Wednesday, 23 November 2016

The Pre-Production Process - Requirements for a Moving Image Production

Type of Moving Image Production (Media Forms)
This assignment is going to be about the different aspects and process of pre-production and what is asked for in a moving image production. 
The 90 second short film we produced is for a web based competition called DepicT! we distributed online via YouTube where after i shared it onto Facebook so the film went further online for more to see. There are many more moving image products like feature films, television programmes (singles, series, serials), web series/webisodes, music videos, adverts, idents etc. The way these moving image products are distributed may be different to my 90 second short film where i used only social media they use DVD's, Blu-rays, online (websites,social media, blogs), cinema release, public screens and TV (scheduled, on demand)

Finance and Sources of Funding
Finance and sources of funding is important for a moving image production. Different sources of funding exist in the film industry, Megan Ellison uses private investors where she financed a film which had a budget of $2 million. Robert Rodriguez uses his own money to invest into his films, Rodriguez directed the 1992 action film El Mariachi, which was a commercial success after grossing $2 million with a budget of $7 million. these are called private capitals, where film makers or producers use private places to get money to fund a film. Banks and Loans are also another way to get money to make a film. Grants/funds/bursaries (BFI Film Fund,etc), competitions, crowd funding/e-begging, selling rights/marketing deals etc.

Requirements
We didn't have a budget so we didn't spend any money. If we had a budget we would have made the film better by having better costumes, location and props. maybe we could have used more actors to make the opening scene of the party more realistic. There are some things you would need to spend money on to make a movie successful. You would need equipment, which costs a lot of money, there are places around where you can hire equipment from for example https://www.hireacamera.com/ is a good site which lets you hire out camera equipment such as still cameras and motion cameras. Transport, transport can be an issue if your filming in a far away location. the cost of transport can be pricey as taxis, trains and buses can cost a lot. Even if someone drives their car, petrol can cost a lot as it depends where you want to set your film. Talent, this can be a tough thing to sort out if your not using close friends and family in your films, private hire of actors can be a tricky thing to work out. You would need to pay each actor and their agent. You'll need to do interviews, which take a long time and then the decisions of which actor is best is hard. Crew, our crew is made up by our groups in college. Materials, materials Facility hire and clearances/insurance/copyright. We borrowed our equipment, materials, talent and crew from the college. We didn't need transport as we filmed inside the college building. The college insurance would have covered any damage made and we didn't need to hire the facility we used as it is an open place for college students to use.
We needed to obtain our camera equipment, which was a camera and tripod. we also sued a microphone to record all the dialogue. We borrowed all these from the college. Our Talent, which we used our college class friends as this was easier to do as we didn't have much time to get more actors to play the roles. And finally our permission for location use, where we needed to write out a location release and state where we were filming, which we filmed inside the college. So we got it signed by our teacher, Joshua Trett.

Personnel
The three main moving image productions are a low budget short, a Television Programme and a Hollywood Feature Film. These three moving image productions differ from each other in a lot of ways. A low budget short has a limited amount of actors and crew, for example Above the Fold (Written and Directed by Joshua Trett) has 18 actors and 6 different crew members, each having their own job to do. Above the Fold has a Producer, a Cinematographer, a Film editor, a sound department, a visual effects guy and a camera and electrical department. all these crew members are a main part of making Above the Fold successful. A television programme has a little more actors and crew members than a low budget short. For example The Big Bang Theory, a television programme (Series 10 Episode 1: Directed by Mark Cendrowski) has many different kind of producers. Associate Producer, Co-Producer, Co-Executive Producer, Supervising Producer, Executive Producer, and Producer. They also have a Cinematographer, Film Editor, Casting team, Production Designer, Art Direction team, Set Decorator, Costume Designer, Make-up Designer, Production Manager, Second unit Director or Assistant Director, Art and Sound Department, Special Effects guy, Camera and Electrical Department, Costume and Wardrobe Department, Editorial and Music Department and Transportation Department. All these Different roles are used to make up an episode on The Big Bang Theory. A Hollywood Feature Film has many many more Actors and Crew that the list goes on. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Directed by David Yates) has the same Departments as a low budget short and a Television Programme with added departments as well.The biggest Department that has many roles is the Visual Effects Department. Visual Effects plays a massive role in The Harry Potter Franchise as each part of the movie weather its seeing Hogwarts or Quidditch.

In our Small Group of three we had to take more than one role each. Lochlan was the Main Character and he was in charge of the Set Designs. Billy was a back ground actor and he was in charge of the Sound and Cinematography. I Was the Camera and Electrical Department, Director, Producer and Film Editor. Having more than one role in making a 90 second short film with no budget is a hard task to do but we managed to get it done and the outcome of the final cut was good.

The main crew isn't the only people that make a production successful. The cast and the back stage crew are also a main part of a moving image production. Without the make-up department and the costume designers are a very good part of a moving image production. Without make-up and costume none of the characters can come to life.

