Pre-Production process

Pre-production process

The type of media product we used was a ninety second short film and it was used to be entered in a competition called depict which is a competition to tell the best story in ninety seconds. It is only going to be able to be viewed online. It will be distributed onto YouTube and also the depict website if we choose to enter. An example of a ninety second short film is Cool Unicorn Bruv http://www.depict.org/2013/cool-unicorn-bruv/?category_request=. There are many other types of media products such as video billboards, feature length film (Avengers).

 Adverts, Music videos, online Videos (YouTube), Animation, ident (Channel 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx8XsthXsSw) and TV programs including one off specials, series which is a program with a set amount of episodes and seasons and a serial which is a program that has no set end and will end when people lose interest (EastEnders). There are also different types of distribution methods the main ones are Cinema, on demand, Blue-ray, TV, and Downloads.

When making any type of film or production you will need funding there are many different ways of getting funded for a production. The way we got funded for are short film is by the college media budget giving us five pound to get any props or costumes and also had access to the college props that have been used previously and as it was a low budget college production we didn’t need any more than that. There are also other ways of getting funded, the first way is by using private investors who are extremely rich people/companies that give a filmmaker money to make their production and take a percentage of the profit, and an example of a private investor is Megan Ellison.

The next way to get funds is a kickstarter which is a filmmaker asks fans and the public for money to make the production in the promise that it will be good. An example of a kick starter is Zach Braff did a kick starter so he could direct a production https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/

1869987317/wish-i-was-here-1/description. The next way to get funds is studios that are production companies that make films so you can pitch your idea to the studio and if they like it they will give you the money to make it and you would have access to their resources. Another way of getting funds is self-funding which is just using your own money to get your production made allowing you to take all of the profit after paying all the expenses, an example of this is clerks where the director put his own money into the production and ended up making profit from the film.

Another way to get funds is by using competitions to slowly increase your reputation however you also get a money prize which you could use for your next production, an example of a film competition is depict (http://www.depict.org/). The next way to get funds is product placement which is where you use a company’s product in your production and they will pay you for it as it is essentially an advertisement. A few other ways of getting funds are loaning from banks and BFI fund which is giving your idea to a group of important people and if they like your idea you will be given money out of the national lottery funds to produce your film.

When making any type of production you would need pay for many different things which is what you need the funding for, to pay for all the expenses. There are many expenses when producing a film, the first is the cast which is the actors who are going to perform in your production, this also includes the talent (the main actor) and also voice actors, not only will you need to pay their wages but also transport to your location and accommodation whilst they are filming. The next expense is props and costumes meaning all the cloths your cast are going to wear and what they are going to use or hold or props put in the background, all of this needs to be paid for. The next expense is camera equipment meaning all of the equipment needed to film your production including cameras, lights and microphones. Another expense is editing software to actually put all of the film together, for professional editing software it cost a fair bit of money so you would need to pay for software. The next expense is location which is where you plan to film and not only will need to ask for permission you may also be asked to pay a sum of money to use it. This also include sets and other places like recording studios will need to be hired out to get voice overs done. The next expense is crew so every single person who has worked for your production including editors, camera men, makeup artists, set builders and any other people who had anything to do with the production. Another expense is rights so if you have a certain idea that already exists than you will need to pay the original creator of that content as they still have the rights of that content. The next expense is catering, as you have a cast and crew they will most likely be working all day and will to be fed and you will be responsible for paying for all their catering needs. The last expense Is advertisement which you may need to pay someone to advertise your film but also will need to pay to advertise depending on what advertisement you want as you can find free advertisement but most big advertisement isn’t free and will need to be paid for to get the any type of attraction to your film. In are production we only needed the basics such as a camera and tripod and to get that we needed to go to the colleges AV room and hire out the equipment using I student number and ID card. We also needed scissors as a prop in are film and we borrowed a pair from our classroom.

 

In the film industry whilst working on a production you will most likely have a crew to help with whole process however this can vary depending what type of production you are doing for example a low budget short isn’t going to have hundreds of people and is more likely to have about four to twenty crew members, the problem with having so few crew members is that each crew member will have more than one role such as the director being the script writer and producer.  For a TV program you would need a bigger crew however different crews could be put on different episode to maximize efficiency so around twenty to sixty crew members would be needed for a TV program, a TV program would need some more advanced crew members as it is a higher level of quality needed. The crew would all have their specific jobs and would take on a role and that role only unlike low budget where you would perform two or three roles. For a Hollywood feature film there is a massive amount of crew members as it is the highest quality media and is a huge industry making billions. The crew is a huge amount of people who would all work in different departments such as you would have a group of people working in make-up rather than just one. In are ninety second short we were in a group of three and we had to take on certain roles, I took on some of the camera work and shared the role of director, as it was a small group we only had one actor. I had never work on the camera work side of it and this gave me a chance to give it a go. When making a production who would always have your crew who are there when you do the filming however there are people who don't have anything to do with filming and are still in the production process such as a script writer or a researcher if you are doing a film on a true story, these people are essentially people who work on the production but aren't part of the crew as they are not on set filming. 

