Pre-production

                                                

Requirements for a Moving Image Production

The media production we created was a short film called The Investigation for a Depict competition. The short was about detectives trying to find a murderer who is a hot target for them. We then distributed this by uploading it onto YouTube. There are lots of other moving media products such as products like; documentaries, trailers and animation. These are all big products in the media world. These products are all distributed in different ways. Documentaries are factual which means its real life; they can be distributed either on TV, DVD or the internet. Trailers are small clips to preview an upcoming film they are usually distributed on TV, cinema’s, the internet and also on DVD’s. Animation is a production that can be classed as a genre across many platforms this can be distributed in lots of ways such as TV, music videos, video games etc. There are lots of different ways of distributing media products for example cinema in which you can access films and trailers. There are different ways of funding for a film, TV and other moving media products. Ways of funding are private capital, crowd/public funding and banks. Sylvester Stallone has funded his own film (private capital) Copland “I basically put up my salary to fund the movie because I wanted to prove the point that I wasn’t just a meat head” this tells us that he put up a lot of his money to make sure that the film went ahead and it turned out that the film was successful making $53,686,089 in profit. BBC doesn’t have product placement unlike ITV. ITV have breaks during programmes like Coronation Street unlike Eastenders on BBC and this is how they generate their income. When it comes to making a moving image production there are lots things that money needs to be spent on: • Cast and Crew • Props • Advertising/Trailers • Locations That is a list of just a few things needed. All of them are very important, selecting the cast and crew is important for the film and it also costs a lot of money because there are lots of people involved. There are also lots of props used in a moving image production so these cost a lot as well as the cast and crew. Creating an advert/trailer costs lots of money to make sometimes even millions of pounds. Location is one of the most expensive things because they have to hire a place to film and sort out transport for the cast and crew. For the short we had a few requirements, location was one and for that we used Middleton Road Park and my tutor’s office and both worked well. We also needed some sort of costume and props and they were both easy to sort out and the last thing we needed was equipment for example camera, tripod and SD card. For any moving image production you will need a crew. In a low budget short you will have a crew but usually the crew isn’t that big because people can take turns in filming, acting and editing footage unlike in a TV programme and Hollywood film. In a TV programme there will be certain people with set roles but like in a short some people will take it in turns sharing roles this happens because it doesn’t cost as much money. In a Hollywood film like “Fast and Furious 6” everybody involved has a set roles and certain people e.g. actors, director and producer. An example of an actor is Vin Diesel (in black car) he is one of the main characters but the background actors are just as important otherwise you would get shots that look dull. They have set roles because they can afford it plus they want to make their film as successful as possible so they need big names in the film. In my group we all took it in turns to film and edit. I filmed a short clip but acted in most of it, I also edited for a whole lesson. Xene filmed most of the short and edited quite a lot as well and Lauren also filmed clips and edited them she was right at the end of the short as well so she acted. Lauren was the only one out of us three who had experience filming before so that helped out a lot. The time we were given was 6 days to film and 6 days to edit even though we met the deadline things could have been improved if we had Lauren for all of it but unfortunately she was off ill quite a lot but other than that I think we used our time well. If you don’t meet deadlines in professional media then it can cost you lots of money which means you will lose lots of money too. There are lots of ways how it can cost a lot more money; you will have to pay the whole cast for the extra days that is required, pay to stay longer at the location of filming. The production might even get cancelled because of how much money it might go over plus other people have other jobs to do. A professional media production has the equipment and facilities provided by a particular production company, this will get the work complete which is assigned by the distributor, this includes the professional standard camera, studio/workshop space, lighting and sound equipment, places even show you a rates card which therefore you can get a rough idea on how much the accessories and props etc. cost so this way you can see what you can afford to hire. An example is http://www.epicstudiosnorwich.com/. To create our short for Depict, we hired some equipment which was needed for this activity e.g. Video camera, tripod and an SD card we hired the equipment from the AV (Audio Visual library) in College. When we took these out we had to give either your student card or student number so then if anything was to go missing or get damaged then they would be under our name therefore we would have to pay for it Location recces and releases are forms that you have to fill out for potential places to film. A recce is a place to go and film where as a release form is for you to hire and get a signature for it. We picked Middleton Road Park because it isn’t busy and it had a lot of open space so we thought that it being in open space was a good place to film. Then we chose my tutor’s office as a detective’s office, we decided to use because it was the closest thing we could get to a detectives office but it worked with the computer and the notes in the room. We had a risk assessment which consists of things that you have to think about if it will be safe or not and it looks over what you need to do to make sure you are safe. Props and costume are kept in W16 and also a drama studio these rooms are locked so that the props are not taken away by somebody. Music/sound you can get off the internet or create your own on the Mac, the music has to be copyright free/Royalty free music, created by yourself or chose from the music on the Mac. When editing the short we needed to include some sort of music in the background but it had to be copy right free so we didn’t get in trouble for not getting permission. We used a copy right free song by Kevin MacLeod however if we was to choose a certain song, we would have to buy the song ourselves to prevent anything being copyright. Copyright is a legal consideration when using certain materials within the media productions. It works as a protection over your work that then prevents anyone else from using/copying your work and then using it for their own work without your permission. You could put the © copyright symbol and place it by your name and work. Copyright didn’t have an effect on our Depict production because we didn’t need chart type music we needed a slow paced and calm type of music so we looked at copy right free ones. It would have been nice to look at songs that wasn’t copy right free to use but because we had to we did. Clearance (media clearance) - Clearance gives you capability to use other people’s work as long as you follow each and every one of the terms asked by the copyright holder. Public Liability Insurance - whilst not a legal requirement, can prevent you from being sued to a certain amount. A completion guarantee/insurance – sometimes is set up with various production companies to guarantee the work given is finished to a certain standard. In our 90 second Depict production, we did not have to consider any of them factors because we were doing the work by ourselves and wasn’t dealing with the fellows of the public. A regulatory body in media is an organisation with the task of rereading and studying media products with help from the wide-ranging public, they aim to guarantee that the media products are acceptable for audiences. OFCOM - 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. BBFC- Has the purpose of looking over and rating films for appropriate target audience in the middle of a U and R18. Media products that are posted all over the internet are harder to control rather than TV and film because anyone, anywhere can upload a video to the internet. PACT (The Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television) - is a trade association which works to signify the commercial comforts of UK independent television and film companies, which they also offer legal guidance to each and every one of their members where and when essential to help the independent area of filmmaking increase. BECTU (The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union) - is a sample of a Trade Union amongst the media industry, who was formed in the 1991 by a various amount of minor, earlier remaining trade unions. A trade association – A trade association is also recognised as an ‘industry trade group’s ‘business association’ or a ‘sector association.’ Trade association is a union which is funded by all sorts of different businesses which operate in a particular industry. Associations may offer a various range of different services these could be ones such as producing conferences, networking/charitable events and offering classes/educational materials. Certain associations are charitable establishments ruled by laws and directed by officers who are also members of a group themselves.

