btec-media-sean-blog

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Summary

Overall, there are many pre-production procedures that need to be considered when creating a digital media project. If all of these are considered and the processes are planned carefully, there will be a smooth production and it will ensure that everyone knows what they’re doing and there will be no problems such as lawsuits or backlash from the audience due to the team not taking factors such as obscenity or discrimination into consideration. 

Furthermore, all of the documents for pre-production need to be kept when the show actually starts production so people know what they’re doing once production starts, there is a clear idea as to what the show will be about and what it will include, and so no time or money is wasted.

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Logistics

Logistics are the careful organisation of a complicated activity so that it happens in a successful and effective way. This is important because it makes the production efficient and cuts costs. If these logistics aren’t taken into consideration, it will lead to longer production time and more unnecessary costs.

Facilities: This website http://www.digitalsnowball.com/video-edit-suite-hire-london/ has an editing suite for hire and it costs £180 per day. This can be useful for editing the TV show and the dates that this would be hired out for need to planned in order to have a successfully edited, completed episode or series. There needs to be facilities and props which need to be hired properly, if these required facilities aren’t organised and properly structured, it will lead to delays and extra costs. Also, some people may only want to rent out equipment or a location for the number of days that was originally planned for. If the producers need more time, they may have to wait a lot longer to be able to rent out the equipment or location again.

Locations: When creating a TV show or a film, producers would create something called a “recce”. It is a site survey to determine technical aspects, lighting, sound, logistics and anything else that the shoot requires. Location recces tend to be investigative missions, which the crew uses to judge the locations suitability. The location makes an impact on TV show production. If the distance of the location is far away and not easy to access, it may take longer for people to get to the production team, and it could delay production and increase costs. Furthermore, the weather can have an impact on production. The weather needs to be suitable for a certain scene that could use pathetic fallacy to convey meaning through the use of the weather. If there is a sad scene, there needs to be rain or darker weather rather than sunny and bright weather that could be used for a joyful scene. The scene also wants to be continuous so there needs to be a consistent type of weather for a certain scene or shot. Also, the production team do not want the equipment to get wet because they will get damaged and would have to pay for repairs or they would not be able to use them, leading to an ineffective way of spending money.

Lastly, the budget needs to be spent on the talent, actors and extras. This is important because the actors are the embodiment of the characters that the producers made so it is vital that they deliver their lines and talent correctly. Therefore, some people may have to spend more money in order to get well-known and reputable actors in their production. An example of this is Robert Downey Jr when he was paid $33 million for his role in Captain America: Civil War (source: http://screenrant.com/highest-paid-actors-of-2016/?view=all). This is advantageous for a production team because they’re getting a dependable actor in their film to portray the character of Iron Man so this may lead to a successful film because people will like the actor and his delivery of his character. However, this may be a disadvantage because $33 million is a lot of money for a production team, especially if the budget is not large enough to acquire well-known actors. Therefore, the actors hired have to be good but relative to the budget of the film.

Conclusion

The budget of a production has to be spent very careful and producers have to be vigilant when it comes to exactly what they’re going to be spending their money on. This is so that the production team doesn’t spend more money on one process rather than another. For example, if the budget is only spent on production or talent and there’s no money left to go into post-production or distribution then it will cause problems and possibly a failed product.

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Legal and Ethical Considerations

There are many legal and ethical aspects that need to be considered when creating a media product to ensure that no one gets involved in a lawsuit or so they don’t offend any particular viewers that could result in lower ratings, less viewers and an overall unsuccessful production.

The first aspect that needs to be considered is filming people. People have rights that filmmakers have to consider, especially when filming in streets or cities such as London. Some people may not allow them to include their image in their film, which is why producers should obtain direct consent from anyone who is on camera. However, consent may not be obtained so filmmakers have to decide whether they should still include the image or whether they may have to obscure the person’s face. Furthermore, the Data Protection Act 1998 applies to the film company that process anything within the definition of “personal data” such as storing, developing and printing photographs or recording video footage. Personal data is described as anything relating to living individuals who can be identified from the data itself or from the information that producers may have access to. Also, the producers have to ensure that they don’t discriminate anyone or defame any individuals depicted in their product. This would happen if the filmmakers made a statement that referred to that individual and lowered his/her reputation. If the statement is true then it’s not classed as defamation but filmmakers need to make sure that their statements are supported by evidence. Also, the producers must never represent a comment or view of an individual as being held by whole groups of people. Additionally, this can link to stereotyping which should not be included in our production as it discriminates people unfairly. This can be prevented if they get different views and comments from the same group of people.

