Pre-Production Process

TYPE OF MOVING IMAGE PRODUCTION

This assignment is about the Pre-Production process and the requirements for a moving image production. 
In the world of media there a various different types of moving image production. The three main moving image productions are; Low budget, which normally contains a crew of about a very small cast. An example of this is a short comedy film called Soapy Days (2010) a low budget short comedy film which had a crew of 6 people. Television programs which consists of a lot more people than a low budget crew but less than a Hollywood feature film. An example of this is The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. and finally, Hollywood feature films. These contains hundreds of crew members due to having such a high budget. An example of this is Captain America: Civil War (2016). There are also various different ways to distribute moving image productions. An example of this is through social media

The media product I produced was a low budget production because I was in a group with two other people. This low budget film was made for a competition for short films with a running time of 90 seconds called DepicT. It was then distributed via the social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook.

FINANCE AND SOURCES OF FUNDING
Funding and sources of funding are key things to think about for film, television and other moving image production. There are different ways to fun a moving image production. These include bank loans, competitions and sources such as grants, funds and bursaries.  are another way to fund a film.  The two main ways to fund a moving image production is Private investors. Robert Rodriquez is a perfect example of this as he made a low budget film which he funded with $7,000 of his own money which went on to make $2 million. This is an example that not all films need to have a large budget and Private capital, a source of funding which Megan Ellison used and managed to get a budget of $2 million. Although it's still not a large sum of money in the film industry  however, it managed to assist her in the production of her film.

REQUIREMENTS 
There are many requirements needed in order to create a moving image production. A budget is needed in order to spend the the get everything you need without running out of money.  The money gathered from funding will likely be spent on camera equipment to shoot the film, insurance for the the equipment, editing software to edit the film, crew to shoot and edit, cast to act in the film, props, costumes for the actors, hire locations for the set and transport in order to get everyone and everything to the hired locations. Without a budget you run the risk of running out of money and thus production will cease.

For the DepicT short film, we didn't really need a budget as a majority of the required stuff was already supplied. For example we were supplied the equipment such as the camera, tripod and slider, Adobe Premier Pro for the editing software and for insurance we had to sign a form which makes us responsible for any damages done to the equipment. We also had the noose and desk as props. We were put into groups of 3 so that consisted of the crew and cast and we had friends to be extras if needed. My group decided to film on the college campus so we did not need to worry about costs of transport or hiring a location. We also had the desired props supplied to us and we used some props which we owned so we did not need to buy any props however if there is a certain prop which you do not own or you need to use public transport then you will have to use your own money for it. 

PERSONAL
There are different talent and crews that work in a media production. In a low budget short film the production team will be small compared to Television shows and Hollywood Feature films. In low budget films there would typically be the actor(s), the cinematographer and the editor. On some circumstances there would be a make-up artist.Usually low budget films do not have a large production team due to having a small budget.
In a the production for a television series, the production team is larger than a Low budget film but smaller than a Hollywood Feature film. The team will typically contain people such as the actor(s), the cameramen, the editor, the makeup artists, the costume designers, the cinematographer and a lot more. The production team for a television series usually has a larger production team in order to make a series good and make it onto the TV screens and having a higher budget makes it possible.
The production team for a Hollywood Feature film is very large due to having such a incredibly large budget. Within the production team of a Hollywood feature film there are people such as the actors who are normally paid a lot of money to star in the film, the costume designers to make the unique costume for a particular character, the art designers, the make-up artists, the cinematographers and the editors. These departments are normally constructed with hundreds of people working on the film in order to meet the standards to make the film succeed.

In our DepicT short film, we each allocated a role to each person. For example, I was given the role of the cinematographer. I made sure the camera was in suitable locations as well as making sure the shot was in focus. I have had previous experience with using a camera for filming. My group members; Tia and Henry were given the task of being actors for the short film. They both however had little experience in this field but managed to do a fantastic job at acting. They stuck to the script and we only had to re-shoot a few shots. After the filming we each took a turn with editing, we all had experience with editing on the software, Adobe Premier Pro. We all did different parts of the editing such as, Henry did the sound and made sure everything was at the right levels, sound bridges were in the right place and the soundtrack worked well with the film, Tia put the shots in place and made sure there were no blank spaces and made sure that match on action shots worked with the film. I worked on the visual effects. I made the film black and white as well as adding in minor editing such as the fades and cuts. I also added a transition cut within the scene.