Requirements for a Moving Image Production (first draft)

Production Diary: Depict

Wednesday 29th October - I was ill on this day so I didn't manage to do anything towards planning.

 Monday 3rd November - During the lesson I labelled our storyboard and gave out ideas for the script.

Tuesday 4th November - In the second lesson I worked on the recce form for the meeting room and also looked for different locations.

Wednesday 5th November - In the lesson I carried on looking for different locations and completed my talent releases sheet.

Thursday 6th November - I carried on with the final location and filled out the recce form, also I completed the budget sheet.

Monday 10th November - I had to go out and find a different location, do another recce form, edited and added to the storyboard and added more onto the script.

Tuesday 11th November - We still had to go through the paperwork and make sure everything was completed as well as us still planing what room to use.

Wednesday 12th November - We filmed scenes 8-11 and I also featured in some of the scenes as one of the detectives.

Thursday 13th November - We filmed for the second day and ended up filming the opening scenes 1-3 at Middleton Road Park.

Monday 17th November - We filmed again and then filmed scenes 5-7 and we also re filmed some of the shots we did earlier on which I featured in as one of the detectives.

Tuesday 18th November - We filmed the remaining scenes 13-20 and we also took pictures for the end of our film, I featured in both the filming and pictures as one of the detectives. We also looked through all of the footage.

Wednesday 19th November - We started to edit the film and I was also looking for music we could play over the top/background music for the film.

Thursday 20th November - My group wasn't here so I had to edit the footage by myself and I was still looking for music to use as well.

Monday 24th November - We kept on editing the film and I was still looking for music that fits in well with the film.

Tuesday 25th November - We added in fades to our film so that it could flow better.

Wednesday 26th November - We wasn't able to do anything during the lesson as we had a problem with the computer.

Thursday 27th November - We uploaded music to our film and edited background sound of the film out.

Depict Entries 2014

Depict Evaluation

Our task was to create a short film for DepicT about anything we wanted to. "DepicT! challenges filmmakers on any budget from anywhere in the world to show their stuff in just a minute and a half."

When it came to the camera work, we tried out a load of different shots to see what fitted well but used the shots that we said on the storyboard because we thought that the shots we selected worked well and that they would get the emotion/tension across the best. Our shots ranged from extreme close up to long shot to a pan shot. With the shots we ranged from having them on the tripod to having them handheld. Shots from 0:01-0:17 are shot using the tripod, 0:18-0:29 are shots with the camera being handheld.

The in the rest of the short it is mainly us using the tripod apart from one other shot when it zooms in. A couple of shots I think worked really well was at 0:11-0:13 when it was an over the shoulder shot of the detective looking at the newspaper because it worked really well with the music and was tense because it is a clue. Also I think the pan worked well because if goes from one detective to the other one and then the shot after it focuses on the detective it panned onto which made it flow quite well. A shot that could have been improved was the pan on the detective, we didn't use a tripod for the zoom and it was really shaky which didn't really give out the effect we wanted it to.

With the mise en scene I think we worked things well. I think the settings we used was a good choice, the park was a good place for the death because its not used a lot and when we filmed it you could tell that it wasn't used because it wasn't busy The office we used worked well as well because detectives need an office to do the work in and all the things in the office such as the notes on the wall and the computer made it look a bit more like an office a detective would use.

With the props we used we made sure that they were suitable for the our film. We used a long coat, which a detective wore to make it more realistic as detectives wear long coats in crime dramas and then we used props for the clues to the crime: necklace, brand logo, newspaper and a photo. They all worked well because they linked to the crime and I thought that they were good props to have as evidence.

I think we could have improved with costume. With the main detectives they were dressed reasonably but the costumes could have been improved by wearing smart shirts and trousers or suits so it looked more realistic which would've worked better. The lighting through out the film was good. There wasn't any clips that you couldn't see clearly because they were all clear. The lighting we used was natural light for the outside shots and then the lights that were turned on in the office.