Depict Essay

Pre-Production Process
The pre-production process is an important part of making a moving image text. Without effective pre-production planning, there would be little or no organisation of personnel and equipment, or no creative direction for the media text being made. The pre-production process begins with conceptualisation of the media text, which is done using various creative processes including script-writing, story boards and shot lists. Without this step, the team would make mistakes when shooting the media texts, as the scripts and shots would not be clear. After the completion of the creative planning, there are many legal and logistical issues that need to be sorted before filming can begin. This includes equipment, prop and costume hire and location organisation. As well as the legal paperwork, including location recces, talent release forms and a thorough risk assessment of the production process. These steps assure that there is no legal issues when filming, and that the production team will stay organised and within the budget. The only way the film can progress forward when it comes to filming is by getting all the pre-production paperwork.

Types of Production and Distribution
There are many different types of moving image productions and each of these requires a different type of distribution. Most mainstream movies will be made and distributed through production companies by cinema release and then often go to DVD/Blu-ray release. When a film becomes a bit older it will seek further means of distribution such as airing it on TV or letting streaming companies use it. However if we look at how independent films distribute their productions it is very different to the mainstream films. With social media on the rise most independent film makers rely on different social media platforms in order to promote their films. Not only will they use social media but they can also promote their moving image productions through film festivals. If the film does well at a film festival or online instead of going through cinema release it will go straight to DVD release. In some circumstances, if an independent film is lucky enough it could go to a limited time cinema in order to gain the public’s interest in the film. (Use example here)

Many different social media sites and video streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo have become more and more popular for independent films to distribute on. It is typically very cheap and simple for them to upload their moving image production on to. It is also very popular for the distribution of music videos with YouTube channels like Vevo dominating the music video distribution on YouTube. Many online film and TV distribution sites have been on the rise . For minimal prices per month audiences can have access to many different types of films and TV shows. Some of these services include: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Apple TV. Many of these services also make a distribute original TV shows and films that are exclusive to their company only, for example Netflix made the now hugely popular TV show ‘Stranger Things’.

However despite all this mainstream TV is still the most common type of distribution method for TV dramas, soap operas, sitcoms and documentaries. The different TV channels will decide what they distribute depending on their audiences. There is a clear difference between the media that channels such as BBC 1 and ITV1 distribute in comparison to the likes of BBC 2 and Channel 4. BBC 1 and ITV 1 will tend to show the more mainstream shows, the ones that everyone knows. However channels like BBC 2 and Channel 4 will show a wider range of shows. For example, ‘Naked Attraction’, a dating show where people choose their dates based on how they look naked, is distributed by Channel 4. Whereas ITV will show the more obscure reality shows such as Cupcake Wars on their free to stream channel ITVBe. Most TV networks nowadays have their own spin off channels e.g. BBC +1, which serve as catch up TV and usually run an hour behind the primary channel. Also many TV networks have now bought in sister channels. A good example of a TV network that has done this is the BBC, which now also has BBC 2, BBC 3, News, Parliament and a wide range of others in order to meet different target audiences. Many channels are now following suit and the list are always growing.

Finance and Sources of Funding
There are many different sources of finance within the media world. Depending on the sort of media text you are making will change the sources of finance you use. If you are making a big budget, Hollywood, feature film more commonly than not, the film will be funded by production companies. At the beginning of a film, the splash screens that come up let the audience know what production companies have helped with the making of the film. However this is not true for all Hollywood films. For example any film that is made by Disney is funded by Disney, even though the budget for these films is huge, Disney don’t use other production companies to help them fund the project; although they will use companies that are owned by them. Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and subsequently all Marvel films, are produced by Walt Disney Studios and Marvel Studios.

Many independent films however won’t have big production companies invest in them because these companies will see it as too much of a risk to invest in a film that may not make them any profit in return. In spite of this there are many ways that independent films can fund their projects. Crowd funding websites are a popular way for independent films to gain funding. Websites such as Go Fund Me can help independent films raise the money they need to create their media production. It is not only films that use websites such as Kickstarter and Go Fund Me to produce their films but this has also become very popular among TV shows. One of the most popular shows is Video Game High School, seasons 1,2 and 3. There were over 10,000 people who invested in this and season 2 managed to raise $808,341.

Requirements
There are many things that the production will need to account for in budgeting. Most productions will choose to hire things like equipment, props and costumes as oppose to buying the products as they may only use certain things once and it could be a major loss for the company. Different sorts of moving image productions will need to hire different items. For example if a period drama such as Downtown Abbey would need to hire locations and costumes that coordinate with the period era. However a film like Guardians of the Galaxy would have to worry a little less about location hire as most of it is done by green screen and CGI.

All moving image productions will need to hire equipment such as cameras and soundstages. All of these things will cost quite a lot even to hire. If you are making a low budget film you can hire cameras from around £100 however most films will hire cameras for over £400 a day from websites such as somedia.tv. Lights can cost around £160 a day to hire and are even more expensive to buy. Hiring of crew also needs to be taken into consideration and depending on what crew you need will change the amount per day a company will need to pay.