There a several different people who contribute to the production of a media text. These people include

• Make-up artist: Make-up artists are used mainly in Hollywood feature films although Television series and Low budget films sometimes use them. An example of a make-up artist is Allan Apone, one of the make-up artists for Captain America: Civil War (2016)
• Costume Design: Costume designers make up a huge part in the characters personality. They can be used in any kind of media production however, they are mainly part of Hollywood feature films. An example of this is April Ferry, one of the costume designers for Jurassic World (2015)
• Sound: Sound is a key feature for any kind of media production as it adds to the suspense of the scene. Especially in Horror or Action films. An example for this is Doug Jackson, one of the sound editors for X-Men: First Class (2011)

TIME

For the DepticT short film we made, we had a total of 4 weeks to create the film. This included 2 weeks to plan and 2 weeks to film. My group used this time effectively, we had a total of 12 lessons to do this in but we were able to work outside of this time in order to make the most of the given time.

In the world on Media production, if a deadline is not met then there is a high chance that the actors that are signed for your film will back out of the contract, hired locations will be lost and will thus put pressure on your budget to find replacements. However, a majority of the time the film gets scrapped. An example of this is a film called The Day the Clown Cried(1972) a black and white film which suffered financial problems and therefore had to be cancelled.

My group for the DepicT short film managed to meet the deadlines set which enabled us to submit our film without any problems. However, we did have to re-shoot everything as one of our key actors was absent so we had to improvise and use a backup actor to take over their scenes.

EQUIPMENT/FACILITIES

To obtain equipment in professional moving image productions you can hire them from Professional Media facilities such as The Hall Post Production & Media Facilities in Chipping Norton,Oxfordshire. They offer the full post production process such as digitising, offline & online editing, and audio dubbing. They are also the closest facility house to us.

For our DepicT short film, the equipment was supplied to us by the College. We were supplied the camera and tripod to shoot with, we also had access to some lights to do some lighting effects, we also had access to sliders for panning or tracking shots and the editing software Adobe Premier Pro.

LOCATIONS

For our 90 second DepicT film, we filmed in the studio within the college campus. We were originally going to film in an office but there were no free rooms available at the time of filming. We asked if there was any back up places we could film and we were suggested the studio.

A location recce is when you visit a desired location before filming to work out whether it is suitable for shooting. This includes access to necessary facilities and an assessment of any issues includes sound, lighting and time frames.

A Location Release is a document that is required if you want to get permission from an owner of a location to shoot on their property.

We faced a few logistical issues and risks which we used a risk assessment to assess and overcome. An example of this was the scene where one of of the actors in our film had a rope around his neck to use as a noose. We had to assess how we were going to shoot this without causing injury and we came to the conclusion that we would not tie the noose properly so it would untie if pulled.

MATERIALS

There are various different type of materials that may be needed for a production. These materials include:

Costumes: Costumes are needed in order to give a character personality or to suit the genre of the film. For example, in a superhero film the protagonist will almost always wear bright clothing. A good example of this is Spiderman as he wears a red and blue outfit.

Props: Props are needed for a production in order to give meaning within a scene. An example of this is the basement scene in Cabin in the Woods (2012) where all the props are linked to each of the monsters in the film.

Script: A script is a key material needed in a production. It is needed so that the actors can practise what they have to act out throughout the film.

Sound/Music: Sound and music are key materials for a production. With sound and music the scene comes alive and it can pull the audience into watching whereas a film without sound or music is dull and boring and thus will drive people away

When creating a moving image production, you have to take into consideration the financial issues when using certain materials. These issues include:

• The material does not infringe copyright.
• The copyright insurance cost
• It does not break the broadcasting rules

LEGAL ISSUES

There are some considerations within Media production. These must be considered to protect you from legal issues. The main examples of this include copyright. This is when you copy the work of someone else and distribute it without their permission. 

Copyright protects your work and prevents other people from using it without your permission.You don’t have to apply or pay a fee because you get copyright protection automatically. You can put a mark your work using the copyright symbol as well as your name and the year of which the creation was made. However, whether you mark your work or not doesn’t affect the kind of protection you have. 

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

However, there was a court case settled recently over the copyright of the song "Happy Birthday" Back in 1935 The Summy Company registered a copyright crediting the authors Preston Ware Orem and Mrs. R. R. Forman. But In 1988, Warner/Chappell Music bought the company which owned the copyright for around US$25 million, with the value of "Happy Birthday" estimated at US$5 million. The court settled that people who sing the song do not have to pay a licence for it.

In our DepicT short film, copyright only affected us slightly in terms of music soundtracks. We had to use non copyrighted soundtracks so we found a site called Incompitech to download the soundtrack from.


Clearance: This means the official authorisation needed in order for something to proceed.


Public Liability Insurance: This covers the cost of things such as compensation for: personal injuries. damaged or lost property.

Completion Guarantee/Insurance: This is a form of insurance offered by a completion guarantor/company that is mainly used in independently financed films to guarantee that the producer will deliver a completed film.


REGULATION
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the self-regulator for advertising across all parts of media, including TV, internet, sales promotions and direct marketing. The ASA works with OFCOM and has a backstop in the Office of Fair Trading. The job of the ASA is to consider whether adverts are ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’ by measuring them against the Advertising Codes.