Additionally, filming children needs to be taken into great consideration as the producers need to ensure that the child is not absent from school and whether the actor will require a Child Performance Licence. The Child Performance Regulations 1968 needs a licence applicant to give notice of 21 days. The absolute minimum of notice is 7 days. There are 2 parts to the application where part 1 needs to be completed by the production company and part 2 needs to be completed by the child’s parent, carer or guardian.

Secondly, filmmakers need to get permission to film buildings. Buildings are protected by copyright under section 62 of the copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which permits you to take a photo or film of a building without infringing it’s copyright. This means that you don’t need permission from the owners to make a film or photograph of it. A building on public display is not infringed by making a film representing it. However, you may need to position yourself on private land in order to film certain buildings. They will need consent of the landlord and/or owner of the land. If you wanted to film inside a building, you will certainly need consent of the building owners. If you don’t get consent, you will face a lawsuit, which is not needed as it may interfere with film production and post-production.

There are other legal constraints that filmmakers need to be aware of. These include:

1)   Libel

2)   Discrimination

3)   Obscenity

4)   Data Protection

5)   Copyright

I have discussed libel, discrimination and copyright as well as data protection in the previous paragraphs but obscenity needs to be taken into consideration just as much as the other legal factors. Obscenity laws relate to the regulation or suppression of what is considered obscene material. This usually revolves around pornographic material and issues of freedom of speech. Censorship laws enacted to combat obscenity restrict freedom of expression, which is why it needs to be taken seriously as creating a legal definition can be difficult. However, filmmakers still need to ensure that their content could not be considered obscene by regulatory bodies such as OFCOM or the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). Therefore, it would be safer to exclude all types of obscenity in the media product.

There are examples of when copyright was infringed for a film or TV show such as “Battlestar Galactica” infringing copyright of Star Wars. According to the source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/a-history-star-wars-legal-855337, “The success of the first Star Wars film convinced Universal to quickly green light its own sci-fi property, Battlestar Galactica”. As a result of this, Twentieth Century Fox thought that the new show was too close to the Star Wars universe, and therefore, they filed suit for copyright infringement. For our BTH project, we do not want to get involved with a lawsuit for copyright because we want to be a professional team with original ideas and no problems with big companies who have films that could be subject to being copied. Therefore, we will definitely have to take copyright into consideration when creating our project.

Lastly, film and TV show production teams need to consider regulatory bodies such as OFCOM, PRS, BBFC, BECTU and many more. Firstly, OFCOM (The Office of Communications) is a regulatory body created to regulate (in our case) TV, radio and video-on-demand sectors. They have a duty to represent the interests of citizens and consumers by promoting competition and protecting the public from harmful or offensive content. This links to the idea of obscenity because this regulatory body prevents this from being distributed to the public. Additionally, the PRS is a regulatory body that license organisations to use copyrighted music on behalf of songwriters or publishers and they share the royalties to them “fairly and efficiently” (source: https://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx). If we are using music in our production, we need to pay royalty to the song producers or to PRS in order to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit. Another regulatory body that needs to be considered is the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). This is an independent, non-governmental body that was created to classify cinema films and give them an appropriate rating based on their content. Lastly, there’s BECTU (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union). This is the UK’s media and entertainment trade union with sectors covered include cinema, film, digital media, and broadcasting. This union represents staff, contract and freelance workers who are based in the UK. They negotiate pay, conditions and contracts with employers, personal advice as well as representation for individual members. They also provide training support and courses. This needs to be taken into consideration because we want people’s jobs to be protected and to pay them appropriately and not exploit any workers to avoid any lawsuits or problems with regulatory bodies such as BECTU.

Conclusion

Overall, there are many codes of practice that TV and film producers need to follow so that they can create a successful project and not face any lawsuits or problems with the ethical sides of the project. If producers do not abide to these laws or ethically correct procedures then it will result in problems during production, there will be backlash from audiences once the product has been released and the product being given a bad name so that people will be deterred from watching it.

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Impact on Planning

Planning is one of the most important parts of creating a media product as it gives you a clear guidance as to what is required to ensure that a successful production is carried out. If the pre-production processes are handled with care and are taken with serious consideration, then (in theory) there should be no problems when the production team start filming. 

There can be profound consequences if planning is not taken seriously or if everything isn't considered. Poor planning will lead to people not knowing where they’re supposed to be, it can cause frustration and low morale for the actors, the producers or the crew. Furthermore, there will be lower productivity so the production is not cost-effective. It may also lead to longer production days which will result in higher costs because the equipment needs to be hired for extra days. Perhaps they may have to wait longer to start filming again if the owner of a location does not allow them to rent their land for another day. Therefore, they will be wasting time and money while waiting for the location to be available again. The budget could have been spent on other things such as editing or advertising rather than spending money on more days filming because of poor planning.

