The Pre-Production process

 The Pre-Production ProcessTypes of ProductionThe type of production we did was a short film of 90 seconds for a depict which was based on a horror film and ours was distributed through social media using YouTube. Depict is a competition where young film producers have to opportunity to create a 90 second film for a chance to win a cash prize, the rules of the competition are simply that it has to be 90 seconds. This is what many new or low key film makers do to distribute their films if they are short and they can range from using many social medias like Vimeo, Twitter or YouTube like we did. There are also many different types of moving media, such as series, short films, web series, and obviously standard films. These distribute their films through various ways as well such as TV shows will be distributed through broadcasters who then decide when it is showed and what channel it should be on, an example of this could be a new soap so if it is quite violent it would be showed quite late so children couldn’t watch it and when most adults have finished work. Also films will use large scale companies to distribute their films such as paramount and universal. And other low budget films also did what we did and use social media such as YouTube and vimeo.Sources of financeOur source of funding mostly came from our own pocket but the college was there to back us up if we needed it but luckily we didn’t need much money for our filming as we had most of it already or the college had it for us to use. In the industry the main sources of finance are sponsors which are people who give money and don’t want a return they just want the film to be made, and investors also put large sums of money in but these expect something after the film has been made and a lot of the time they expect profit on it as well. Public funding such as the national lottery and private funding like Film4 is also a key way for films to get money for their films as they invest money into small films hoping for they can get big and build a future for those involved. Another way you can get a source of money is by crowdfunding is where people will donate amounts of money from a small amount of £10 all the way up to a large some that could be in the millions or higher. An example of a crowd funded film is ‘super troopers 2’ where they have raised $4,557,150 for their film.RequirementFor the requirements in our film we didn’t have any as everything we used we already had, a prime example of this is budgeting as we didn’t need to go and buy anything as we already had it like the fake blood and the cameras which were supplied by college. We didn’t even need to get permission to use the place we filmed at as it was public land so there was no need to. In the industry though there are a lot of requirements which the money needs to be spent on, things such as wages for the crew including actors, cameramen, sound and equipment techs and many more that will be involved. Also, things such as props need to be paid for as well, even if they’re rented out. And also filming locations as well, for example in apocalyptic films like ‘I am legend’ they had to clear an entire city in America to film their city shots to make it fit the mise-en-scene, this can be very expensive as it disrupts everyone’s working life and can also be very hard to be allowed to do, and even then it takes a lot of effort to organise in the tight time space you would be given to shoot.TimeOur time scale we were set for our film was 3 weeks, so we had 3 weeks to do pre-production, film and edit the film in our film we managed to keep to the time zone and managed to finish our film in the set-out time. It took us a week to do the pre-production, a week to film and a week to edit, making us finish dead on time. In the industry it is key to stick to deadlines because going over will cost much more money because things will overrun because if you have rented out equipment you will need to pay more to rent it out for longer as you have gone over your set time, also personnel such as crew and actors they will also cost you a lot more as you will need to pay their wages which will build up with each month that you go over as these crews need to be paid and they don’t come cheap. But in low-budget films like clerks this doesn’t matter so much as all people used in this film were all his friends so they didn’t need to be paid as they had other jobs alongside this. and in the long run it may cause your film to lose profit as the ending could be rushed making the film seem poor and badly directed to try and save money. Also if you over run and are completely out of money it could cause the film to go completely bust and this meaning you won’t get your film produced and won’t make any money from it meaning any money put towards it would have been wasted and could cause you financial problems in the future. PersonnelIn the industry there are many people involved in a media production, and different budget films mean a varying amount of man power they have involved. For example, a low budget short will have a lot less people involved than a Hollywood feature film. In a low budget short, there will be most of the crucial you need to create a movie such as actors, camera operators and sound operators, but a lot of the time people will have more than one job so a camera man might also be an actor and only use the camera when they aren’t supposed to be in shot, and they will rotate on roles so they can use people in as many ways as possible, this saves money which is critical in a low budget production and a lot of the time these personnel are just friends and don’t get paid for it as its more of a hobby. In a TV series they will have the typical things included such as cameramen and sound crews but this time instead of renting equipment they may buy it all instead as a TV series is a long running show so in the long run it is cheaper to own the equipment than to rent it, also the crews may also be permanent staff instead of a one off job or film, this is because again it is long running so the director won’t have to assemble a complete new team for each weekly episode which would take time to do which would waste time which they could be filming in. Also unlike the film crews, they may have additional staff such as more script writers or idea artists as they have to keep the show rolling over a long time, and if it is a soap it is a nightly episode meaning they need to have ideas quickly whereas for a film its already a thought up idea so no big ideas need to be thought up instantly so films don’t have to hire so many of these kind of crew members. In large scale film industries, they will most likely have the best of the best of each department as they can afford this because of the amount of money they get. And this type of film can have roles that vary from accountants to armourers and actors to cameramen a full list of crew roles is included in the following link: http://creativeskillset.org/creative_industries/film/job_rolesThe types of personal that films may have that other types of moving media may not have are CGI artists, a lot of other types of media don’t have this because it can be very expensive to find an artist who is talented enough to make it look realistic and fit in the film, but may save the film companies money as it is very expensive to cause a real explosion and if you have to cause multiple of these it can drain the budget very quickly.In our groups, we were a very tight group of four members meaning we had to get other members of other groups to help us out but mostly we switched the jobs around so for example some of us filmed and acted and we were very diverse in the jobs we had. The main roles we had available in our group were; Actors, camera operators, a make-up artist, driver and editors. These jobs were split up between all four of us and we all had at least two roles to play in the film. 
