The Pre-Production Process

Type of moving image production (media forms) 

         

Our task as a whole we had to produce a 90 second media product in where making our 90 second product for DepicT! a website that would also put are film on YouTube.It had to contain 3 of the most used camera techniques and the skills we had as film makers. DepicT! challenges filmmakers on any budget from anywhere in the world to show their stuff in just a minute and a half. We had to follow the strict entry requirements when making the film. After making the film and placing it on the DepicT! website there is also a cash prize if you make it to the shortlist you'll get a networking pass to Encounters short film and animation festival. The main DepicT! prize is £1500 cash+ lifetime membership to shooting people. We made our film to be a sci-fi thriller that fit into the requirements that are needed so we could enter and have the chance to win. We distributed through the collage YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=enbtecmedia). At a later date we are also able to to distribute it on DepicT! which also will be place on there YouTube channel this then gives people the chose to post it on a social which is another way it may be distributed.

There is a very wide rang of moving media products we did short film as it was not long enough to be a feature film. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science defines a short film as "an original motion pictures that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". Most short film are made by independent filmmakers, no profit, low budget and even no budget this is the same when it comes to funding they maybe funded by a non profitable organization who gain no profit by helping the film maker. Most people who make short films are doing it for experience or doing it to gain people attention for funding to make bigger and better films. This is the same as us making a film for DepicT! we are trying to get people to vote for our film and win a cash price and we are gain experience from do it. An examples of a short film is Tennis by the film director Alastair Gourlay as it only runs for a total 23 minutes and is a low budget film.


A feature film ( also called a movie or motion picture ) is another type of
image media product is is defiantly higher budget and has to have a running time log enough to be considered as feature film. A feature film is normal counted as running for 40 minutes or longer but some over film industry count it for 80 minutes or longer, this means they are normally between 70 and 2010 minutes long. A feature film is some thing like Silence of the lambs by  Jonathan Demme and run for 118 minutes.

A television program ( or program ) is a very common moving image media product
 it is a series of related production shown on different types of distribution this is also called a television series. There are many for these from coronation street to Hollyoaks which have been running for years then there are thinks like This is England and Misfits which have come to an end now. If there is a limit of episodes it can be classed a a miniseries or serial like Pride and Prejudice which went on for a total amount of 1 series. With out a fixed length our are divided into seasons or sires this is some thing like the popular walking dead.

A documentary is a media production that documents some aspect of reality. It also has the purpose of saving and maintaining a historical record. A documentary can be in many different media production moving imagery such as a TV show or released for screening in a cinema. A famous documentary is Man on Wire about a French tightrope. Directed by Jamer March how used archive footage, contemporary interviews and recreated scenes to tell the artist story/ document an aspect of reality. Jamer Marsh mains a historical record of the French tightrope Phillippe Petit. There is also many over different types of moving image media production but the ones I covered seemed to be the most known and watch types a media production. 

                           
Moving images media production need to be distributed in some way to the public/ and audience. A way a distribution is DVD's (digital optical disc storage) A DVD stores digital date of some sort and is widely used for software and many other computer files as well as video programs watch on computer, DVD player and games consuls. Many films that are in the cinema distribute this way and also make a profit doing this. Many TV series use many DVD's in something called a box set is enables people to buy a series of TV is a cheaper price then buying them separately. DVD's are extremely popular due to the vary of things people can watch them on this also include blue-ray DVD's. The cinema it's self is a way of distributing a film as the public are paying to watch a film that a being distributed could be all across the world. Just like the cinema TV is another way of distribution as it is getting the media production to and audience. On line streaming is a popular way of distribution due to the technology we have today. Streaming media is also a way of downloading a media production this is such websites but there are many problems with this such as illegal downloads. There are many over ways that media production can be distributed such as YouTube and media sights.

Finance and source of funding

There are many sources of funding for film, television and other moving production. A bank loan is
an agreement with a producer and a bank to borrow a set amount of money. The main agreement with the bank and a film maker is to borrow a set amount and in return is to be paid back with a percentage fee based on the budget. This is to be paid off after the film is complete and deliver most banks have an agreement that the film maker must finish the film. The money loaded is also based on an final script, cast and budget. Bank loans can also be rejected or have difficult getting one. An example of this is It's a Wonderful Life directed by Frank Capra. This 1946 film had and bank loan of $3.18 and only box office $3.3 million. Using a bank loan can be risk for film makers due to the face they may not make a big profit and are unable to pay the bank back.   

