Wednesday 6 January 2016

The Pre-Production Process

Type of moving image production (media forms)


The media product we produced was a short 90 second film for DepicT! It had to contain 3 of most used camera techniques and we also had to demonstrate our skills behind camera and in front of one. We distributed the film through YouTube, if it was to be released on DepicT! then it would also be distributed through that.

Other moving media products are Full Feature Films, Television Shows, Miniature Films, documentaries and adverts etc. Movies and TV shows are distributed through many different ways such as streaming sites like YouTube this also counts as a social media type in which media can be uploaded on, Netflix and Hulu are also streaming sites, these sit themselves solely on delivering movies and TV nothing else. other alternative methods include DVD, Blu Ray.

Finance and sources of funding

films wouldn't exist if it wasn't or funding, they can be funded and supported with different methods such as private capitol, this is when a private source of money, such as a fan of the show or film series or books decides to fund the most part or all of the film, making them have the role as producer, as they funded the media source. other funding sources are the national lottery and BFI (British Film Industry) these are both funding sources for minor role films or English movies along with short films and TV shows. Product placement is also a big role within funding as adding in a companies product in a film can give you a substantial income and help push the fund further if you keep the product in scene. The last and most desperate way to fund a film or Pilot for a show is to take out bank loans, the reason this is the most desperate way is because if your film is unsuccessful then you could end up in copious amounts of debt, but if your show is successful then you can pay it back and hopefully make some profit from it, its a 50/50 chance.

Requirements for production

To produce a film or tv show funding will be necessary. The funding of any type of media varies but the typical expenditure goes towards travel, so that the cast and crew can get from A to B and get across areas that need to be filmed, Props are also another thing to be spent on, these can be for background extras or for the main cast,; costumes and makeup are also important along with special effects and pyrotechnics.

Our college provided us with cameras and microphones along with costumes and props, the only prop they provided for us was cardboard for the delivery scene to make a box, the phones in the film were our own and costed us nothing.

The make-up of a low budget short, would consist of minimal props or ones to easily get hold of, this also may include props that belong to the cast and or crew to save expenses, for instance if a phone is needed in the film someone may lend theirs to the cast in order to use for the scene the actors (talent) of the film may also be new the media industry and not be as adequate or good at acting as other talents but they will be cheaper to spend money on and look after. The camera crews and post production crew may also be amateur within the industry but will again be cheaper to manage and look after, a good example of this type of situation is the film Civvy Street by Joshua Trett, he uses cheap talent within the film and public areas or places that would allow free recording. the post production team consisted of himself and a few others possibly.

Television programmes most of the time have allot more help within production compared to short films and student made art. With a TV show you have firstly producers, these consist mostly of the original creators and the network they are on, along with any people that are interested with the idea. There tends to also be better crew members that are better qualified with camera work and better post crew. The talent for shows tends to often be allot more well known and better at acting. Despite all these facts there can be shows that have near to no money and cheap crew and unknown actors like the show "its always sunny in Philadelphia" where they consisted of a budget of $130 a good example of a show that is funded by the writer and also a channel with good actors and post crew is the show "black mirror"

Hollywood feature films, overall have the most experienced actors in, they have tonnes of funding from production companies and individual actors, there is also extremely good cameramen in charge of filming and famous post production people, these films tend to take a long long time to be made and the talent is extremely expensive along with props which can be exclusively made just for the film these tend to cost lots of money and become huge rarities.

we allocated work through our skills, for instance camera work and minor acting would be done by me, other camera work and cinematic vision would be taken care of by neve along with the main role and minor camera work and audio control was James, Neve and I were also in control of post production editing and VFX, Neve and I both had previous experience with filming making 1 or 2 short films before our final piece, although James did not.

We did include some minor roles in our film, I for one am one of them but as extras we had 4 other people, this scene consisted of everybody on their mobiles without any communication and luckily as most people own mobiles in todays world we didnt need to lend any props out to people.

Our time frame was about 2 weeks to create this short film, we spent about 5 days doing pre production and then we spent 4 days filming as there were vacancies in the group which slowed down production and then we spent another 5 days editing and cutting to make it perfect

In the professional media industry when a deadline is not met it may be because of lack of funds or because of poor management, ifthis happens the production can be passed onto another manager and crew to finish it off and get it done or it can be scrapped and left.

we did meet our deadline in class, only just within minutes.

We recorded our film in the college to not tie with any problems, keeping things simple and hassle free was the fastest route for us, we had no security issues.

location recces are location scouts its for when you are organising where to film so you go about looking at possible candidates, look into how the lighting is there and if it has the essential necessities to film.

location releases are paperwork that need to be filled out to grant the cast and crew permission to film in that area in case it is privately owned or has an event taking place near that time.

we chose classrooms and corridors for our depict to make the world around the character look industrial and worn, to also make it look bland and exhausted of natural colours and light, making it look mean and bleak, i wanted this type of look as it would add an impact to what the future may be like.

the only issues we really had were with sounds, for instance if recording and another class can be heard it would make things hard to seem authentic as it would kill the vibe of the surroundings in the shot, another struggle was parents signatures for the people under 18 in the group, this was a problem as no cast and crew were local to the area.

materials needed for moving image text would be VFX as that adds the impossible to films making costs cheaper for the film and faster to make, another material would be fake weapons, these are obtained from toy shops (if getting a bad looking one) or costume shops or even air rifle shops although that is a more dangerous option, other materials include clothing and possibly vehicles.

for some materials you have to be aware of things such as copyright laws etc, these can incur when a song or product of some kind has been added to the feature without permissionm this can result in law suits and fines, it can also slow down production by a huge amount, another thing to be wary of is insurance, in case a cast or crew injures themselves it is mandatory to have health insurance on each of the cast and crew.

legal issues may be the watershed for example, this means if a show is above a 12 before 9pm it is illegal and can be fined and removed from that channel, another legal issue is parents permission for child actors, this is a problem when looking for a young talent, nudity is also a contraversy within the law end of things as it can result in the age rising in a film along with violence and swearing.

1 comment:

  1. You have outlined requirements and sources of requirements for a specific media production.

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