In the film industry it is important to meet deadlines as missing a deadline can cause major issues, if you don’t meet a deadline it will cost more money than originally planned as all the actors and crew will have to work extra time and will need wages it could also cause the company’s involved in the production will also be unhappy as they have promised that it would be done to the public leaving angry. In our production we managed to make the deadline. We had one week of class time (six hours) to do all the pre-production, we had one week of class time for the filming and one week of class time for the editing and at the end of the three weeks we had completed the short.

In a professional production you would need a massive amount of equipment to get a high quality feature film. In a professional production you would need to either buy all your equipment or hire it out, if you are working with a film studio they may already have equipment for you to use. When filming you can use a media facility house in which they give you all the components to make your production giving you equipment and also places to film and record audio. An example of a media facility house is The hall services and their website is http://www.the-hall.co.uk/services.html. In our production we didn’t need much equipment as it was only a basic short film and only needed a Cannon SLR Camera, a tripod and an SD card to store the film in. We obtained it by first our head of department at college looked at what was needed to be bought with the department’s budget and with that the camera equipment was bought, after that we needed to sign the equipment out through the college AV room were we used our student ID cards to hire the equipment out. Our student ID cards were needed as if we broke or lost the cameras the AV room knows had who signed it out. 

In a professional production locations normal require extra employee’s just for location purposes and their job is to search for locations and get permissions. In are production we had to fill out forms called location RECCEs which is a breakdown of the location with pictures and information about the location to help us choose what location we should use, also after we had chosen the locations we then had to get permission to use are locations. We had chosen to film in college so all we needed was a signature from the caretaker, we also planned to film at the actor’s film so we got a signature from his parent to get permission however we didn’t use the footage from his house. We chose outside the college as it had a place for extras to stare and we needed starting scene for him walking outside and it was easy to only use college areas as it was more convenient, we used the reception as it lead on from the outside of the college so we kept all of the locations to together rather than jumping around, we used the corridor as it was long enough for what we wanted to do and lead or to the next room what we wanted to use, we originally planned to go to a toilet however found it more appropriate to use a dark isolated room. We also planned to use are actors house as we needed a few house scenes that he said he could get done at his house however we didn’t use the footage he got. Whilst filming we has a couple of risks such as filming near a busy road which could have been dangerous if we didn’t pay attention, we knew all of the potential risks ahead of time as part of are pre-production was a risk assessment which was making sure we knew all of the risks before we started and how to avoid any of the risks occurring.

When making a production you will not only need equipment, cast and crew you will also need materials you plan to use in your production this can mean different things up to props and costumes to scripts, this also includes original materials like audio and video the things you will be making yourself, this also means anything you use in the way sound libraries so if you use any music or sound effects that would also be a material you are going to use. Some materials need to be paid for such as props and costumes and permission to use actors in the production as actors would most likely want to be paid. In are production we didn’t need to pay for any materials as our actor was part of our group and didn’t need to be paid also are costume for are actor was his everyday clothes that he already owned and the few props we used were everyday objects we already had access to.

When making a production you will need to taking into account that materials aren’t free unless you use royalty free or create it yourself, so if you plan to use a certain song you will need to pay the artist that made it to let you use it in your production, this also is for sound effects so that for every sound you use that isn’t your own you will need to pay for. In our production we had to use royalty free as we didn’t have time to make our own music or sound effects. Apart from that we had no issues with copyright as it was all our own work. Clearance is an official authorization on taking or using property for example, if you have clearance to use someone’s sound file you would be allowed to use it. Public liability insurance is for any type of business involving the public, this would be needed if filming a production is using the public in the background or if stuns or scenes are in public areas and is there to protect them and you in case something goes wrong. A completion guarantee is deal between the funder and the producer to agree on when the production will be done and they expect you to keep to that deal.

OFCOM is the communications regulator for the UK and regulates TV, Radio, Mobile and a few other communication devices. BBC also regulates British communication however they have to follow the same rule as the OFCOM but they have also added in other rules making them stricter than OFCOM. The BBFCs function is to give age rating to films to protect it from reaching the wrong audience. I have learnt that after creating your final piece you will still need it checked by other people before revealing it to the public.

A trade union is a group of people in a profession who come together to protect each other and their jobs/profession. This is important as people are stronger together and if someone had their job taken away for no reason your union will stand up for as no one else would bother. There are unions for film creators and they ate called PACT and BECTU which is a trade union for anyone involved in the media business. A trade association is for a business were one person for your business represents you and your fellow employees.