Requirements for a Moving Image Production

Blog Report

Type of production
Type of production is what the media that you have produced is, such as; animation, television programmes, music videos, webisodes and many more. These can all be distributed in different ways such as adverts, soaps or even online. The type of media production that I have done is a 90 second short film. This is for a competition called DepicT which is online. I have distributed it online via YouTube and Facebook. DepicT challenges filmmakers on any budget from anywhere in the world to show their stuff in just a minute and a half. They receive hundreds of films every year, all competing for their great range of prizes and industry exposure. Virgin Media where doing a completion with short videos which last around two minutes, they were doing this championing the undiscovered talent that people have with the help and the association with Nikon. They had grown to become the UK's biggest short film competition, after six years and 6,059 short film entries they have now retired after being a life changer for so many.

Sources of finance
The finance here is to be able to provide funding for someone in the business or the business as a whole. As our short movie was of low budget and being in college we only had the budget of £5 which was actually from the college. For this we used it to put towards buying the props and costumes that we needed. There are many other different sources of funding that do exist for film, television and other moving image productions, such as; the cinema, Out Of Home advertising (OOH), on demand, online, streaming, on a digipack or even on blue-ray and DVD. The BBC are a good example here, the principal source of funding for them were grants that were receivable from international bilateral donors and this income made it possible for the organisation to be working on 81 different projects around the world. Some sources of finance can be short term and must be paid back within a year, however other sources of finance could then be long term and will be paid back over many years. Short term sources can be an overdraft facility and this is where a bank is able to allow a firm to take out more money than they actually have in their own bank. Another method is factoring, and this is where firms will go out to sell their invoices to a factor such as a bank, this is a quick way to gather money, rather than having to wait for 28 days. However on the other hand there is the long term sources which could come from the owner who ends out investing money in the business, loans from a bank, family or even friends. Or a lease can be taken out with monthly payments that are being made towards the rented equipment that is being used.
 This then brings us on to…


Requirements
The requirements are things that are needed to complete a task. Such as money and what it will be spent on. The things that you could spend money on for a moving image text for example; a bank loan, crowd sourcing, you could self-finance, selling the rights, winning money after entering into a competition. There are others such as asking someone else or private capital, and Megan Ellison has done this. In the last four years she has helped to produce 17 films. She does this by funding the company’s with mega amounts of money so that they are able to film and go ahead with the making of the movie. She started with a lot of money from her father, and didn’t know what to be doing with it all so she started funding for filmmakers; she has been working with many well-known casts of popular actors. Other requirements are the correct type of software that is going to be needed to get the movie put altogether. The company Apple has got new software out called Final Cut Pro X, and this lets you edit and deliver you’re work like never before. Some of the companies that have used this are DreamWorks Pictures with The Ring 2002 Gore Verbinski, The Warner Brothers with Corpse Bride 2005 Tim burton and Happy feet 2006 George Miller, 20th Century Fox with X-Men Origins Wolverine 2009 Gavin Hood, the Columbia Pictures with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2011 David Fincher, and many more.

Product placement is another big requirement for some companies…

For my group we had to obtain an SD card to hold all of our work on it and other equipment such as the camera itself and the tripod. We had to get three different actors (including myself), crew to hold the camera and do the filming, a little bit of make up on the actors, two different locations to film within, and the props and costumes. Without these we would have had much of a film, and all of what we needed had only come to a total cost of £4 as the equipment was lent to us as well as most of the costumes. The things that we didn’t have to worry about where the licence for music (as Connor had composed his own for the movie), accommodation (as it was only being done during our lessons at college), food (as we hadn’t taken too long to film) or transport (as it was all within walking distance to the college. We did however have to think about the distribution of the movie, which was put on YouTube and linked to a few of our Facebook pages


Time
Time in this sense was to plan, schedule or arrange when something should happen or be done. We were given a week to get all the paper work filled in and sorted, then 8 lessons to complete the filming in and then a week to complete the editing to get the finished movie. We had used all of the time that we were given so that once we had thought we had finished we would then go back over it and make sure that it was at the best it could be with nothing missing out. All the deadlines that where set where all met and met early, though us completing each task a little faster than planned.


In a big professional media industry, when deadlines are not met, things are a little more serious than the small media businesses. If deadlines are not met then they could possible postpone the movie form being made for a few days, months or even years. This will then have a knock on effect as they could then lose actors as they may get another offer for another movie in that time, the location might have changed or no longer be available. The Majestic Film the Thief and the Cobbler, 1993 Richard Williams which had taken 28 years to make, this was due to the lack of funding. The head animator Richard William started the film in 1964, really intending for it to be his masterpiece. In 1988 thanks to his work on the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 1988 Robert Zemeckis, he was able to get the funding that he needed to carry on with the film, but also with the distribution from the Warner Brothers. Eventually the control of the film had been taken away from William, and released without him in 1993. 

