Requirments For A Moving Image Production

The Pre-Production Process

Type of moving image production:

In this piece of writing, I will be talking about the requirements for the pre-production process. For our project we did a 90 second short for DepicT! Our short was called The Day Silence Stood Still. We distributed it through YouTube and Facebook. We used our colleges YouTube channel (ENBTECMEDIA) and somebody in our group shared it from YouTube to Facebook, therefore getting a wider distribution, and bringing in more viewers. Other moving image productions are things such as: music videos, films, TV programmes, gifs, physical copies (DVDs and video) and illegal websites. Other ways we could've used to advertise our short would be on the social media websites  like Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, however when it comes to films and TV programmes you can use more expensive ways to advertise, like on the sides of buses, in newspapers, on TV and on the radio. 

Finance and sources of funding:

The sources of funding that film, TV and other moving image productions use are: Investors, mega corporations (Sony, Time Warner etc.) and the Lottery. The Lottery donates to film charities to help people create there film who are just starting or are on a low budget. Another way to source money for films is by selling your one you just made or one you are making. This will allow you to put the money from the one you sold to a new film. Megan Ellison is an American film producer, and founder of Annapurna Pictures. Ellison provided financing for films in 2008 and 2009. She invested in 3 films: Main Street, Passion Play and True Grit. The first two failed to get much recognition, however the third "True Grit", which was released at the end of 2010. Robert Rodriguez  is an American Filmmaker, screenwriter and musician. Rodriguez sold his body to science to fund for his first film El Mariachi, it cost $7 million to fund and have of it he raised through experimental drug tests, whilst living in Texas. El Mariachi was the first in a saga that came to be known as Robert Rodriguez's Mexico Trilogy. One more way people get funding for films and TV programmes is using crowdfunding and websites such as Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a website where creators and other people make films happen by crowdfunding. If people like your idea they will donate, however the creator must set a goal and a deadline. If the amount of money isn't met by the deadline, you lose it ll. With Kickstarter, its all-or-nothing.

Requirements:

• Equipment - cameras, lighting, props, tripods, editing software etc.
• Actors
• Director
• Producer
• Scriptwriters 
• Screenwriters 
• Editors 
• Transport
• Permission
• Facilities
• Copyright
• Insurance

These are all things you will have to spend money if making a moving image production. In our 90 second short we didn't have to spend any money on anything, as the college provided everything for us. We still had to ask for permission to film in certain places, however no money was spent. When we got our equipment we had to hire it out using our student cards and fill out an insurance form, which meant if we broke anything you would then have to pay to replace it. 

Like I mentioned before, to complete our DepicT! project we had to obtain permission to film in rooms, and had to have permission from actors by getting them to sign talent release, allowing them to be filmed in our project. We had to hire out the equipment and props from the college and sign insurance papers saying that if things broke then we would have to pay to replace them.


Personnel:
For us when making our 90 second short, there was only 3 of us. To get some of the clips we had to ask people in our class to act as extras and that was the only time we had to ask for extra people. We had one person as the cameraman, one person as the main character, our teacher to act as another character and one person as the director. Once it was filmed, we all took turns in editing and finding sound effects and music for our short. We also all helped to get all of the pre-production material sorted before we started filming.

When making a TV show you need:

• Pre-production team
• Production team 
• Post-production
• Specialist editors

These 4 things are all split into smaller sections with many jobs filled by professionals. A TV show takes a lot of people to create it, and definitely costs more than short film. This is because of the equipment is higher quality, there is more of it, and there is a lot more people working on the show.

For a Hollywood feature film, there are 5 stages. These are: 

• Development 
• Pre-production
• Production 
• Post-production
• Distribution

Like TV, the sections are all split into smaller things, e.g. actors would be under the "Production" section, whereas editors would be under the "Post-production" section. There will be a much bigger crew in a hollywood film than on a tv show because of the huge budget that they have to work with.

In making our short we only had 3 people, therefore meaning we had to allocate more had one job to each person. In the pre-production section we all each did a part of the storyboard, sharing the work equally, we then had other things like a risk assessment, location recces , talent releases etc. We each took one thing to do and then all filled out a talent release to say that we were giving our permission to be filmed. Because we are under 18 (21/11/16) we had to also get our parents signatures. When it came to production we assigned ourselves roles. One person was a cameraman, one acted and the other acted and directed. We also got the help of fellow classmates to act as extras. We had done a previous production before and had some experience in each role, but not too much.

Some of the people that contribute to a media text other than the production crew are:

• Extras
• Makeup artists
• Agents 
• Set builders

These are some of the people that are involved in a media text that are involved in the behind the scenes work. The "extras" are involved too much in the behind the scenes, however aren't to involved in the production crew. However; Makeup artists, agents and set builders, are involved in behind the scenes work. Sarita Allison is a professional makes designer for films and has done makeup for films such as: Harry Potter and X-Men. Before doing makeup for films, she did makeup for music videos, album cover shoots, advertising and TV commercial work. Sharon Jackson is a famous Hollywood agent who has such clients as: Jack Black, Jonah Hill, Jason Segel, Jason Schwartzman and Amy Poehler. 