An example of a media product that had poor planning was “The Room”. Information on this website: http://ew.com/article/2008/12/12/crazy-cult-room/ shows that all of the $6 million budget was only spent on production and marketing. No money went into planning or pre-production and as a result, the film was very unsuccessful. Furthermore, the director Tommy Wiseau admitted that “he did come into conflict with individuals who tried to tamper with his work”. He said: ”Because they tried, for example, to change the script. They say, ‘This is the way to do, etcetera, etcetera.’ I say, ‘No!” Furthermore, one of the characters was not portrayed by the same actor, he was replaced halfway through the movie, causing a disruption of continuity. Because of this, The movie received a rating of 3.5/10, making it one of the lowest rated movies of all time. This poorly made film could have been made much better if Tommy Wiseau and the other producers had spent more time and money on ensuring that the film production ran smoothly, everyone knew what to do, and how to approach certain situations such as an actor having to leave for other acting arrangements. This could have been a successful and iconic film if the pre-production processes were taken seriously.

Conclusion

Overall, it is imperative that clear planning is ensured so that everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing at what time and what place, so there’s high morale, productivity and low costs. This will enable the creators to spend more money on other parts of production such as post-production and marketing the product so that people are persuaded to watch it when it is released on an appropriate platform such as digital streaming, TV networks etc.

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Cast and Crew Report

When creating a film or TV show, there are multiple job roles that are required to ensure that a successful piece of media is produced. If not all of these are taken into consideration; there could be an adverse effect on production and could lead to an overall unprofessional, unprincipled failure of a project.

Firstly, health and safety job roles are imperative for film production. This is because everyone’s safety needs to be insured and if anything happens that could lead to someone being put in danger or if someone has an accident, there will be paramedics that will help him or her. From the source I have used (http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/3805_paramedics_and_paramedical_staff), they said: “They might be trained paramedics of other types of practitioner such as a chiropractor, osteopath or physiotherapist”. Furthermore, only one paramedic may be required on some general filming, and more specifically on low risk stunt and action scenes. However, this won’t apply for our project, The Media Suite, since we won’t have any stunt or action scenes. Also, the show is going to be filmed in the same building so we don’t need to worry about having multiple paramedics since we have defibrillators across the building, which can be used in case of an emergency. Therefore, we would not necessarily need health and safety paramedics but we may need health and safety advisors so that we ensure that nothing goes wrong during shooting.

Secondly, lighting needs to be taken into consideration for film production. We could hire a console operator to control the lights but that would significantly increase costs of production and our project wants to be as low budget as possible. Therefore, we will not use a lighting console but rather use natural light for our show. We will achieve this by adjusting the blinds so that we have enough light to give the show an office environment, since that is the setting we are trying to achieve.

Thirdly, job roles for the camera are especially required for this project since we are creating a TV show. This source: http://creativeskillset.org/search/59?tags%5B%5D=Film&tags%5B%5D=Camera&tags%5B%5D=&q= has a list of many job roles that involve cameras but we would only need a camera trainee since this will cut costs and save money. It wouldn’t be necessary to have an Aerial Camera Assistant or an Aerial Camera Pilot because our setting is in an office and it wouldn’t be efficient to have a helicopter flying next to the set when we can film it all in the Media Suite, the Green Room or the Café using amateur camera operators, hence we could use a camera trainee.

Furthermore, photography roles could be needed when creating our project. On creativeskillset.com, the job role for photography is a Unit Stills Photographer. They take photographs of film sets or studio shoots and they use them to create the press and publicity for feature films. Although this would be a useful and creative idea for the marketing side of our product, we won’t be marketing this product and The Media Suite is not a feature film, therefore a unit still photographer will not be required for production of this show. Instead, we will take the photos ourselves.

Additionally, acting roles are definitely needed to ensure a successful production has been met. These roles are essential because they interpret other’s words in order to bring a script to life and they “put flesh and blood on the characters they portray” (source: http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/281_actor). If an actor does a poor job on bringing the script to life and properly conveying the message of the film, people will not enjoy the film and so it will be unsuccessful. For our project, we will not need to hire actors since we are going to be the actors in the show. This will save cut costs and can be used on other sectors of film production, such as editing or the quality of the camera.

