Requirements for pre-production.

Pre Production requirements


Types of production

The media product we made was a short film for a competition called Depict. A short film also known as a "short" is
defined as by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". As said before our short was created for depict which is an online competition That "challenges filmmakers on any budget from anywhere in the world to show their stuff in just a minute and a half". We were put into groups of three and began to think of ideas we could use, bearing in mind we only had 90 seconds to portray a story. Once we had agreed on an idea we began our pre-production planning which included: A synopsis of the story, shot list detailing every shot we planned to use, location release, a recce photo shoot, Talent release forms, prop list, risk assessment, crew contact list, product schedule, budget form and storyboard. Once all this was done and we were prepared, we began to film the short using cameras and tripods from the AV room at college. After we had completed our shorts and we had the finished edit we had to distribute the film. For our short we decided to use the online video streaming service YouTube as it is free and still gives the film the potential to be seen by a massive audience, and therefore was a very efficient way of distributing the film.

A short film however is only one of many moving media products which all have many different ways of being distributed. Examples of moving media products are: feature length films, TV series, Standalone programmes, serial programmes, animations, web series, music videos, adverts, gifs, and channel idents. Feature films for example According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, American Film Institute, and British Film Institute, are films that run for 40 minutes or longer, while the Screen Actors Guild states that it is 80 minutes or longer. An example of a feature film would be American beauty (1999, Sam Mendes)
which has a running time of 122 minutes. Feature films also tend to have bigger budgets, especially Hollywood films like American beauty, which means a larger range of distribution methods are available. American beauty was released in cinemas in the US on the 8th of September 1999. Feature films, especially higher budget usually start of distributing through cinema releases because they reach a wide audience and also make seeing the film an occasion, allowing them to keep cost high maximising profit. A DVD release usually follows this some months later. In American beauty's case this was actually a few years later on January the 2nd 2002, probably because of technological reasons and because of the film's success, the movie was probably able to extend its stay in cinemas due to the hype of its Oscar wins. Later still feature films are normally released through pay-per-view television, such as Sky televisions sky movie package that show feature films on their channels; and finally free-to-air television in which films that have been out for some time will show on free channels, American Beauty did just this on the 5th of September 2014 on BBC two. This staggered release tactic gives each distribution method an exclusive opportunity in which to profit from the movie. Recently the online movie streaming service has emerged into the market as well in the form of companies like Netflix. This now is also a much used way of distributing Feature length films and TV series alike.

TV series are another type of moving image production and again have their own ways of being distributed. Take the TV series Breaking bad for example. This Series premiered on the American television network AMC on the 20th of January 2008. As the name suggests the first point of distribution for A TV series is usually on a television network. These Series are also usually advertised on TV channels and online. This different method of primary distribution is because of the way the two types of media make money. Because of the one off nature of feature films it is more efficient to take advantage of a cinema release to profit from the film. TV series however are split into multiple episodes, it is therefore more profitable to make money from commercial breaks during the show, and sponsors of the show. This shows how different moving media production benefit and suit different types of distribution. TV series do however, if successful, release to DVD/Blue ray. Breaking bad did this having the first season releasing on DVD on the 24th of February 2009. Breaking bad also took advantage of the online streaming service Netflix,
 a now hugely popular method of distribution. It is also argued that in Breaking bad's case Netflix increased it's ratings by 100% for the final series launch on AMC. "Breaking Bad more than doubled its US audience to 6m viewers for Sunday’s final series launch - with show creator Vince Gilligan chalking up the show’s success to the explosion of video on demand services." This is an example of how the characteristics of one distribution service, in Netflix's case the on demand availability it offers, can drastically effect how the same piece of moving media is perceived on a different method of distribution.

Other types of moving media production are stand alone programmes, these are one off television shows and often for special occasions such as the wedding of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge that was broadcast on BBC1 on the 29th of April 2011.

There are also serial programmes. These are programmes that are continuous such as the BBC news at 6 O'clock or soaps such as East enders.

Animations is a CGI made moving media production, it could be argued and animation could also fall under other categories like a feature film, for example Lion king (1994, Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff) and more recently Frozen (2013, Crhis Buck and Jenifer Lee).

A newly emerging form of moving media production are web series. These are series that are released on the internet usually via streaming sites like YouTube. An example of a web series would be the YouTube based series Video game high school.

