex to help them prepare their content to ensure it fits with any country of interest. I interviewed Teresa Phillips, the Co-Founder and CEO of Spherex, at the recent OTT.X Summit in Los Angeles. She explained how the company is leveraging AI and its massive cultural profiling database to help companies prepare content for target markets. She also explained how, in the near future, AI would aid the company in measuring a movie or show’s cultural distance from a regional market and help it avoid falling into the failure zone between cultural fit and novelty interest.

Listen to the full interview here.

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Spherex Featured in the DPP's IBC 2024: Demand versus Supply Report

Spherex

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Spherex was featured in the DPP’s IBC 2024: Demand versus Supply Report, a comprehensive look at how the M&E industry is meeting key customer demands. The report focuses on the topics of empowering creators, understanding audiences, engaging users, and innovating the newsroom. It also highlights many of the technical innovations seen at the recent IBC Show.

An article by Spherex’s CEO Teresa Phillips titled "Navigating Cultural Resonance in Global Media: The Art and Science of Culture Mixing" was featured in the report, exploring how Spherex is pioneering the future of culturally informed content.

Teresa shares how cultural mixing has become a critical strategy for creating content that appeals to diverse audiences in today's global media landscape. This phenomenon involves blending elements from different cultures to craft films and television shows that resonate globally while adhering to local regulations.

However, the process of culture mixing is fraught with risks. Superficial or stereotypical representations can lead to accusations of cultural appropriation or insensitivity, alienating audiences and damaging a company's reputation. For example, imposing Western concepts on Eastern content without proper context can feel inauthentic and jarring to local viewers. These missteps highlight the need for a nuanced understanding of cultural elements to ensure that content is respectful and engaging.

To address these challenges, M&E companies are increasingly turning to data-driven solutions. Platforms like SpherexAI utilize artificial intelligence to analyze visual, audio, and textual elements, providing insights into how well content aligns with cultural and regulatory standards across over 200 countries and territories. This approach helps media companies understand the "cultural distance" between a title's origin and its target market, enabling them to make informed decisions about global distribution.

By leveraging these advanced tools, M&E companies can go beyond traditional content localization. They can create media that actively engages and resonates with diverse audiences. As the industry continues to evolve, those companies that embrace culturally informed, data-driven approaches will be better positioned to succeed, fostering cross-cultural understanding and trust while delivering globally appealing content.

Download the report here.

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