Personnel
Personnel are the employed people within a business such as media. It’s the talent (actors) and crew (the production team) that work within the media production. The makeup for a typical team for a moving image production in a low budget short will only contain a small amount of people for the crew, which then depends on whether or not they are going to be getting paid, not very likely. There would be a low budget director, makeup and costumes, maybe to use the ones that they have at home. The actors would be close to the person who wants to make the movie, such as friends and family. Clerks, 1994 Kevin Smith have done a rather similar thing for when they had made their low budget movie.

A television programme on the other hand is different in the way that they have a much bigger budget to be spending on. Because of the higher budget that they have they will therefore have a much larger makeup for the production. It would also have a casting director who does actually play a massive part in the production as they have the responsibility of choosing the actors that are the best suited for certain roles within the film. The director plays the big part as they will have all the skills that are required such as; giving directions, recognised talent, communication and organisation skills. For the television programme there are many different people that are needed to be able to make it successful such as; the makeup artist, costume designer, director (floor, technical and assistant), the researchers, story editor, cinematographer, the writer and many more. The BBC version of Sherlock, 2010 to present Mark Gatiss has a much bigger budget and this is shown by the large amount of people that they are able to have, such as; producers, music, cinematography, film editing, casting, production design, art direction, set decoration, costume design, make-up department, production management, sound department, special effects, visual effects, stunts, camera and electrical department and many others. All of these have the minimum of at least 8 people per department and others have 30 people of even more to do different things within the one job role.


A Hollywood feature films are the full length films that are made and then produced in America, which become an item for a cinema programme. The Titanic was made in 1997; this is an American romantic disaster film, with a budget of $200 million. With all of the different directors and actors and many other people working on this, it had been nominated for fourteen academy awards. This was the first film to ever reach the billion dollar mark with $2.187 billion.


Facilities
The facilities are a place or a piece of equipment that has been provided for a particular purpose. Some of the equipment that they would need would be; Cameras, lights, sound (microphone, mixers and DAT records), and finally transport. Of course it will go on the availability of the equipment whether the person is able to have the piece of equipment or not. But not only that it will also go on the cost, the amount or equivalent paid or charged for something, they might find it more effective if they are to buy the product fully or to keep renting it out on the days that it is needed for. This cost will start from £30 a day, £54 a weekend, £134 for a weekly and anything above it for longer. 

This company here http://www.hireacamera.com/index.asp Hire a camera, was set up in 2003 because of the manager trying to hire a camera for while he was on holiday but didn’t have much success. Because of this he decided to create his own little company that does just that and helps people who are in need of a camera. They have different sizes and different types that are able to suit many different people’s needs for whatever purpose they will need them for. 

The equipment that was available to us was camera, tripods and SD cards. These were available from the audio visual room (AV) at the college and all of them are of free of charge. We were able to obtain these with showing the man in the room (Dave) our student cards, showing how we are students from the college, and then took the equipment used them for the DepicT production. They were all returned to the room in the same condition that they left in, in the same day. This is the same as the company above, however they have to mail the product out to the person who is renting the equipment.


Gathering materials
Gathering materials is when information and idea for use are all being put together in order to create a piece of work. The source of gathering the materials is from a place, person, or a thing from which something can be obtained. However the cost for gathering materials will require a payment of a specified sum amount of money. There is also the clearance side of this, and this is when the movie production and the paper work to it all has been given a green light, and tis will then enable the person to go ahead and maybe even use some copyright material, providing that it has been cleared with the owner of the piece of music.


There are many various types of materials that people need for a production other than the crew, cast and the equipment... Such as; costumes, props, a script, food, music, sound effects and many more. However, as it was said, these things cost and there and different amounts of financial considerations to consider when using certain materials. Costumes and props will cost the business, and then they still need to be able to pay good money so that they fit the person and give more details to the character that is going to be wearing them. Then all the professional media industries have to think about the type of insurance they are going to have, to all of the crew members to the cast whether they are adults or minors. The copyright to music is another big one; this is shown with the theme music from 007’s Skyfall, 2012 Sam Mendes movie with the theme tune called Skyfall by Adele. Making such a good theme tune makes the movie appeal to more than the set target audience, but also having the song stuck with in the top of the charts for a good number of weeks. As of July 2013 the movie had managed to sell over the five million copies of the DVD worldwide. The company have copyrighted the piece of music; this is then to make more money out of the single song. But not only this, but it may also be owned by the person which preformed it. Copyright is a legal right that has been created by the law of a country, which grants the creator of the original work the exclusive rights to use and distribution. However if anyone is to try and break the rules and go against this without the permission can be a criminal offence.


Contributors
The contributors are people or things that takes part (contributes) within something. There are many various people that may contribute to the production of a media text in addition to the crew. There are both people in front of the camera as well as behind the camera. For example there would be; stunt men, extras, interviewees, experts/witnesses, first aiders, script editors, accoutres and many other people. For our 90 second movie we didn’t use any of these, as we only had a really small budget and wouldn’t have been able to afford the extra costs for the other people. We had kept it simple and used friends and ourselves to use within the filming.


