Type of production
As part of our assignment we created a low budget 90 second
short film, this will later be entered to the Depict! 90 second short film
competition. Our short film was a comedy parody based on gaming and what
pacific characters form the gaming world are like. The way in which we would
distribute this would be by showing it for free by uploading it to YouTube.
However other types of moving image media would be full feature length films,
television shows and documentaries. These can be based of real life events or
be for other types of genres such as drama, horror, fantasy and so on.
Depending on the type of moving image production would depend on how each media
product is distributed. For example a feature length film would be distributed
firstly in a cinema, then it would be out for rental or to purchase then later
maybe be shown on television without the purchase of watching it. Another
example would be television shows, these are mostly shown on television first
then maybe later being released on DVD for purchase as a collection of a
series.
Finance and sources of funding
Fortunately we didn’t need any funding for our short film as
we used all the equipment we already had ourselves or the equipment that the
college had, also we didn’t need to travel for our short film or use any props.
However if we did need some money for something the college has a small amount
of money for the groups in case there is a prop needed or we need to travel
somewhere as long as the cost is within reason.
However major film compiles and organizations need huge budgets to
create high quality films, these can go into millions and millions of pounds.
These types of films can be funded by individuals, such as the actors or
directors of a film. Other ways such as privet investors, tax incentives,
product placement funding and pre-sales. Some of these types of funding help
fund television, more ways to fund this specific type of moving image
production would be things such as sponsorships from products or games for
example call of duty black opps 3 funded the walking dead, this means they show
an advert of the game before and after each part of the episode. Other ways
television shows are funded are subscriptions, the viewer pays for the channel
or service and the organization use the money to create more shows, a good
example of this would be Netflix. Netflix is a subscription site and app where
the viewer pays a certain amount a month to view television shows and movies,
the money they make has been used to make original show to show on the app and
site. Other moving image productions such as low budget films and short films
can be funded by crews using group funding, this can be done by telling people
an idea and let them donate money to help fund it. The money that has been
funded for a movie has to be split and spent on all the aspects of making a
film, television and other moving image productions. These aspects are:
·
Story rights
·
Producers
·
Screenplay
·
Cast
·
Directors
·
Production costs (such as crew, lighting,
hotels, travel, lighting and so on)
·
Visual effects
·
Music
Personnel
The variation of the types of job the crew
does depends on what type of moving image production they are involved in. As
shown in the picture (1) this is the size and jobs of the crew working on a low
budget film, however this compared to a major Hollywood production would seem
small. In a low budget film the crew would have maybe one or two jobs however a
major Hollywood film would have so many people in just a small sections.
Examples for this could be wardrobe and makeup, in a low budget film there
would be a head wardrobe director and an assistant wardrobe crew member that
may also do the makeup. Whereas in a major Hollywood film wardrobe and make up
would have their own different departments.
However if we compares these to a makeup artist on a television show the
size would be bigger than a low budget film but a considerable amount smaller
than a major Hollywood feature film. A television makeup crew would consist of
a head makeup artist who works on makeup on the arms, hands, face and chest,
and a body makeup artist that works on the rest of the body if need be. While
working on my Depict 90 second short film, I worked in a small group of three
people this meant we split the responsibilities between us. While filming this
show the biggest split in job roles as we had two members acting through and I
was mainly behind the camera. As this was for some of my group members first media
subject they had taken they didn’t have much experience in pre and post
production work whereas I have taken media subjects before which meant I could
help them in the process of doing the work. Other contributors that would help
in the production of a media text would be the cast, without the cast then
there is no production. Other contributors could be the advertisement team as
they make and sell the production to the public.
In the media industry it is very important to meet deadlines
as they are set to insure that production is released on time. By not meeting
deadlines depending on the importance of the aspect not meeting the deadline
set the production could even be cancelled. For example if the post production
doesn’t meet the deadline then the films release date might have to be moved
back. This would interfere with the set release date the cinemas and
advertisement team have advertise. We had 6 weeks for our depict 90 second
short (2 weeks for pre-production, 2 weeks for production and 2 weeks for
post-production) however we did not stick to this time frame set as we had difficulty
with a member of our group being away for a week and finding actors to be in
our short. However we will meet the ultimate deadline set, if we don’t then we
won’t be able to improve on the work we have submitted as we would have missed
the first deadline for it to be checked.
Equipment/ facilities
Professional moving image productions need to use the top equipment and facilities to make the best quality production they can make.
