Requirements for production

 Introduction (Type of production, media forms)

In the creative industry there are many different media forms such as the Internet, newspapers, magazines, phones, cinemas and radios. Which inform and entertain us about upcoming films and media projects. As well as informing and entertaining us, the media is widely used for other functions such as a way to connect with other people and to be something to relate to. An example of this would obviously be Facebook. Working in a film industry and releasing a new film needs a buzz, social networking sites and other forms of media help to create that, so it isn't just about entertaining and informing it is also about connecting and sharing things.

Our group made a 90 second short film/video sequence for an online competition called DepicT! This competition is open to filmmakers around the world. DepicT usually get's 600 entries from over 30 countries from eager filmmakers.

Finance and sources of funding

Existing funding for filmmakers and those who aspire to work in the creative media industry are sponsors, they pay to place their brand in a certain film/video/tv programme and other national events that are shown through media such as football, rugby etc. DepicT!'s sponsors are Aardman and films@59 they are both known for their filming advances; Aardman is widely known for creature comforts and also widely known for their famous animated film Wallace and Gromit.

Product placement is mostly used to advertise a certain product on a widely known film/tv series. The new James Bond film 'Skyfall' is one of many good examples of product placement in filming. On an article Daniel Craig defends the use of product placement in the movie and says that "they couldn't make the movies without product placement" after a branded beer was place into the film. Daniel says "it's a fact of life, they've been doing it for over 50 years." Another example of product placement would be in 'I Robot' as Will Smith was wearing alot of Converse's throughout the movie when it is supposed to be set in 2035. Also another example of blatant product placement is in the film 'The Island' where Megan Fox blatantly uses MSN, Xbox, Nokia, Puma and where Scarlett Johansson watches a Calvin Klein ad. These are all good and blatant examples of product placement. Other companies have different views on this such as the BBC, they had banned product placement but it has now been lifted for advertisers to pay for their goods to be seen on TV.

In our own assessment, we partially used product placement, as Xbox games were used in our video, in a professional industry this could be seen as promoting something, just like Tulisa's heated waters with Ofcom. 

Banks are available for people who want to work into the creative industry, they are able to give loans to those who are filming, so they can achieve the finished product they want. It can be hard for people to get the money they need from banks or elsewhere. Since the recession film makers have been under pressure with borrowing money since banks are less likely to give it out.

Production companies such as Paramount, Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox Animation, Dreamworks, Fox Search light Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Disney these are very big for the film industry as they not only distribute the films, they can also make them too. Production companies are just generally involved with what's being produced whether it is to fund the film/television show or to actually be involved. Actors, editors, directors and photographers can also be attached to the company, usually in major production companies such as Touchstone Pictures which belongs to Disney. Generally, however, the company handles things like hiring extras, dealing with legal issues in relation to filming and labour, and editing the film. Some actors produce their own production company in hopes to achieve artistic goals. A good example of this would be actress Drew Barrymore, who at an early age became famous for starring in E.T one of the biggest films in production history. However she made her own small production company which succeeded  called 'Flower Films'. She had produced successful films such as Charlie's Angels, 50 First Dates and Fever Pitch. 

The National Lottery is another way for films to be funded. Most big films are lottery funded films, some of the most successful have been funded by the lottery. Every £1 that the national lottery makes, 28 pence goes to good causes. The UK Film Council was set up by the Labour government to help promote the film industry and let it thrive again. It distributed more than £160m lottery money to over 900 films. Lord Puttnam described the Council as "a layer of strategic glue that's helped bind the many parts of our disparate industry together" On July 2010 the Liberal Democrats-Conservative coalition announced that the council would be abolished, this was passed onto the famous 'British Film Institute'.(BFI) Major films such as 'The Kings Speech', 'Magic Roundabout' and '28 Days Later' were all lottery funded films which turned out to be some of the most biggest successful films. Click here to see more examples of lottery funded films.

Channel 4 is well known for being a publisher/broadcaster channel. It doesn't produce its own programmes or ideas in-house, but commissions them from more than 300 independent production companies all around the UK. This makes it the major outlet for Britain's successful independent production sector. It invests majorly in training and talent development.

Private Investors are lucky to find for film directors as they have the ability to conjure up huge sums of money, to extend financing in all areas such as studio development production deals, pre sales, negative pick up deals and banks specialising in film finance.

Requirements for any production: What will the money be spent on?