Another way for funding would be charity as they give a producer money to
make the film with a no money at the end to pay off there are many charity's that will help people to product media products. Such as Creative England which is a charity that supports growth of independent talents in the UK. Then can award you with a budget of up to £2 million. The Creative England has helped my project that have become very successful films. This includes films like Nativity 2, She Who Brings Gifts and the Call Up. Another charity is the British Film Institute, this helps film makers as they are responsible for distributing the lottery fund for film. This money goes to talent that they believe could change the film industry and start a carers in film making.

Just like a charity funding people can get funding from crowd
funding. Crowd funding raises money from people donating money to a media product. Participants may get may get awards or benefits if they donate a certain amount of money like £100 gets you a sighed copy of the scrip and so on. Indiegogo is a form of crowd funding and is the leading global platform of crowd funding. Another sight is Kickstarter which again finds many different media projects thought the public funding. Famous movies that have been funded by these sights are such things as Wish I Was Here by Zach Braff and The Veronice by Veronia Mars.

Media products may also be self funded. A very famous self funded movie is Clerks by Kevin Smith which made a very big profit and also became I very iconic film. Kevin smith sold a large amount of his comic books, maxis out 8-10 credit cards, used some of his collage funds and some money he got in a flood that damages his car.
            
There are also many over ways to get funding such as abersarys, competitions and using product placement.

Requirement

When making our DepicT! short film when also have many things we required and many things we had to obtain for our project. When it came to getting equipment our college provided camera and editing equipment. Something we had to obtain was props and costume. With having no budget all of our costumes where things we already had or the college had. Thus was the same for our props to had to use phones that people had all ready perched. When trying to get a human sized box we could find on and with no budget we had to think outside the box and with the collage arts supplies we got a smaller box and filmed it close to give the allusion it was a human size box. With cast and crew we did not need to pay anyone due to it being a collage project. Also due to the collage having a YouTube channel we could distribute are film at no coast. If we did have a budget we would of have to obtain a lot more things but as it was a collage project we had to obtain things are self at no coast.

Personnel

I this book let I have picked a  low budget short, a television programme and a Hollywood film. I have then shown all the the cast a crew that are in the media project from cast and crew. There are many difference between the 3 products. Start with the cast, the cast on Above the fold is very simple and small due to it being a low budget short that face they have a low budget means they can't afford to pay many actors or have famous name in there short film. When it came to Misfits it had the highest casting list out of all three. This each episode tell a different part of a story and each episodes include add different and new people into it. The feature film had a big casting list but it had a lot of well knows people in it who where famous this is they are able to afford big named actors. The cast on a low budget film is incredibly small and some of the cast are even in the crew this is to same more due to having a low budget. When it come to the the feature film the cast is massive and can afford to spend money on people for make-up, set design and sound. This is the same for the television program the crew is a lot bigger then a low budget as they can afford to pay more people to work on the set. Different films obviously have different size cast and crew. Put we can see from these examples that the higher you budget is the higher amount of people you can have working on you film. You could say that a feature film has a lot more requirement then a low budget short.

As a small group of three working on out short film we had to allocate different roles to different people. i took the role of the main character as I had a GCSE in drama as am not a camera shy person. James took the role of film he had not much experience accepts in a project we had done before but he was fairly confident. Remi took the job of being the post man as he is quite confident and

not shy. He had been in found of the camera in over projects. Sometimes this roles changed there was a few days where James was away and me and Remie where left to filming when it came to film me a Remie where fairly new at it and haven't had much practise when using a camera. Me and Remai coped quite well and we also leant new things when it comes to filming. When it came editing the film we all took turns to put out import into it. We where all very new at this but again using the basic information we had we coped and edited to our highest stranded. We also used Remi and James voices for our advert and radio program we then editing these voices with allocated these roles due to the face they have very strong mail voices and we thought it sounded more important and lowed.