Lastly, costumes and props are required in order to ensure that the characters in the scenes are appropriate for that specific purpose e.g. a suit for a wedding scene rather than casual clothing. One of the job roles on the creative skillset website was a wardrobe supervisor, a role that manages staff, including costume assistants, standbys and dailies. They also carry out a range of tasks from organising schedules and arranging transport to checking continuity. This job role will not be required for the production of “The Media Suite” because all of the actors will be wearing their suits/business dresses. Therefore, a variety of costumes as well as costume designers or supervisors will not be needed for the production of our project.

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Call Sheet Report

This is an example of a call sheet. This is a document that tells everyone who is a part of production where they need to be in order to ensure a smoother production. Without this, there wouldn’t be any awareness of risks and people would not know where they need to be, it will extend the production time which will increase costs, especially if there is expensive talent on set that will be present for more days, resulting in even higher costs which could have been avoided if the production time was used efficiently and resourcefully. An example of ways that production can be efficient is this section on the call sheet:

This tells all of the producers the location of where they are going to be filming and a report on the weather. This is important for production because there needs to be continuity in the scenes. If the weather is supposed to be sunny, it has to be sunny for the duration of production, otherwise, the scene will not be consistent and the final result will be an unprofessional, inconsistent scene.  

Here is another example on the call sheet that is needed for an efficient day of production:

This shows the date and time of the production, which is clearly indicated through the “DATE” and “SCHEDULED HRS” section as well as the director, producer, camera operators, assistants and more. This is imperative for film production as it shows who is doing what job roles and the times that the production will be going on for, which is depicted as being from 11am to 7pm. This time frame is useful so that no hours are wasted or production time doesn’t get delayed to the next day, leading to an increase in costs and lower productivity.

This section of the call sheet shows the actors and the characters they portray. It also shows the timeframe that they’re supposed to be on set for filming. For the character Ricky, he has to spend 15 minutes on makeup, 15 minutes on costume, and then on set from 11:30am until the end of the production time. This is useful so all of the actors know what they’re doing, at what time, and where they’re supposed to be.

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Recce Images

These are all of the photos that I thought were necessary for the recce of the locations for filming. The locations are the Cafe and the green room. One example I have included was a picture of the water cooler. I have included this because access to water is required for film production. I have also taken pictures of the wires and cables as an example of the risks that need to be taken into consideration during production.

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Recce for The Media Suite

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Requirements of Finance

When creating a moving image product, the budget will have to be spent on many different aspects that will be required to create the film or TV show. In this instance, I have been asked to create a Single Camera TV Show, a technique used by shows such as The Office.

The first requirement is the equipment. To create a moving image product, you will need lighting, a camera and a sound rig. An example of lighting equipment used in film and TV production is the Arri M18 which costs £170 per day or £510 per week on this website: http://www.greenkit.london/product/arri-m18. Arri also have cameras that film producers have used. Their camera is called Arri Alexa and costs £400 per day or £1200 per week. This camera has been used in films such as Rogue One, the Revenant, Mad Max, X-Men and many more. The cost of the camera for our BTH production will be cheaper since we are going to be adopting a single camera technique and we don’t have a high budget like Rogue One with a budget of $200 million. Lastly for equipment, we need sound equipment. An example of a microphone used in film production is the Tascam Dr-60D Mk2, which is priced at £165.

Secondly, the crew is essential for film and TV show production, as the product can’t be made without them. Firstly, a cameraman will be required. According to the source: http://www.videoproductionslondon.com/rates a cameraman costs £295 per half day or £395 per day. Secondly, a boom operator will be needed which costs £500 per week. Also, a sound engineer will be needed which is £220 per day. The sound crew won’t be required for our BTH project though because we have the mixing board and all of the necessary sound equipment but we will use it ourselves and won’t need a sound engineer or a boom operator.

Furthermore, it is required to have crew support during production of the moving image product. A catering crew will be needed to feed the producers, actors, extras and people involved with the film. Film catering from companies, such as Delicious Film Catering, charge £34 for each person per day. However, this won’t be required for our BTH project because we have the school café as well as bringing in our own food from home or other places. Therefore, it is not necessary to hire a catering crew for our project.

Additionally, Costumes will be needed to create a film as the characters have to be expressed in the most appropriate way possible. On this website: http://www.leistonfilmtheatre.co.uk/index.php?pid=208 it costs £5.50 to hire one costume per day. For the film that we are going to make, this won’t be necessary as the costumes we need are our school uniforms. Therefore, we don’t need to contact any costume companies.