Music Videos are another very popular type, these are simply videos that are made to compliment songs and are often shared on social media sites, mainly on YouTube. A very famous example would be the YouTube hit Gangnam Style which has over 2 billion views.
Another probably less popular type would be Adverts and TV commercials. Adverts are literally found everywhere. On TV, websites, social media sites and even outside the home using bill boards and electronic advertisement boards like the ones found in times square or around football pitches. An example of a TV commercial/advert would be the Compare the Market adverts featuring Alexander.

Finance and sources of funding

Finance and funding refers to the available and required to produced or "fund the production of a film. For our Depict short production we had a college given budget of £5 and then however much of our own money we wanted to invest. The college also supplied all the equipment we need such as the cameras and editing software. Winning the Depict contest would have meant winning £1500 which in turn is another way of funding further productions, through winning contests. For any moving media production funding is always needed whether the project is a small one or a Hollywood blockbuster. Luckily for the industry there a many ways to access the funding needed. For larger production there are: Film producers, large bank loans, merchandising and product placement. Transformers (2007, Michael Bay) is an example of a high budget film with it being $150m. The film was produced by Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Ian Bryce. All these people would have their own money into the film, as all are professional film producers, and fund big Hollywood films for a living. Don Murphy for example has produced films like Natural Born Killers (1994, Oliver Stone) based on a script written by Quentin Tarantino as well as the film League of extraordinary gentlemen (2003, Stephen Norrington). The others between them have produced films such as X-men (2000, Bryan Singer), RED (2010, Robert Schwentke) and the Oscar winning film Saving private Ryan (1998, Steven Spielberg). The Transformers movie also used a method of funding called product placement. This is when companies will pay the owners on the rights to the film to include there product in the film. This will usually only last for a few seconds however will cost companies millions. In fact it did this very obviously featuring a Chevrolet Camaro as one of the main characters in the film resulting in huge sale increases of the car after the films release. Many other brands like XBOX and GMC were also very obviously included in the film. The product placement was so evident that this parody trailer was made mocking how indiscreetly the film used this type of funding. . Another way the film was financed was through Merchandising. A deal with toy manufacturing company Hasbro was made. Hasbro bought the rights to manufacture the official transformers toys that the movie would obviously help sell. They would have purchased these rights giving them the sole right to make and distribute the toys helping to fund the film and make money for Hasbro.As seen here with Transformers being an example, High budget films often will use multiple ways of financing a film.

Clerks (1994, Kevin Smith) is an example of a lower budget film which was mostly self financed by its director Kevin Smith. Clerks was shot for $27,575 in the convenience and video stores where director Kevin Smith worked in real life. The money to fund the film all came from kevin smith who has talked about maxing out multiple credit cards to fund the production of the film. This is known as self financing.

Kick-starter is a crowd funding website in which people with ideas can show and explain their idea, set a target goal for how much money they want to raise, and see if people donate to fund that project. An example of a successfully funded project would be Zach Braff's I wish you were here.

The BFI film fund is another many new film makers can acquire funding. The BFI (British Film Institute) Award lottery funding to aid the British film production. Each year the BFI film fund awards over £26m to UK film production each year and have aided films such as Frank (2014, Lenny Abrahamson).

Requirements

This refers to everything needed to make a moving media production, basically what you are going to spend your funding on. For our short film all of the equipment was provided and our location was the college. We were given the cameras, computers and editing software. The talent was made up of our class mates and some snails. The crew was also made up of our group as we all took turns to film and suggested ideas on the short film.

In bigger films however this becomes much more in depth as the level of professionalism rises. The things you may end up having to spend money for include:

· Talent (Anyone in front of the camera, actors, actresses)

· Equipment (everything from the cameras, editing equipment, transport, props and costumes)

· The crew ( Basically the people who create and develop the film from runners to the director himself)

· Distribution of the film (usaully 30%-60% of the budget is spent of distributing the film)

· Advertisements ( advertising a film can become very expensive, for example 30 seconds of air time during the super bowl cost $4m this year)

· Locations (It will usually cost money to get permission to shoot on certain parts of land)

· Expenses ( This can include everything from food to petrol for transport)

· Accommodation for crew members and talent

· Copyright and music (If the film features music or anything else with a copyright the owners of these will have to be paid)

· Facility houses (film companies will often pay these facility houses to produce props for the film they are creating)

Personnel

This refers to the people involved in the production of a film, the crew and talent. Obviously this differs depending on how big a production it is.

A low budget short, like our one will require less people. Ours for example required a camera operator, editor and the talent which in this case consisted of two class mates and 4 snails. We also had a script consultant, a friend of mine Kirk Delay who helped me develop the script.