Time 

We had a week to film and two weeks to edit our film and 4 and  a half hours per a week to film and edit. We used our filming time very well as we panned out every shot we where going to talk each time so thins kept us on track when it came to filming. With editing we tried to keep on track by giving people different job from editing to finding sound. Over the course I thing our time keep was very good and we did have a few hiccups like when some of our crew couldn't turn up.We did not meet out deadline due removing the SD card when we hadn't saved in onto the computer. This means that some of our footage was lost and some of out sound. We then have to fix this all so our work was a day late. 

When it comes to meeting a deadline in the media industry they can have alone of problems if they are not met. If you have to film for extra day this means going over budget and have to pay all cast and crew for the extra days of working. The location they are filming on may not be available for theses extra filming days. This can also effect if you have enough money to carry on film and effect if you own money to the bank. This is why people do all the pre-production work so they can plan to stick to a deadline. If it is a low budget film for a competition you may miss the deadline or entering. There are many thing that can go wring when not meeting a media production deadline. 

Equipment/ Facilities 

When making a media product you need to obtain equipment and the best way to do this is by rent equipment. A website you can rent cameras on is hireacamera (http://www.hireacamera.com/en-gb/stills/) they have a ranch of equipment to rent and and range of prices.This sight works buy you chose you equipment hiring for a period of one day to one month and having to pay for the hire of the equipment daily.Of cause the better the equipment to hight the cost is to hirer the equipment out and you can hire equipment to match the camera you bought like a camera lens. I put togehter a book of some price ranges and equipment that is available to hire.If I wanted to hire equipment near me I would go to the White Lable media Solution as it is a Norwich based company. 

For out project all the equipment was already and ready to use.At our college we have a AV room which is full of videoing equipment. We took out a cannon dslr camera, tripod, SD card, zoom mic.
This is the equipment we used every time we filmed as they are the best equipment the college has.

Locations

Location recces- The location recces is finding place where a media product may be filmed. It's analysing the surrounding around the location and getting information that will be useful when picking the location. The information included availability, pack parking, travel, electricity supply.

Location releases- After picking a location you need to the the location releases which is the permission to film on the site on particular times.

We used both of these things when it came to picking a location to film. Due to or story line and

being in college we thought about staying around college so we filmed at east Norfolk six form.Fist we used a loaction recces to desire on the best place within college would be to film. In our head we wanted to film in a corridor and classroom and somewhere the looked like a house. Using the Location recces we look for the ideal location which best fit the description.When we finished the location recces we found the three best location which where w15, w16 and a hallway. We picked these location as doing the location recce showed us that these we the best to get to they we available to film in and they match the description of how we wanted to location to look like.We also then got a location release for each location so it  we had permission to film on the sight.

When we have chosen our location with ad to look at the risk we could face when filming there to keep everyone safe and redressed the rick as much as possible. So we did and risk assessment fist we assessment the risk and how might be hurt or how this risk could effect people. After assessing the risk we then look at how we could stop the risk from happening and what we would do if something did happen due to that risk. After that we put it in action and make the rooms and places we filmed in as safe as possible. Most of the risk where wired and bag and a risk of tripping. To stop that we put bags away and made were of where all the wires where and places then into a more safe place.

Materials 

There are many additions to equipment, cast and crew to making a image text. various types of material may include-

Sound- People use sound effects in films to make the sound more cut and clear. They also might add

in sound to make more of a in pack. For example adding a gun shot noise to enhances the atmosphere and to be clear that the gun has gone off. 

Score- People add in music to set emotions contrapuntal music is also used to make people feel sick, confused or scared. This is very commonly used in horror films.

Footage- People may add in footage of live event is commonly used in documentaries. Another example of this is This is England they use footage at the start of there film to show event of time period there filming in.

Titles and credits- Titles and credits  are added in to give the cast and crew credit for being get e film. Titles are added in to tell the audience simple information the name of the film.

Pre-production document- Pre-production work is done for many reasons from creating a story,
planning shots to getting permission to location.

VFX- Visual effects is used to make a film more interesting. Visual effects is added in to show things that don't exist or wasn't available when filming. Using visual effects can lower the cost of a films production.