Also, film production will need transport to location of filming. The cost of renting a Ford Transit from the website http://www.barnesvanhire.co.uk/vehicle-hire/van-rental.html will cost £63 per day. This will be useful for film production as you can carry equipment and bring it to the location of filming. However, our project will all be filmed on location at the Sixth Form so transport of equipment won’t be necessary for this, although we need transport to get to the Sixth Form which would be via the bus, Metro link or car.

To create a film or moving image product, you need to get clearances. A clearance is obtaining permission to use copyrighted material or personal likeness, or researching a property to ensure that there are no disputes or claims over ownership. This website https://theclearancelab.com/services/ has a list of clearances for things such as the script, title reports, copyright reports and more. The script report costs $10 per page, the title report costs $399 in the USA and Canada or $1199 globally. The copyright report cost a minimum of $299.

One of the most important parts of film production is getting the right talent. Talent can cost a lot of money depending on who you’re hiring. The cost could range from £10 per hour to £150 per hour on this site: https://www.peopleperhour.com/freelance/freelance+actors. Films such as Terminator 3 have recognisable talent such as Arnold Schwarzenegger who earned $29.25 million, along with the other actors and extras, costing a total of $35 million (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_budgeting#Terminator_3:_Rise_of_the_Machines). Luckily, we don’t need to hire expensive actors for our project as we’re going to be the actors for it and it won’t cost us anything. Therefore, we won’t need to worry about hiring expensive talent.

Lastly, location of film production needs to be taken into consideration for this project. There are many places that hire out places and buildings for film producers to use, an example being hirespace which have a list of all of locations for hire in London, with prices such as £50 per hour or £20 per person (Source: https://hirespace.com/Top/London/London-Filming-Locations). For our BTH project, we are going to be filming the whole project in the Media Suite in Sixth Form so we do not need to take other locations into consideration when creating the project.

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Sources of Finance post

I have been asked to research the pre-production processes for creating a film or a moving image product. One of the processes is funding the project. There are many sources of finance that media production teams can use to help fund their project. One source of finance is the network that the show is aired on such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. An example of a show funded by a network is The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime. Amazon is funded through their subscriptions from people who pay for Amazon Prime, which is £5.99 a month. Amazon also get finance from their highly successful online stores which they would use to fund The Grand Tour. Also, in the UK, the British Film Institute uses lottery funds to help fund TV show or film makers and they have helped independent film makers create their project.

Another source of finance is Government funding. An example of a channel that gets Government funding is the BBC. People have to pay for a TV license and the money from that goes to the Government, which they use to fund the BBC.

Another source of finance that can be used for TV shows is crowd funding. There are many websites that people can use such as kickstarter.com or gofundme.com. The amount of money that media producers get can vary but most producers would need about £20,000 to properly kickstart the project. Some shows get a lot of support and make much more.

Another source of finance is self-finance. According to the source: http://www.raindance.org/10-routes-to-finance-your-film/ self-financed movies mean you don’t have to deal with investors. However, it does mean that you have to be careful with the money. An advantage of it is that you can get your film done immediately with your own resources and is very achievable in today’s digital world. However, if the film is not successful, you will lose all of your input into the film and you’re risking your personal possessions as well. Another disadvantage is that the filmmakers have stepped the development cycle and no one has given them any criticism on their script.

Furthermore, filmmakers can get finance for their film from product placements. The source credited above states that “Heineken reportedly stumped up a third of Skyfall’s $150,000,000 budget”. This can be very helpful for movie producers or TV show producers as they’re given a large sum of money to promote their product in their moving image project.

You could secure this income by creating a structured budget and not spending more than you need to or not spending enough on one area of production than another one. You could also use fewer personnel on the production team and utilise the equipment you have rather than spend more of the budget on more of it so you may not need to necessarily secure funding for the project. 

The problem with not having enough money is that you may not be able to properly create the film and that you won’t be able to stay on location for as long due to less money to rent the location. This can impact the schedule negatively, and could mean that there will be less time to focus on creating more important parts of the film, which could lead to an uninteresting and unsuccessful film.

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Pre-Production Portfolio

In this blog I will evaluate the the nature and the purpose of the pre-production process in the media industry. The given scenario for this task is that I work for a local volunteer organisation who have made unsuccessful projects in the past and are currently struggling to make a project that will be well-received by audiences and producers. I have been asked to research all of the pre-production requirements, procedures, documentation and more which all relate to a wide range of products. I will need to consider:

1) Finance

2) Costs and logistics

3) Codes of Practice 

4) Resources

5) Regulations (such as BBFC or W3C)

6) Formats of Pre-Production documents

7) Why these processes are necessary

8) Why we should keep Pre-Production documents