The money will be spent on crew equipment such as camera's for location recee's and for the actual filming followed by the renting/hiring of them (that's if it isn't owned by someone in the production) and also tripods, cranes, shoulder rigs, camera dolly's. Also part of the crew would be the personnel, actors, talent, on camera voice, the money for these would be to hire them for each day or a length of time during the production process. Props & Costumes & Make-up are all things to consider when doing any production. This includes hiring out make-up artists, costume designers for a lengthy amount of time. The props are dependant on type of film you have, if you're doing a documentary you wouldn't need money to hire or buy our props for it. If you're doing an action movie, you'll need to pay alot more for it. An example of how much production costs would be Paranormal Activity, it only costed $15,000 (£9370) but grossed over $80 million (£49,976,000) (click here for the source) this is an example of how low budget films with no money can become big as well as films which spend millions on their films such as the new James Bond film 'Skyfall' which spent over $200 million (£124,920,000). Depending on the type of movie that is being made, special effects can also cost alot aswell, it depends how much you want. For an example, 'Spideman 3' costed $125 million. You have to pay out for all the people's salaries who are working, the technical equipment and software to do it on. Also quoted from 'General Zod'- "Simple. If it takes 100 man hours to put together some 20 second scene which is all computer effects - like most of the 3rd "Pirates" movie is - you are paying those computer technicians a high salary for 100 hours and that only accounts for 20 seconds of a 2 1/2 hour movie!".

Luckily in our short film, we didn't have to spend money. The equipment was available to us through college and the editing software was also available to us. We needed no costumes or make up and the only props we needed were xbox games and cash. However, in a professional production, many of these things wouldn't be available to them, so we were lucky enough to get them for free.

Copyrighting issues is another part of production that money will have to be spent on such as permissions for any music that might be used in the film and clearances. This has become a big problem for the film industry as lots of people are selling pirated films to others without permission and not caring about copyright. This makes films lose millions of gross/profits which ultimately affects the whole film industry. Market research in 2006 carried out by the 'UK Film Council' said that "Criminal gain from counterfeit and home-copied DVDs was worth an estimated £169 million." (click here for more details). An example of this would be A & M Records vs. Napster. This case happened in 2001 and is one of the most well known copyright infringements related to the music industry. The website ultimately offered downloads of songs of all genres. Napster was brought to join with A & M Records for stealing music and making this available to other people all across the world.

With locations, money has to be spent on the hiring out of a particular location to film on, permission by that person's land you're using. Also, accommodation will have to be paid for to stay near the location that's being filmed on, alongside transport costs too. In James Bond, 'Skyfall' where they filmed near shops, the shop owners were allowed to open up their shops but were not conduct business as usual. They paid shop owners (US$418) per day as compensation. 

Requirements: What did you have to spend money on/obtain?

Luckily in our production, the only money we spent was on a taxi back from filming which costed £20. The main actor in our film was one of my close friends who gave up his time and agreed to film without having to be paid for it. We borrowed our equipment such as the tripod and a film camera from college as they were provided to us to use. The xbox games we used were one of our crew member's already, so we just borrowed it from him for filming. The locations of our short story were for free as well. The only set of permissions we needed were talent forms and permission to film in the house. Most of the production was filmed out on the streets at night, for which we sent the police email.

Time: What was your time-frame and how well did you use the time you were given?

• Did you meet deadlines set in class? I think our group met all our deadlines however we could have used our time more productively.
• What happens when you do not meet deadlines in the professional media industry? You have less time for post production. And you can go over budget as you'll need to hire out equipment  actors, travel costs, locations etc; for a greater amount of time. An example of going over budget and not meeting deadlines would be 'Heavens Gate' as the film had $44 million budget and only scraped in $3 million from views, giving the director $41 million in debt.
• How might you obtain equipment in the professional industry? To obtain equipment in a professional industry, you have to either pay for it yourself or hire it out yourself as well providing you have a budget to work with.
• Who was available for you to use in your production? My group were all available at the same time and also my friend was as well. This made it easier to film because we had the settings and the right location, and also the timing was just right.

Personnel: Talent and crew that work in a media production?