There are many things that media productions have to fanatically consider when using certain material? Copyright is a big one if you wanted to use something that has copy right on you need permission and will have to pay to use the music/videos you want. Actors have to paid a fair wage and you must make sure that everyone is paid fairly and there is no discrimination agains gender, disabilities and skin colour. It wanting to use linens branding you need permission to use that branding or els you can get sued this is the same for copy right. Linens branding can also make you and profit by you adding a branding into your media production the branding company can pay you. Linens branding is like adverting through a media production weaver your actors wear the branding or use it in some way. Insuring equipment and over things is a must as if you haven't got insurance and you damage equipment or people injure them selfs it would cost a lot of money. To stop the risk of having to pay loads of money for damages it is the best to have insurance.

Legal issues

Copyright is a law that allows the create of a product the right to own there product and disturbing it in any way that they would like to. This is something that when making a media production you must watch out for and take legal consideration of. Copyright began in the 18th century by Charles the second. Copyright allows people to make more money when selling there product as there work can not be copied. If some decided to cope there product the own is able to sue them the person getting sued could be arrested, fined or even sent the prison. Copyright also protects people when they pass until 50 years until the author passes. When making a media production copyright can cause a big problem so you must make sure that you have permission if you wanted to use something with copyright.   

Copyright had a big effect when it came to making our film we had to use royalty free music this means the music may not have been what we wanted and as good quality. We use website like Free-sound where all there music was royalty free. If i had not followed this there would of been a risk of removal or when entering DepicT! it may not be entered due to copyright. Not when making our film but another group used footage that wasn't theirs they had to get permission to use the asset if not is would this has the same consequences as using no royalty free music.

Clearance-You can;t distribute a media production if it does not have clearance. This means you have written permission to use everyone and everything in your media production. We did this as pert of our pre-production work. It is important to due to first encase of not being able to use actors and sound tracks. There are many things you need clearance on- 

Script clearance- Is your scrip original and not copy someone. Also to check the characters are not based of really people living out dead and if so to make them not as noticeable but if so you must have permission to based a character on them.

Contents clearance- Anything that is in your media production needs to be cleared. From logos, brand names, clips, text and much more. 

Music clearance- When using music that has copyright it us need cleared to use that music or sound in your media production. 

Actor's/ contributor's clearance- Anyone that is in your media production needs to have a signed agreement that they are able to be filmed or work within the media production. 

Completion guarantee- Also revered to completion bond is a form of insurance which is offed by a completion guarantor company this is in return of a percentage fee based on the budget given. Independent films often use this form of insurance this means the film maker will agree to make a film until finished. If not finished the bank that has given the film marker money will use the completion guarantee to secure the risk if this happens. This is a loan that is used if film do nit finish they final products and i can not pay back the bank loans.     

Regulation

Regulatory body have to maintain what media productions put on the net work and my sure media productions are following certain guide lines.  

OFCOM- The office of communication or OFCOM is the government-approved regulator for broadcasting in the UK. It's main function is  mostly deals with media production and the public few's and if a media production is harmful or is offensive. OFCOM also work with dealing with licensing, research, codes and so on. The BBC are regulated bu outside bodies they use a competition policy which is regulated by The Office Of Fair Trading (OFT).The BBC have more them self now of what they but out ot the public instead of OFCOM giving them guideline BBC have kinda made there own outtake on what they think counts as a guide line when it come to media production being shown to the public.

BBFC- The British Board of Film Classification is a non-government group that classifies media
products more films and DVD's. This deals with the age a film is when coming to see a film at the cinema this also comes into consideration when films are released onto DVD's. It's function is keep the public at a younger age seeing things that are not suitable for that age group.

Trade unions and trade associations

These are organisations that represent people as work means someone from the union meting with a

person if favor of members of staff or taking up a problem with your employer for you.  They aim to protect there members that they represent this include making the work place safe and not being but at risk when doing there job this also means legal protection. They also help if people believe they should be paid more or believe they are working in poor conditions. They provide workers with information and advice and guides if they feel the point above relate to them. The also provide training, insurance, financial services and legal advise. Trade association is an organization funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. They work particularly with the public relations such as advertising, education, political donations, lobbying and publishing.

PACT-PACT is a trade unions in the UK that represents independent television, film, digital, children and media companies.

BECTU-This is also a UK trade union that work in the sector of broadcasting, film, independent production, theater and the arts, leisure and digital media.