Facilities/equipmentIn professional industry for both large budget films and low budget films most equipment they used is most likely hired out from other companies as it works out cheaper than buying a whole load of equipment for one film, the cost to hire a camera ranges from about £100-£350 a day which is expensive still, but cheaper than buying one for not very long as they are very expensive. Other equipment they may need could be things such as lighting which ranges from £20 to £95 a day. There are also many other bits of equipment that would be needed and these are all included on this website with price: http://www.mediadoghire.com/browse-equipment-for-hireOn the other hand, as previously mentioned TV series may buy their equipment as they are always on going and it is cheaper to buy it up front instead of paying for it all weekly.In our depict film we could have hired out equipment from various places around Norfolk and Suffolk but due to the fact we didn’t need anything but a camera we were able to borrow it off the college.Gathering materialsIn our depict film we had to gather a few materials together such as props and costumes, this was to add realism and continuity, some of the props we needed include fake blood for when the murdering took place over the trees and bodies of the victims, also it was needed for when George was washing the blood of his hands, we obtained the fake blood from the college stores and the costumes we needed were casual warm clothes for the forest scenes to show it was a mistake that they are there, these were easy to obtain as it was what we were wearing for college anyway. But for the shot where George is washing his hands he needed to wear dark clothes to make it more sinister and was required to have a hood up, this was a bit trickier to obtain as he had to dress appropriately but he did have the clothes and colour. If we were having to buy these materials it would have cost a little bit of money but still nothing major, for example a bottle of fake blood is probably £5 and the clothes we would anyway so overall it would still be a cheap production.
In the industry Obtaining materials like props can be much costlier as they can be anything from a working tank all the way down to a knife and fork, so the price range can vary. So it is important to plan their purchases before they spend the money on it because props might also not always be available. But most props and costumes can be obtained from over the UK but for more historic films or series like ‘Band of Brothers’ they may need to go all over the world to get all props and uniforms.LocationsIn pre-production, all films must do a recce of the locations they wish to film at, a recce patrol is a term short for reconnaissance patrol, which is where a group will go out and scout a few areas of where they could film their film, the things they will look for are firstly if it is suitable to film in and follows continuity so for a horror a scary forest would needed to be scouted out and not a busy street. A few more things they are looking for are things like weather they can get the right camera angles, is it accessible for vehicles and camera trolleys, is the land privately owned if so they need a location release form giving them permission to be there, and if it is public land then will it be busy and need to be shut off, then they will evaluate all locations and use the most suitable for their film.In our depict film we filmed in 3 different locations the forest near the college, Jas’s car and the college toilets. We picked the forest because it fit the continuity of our horror film well as it had no civilisation or buildings there except left over rubbish which made it look even more scary, and it was extremely accessible to get too as it had a small track to walk through. And in view a radio mast which made it also look quite sinister, we chose to film in Jas’s car because this way we could film the approach to the forest and get close expressions of the actors faces making the viewer understand it more. And finally, we filmed in the college toilets to show the killer washing their hands to get the blood off and then walking out so the view could get an idea there was a killer.The issues we faced logistically in these locations were minimal but they were there, when we were filming in the car, due to we couldn’t fit a tripod in the car it made the shot quite wobbly at some points and unstable but this was no major issue as it added to the continuity. Also, when filming in the forest the only logistical problems were due to the fact it was outside when it rained we risked the camera getting wet or drops going on the lens ruining the shot, so to overcome this we put a plastic sheet over the camera to prevent it from getting wet and it went over the lens so the shot wasn’t ruined. And in the forest because it was quite a cut off area the tracks were very over grown making it slippery on the approach of our filming area meaning we had to be extra cautious when getting there.Codes of practice and regulationsOfcom is the UK’s communications regulator, they regulate all media devices such as TV, Phone services and even postal services. And they protect users from scams but ensure that businesses can still thrive. Ofcom is there to enforce legislation under the communications act 2003 to all media products. So in simple terms it ensures products in advertisements can’t lie about their products to make them seem better and that things like films can’t host harmful or offensive material. The BBC is regulated by ofcom in some ways but mostly by the BBC trust, these two regulators are different because the BBC trust was established by the Royal charter and its main goal is to serve the public whereas ofcom is to protect the public and the BBC trust is paid for out of taxes like TV licences, whereas Ofcom is an independent regulator meaning they aren’t funded by the government.The BBFC is the UK’s film regulator, this means they oversee the regulation of films before they are released in the UK and their main role is to put age limits on films such as PG, 12A and 12 etc. and their main aim is to protect children and make sure they are watching appropriate films for their age. In our film because it was released on the internet it follows a set of guidelines on wat it cannot have included, anything along the lines of;·         Extremism or politics
·         Any form of indecent images
·         Malicious or offensive texts or behaviours
·         Copyright