A professional television programme however will require many more people. Take for example Top gear the most watched television show in the world. This show has a list of directors, cast, producers, music producers, film editors, a production design team, art director, production management team, assistant directors, art and sound departments, stunt coordinators, camera and electrical departments, editorial departments, music departments, transport departments, script editor/supervisor, researchers, guest booker, health and safety mangers, creative director, and even a underwater team for 1 episode. A full list of the cast needed for this series can be seen here (2008, Brett Ranner)'s cast and crew can be seen here to include writers, a director rush hour 3(2008, Brett Ranner)'s cast and crew can be seen here to include writers, a director Brett Ranner , a large cast, list of producers, a person in charge of music, a cinematographer, someone in charge of casting, film editors, stun coordinators, production designers, art designers, set decorators, costume designers, a makeup department, second unit/assistant directors, visual effect department, assistants and endless amounts of roles.

For our production we recorded who took what role in a production diary that can be seen on my blog. I came up with the idea and wrote the script, this seemed a natural choice as I, being the person who had thought of the story was able to have a clearer picture of we were trying to create and how I wanted the short to look. Me and jack both designed the story board and shot list as we both had different ideas on how to implement our ideas, so merging them together gave us a better understanding of how we were going to produce the short. Yasmin was tasked with a lot of the paper work. She took care of the risk assessments and location/talent release forms. Once we had our pre production paper work ready we began to film the short. I was tasked with finding the talent i.e. the snails. Me and jack both took turns positioning the snails and filming. When it came to recording the voice over's we needed, jack used a microphone of his to do so. Both me and jack had dialogue in the film as well as Ellis and Ruben who agreed to help us with our short by playing two of the characters. After this was completed we began the editing. Jack took the lead role at this stage as he was the experienced editor in the group however we all helped to edit the film, and yasmin developed the freeze frames we used to introduce the characters.

Time

This is our production schedule. We managed for the most part to follow this to the letter. Apart from where filming was concerned as we were interrupted by the weather however we managed to finish and upload the film to YouTube before the deadline.

In the professional film industry not meeting deadlines can have very severe consequences. The film World war Z (2013, Marc, Foster) for example was said to have a terrible production stage causing the film to be delayed from its original December 2012 release date to June 2013. This obviously cost paramount a lot of money and estimates of the film's production cost start at $200 million going up $400 million. It did still however manage to make a profit according to Box office mojo who claim the film grossed $540,007,876 worldwide since its release. However the planned sequel to the film has decided to sign a new director for the film as Brad Pitt's company plan B split from paramount after the release of the troubled film; perhaps another consequence of the poor production phase the film went through.

Equipment and facilities

In the production of a profession moving media production equipment will be needed. Facility houses are used to obtain equipment like camera and props that are needed.

An example of such a facility house is The Hall,an Oxfordshire based Facility house. Some of The Halls recent work can be seen here . Also here are a list of some of the services they can provide: • Film crews and kit, shooting in HD or SD on tape or solid state.

• A sound proof, air conditioned 30m2 TV studio with blue/green screen

• An Avid Symphony Nitris DX Edit Suite with full broadcast Video and Audio Monitoring / Measurement

• Three HD / SD Avid Media Composer Edit Suites with full broadcast Video and Audio Monitoring / Measurement

• A HD / SD Final Cut Pro suite with full broadcast Video and Audio Monitoring / Measurement

• A ProTools HD Audio suite with V/O booth, ISDN and tielines to the TV Studio for larger recordings

• Harding FPA Testing
• Format conversion / transcoding to all major formats whether tape or tapeless
• DVD / Blu-ray authoring.

For our Depict short we used college equipment obtained from the AV room. This included HD cameras and tripods. We also used a microphone bought in by jack, and the editing software (premier pro) and computers were also provided by the college.

Locations

For our film we uses a location on the college site which required permission from the college in the form of a location release. If we were to film outside of the college this would have required emailing the police so to inform them of any suspicious activity that might occur due to the filming of the short. Location recces and releases are always required. A location recce is literally a scout of the location you plan to use. This is done to see how suitable a location it is for the film, and identify any difficulties using that location may cause to the production. A location release is needed to legally film on a site that is owned by someone or organisation. The release form gives you the permission to film on that site and therefore do so legally. The reason we chose to film in the college is because it suited the narrative and it didn't require any police permission. All we need was a bench to be in the background and the college had benches in abundance so it made sense to stay on site. We carried out a risk assessment of the entire production including the location. In truth however there weren't any prominent risks and the only difficulty we had was torrential rain one day that stopped filming.