Sarita Allison

Time:
We were given a week and half to do the pre-production materials, a week and a half on filming, and a week and a half on editing. So 4 and a half weeks in total to do our 90 second short. We finished our whole thing in just under 4 weeks which meant we met our target and were able to start our Textual analysis work early. In the world of Film & TV it is important to meet deadlines. If deadlines aren't met than people become unhappy. This is because the production then starts to go over budget, which means more money is needed to keep actors and workers on, which then means investors in the film will start to get worried that they might lose omen on the film and could cause the film to be rushed and end up being quite poor. Therefore losing you money and credibility. If you go over your deadline investors or directors will bring in more people to help finish the job quicker.


Equipment/Facilities:
An obvious way to get hold of equipment would be to buy it. However if you can't afford to buy the equipment, such as cameras, you can go to a website like Hire a Camera and hire out equipment for however long you want it for.



A place you can hire equipment from in our area is called White Label Media. They locate in Norwich, however they don't have any prices on their website so if you wanted to find out prices you would have to contact them on their website. They are approved by both the BBC and ITV and have a range from radio microphones, all the way up to fully equipped and crewed six camera outside broadcast unit. 

The equipment that was available to us was all supplied by the college. This consisted of cameras, tripods and props. We also had access to rooms in the college where we were allowed to film. We had to fill out an insurance form to take out equipment and if it broke or got damaged then we had have to pay to get it fixed or replaced. 

Locations:
We filmed our short in East Norfolk Sixth Form College. Our teacher went to the police to ask for permission to film in public so we didn't have to. If we wanted to film in public with anything like toy guns we would have to inform the police to let them know what we were filming, when we were filming and where we were filming. 

A location recce is when you visit a location to determine whether it is a suitable place to film and to see if there would be any sound problems or lighting problems. Without doing a location recce, you could go to somewhere to film and end up with loads of problems and no time left to find somewhere else to film. A location release is a binding contract between the photographer and the owner of the land. The owner of the property gives written permission to shoot a video, commercial, movie or any other media text on their property.  

For our DepicT! we wanted to have a dark room as our theme for our short was loneliness, and the darkness of the room would link into that. Our next location was a long hallway. We chose this because the longer the hallway, the longer time feels for our main character Simon with his depression. Our final location was an office room. This was good because it had natural lighting that worked well, but also already had tables and chairs set out ready for filming. Its also painted blue which tied along with the theme as blue depicts sadness. The dark room was also good because it came with out lighting that we didn't use, but was available for us if we wanted it. 

We didn't have many issues other than when people were away, but this was easily overcome. We would get whatever possible work done that could be done with 2 people and then waited for the person to come back to finish it all off. We didn't face many risks over than possibly breaking equipment by being clumsy or knocking into something. We got around this by only letting the cameraman go near the camera and wouldn't move till the scene had been shot.

Materials:
Apart from equipment, the crew and the cast, these things are needed to make a moving image text:

• Transport
• Money (for transport or props)
• Permission
• Talent releases
• Location releases
• Location recces

When using transport people may have to get the bus to get to the set. If filming takes a long time then the cost of getting the bus will start to amplify. Also if you want to film somewhere over a period of time somebody might want a deposit for you to film there if it is a business because it could cause that business to lose money. When using equipment you can either rent it or buy it, however if it breaks then you have to pay to fix it or replace it. Also paying for actors to be a character in your film can cost because you have to pay for their transport, but for their work. 

Legal Issues:
Legal considerations when using certain materials when filming might be when using props like knives or guns. If you are going to use these in a public area for filming you must first inform the police that you are doing so, but also must get permission from the police to film in that area. When filming in public you must get permission from people that are being filmed. So this means you must get extras and get them to sign a talent release to film in public. If the person is under 18 you must get their parents signature to allow them to be filmed. 

Copyright didn't affect our project too much. We had to be careful when selected sounds and music. We got these from a website called Freesound. These enabled us to get music and sounds without copyrighting from TV shows, films or music. 

Trade Union:
The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU) is a trade union in the United Kingdom. It has around 25,000 members who work in broadcasting, film, theatre, entertainment, leisure and interactive media.

BECTU: Is the UK's media and entertainment trade union; sectors covered include broadcasting, film, independent production, theatre and the arts, live events, leisure and digital media.

PACT: Helps producers gain the best possible environment for the independent production sector to grow domestically and internationally.

Trade Association: A trade association can also be known as an industry trade group. This is an organisation that is founded and funded by business's world wide in a specific industry. An industry trade association participates in public activities such as advertising, education, political donations and publishing, but its focus is collaboration between companies.