• What was the size of the group you were working in? We were working in groups of 3, plus the 2 actors.
• Who performed what role? Did they have experience of that role before? Laurie played the main character in our short film, he has had years of acting experience and performs in Norwich Playhouse and the UEA.
• How does experience and skill affect a production? The experience and skill affects the emotional quality of the character and it affects how deeply the audience can relate to it. If they can't, they're less likely to want to watch it.
• In what other ways can cost be affect by personnel? The quality of their acting skills and most importantly how famous they are and how much experience they have at acting. Of course someone like 'Brad Pitt' is obviously going to cost alot more than 'Neil Richard Flynn' (who is an American actor and comedian) If someone more recognisable were to appear on a film, then people are more likely to watch that film because of the big Hollywood name. Stunt men cost alot as they have alot of experience and do action scenes that are dangerous. They are specialised in that type of acting, which means they'll cost alot more to hire out than your average actor.
• How do you decide who to use in a production (talent and crew)? You should look at their CV's/resumes, and any previous work they've done. Also hobbies too. For instance if someone wanted to get into an acting part, but couldn't pay for acting lessons, but enjoyed doing drama as a hobby, that'd make them seem proactive in the field.
• How do you ensure the availability of your personnel? You have to draw up a contract to secure that they are definitely going to be available for your production on a certain day and time etc;
  
  In a big Hollywood production, each person has one role in it. Whether it is being the director, costume designer  music maker, special effects editor, every person has one particular role they have to carry out. In our production, we didn't have that. We had 1 person doing at least 2 jobs in the film. For example Ross filmed, helped create the storyboard and also helped edit the film. In a professional Hollywood production, there would be 1 person for each of these jobs. 

Facilities: What facilities are needed in order to create a product?

• What equipment is required for production? In production you need cameras, tripods, dolly's, lighting, props.
• What equipment is required for post-production? Editing software, facility houses, studios.
• What are facility houses and studios? Facility houses and studios are plots of land used for physical production and also departments for post production. For example, Warner Bros. hold up to 110-acre main lot which includes 30 soundstages, and includes a 20-acre back lot that can double as almost anywhere. The Warner Bros. Ranch also holds 32-acre facility which houses five additional soundstanges and exterior sets. Ontop of that they also hold departments which hold post production services. 16 re-recording stages and over 175 editing rooms. It also comes complete with dressing rooms, scenic art, special effects, catering, costume design, set design, transportation and a photo lab. (click here for the source)
• What is meant by outsourcing? Did you have to outsource? Outsourcing is when you try to reduce costs of what you purchase, so you purchase from a company that that has the same comparative advantages as you do. 89% of UK Film are freelance so they give services to other people and are not in a committed long time employment scheme. Our group didn't need to outsource while making our production.
• What other considerations exist when securing facilities? You need to make sure they are available on the days you asked for or you can't film at all. There needs to be some ability to move equipment into the facility and the remodelling of the interior and sometimes exterior. Assistance of helping setting up the equipment and also hair/makeup/props. You need to consider the size of which your facility is, to make sure you can properly film in there. Also the temperature of where you're filming, is it too hot? too cold? Also the electricity capability, are you going to be able to fit all the cameras and lighting in there? You need to know the time that it's going to take to build the modifications such as interior design, set design and exterior modifications. If their are elevators and doors, is the equipment going to be easily manoeuvrable?

Locations: Where did you film and how do you go about securing locations legally?

• What is a location recce? A location recce is where you search for a location where you could possibly be shooting on.
• What is a location release? A location release grants permission for people to be on that location to film. If you're filming on a street then you will have to ask permission from one of the local police members. If you're filming in a shop, then you'll have to get the shop owner to sign a release form to say that they have granted permission for them to shoot on that certain location.
• How and why did you pick specific locations for your DepicT! videos? (name each) We thought the locations were important as we knew it would affect our video greatly. Each location we picked relates to the storyline and also how our audience would relate to our short film. For instance when our actor was in the first part of our story, he was situated in the house. Because he was nervous, we placed him in a location where we thought he would look safe to our audience. Later on through the story, we placed him in a location where we thought, as a character, he would look vulnerable and scared, which is where the timing comes in from the time of day. We wanted to make it look like a drug deal which is why we placed him near a street corner, in the dark. This helped push our point across majorly, which goes without saying, location played a major part in our film.
• What limitations and risks did you face? How did you assess them? The weather was always a risk, as it was cold and seemed like it was going to rained. It could have ruined our equipment if it did. We carried on filming anyway as we looked at the weather forecast to see whether it would rain or not. We did a risk assessment before production, detailing every bad little possibility that could have happened to us while during shooting the film.