The Depict project, since there was little to no budget required a lot less. All we needed to complete the project was a camera, tripod and SD card which we hired from the college for free. The only part where we actually spent money was in the props. We needed 8 plastic masks for out short film and spent £7.92 in total on the film. We also didn’t need to hire a location as we used the college grounds and as for crew we used the people in our class to act as camera men and actors.

Personnel 
Different types of moving image productions will require different personnel in order to reach completion. The core of a low budget short film will include a director, producer and a writer. Along with these you may have a production manager, assistant camera, a gaffer, production design, sound recordist and a makeup and costume person. This may seem like a lot but in comparison to a television show or a Hollywood feature film it is a very miniscule crew. In a television show, the personnel will still include all of the aforementioned crew members but will also include extras. Some differences in the crew may be script writers. Whilst a low budget short film will also have script writers the difference in a TV show, is that often shows air new episodes daily and will need a constant supply of scripts. Another difference is that there could be more assistant jobs as the cast is more than likely to have a bigger cast than a low budget short film so will need more people to help out in between shots as well as during the shots. There will also be prop dressers whose job it is to transform sets or locations to suit the moving image production. There are a lot more similarities between the personnel of a TV show and a feature length Hollywood film. This is because most moving image productions with a big budget, such as Hollywood feature films and TV shows, will have a large cast and need a lot of crew to make sure that the production schedule is managed.

However there are some differences between the two personnel. For example a Hollywood film may need more special effects people on set as a lot of films nowadays include a lot of CGI.
In our depict piece the roles were very well managed. Since we had such a small team of personnel it was hard to fulfil all of the roles needed, but we compromised but dual rolling. We each took it in turns to operate the camera and had help from other groups who stood in as actors for our short film. Our film was a silent film so we didn’t need to worry about monitoring sound during the shoot, so this eliminated a role. We had all had experience of all the roles from our previous induction task so the production was quick off the ground. As for managing all the pre-production paper work, we all made sure that we did at least two pieces of it and this worked very well as it made sure we got it done quickly.

Time
Within our depict project we had 6 weeks to get all pre-production paper work sorted, all the filming had to be done, and editing needed to be complete. I didn’t think we managed our time as well as we could have although some of our problems were due to variables that were out of our control. We managed to complete all of our pre-production paper work only a few days out of our planned time. This did mean that we had to put filming on hold but we worked around this set back by adjusting our production schedule. However if we were filming this in the professional media industry and we hadn’t met our deadline there would be major financial implications if there was even the slightest waver from the production schedule. As if there was a setback everything else would have to be pushed back. In the classroom however we did manage to meet all deadlines that were set in class.

Equipment/Facilities
In terms of equipment and facilities again it all depends on the sort of moving image production you are making. A low budget short film at most will need a camera, a location to film at and maybe a sound gaffer. Whereas a larger budget film may need higher quality cameras, sound stages, a more locations. All of these can be acquired through websites that allow film companies to hire the equipment and facilities they need in order to make their film. A popular website for film companies to hire cameras and equipment is somedia.tv. This website offers companies the chance to hire cameras, lights, sound equipment and crew members. It offers camera hire from upwards of £300 per day which seems extortionate especially for lower budget however comparing this to how much it would cost to buy the equipment and facilities needed.

For our depict project we had access to a lot of equipment. For example we had cameras, sound equipment, tripods and other equipment as well. To obtain it we simply went to the AV club and took out the equipment.

Location
We used two different locations within the college to film, the first being the studio and the second being a pathway just outside our classroom. In order to secure these locations we filled out a location recce and had it signed by our teacher. To legally secure a location to film at a company most fill out both a location recce and a location release. A location recce is a document that is done pre-filming in which a visit occurs to a location to determine its suitability for shooting, including access to necessary facilities and any issues that may come with it. Location recces are closely related to location scouting, in which a person is sent out to take pictures of a potential location to see if it is suitable. The next form a company has to fill out is location release. This is a document that the owner of the location needs to sign to give permission to the film company to use their premises.
We picked our locations because they best imitated what we wanted to create with our film. To decide where we were going to film we went out around the college to try and find locations that were similar to the ones we had described in our story board. In order to overcome any issues that could arise with our filming location we completed a full risk assessment which included risks that came with filming at the location and how we would overcome the risks.

Materials
Materials other than equipment, crew and cast are all needed to make a moving image production. For example a moving image production may need a catering team if the filming takes place over a few days. These services are easy enough to obtain as you can use many different event hiring websites that can supply catering teams for filming. Another material a filming company may need is the things that may seem trivial but are vital to filming. For example batteries, SD cards and camera bags. All of these may seem like minor items however a film schedule can be put on hold if these things aren’t acquired. Minor things shouldn’t have a major influence on the finance however there are some materials that will cost more than others.