Materials

Many other everyday and unexpected thing are needed in the production of a moving image text. For example these may include petrol, transport, mains electric, makeup, props, lighting, SD card, consumables, permissions and other documentation like visa's. These all come into consideration when making a production. All of these will cost money, petrol for example is very expensive as is the rental of cars that are required. Electric bills and paying for permission/copyrights will all substantially effect the cost of a production.

Legal

There are many legal consideration to take into account before beginning production on for example a film. Copyrights, permissions, insurances and if filming in a different country visa's will all have to be organised and completed before production can begin. Our short for example required the location releases and talent release forms that gave us the right to include locations and people in our short legally, these would be examples of permissions.

Copyrights for films are also very important. Copyright protects your work and stops others from using it without your permission. This extract from the http://www.gov.uk/copyright/ outlines the features of a copyright and how one is obtained.


You automatically get copyright protection when you create:

· original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work, including illustration and photography

· original non-literary written work, eg software, web content and databases

. sound and music recordings

· film and television recordings

· broadcasts

· the layout of published editions of written, dramatic and musical works

You can mark your work with the copyright symbol (©), your name and the year of creation. Whether you mark the work or not doesn’t affect the level of protection you have.

How copyright protects your work

Copyright prevents people from:

· copying your work

· distributing copies of it, whether free of charge or for sale

· renting or lending copies of your work

· performing, showing or playing your work in public

· making an adaptation of your work

· putting it on the internet


Copyright overseas

Your work could be protected by copyright in other countries through international agreements, eg the Berne Convention.

In most countries copyright lasts a minimum of life plus 50 years for most types of written, dramatic and artistic works, and at least 25 years for photographs. It can be different for other types of work.

In our production we wanted to use a piece of music that featured in the film Rock n rolla (2008, Guy Ritchie) which has a copyright meaning we couldn't use that piece of music.

Clearance is a term that refers to getting permission to use a copyright.

Public liability insurance refers to a type of insurance that cover up to a certain amount of money on a production.

Completion guarantee is insurance that covers, normally producers, in the case of a film not being completed so if it does turn out to be the case they don't lose their money.


Regulation

A regulatory body, is usually a public or government ran agency responsible for maintaining standards and exercising authority over some aspect of human activity. OFCOM is an example of such a body responsible for regulating the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate as stated on their website. Basically its function is to make sure the media being broadcast to all of us is suitable and legal, and example of this would be the watershed that doesn't allow swear before 9pm.

The BBC is regulated by the BBC Trust who states according to their website that "Our job is to get the best out of the BBC for licence fee payers. We set the strategic direction of the BBC. We hold the Executive to account for its performance of its functions, and for its compliance with the law, with regulatory requirements, and with the policies, guidelines and codes that we set. We are supported by the Trust Unit, a team of professional BBC staff who report directly to us and who are operationally independent from the rest of the BBC. "

The BBFC or the British Board of Film Censors was set up in 1912 by the film industry as an independent body to bring a degree of uniformity to the classification of film nationally. Statutory powers on film remain with the local councils, which may overrule any of the BBFC’s decisions, passing films we reject, banning films we have passed, and even waiving cuts, instituting new ones, or altering categories for films exhibited under their own licensing jurisdiction.

Moving media distributed online is regulated by the Association for Television on Demand however there isn't really any legal regulation of online video.

Trade unions and associations

The definition of trade union is an organized association of workers in a trade, group of trades, or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests. It is for this reason they are so important as without them there would be no one to represent any industry as a whole.

PACT is an example of a trade union there website says Pact is the trade association representing the commercial interests of UK independent television, film, digital, children’s and animation media companies and that they help to shape the best possible regulatory and legislative environment for the independent production sector to grow domestically and internationally. PACT help to shape the regulations and legislation that governs the media industry, in ten years, the sector has turned from a small business into a multi billion pound industry and are heavily involved in the media sector helping shape it today.

BECTU is the UK's media and entertainment trade union; sectors covered include broadcasting, film, independent production, theatre and the arts, leisure and digital media. They protect their 25,000 members by, negotiating pay, conditions and contracts with employers on behalf of their members. For example if there was a pay dispute between members of BECTU and an employer. BECTU would advise their members on what action to take, as well as negotiate with the employers to reach a settlement that pleases their members.

According to Wikipedia a trade association also known as an industry trade group, business association or sector association, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association participates in public relations activities such as advertising, education, political donations, lobbying and publishing, but its main focus is collaboration between companies, or standardization.