OFCOM is the UK's communications regulator. They regulate the TV and radio sectors as well as fixed line telecoms and mobiles. They also regulate the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. 

The BBC are regulated mainly by outside bodies. For example, the BBC is regulated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as well as the European Commission, and Ofcom. Ofcom also regulates some other aspects of the BBC, for example the BBC is covered by Ofcom's Fairness Code.

The OFCOM regulations:
OFCOM is funded by industries for regulating broadcasting and communications networks, as well as grant-in-aid from the Government.
The BBFC regulations:
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an independent, non-governmental, non profit co-regulatory body and they are funded through fees charged to people who submit films and videos.

I have learned about the internet's regulations such as the use of copyright. An example of this is the use of soundtrack in our DepicT we used a non copyrighted soundtrack from a site called incompetech which we used in order to prevent us from infringing copyright



TRADE UNIONS AND TRADE ASSOCIATIONS
Trade unions are an organised association of workers within a trade that are formed to protect and further their rights and interests. Trade associations are also known as an industry trade group is an organisation founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry.


Trade Union: Trade unions are an organised association of workers within a trade that are formed to protect and further their rights within the workplace. They are important because unions provide workers with a powerful voice to communicate their frustration.They are also important because they won the right for workers to have paid holidays.The average trade union member in the UK earns over 25% more annual leave a year, in comparison to a non-unionised worker. They also are much more likely to have maternity, paternal and carer leave policies in place which are more generous than the average workplace.

PACT and BECTU:
Pact is a formal agreement between individuals or parties. An example of this in the world of Media Production is when a producer gives your film the green light and thus the filming can be done. BECTU stand for "The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematography and Theatre Union" and is a trade union based in the United Kingdom. It has roughly 25,000 members and they work in broadcasting, film, theatre, entertainment, leisure and interactive media.

Trade Association:
A trade association is an organisation founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An example of a trade association is BIMA, Britain's digital community which was founded in 1985 and is now one of the most widely respected names within the digital industry.

  

Pre Production

Images of the location where we filmed the short film

 

 Images of our storyboards, I did half of the illustrations and descriptions whilst my group did the other half. We did however change a few scenes in this.

Location release which we needed in order to film in our requested location

Risk assessment of possible safety issues. 

Adult talent agreement release. This was needed to ensure that any actor/actress aged 18 and over have agreed to be in the film

Minor model release agreement to ensure that the actor/actress in the film under the age of 18 agrees to be in the film.

Depict Production Dairy

12/10/2016

Today for the production of the 90 second short film, I illustrated the storyboards as well as described what happens within the shots.  Also, after discussing with the rest of my group I decided the how long the shots should last for as well as deciding the location for shooting. However, the work was proceeding slower than expected and some of us got easily distracted. Overall, I think it is going really well so far and thus hoping to keep up the good work and proceed with the rest of the production with as more enthusiasm.

14/10/2016

Today for the production of the 90 second short film. I made minor adjustments to the storyboards as well as filling out a location release form. We set up the area we were going to film in and began to film. I was the cameraman and I worked on getting decent shots. We've made good progress so far and hoping to keep it up.

17/10/2016

Today for the production of the 90 second short film, we continued to film. After a few attempts and experimenting with different camera angles and movements, we got half of the needed shots done. All that's left to do is the other half of the shots and the editing.


02/11/2016

Today for the production of the 90 second short film, we encountered an issue with one of the key actors being absent and they had most of our footage on an SD card. The rest of us came to the conclusion to start filming from scratch and have someone step in for our actor. We managed to get all of the filming done and we're now onto editing.



04/11/2016

Today for the production of the 90 second film, we continued editing and

A Dipict short that I like

I really like this short film called A2024 by David Castro Gonzalez. The short shows a Police Officer in full riot gear sitting against a wall, panicking and crying as riots rage around him. I really like this because it shows a different perspective of the Police Force as we have shown via Media sources that Police Officers are trained to handle dangerous situations such as riots so we fit the stereotype all Police Officers and tough and can withstand pressure so to see an Officer breaking down in such a dangerous situation makes you realize just how much pressure the Police Force have to go through when scenarios like this happen and how they have to get the situation under control to prevent further dangers to society.

I really like how the camera starts off as a close up of the Officer's panic stricken face to show his emotion and then the camera slowly zooms out to reveal the reason for his breakdown and the danger around him which represents chaos and destruction, so because of this, it makes the scene very powerful. I also really like the low key lighting because it sets the mood of a dark, violent atmosphere which suits the style of the film David created.