And if it were to have any of these it would most likely be blocked or removed from the streaming site.Legal IssuesWhen in the media industry or just doing it as a hobby there are many legal issues you will need to take into consideration, mainly Copyright and health and safety legislation. Health and safety issues are those that include the welfare of all team member working on the project and that they are safe whilst working, so this means equipment needs to regularly be checked so that it isn’t faulty and could harm someone and there are all regulations set out by the government that must be followed such as PPE should be provided by the employer, and the workplace has been risk assessed properly.Another legal issue is copyright, copyright protects peoples work and stops others from using it without permission, as soon as someone’s work is created it automatically has been copyrighted, and this type of work can include; illustration or photography, web content, sound and music recordings, film and TV recordings, broadcasts and drama scripts. Work that is copyrighted protects it against, people copying you’re work, distributing it around, renting your work out, performing or showing your work in public, making an adaptation of your work and putting it on the internet. Copyright lasts on average your lifetime plus 50 years for moving images and varies for other forms of media. Owning your work means that only you can decide what you want to do with it, weather you distribute it free of charge or try and make a profit of it, this means when say a film for an example want to use your song for their film you will get paid for the appearance of your song. Also, you can claim morale rights where you are identified for being the author of your work and if you think your work is being used in a negative way you can object to it being used and you can object to changes being made.Copyright affected our depict product mainly in the editing stage, as a lot of the music that we wanted to use that fit our fil well was copyright protected and they were only selling their work or didn’t want it to be used. So this meant our choice on music and sound effects was very limited as we wanted to keep a low budget so could only use the free ones from websites. This also applied with the sound effects we wanted to put in as we wanted to use a scream for a certain part but all the good ones that worked well were protected by copyright.Clearance in media is securing permission to use copyrighted work both material or personal, or making sure there are no owners to the thing you want to use in your film, this ensures your film stays out of trouble for using photos, songs or certain names. The price of clearance depends on how much the owner is willing to sell their rights too or rent them out to you for so there isn’t really a set price. An example of this is where ‘the walking dead’ used the song ‘sniff ‘n the tears- driver’s seat’ they had to pay the band for the use of their song which gave them permission to use it.Public liability insurance covers the costs of legal action and compensation claims made against your production area if a member of public or a contractor working with you gets injured whilst on set and makes a claim against you, this insurance covers you paying for their medical expenses and the damage you’ve caused to their property. This type of insurance is illegal not to have when working on a full set with one or more members of staff, and is used for all businesses not just in the media. An example of this would be if you did a controlled explosion on your set and a bit of shrapnel smashed someone’s window and caused them a serious cut, if it is found that it was purely an accident the insurance will pay for a brand-new window to be replaced and all medical bills to be paid for.Completion guarantee is a form of insurance offered out by insurance companies and is most often used in independently financed films to guarantee that the producer will complete and deliver the film so the person who has funded this film has to pay a small fee to the insurance company so that if it is not finished he is guaranteed to get his money back and he hasn’t just lost it all. Usually the price paid to an insurance company is up to 5% of what they have invested so if they invested £10 000 they would have to pay £500 to the insurance company. An example of this happening in a media industry is in a film called ‘the thief and the cobbler’ where the film kept getting dropped by production companies, so each time this happened the investors would get their money back as the film was dropped until it was finally finished 30 years after it started to be produced. Trade unions and associationsA trade union is an organisation made up of members all in the same trade, hence the name ‘trade’ unions, these unions are where members will pay to be in the set union and it aims to protect the members in their place of work from making sure they get paid and if wages are cut to allow them all to go on strike, which is important in media as without these crews production won’t happen which will cost the producers time and money. They also advise employees on financial and legal advice and deal with any concerns they may have, so an example of if they were to be used is if a film went bust and was stopped and they weren’t being paid for the work they had done, the unions would step in and make sure they were paid. These are important to crews as they don’t have to worry about not being paid if something does go wrong as they know that the union will have their back and sort any issues they have out.BECTU is the UK’s media trade union, its sectors covered include cinema, film, independent production and theatre and the arts. And the union represents staff, contract and freelance workers who work mainly in the UK. The services they provide include negotiating pay, personal advice and all what was included in the previous paragraph to do with unions. The key aims of this union are to·         Protect Jobs
·         Increase membership
·         Improve pay and conditions of service including pensions
·         Win new recognition agreements
A trade association is an organization made and paid for by businesses that work within a specific industry, these associations will partake in advertising, education and publishing to make their industry thrive but focus mainly on collaboration between companies, so in the media industry they may go into schools and promote the media industry to children making them want to follow this path so businesses can thrive and it makes that industry much bigger if a lot of people take this industry up so these industries get much more funding.  

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