Time
The time frame we had was 4-5 weeks to have a completed final cut of our 90 second short film. Our group finished filming in 2 - 2 1/2 weeks and editing took roughly 2 weeks. We spread our filming into a long time to make sure every When you don't meet the deadlines in the professional film industry the film can go over budget as you have to pay for the actors extra time, the camera hire extra time and the public hates waiting for a new film to be let out late. My group finished 2 days before the deadline where we got everything filmed, edited and exported to make out 90 second short a real film

Equipment/Facilities
The best place to obtain Equipment/Facilities for a moving production can be found on many websites. Good websites for Equipment hire and use is https://www.hireacamera.com/ and https://calumetrental.co.uk/cameras. On Hire a Camera, a Sony PMW-100 for 5 days will cost £211.20 and on Calumet Photographic to hire a Sony Alpha A7S Mark 2 Mirror-less Digital Camera will cost £95.00 for a daily and weekend hire.

The equipment we could obtain for our DepicT! project was a Canon 700D Digital DSLR Camera. We got these from college and borrowed them for as long as we needed them. For our Audio we needed to use a microphone to record all the dialogue to make it sound smoother and crisper. We also needed to borrow a tripod to put the camera on, these were all free to use from the college.

Locations
We decided to film our DepicT! 90 second short film inside the college as we thought it would have been easier to film there as it was closer and everyone in our group can make it to college. We got our legal permission from our teacher or the head of the media department to sign our location release.

For our DepicT! 90 second short film we had to produce a location recce and a location release for every location we used. Our group used 2 different rooms in East Norfolk Sixth Form College.

A location recce is where we go around and take pictures of our location, the number of plug sockets there are in a room and where the fire exits are.

A location release is where it states who is filming and the name and address of the owner, the phone number of the location and where we get permission to film in that location.

We picked W16 (the media filming room) because its an enclosed space and tends to be a dark place. We thought that if we used this room for the stages of where Simon (the main character) was depressed and lonely, it would connotate that. We used this space for the opening scene of the party and the scene where he opens the letter. We also used W18 (a computer room) because this room had some tables and chairs where we thought we could film the mental health meeting with Dr. Julie, as this room had a door close to some windows and a variety of space to use so we had enough room to put the tables where we wanted them.

The risks we faced were very minor risks like chairs and wires being in the way and causing injury. We also had the risk of damaging college camera equipment which we would have had to pay for if we did. We assessed this through a risk assessment form which can be found on my blog (pre-production paperwork). To make sure no injuries occurred to took extra care while filming and travelling from locations.

Materials
In addition to equipment , cast and crew we had to have other materials like a script which was used at the meeting with Dr. Julie and Simon and at the end where the voice over of Susan's letter. We also had to use music, which we got from a free site called Incompetech. From which we obtained our soundtrack for the back ground of our film.

Our Music we used from Incompetech was free from copyright as long as we credited the website at the end. The scripts were not copyrighted as we made them up ourselves and didn't use anything from the web/internet.

Legal Issues
The legal considerations when using certain materials in a media production can very on different things. Music can be copyrighted from different artists and can be taken off your webpage or where ever you've uploaded your product or you could be charged a high amount of money when it comes to copyrighting someone else's products.

you get automatic copyright protection when you create an original dramatic or artistic work, non-literary written work, such as software, web content an databases, sound and music recordings, film and television recordings and broadcasts. to stop people from copying your work you can mark it with the copyright symbol (©) your name and the year you created it. weather you mark the work with the symbol doesn't effect the level of protection.

Copyright didn't effect our DepicT! project as we used free from copyrighted music and we didn't have distinct uses of premade productions.

Liability insurance protects the insured in the event where he or she has been sued for claims that only come within the insurance policy. Damage that is caused intentionally as well as contractual liability are not under the liability insurance policies.

Completion guarentee/insurance is where project sponsers guarantee to the projects lenders, covering the construction phade- the riskiest phase of a project. The guarantors undertake to complete the project within the specified time frame and to pay for the cost of it runs overtime.

Regulations
A press complaints commission (PCC) is an independent self-regulatory body is a person who deals with complaints of the editorial process.

The Office of Communications, also known as Ofcom, formed on 29th December 2003, is the government approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the UK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofcom). Ofcom regulates the content of all television programmes in the UK.

Ofcom regulates the BBC with certain exceptions. The BBC is operationally independent management and has external bodies, and aims to act in the best interests of licence fee payers, this is why it is different to Ofcom.

The British Board of Film Classification, also known as the BBFC is a non-governmental organisation funded by the film industry, responsible for the national classification of films. The BBFC has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVD's, and some video games under the Video recordings act 2010.

The new set of on-demand services are self-regulated by a group of people called the Association for television on demand, which they broadly mirror Ofcom. Online videos are much harder to regulate as anybody anywhere can upload a video to the web/internet. Different responsible sites have systems that can contact the administrators when someone has uploaded something inappropriate, for example Youtube doesn't allow pornography, dangerous, violent or illegal acts to be uploaded on peoples personal channels.

Trade unions and Trade associations
A trade union is an organized association of workers in a trade, group of trades, or profession, formed to protect and future their rights and interests. They protect the integrity of its trade, improving safety standards, achieving higher pay and benefits such as health care and retirement. increasing the number of employees an employer assigns to complete the work, and better working conditions.

Producers alliance for Cinema and Television, also known as PACT is a trade association in the UK representing independent television, feature films, animation and new media productions. Broadcasting, entertainment, cinematograph, and theatre union also known as BECTU is also a trade union based in the UK. who work in broadcasting, film, theatre, entertainment, leisure and interactive media. A trade association also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry.

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