Legal Issues
No matter the type of moving image production there will always be legal issues. Many legal considerations must be taken into account. Firstly there is a big issue with copyright and the legal issues surrounding that. Copyright is an inescapable legal issue that every moving image production has to take into consideration. Copyright protects yours and anybody else’s work from other people using it without the correct permissions. Copyright protection comes automatically when you create anything from a literary work to a film and television recording. Anybody can mark their work with the copyright symbol along with their name and the year of creation. Whether the person marks the work or not does not affect the level of protection they have. Copyright prevents people from copying a person’s work; distributing copies of the work; renting or lending copies of the work; performing, playing or showing the work in public; making an adaptation of the work and putting it on the internet. Whilst doing our depict project we didn’t encounter any copyright issues as we didn’t use any branded material in our piece. There was also no copyright issue when it came to the music as we used free music that came without copyright.

Film clearance is the process of getting the required permissions for all aspects of the filming production. These permissions include things like: sets, actors/extras, photographs and music. Clearance is necessary to acquire before filming begins in order to avoid liability and to avoid any copyright/trademark issues.

Public liability insurance is a cover that all companies must acquire before they start filming. Public liability will cover the films financial situation if anything happens to anyone or anything in the public domain on set. Most film projects will require to have £2million of cover to film and photography  on the streets. In some areas the film will be required to have £5million of cover before they can begin filming.

Finally there is a completion guarantee that a filming company has to give to the production companies to ensure that the filming will be completed by the given deadline. If the filming company for example doesn’t meet the deadline set there can be huge financial implications for the production company, as the entire schedule has to be put back.

Regulations
There are many different regulatory bodies that control what films can show in their production and what age range the film is suitable for. One of the biggest regulatory bodies is OFCOM. OFCOM is the UK’s communications regulator. They regulate the TV, radio and video on demand. They provide protection from scams whilst making sure competitors can still thrive. They operate under a number of Acts from Parliament, including the Communications Act of 2003.

OFCOM however doesn’t regulate all parts of communications. The BBC is regulated by many different companies such as the OFT and the European Commission. However as of April 2017 OFCOM also helps to regulate the BBC. The reason OFCOM originally didn’t regulate the BBC originally is because the BBC wanted to make 90% of all peak-time programmes must be original productions commissioned by the corporation for UK audiences. However OFCOM said the rules would mean “more Doctor Foster, more Night Manager, more UK drama and comedy, and less acquired content.”

The BBFC is the ‘British Board of Film Classification’, which is another regulatory body. The BBFC is a non-governmental organisation which provides classification for cinema films since being set up in 1912. What the BBFC do is they take all films that have been taken to the cinema and they decide the age rating it should be based on the contents of the film. Some of the things they decide the classification through looking at anything from language (explicit content) to violence.
Media regulators such as OFCOM ensure that TV and radio audiences are protected in areas such as: taste, decency, fairness and privacy. However the new wave of on-demand services are regulated by an organisation called The Association for Television On-Demand whose regulations are very similar to those of OFCOM. Online videos are much more difficult to regulate as everybody can upload whatever they want. Although despite this there are many responsible sites that have systems for users to tell administrators of any inappropriate materials such as violence or dangerous and illegal acts.

OFCOM has many regulations that they must follow. The first is protecting anyone under the age of 18 from harm. This principle is to ensure that people under 18 are protected. Section 2 covers harm and offence which is there to ensure that standards are applied to the content of television and radio services so they provide adequate protection for members of the public. Other regulations include regulations of hate or material that is likely to incite crime and also religious aspects of films.

BBFC also have regulations that films must follow. There are two key principles that they regulate by. These include: to protect children and vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or otherwise unsuitable content and to empower consumers, particularly parents and those with responsibility for children, to make informed viewing decisions. For example, for a film to be classified as universal, there will be infrequent references to drug misuse, infrequent use of very mild bad language and mild violence may be accepted if it is justified by context i.e. comedic, animated and wholly unrealistic.

In our depict project we would have had to adhere to these regulations, however we didn’t put much thought into it. Since there were no controversial topics such as drug misuse or violence we didn’t need to worry about it too much.

Trade Unions and Trade Associations
A trade union is an organised, association of workers in a trade, group of trades, or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests. They are important because it means that workers can protect their rights.

PACT is a trade union that feed into political and regulatory reviews. Through different working groups they work with members to get their input into their responses to consultations that affect the production industry. BECTU is another trade union that is the UK’s media and entertainment trade union which covers sectors including broadcasting, cinema, film, digital media, independent production, leisure, IT and telecoms, theatre and the arts. They negotiate pay, conditions and contracts with employers; advice and representation on health and safety; training support and courses and networking events.

A trade association is a body representing organisations within the same trade. It aims to protect their collective interests, especially in negotiations with governments and trade unions.