Because of their budget they are able to afford the best cameras again making
their moving image production to the best standard they can be. Equipment
trackers, cameras and tripods, they also need places such as media facility
houses to deal with all the post-production work that is needed to finish the
film. Media facilities houses have the best equipment and software to finish
and edit a film. A media facilities house close to us would be “the hall” this
is located on Oxfordshire, the serveries the offer are: (2)
• Film crews and kit, shooting in HD 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
• DPP File creation and delivery to broadcasters
• Format conversion / transcoding to all major formats
whether tape or tapeless
• DVD / Blu-ray authoring
While doing our depict projects we were able to borrow
equipment from the college and we also have the adobe premiere pro to do our
editing on. This was helpful as most students don’t have the money to afford
decent equipment or professional editing programs.
Locations
We were quite lucky with where we needed to film as we
needed a big open space and the college is opposite a public rec, this meant we
didn’t need to get any location releases signed as it is a public place.
Usually location releases are needed to get permission to film, for example if
we choice to film at one of the members in my groups house the owner of the
house would have to sign a form to give us permission to show their house in
our film. We decided the public rec would be a good location for us to shot out
film in after we looked through our location recces, a location recce is a form
to show we have pre visited the location to look if it was suitable for filing,
what type of facility’s it has, if we would have any problems such as lighting
and audio problems, We thought because where it was it would be easy to film
there in college hours. However the fact that it is outside meant that we made
some changes such as we decided to make it a silent film because of the weather
conditions and because of the wind the audio didn’t pick up to well. As we were
so close to our filming location we had no real logistical issues.
Materials
In addition to equipment, cast and crew there are other
things needed to make a moving image text, these things are materials such as
props, costumes, effects, music and sound. All these martial can be made
yourself if need be, this techniques could be used by low budget films. However
a big budget film will hire people to make the materials or buy them in. in our
depict project we didn't use any props and we got the actors to use their own
clothes, this made it easy and so we didn't need to spend any money on things
we would only use once. Materials such as effects can be costly depending on
what is needed, major Hollywood films can buy the best effects or hire people
to reconstruct them on a computer however a low budget film will have to make
do with making it themselves.
Legal issues
Legal issues can get in the way of certain materials used
such as music, most artists want money for the use of their music otherwise
they may see it as stealing their song.
Copyright protects the work someone has produced and created, this stops
people from stealing something that you own. Copyrighting you work protects it
by (3):
·
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 effected our work as we weren't able to use
pictures (such as “you died” screens) in our film, this made it hard to know
what games our characters are based from. We also couldn’t use any game music
or related music as they were all copyrighted, we had to find royalty free
music and that isn't always to the best quality or what we exactly wanted. The
way to know if something is copyrighted is by the “©” symbol. Also it will
usually say the name of who created it or whose work it is and also the year in
which it was created. Another legal issue is public liability insurance, this
is to cover any injuries that happen while employed and on the set of a film,
for the actors and crew members.
Regulation
OFCOM is the communications regulator in the UK, they regulate
the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus
the airwaves over which wireless devices operate (4). They make sure people get
the best from their communications service. This covers anything from broadband
speed to the making sure the radio spectrum is being used ion the most
effective way. The BBC is regulated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the
European Commission, and Ofcom. The BBFC
is the British board of classification, the BBFC publishes a small amount of
information on the films and videos they rate as well as put age ratings on the
films and videos they publish. This stops people watching things they wouldn’t
particularly like to see or should. The distribution of internet videos also
follow rules, websites such as YouTube doesn’t allow pornography, dangerous,
violent or illegal on their website. This is to protect their views as well as
the people who upload the videos. However the internet as a whole doesn’t have
a leading body or regulations as it would be hard to look at and report even
bad thing put on the internet. Even if it is illegal it is most probably still
on the internet due to the difficulty to track it all down.
Trade unions and trade associations
A trade union is an organization made up of workers and its
main aim is to protect and make the workplace better for its members. Trade
unions fight for the workers’ rights by discussing things such as pay for their
members with the employer to talking about concerns their members have with
their employers. Trade unions are important as they support and care for their
members and try to make there work place better for their members. PACT is a UK
trading associate that supports and helps promote independent films and media
companies. BECTU is a similar organization that helps people in the media
industry, they help support independent media companies as well and help fun
them. A trade union (or a trade group, Spector association or business
association) is an organization funded and founded by businesses that operate
in a specific industry.
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