Doctor Who uses Stuntmen, script editors, story writers, accoutres, location providers, first aiders, film editors and many more. As Doctor Who has a bigger budget it is able to spend the money on more people that are needed to make the television show an utter success. Without the work of these people it would not have half as many viewers as what it does now.


This one is of a stuntman who parachuted into the 2012 Olympics as the queen.

This picture is of and interviewee that could be within a documentary programme or the news

This is a picture of part of a doctor who script that has to be completed before the actors start the filming. 

Locations
A location is a particular place or position that something will or has already taken place within. A recces is the paper work that any moving image production needs to have as paper work to show that they have checked out the place to see that is suits the needs that they want it to. The limitation with moving image productions will be the action of limiting, or restriction to certain areas while filming or maybe limiting the amount of time they have to be doing a certain thing. However another piece of paper work that they will have to do is the risk assessment, this is finding out that if the situation that the actors and other production crew will be in is safe or will it be involving exposure to danger.


For or 90 second movie we had limited our filming to the area either in or around college and this was because of the transportation cost that it would have coasted to get anywhere else, and we only had a budget of £5. The reason for choosing the locations that we did was because they both have easy access, it didn’t take too long to get their either of them as well. And yet it had never cost us a single penny for travel. The locations both fitted really well with how we had pictured them both on the story boards. For this we had also had to write up our own risk assessment. Some of them where things like slips, trips, falls, a messy prop room, damage to the equipment that we were using, if someone was to get lost and medical conditions that we would have to know about. All of these have all got to be taken seriously, and when the assessment paperwork had been completed I went through it with the group. Health and safety checks.


If the checks are not gone through thoroughly then there could be fatal consequences. When Michael Jackson was in the middle of filming for a Pepsi commercial in 1984 his hair had caught on fire. 

Codes of practice
The code of practice is a set of written rules which explains how people working in a particular profession should be behaving. When using certain materials in a media production there are legal considerations that might have to be looked at, this is when we are permitted to following the rules of the law. These could be something like not having the correct rights in order to be using something. Everyone’s work is copyrighted automatically, and this is only here so that it can protect your work from plagiarism form other people. It will normally last for a good few years and then it will run out, but you are then allowed to make it copyright again for another few years (until you have to do it all over again).


Most production businesses like to have clearances, this here means for someone to be able to be getting official authorization for something to proceed or take place. This is to have the permission to use the copyright work material for your own work. They also have to think about the public liability insurance with any types of slips and trips that could happen in the process of the filming. Insurance is an arrangement by which a company undertakes to provide a guarantee of compensation for specified loss, damage or illness, or even death in return for payment of a specified premium. However they are given a completion guarantee/ insurance for making sure that the film is completed and that they are not going to steal the money from the company/ person that have had the making of the film possible.


Copyright didn’t actually affect our DepicT production. This was because we hadn’t used any food, drink or clothing brands and the music that had been used, had been composed and made for this production by Connor (a member of our little group). It was rather successful.


An example of this is of Hans Zimmer and the music that he had made that was just for Pirates of the Caribbean 2003- 2017  Gore Verbinksi.

Regulatory bodies are the public authorities or government agencies that are responsible for authority over some areas of human activities. Such as OFCOM – The Office of Communications is a government approved regulatory and competition authority. A regulation is a rule or directive made maintained by a higher power. However the BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation is a UK based international public service broadcaster that is different from the OFCOM as the BBC is not run by the government and is internationally massive. But there is another non-governmented organisation which is the BBFC – British Board of Film Classification. This is a business that does national classification and censorship of films within the UK.

A trade union is an organised association of workers in a trade, group of traders, or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interest. They are really important as they try to give workers better pay and working conditions for whatever the job title it is. A growing number of factory workers joined these associations in their efforts to achieve better wages and working conditions.


A trade association on the other hand is an organisation founded and founded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. These are just as important as the ones above as these will play a crucial role in promoting the best practice, helping companies become more competitive and formulating effective public policy and delivering the best. They look into the public relations activities such as advertising, education, political donations lobbying and publishing.


PACT – Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television is based in the UK representing independent television, feature film, animation, new media, etc. but then there is also the BECTU – Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematography and Theatre union who are based within the UK as well. These however support the people who work with the business itself with giving them better working conditions.

Bibliography

1. http://www.depict.org/
2. http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/3848/homey#.VFpFN_msXTq
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/about/finance
4. http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4f4b878f3e9ec
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Cut_Pro#Major_films_edited_with_Final_Cut_Pro
6. http://www.livescience.com/24957-james-bond-product-placement.html
7. http://www.hollywood.com/photos/movie/57187957/boyhood-movies-that-took-a-long-time-to-make#1182367/0
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_(1997_film)
9. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/business/finance/sourcesoffinancerev2.shtml
10. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1475582/fullcredits#cast
11. http://www.hireacamera.com/index.asp
12. Google images
13. https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=vss&q=why+is+the+trade+association+important
14. class work sheet