Regulation: What is regulatory body and what do they do?

• What is Ofcom and what is its function? They keep an eye on the UK's telecom's, television, radio and postal industries to make sure they do the best. An example of this would be Tulisa with the tattoo on her arm saying 'The Female Boss', she got into heated waters in 2011's show of 'X'factor' as Ofcom thought she was using it to promote her recent perfume.



• What is the PCC and what is its function? They primarily deal with complaints that are usually associated with newspapers and magazines. They try to protect the rights of individuals such as privacy rights and freedom from the press. Examples of this would be the 'Phone hacking scandal' and the 'naked photos of Kate Middleton & Prince William'

• What is the ASA and what is its function? They are there to make sure all advertisements are legal in TV and radio, they are contracted under Ofcom. 
• What is PEGI and what is its function? PEGI is short for 'Pan European Game Information' they are responsible for rating computer games all across Europe (Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Norway, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Cyprus, France, Luxembourg etc)

• What is the BBFC and what is their function? The BBFC stands for 'British Board of Film Classification'  They categorise films into different age ratings which are used for dvd's and also in cinemas. The categories are: U (suitable for all), PG (parental guidance), 12A/12 (suitable for 12 and over), 15 (suitable for 15 and over) 18 (suitable for 18 and over) and also R18, which can only be licensed and sold in sex shops or in specially licensed cinemas.

Trade unions and trade associations: What are they and what do they do?


•  What is a trade union and why do they exist? Trade Unions exist so they can improve the standard of education and training of its members, they improve the productivity of workers. They provide professional and legal advice to employees.
•  What are the PACT and BECTU and what do they do? They are Freelance Production Agreement, they are an independent trade union for those working in broadcasting, film, leisure, interactive media and entertainment. They key of the union is to protect jobs, increase membership and also improve pay and conditions of service.

• What is a trade association and why do they exist? A trade association is a group that get a business involved with a certain industry such as the media industry, film industry, music industry. They try and give a better public image to the the industry.
• What are BIMA, ELSPA and TIGA and what do they do? BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) They represent the digital industry in the UK. They try and encourage people who have a talent in the media industry, they also give out awards called 'The BIMA awards' to celebrate talent in various categories. ELSPA and TIGA are both video games trade organisations which regulate computers games in various way, much like the BBFC, however for the video game industry.

      

Legal Issues: What legal issues can affect a media production? 

• What is meant by the term clearance and what might you need clearances for? It means you need to get permission (get it cleared) For instance, you need clearance for locations/music/scripts/actors and contents clearances.

• What can happened if you do not get a clearance for all aspects of production? You can be taken to court and asked to pay for damages, or even compensation/recompense.

• How can copyright affect a media production? It can affect the music/soundtrack, images and likeness or even the whole general concept of a production. Even the narrative can be affected too.

• What is public liability insurance? A 'pot' of money to pay for any damages/compensation, much like the college's be fill out insurance forms in case we damage any of the equipment we are borrowing.

• What is completion insurance/a completion guarantee? Contract/agreement that stipulates the product will be finished within the agreed time frame and budget.

Materials: What material are available for filmmakers and where can they be obtained

• List the various types of materials available to film-makers: original materials, archive and library materials, photo library materials, sound library materials, Internet, script, interviews, costumes, props, recorded musics.

• What must you be sure to do when using any materials in a media product? You need to get permission (clearance) for things such as using soundtracks/music and even the locations/talent.

• What financial considerations exist when using someone else's material? There may be a charge for using someone else's material, this will be put into a contract.

Contributors: Who might contribute to a media product?

•  List the various people that may contribute to the production of a media text: Specialists, experts, talent, public, extras.

• What is a contributor's biography? Why might it be useful? It is information on a particular person, it can be called "Bio Data" it shows who you are as a person rather than just your skills. A CV is used to show your skills and qualifications in one particular section, it's more professional and is usually used by authors and such, which isn't always neccassary in a production. A contributors biography might be used instead of a CV as it contains skills and qualifications as well as physical attributes, height, weight, eye colour and a photo of that person, it may also include how they are as a person as well as work experiences and what they did in terms of education.

Resourcing for personnel:This just means you resource whoever is in the production with the equipment they need, such as props/clothes/hair&make-up.

 
Cost of Facilities: Is just the cost of hiring out facilities such as places to film in, studios etc;