Continuity Sequence reflection and analysis

This is the analysis of my continuity sequence task we given to create. This sequence consisted of 20 shots to show our understanding of the convention of the continuity system, editing and the use of a camera; shot distance and camera angles.

My group; which consisted of Viv, Henry and myself decided to have our sequence based around the comedy genre. We did this because we found that it would be easier to put together. The plot


Mis-en-scene
This means what is in the scene. An example of this is lighting. We used high key lighting throughout the entire sequence. We did this because it makes the atmosphere bright and cheerful which most comedy films use to create a happy atmosphere. We also used Ambient lighting during the outdoors scene.

An example of high key lighting

Another example of Mis-en-Scene in our sequence is sound. A majority of the short film consisted of Non Diegetic sounds and Ambient sounds with a small part of Diegetic sound. The Non Diegetic sound in this sequence consists of a goofy, comedic soundtrack which was implemented during the production stage. Although the parallel music went well with the sequence, viewers found it to be repetitive and thus became annoying. The Diegetic sound is in the shot of the man giving the hand a high five

Diegetic sound of the high five

The Ambient sounds consisted of bird noises and distant traffic. This worked well with the outdoor setting because it gave the atmosphere a sense of life so the scene was not dull and quiet. However, after showing it to the audience, some found the Ambient sounds to be too loud which drowned out the rest of the sounds.

 Ambient sounds were used in this shot

We also used a number of different shot distances. We used a Long shot of the male character walking out of the building carrying the box. We used this to show the confused but curious body language of the character with the box. We also used a Close up when the man gets slapped by the mysterious hand in the box. We used this to show the reaction of when the man gets slapped as it shows the emotion that it was painful.

 MS

CU

We used a few camera movements in this sequence and an example of this is when the man is walking outside with the box and the camera starts to pan to the right. We did this to show the new location as well as to follow the the action of the man walking. We also used zoom during the final scene when The man is on the computer with the box.

Panning shot

Zoom

We used a fade from the scene where the man hands the woman the box to where the man is walking outside. We used a fade to show that time has passed. We also used a cut at the beginning of the sequence when there is a knock at the door and the man answers it. We used this to show what happened next.

 Fade out

Fade in

The Continuity System
For our continuity sequence we used the 180 degree rule. This rule is where an imaginary axis which governs where cameras can be located when filming a sequence. You cannot cross the line otherwise it will cause a continuity error. This is when actors may appear to change places, people walking will change directions and this will confuse the audience. An

We used this during the scene where the man hands the woman the box and when she looks into it and gives it back, the camera is still maintaining the continuity.

We also used Match on action shots. An example of this is when the man goes to open the door and the shot carries through to show him opening the door.

We also used an Eye-line match when the woman looks into the box and the shot changes to her perspective to looking inside the box. However with this, we realised that we had the box the wrong way round which caused a filming error.

We used a POV shot of the box owner looking at the man holding the box. We used this to put the audience into the scene of the mans perspective

In the sequence, we used a Shot-reverse shot during the scene when the man answers the door to the box owner and is then given the box. We did this to establish the characters positioning and to make it believable because the two characters needed to be on the same side of the shot, similar to the 180 degree rule.

Overall, I really enjoyed creating this sequence. From this, I've learnt how to properly use Eye-line matches and Match on action shots. I have also understood the 180 degree rule as well as different camera movements. I really enjoyed the filming stage of making the film because it was more practical and enjoyable than the editing.

Photo Connotation Exercise

STRENGTH

 This shot represents strength. By using a slight low angle alongside a close up, the shot now makes the man look more powerful because it looks like we are looking up at him and thus connotes strength. Also, the main focal point in this shot is the man's muscles which is used to connote strength as it shows that the man has enough power to lift the weights.

DANGER

This shot represents danger. The use of an extreme close up makes the shot more tense which is a similar feeling you get as if you were in danger. Also, the red colouring in the shot connotes danger as it feels like it's is giving off a warning and that for the viewer to be aware of the possible dangers.

FRIENDSHIP

This shot represents friendship. By using a close up of of two people engaged in a handshake it gives off a feeling of unity and understanding. The main focal point in this shot is the two hands engaged in the handshake which gives the shot meaning that represents friendship.

LONELINESS

This shot represents Loneliness. By using a high angle shot it makes the person appear weak. This represents loneliness because it makes us feel that he doesn't have anyone to support him which makes him weak and alone. The use of dark lighting creates a dull atmosphere which also represents loneliness as darkness is typically linked to loneliness. 

PURITY

This shot represents purity. by using a close up shot of the water bottle in the the grass, it give of a sense of life as nature and water are both pure and they both connote life and purity. This shot also represents purity with the sunlight reflecting off of the bottle. This gives the shot more of of a natural feel to it and thus making it a good shot. The main focal point in this shot is the bottle because it is the only object in the shot that is in focus which gives in more meaning.