The Pre-Production Process

Types of moving image production

What type of media product did you produce and what was it for? How did you distribute it?

Firstly small groups of 3-4 were selected and then we had to share ideas about our re-branding of a Unilever product. In the end we opted for Marmite. It already had an audience of both genders, specifically those who like to stray from the norm and try something new. Also, it directs it's product at vegetarians who require a meat-free alternative spread. Marmite is made of yeast extract, which is a by-product of beer brewing. It has a sticky, dark-brown food paste with a strong, powerful taste and smell. The task in-hand here was to find a new target audience for Marmite and produce an advert no longer than 60 seconds. We chose to play on the idea that Marmite is seen as disgusting and unattractive at first glance, and that taking a risk will leave you pleasantly surprised in the end. This meant our new target audience was people who don't like to follow a crowd, and go out of their comfort zone. When the Advert was finished it was distributed online through email to get feedback on it, and was also uploaded to YouTube.

















What other types of moving image media product are there? What different distribution methods are there?

There are countless other types of moving image out there in the media world. One of these is feature films. A feature film is a film that has a running time long enough to be considered the sole film to fill a program. These are more often than not first aired in cinemas before coming out on DVD/Blu-Ray at a later date as well as being aired on television somewhere down the line. An example of a feature film is Jurassic World (2015). It is a film based 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, where there is now a Dinosaur theme park for tourists to visit, much in the style of Sea World in reality. A genetic hybrid of a T-Rex and Velociraptor is bred in order to spark new interest in the park and bring in more profits than ever. The hybrid (Andominous Rex) turns out to be far more intelligent than intended and goes on a rampage throughout the park after escaping. It has a run time of 124 minutes making it long enough to be classed as a feature film. Other feature film examples are Transformers (2007), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). 

TV programmes are another popular type of moving image media production. There are countless programmes out there, one of which is Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones started as a series of books written by George R. R. Martin which were then made into a television show as a product of its booming success. It is a series created by David Benioff and D.B Weiss along with the help of the books author, all about one big fight for control the Seven Kingdoms of Westoros, which would mean sitting on the Iron Throne. There are kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars and honest men, all pitching themselves against each other to get to the top. There are multiple powerful families across Westoros, along with the threat of the 'White Walkers' which are the 'un-dead' beyond the wall (the furthest North). The families include house Stark, house Lannister, house Tyrell, house Martell, house Greyjoy, house Targaryen and house Baratheon. Game of Thrones is without a doubt one of if not the most successful television series in history, and it's still going. There are currently 5 series, with another two planned currently. 

Next comes web series. These have become very popular in recent years thanks to the introduction of streaming sites such as Netflix and NOW TV. They are examples of just a few sites that exist in today's world that are easily accessible with a small monthly subscription fee. Existing movies and TV shows are all stored on them waiting for you to watch at your pleasure. Along with these are TV shows that are exclusive to the online services and are not ever aired on normal digital television. An example of this is Orange is the New Black, which is a 'Netflix Original Series' meaning it is exclusive to Netflix and has never been aired beforehand on television. Orange is the New Black is a series about an all female prison following the lives of the inmates during their day to day activities.

Music videos are a type of moving image production to go with a song, and more than often compliment it. There may be a story told in the video or just a compilation/montage. An example of a music video is for 'The Phoenix' by Fall Out Boy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hDZbroaQDc

Adverts are aired on television in-between programmes to showcase products/services to everyone watching. Television isn't the only place for them to be shown, they are also shown online before Youtube videos for example and on radio stations.

Idents first came about in the early 1950's. Like adverts, they are displayed between programmes. They are shown to identify it's service. Idents are seen as an important part of each channel as broadcasters are in competition with each other and need to stand out from one another.

Distribution takes place in multiple forms for moving image productions. This ranges from DVD's and Blu-Rays to cinema release and online on streaming sites such as Blinkbox. TV is another place to see many releases. YouTube is another example of an online site where you can produce and post your own media for others to watch and give feedback on.


Finance and sources of funding

What sources of funding exist for film, television and other moving image productions?

There are multiple platforms in terms of funding for film and TV out there for producers to consider. One of these is Private capital. This is where public exchange is not involved and investors/funds are all handled privately. This could be in the form of using your own money or from private investors, like Megan Ellison for example. What she does is have funding from within her family. This allows her to make a name for herself in the industry. You can also get bank loans which is a pretty straight forward process. You borrow money and once you're up and running you pay it back with interest. Grants/funds are also an option for upcoming producers, and an example of a company that provide this service is the BFI. They invest money into the film industry to promote a greater understanding and access to it as a whole in the UK.

Competitions are another method of funding for films and other moving image media productions. It would work by everyone entering paying a fee that would go into the funding of a production, and one lucky person will win something such as a guest appearance in the production, a tour of the set or a meet and greet with some stars to name a few examples. Crowd-funding is another popular choice and is the process of raising small amounts of money from a lot of people, thus ending up with a lot after grouping the small donations together. Kickstarter is a good example of this. Finally there are marketing deals. This is what companies will use to advertise their product/service. This would include billboards and posters, as well as TV adverts and having sponsors. 

Requirements

Requirements for production are right at the core. Without them, production would not be able to take off and it would be pretty much impossible to create a quality piece of work if any at all. Once funding is in place, the next step is equipment. You need to get cameras, sound equipment and lighting as well as other tools to start filming. Materials such as costumes and props are obviously a very important requirement for production. You need to pay for the actors and actresses you want to bring in after auditioning them as they are the front line of the film and are a make or break part of production as if you choose the wrong name for a role the success of the film could take a beating. The crew are quite possibly the most important part of the puzzle in production as they do all of the unseen work from an outsiders view, but without them there is nobody to work the cameras, edit footage and really bring the project to life. You will also have to pay for transport as there is a lot of equipment that needs moving from place to place. Facilities and locations that you wish to film at and use for editing are not free by any stretch of the imagination so funds have to go towards them as well. Finally, you also need to insure everything from the equipment to the cast and crew in case of any accidents that may take place. As well as this, you need to copyright your production so that others cannot take credit for your work and use it without permission.

For our TV advert re-branding Marmite we had to hire filming equipment that the college was able to provide. There is a special department that has a wide range of filming equipment to choose from. We chose a video camera, SD card and tripod. After every session of filming we put everything on the SD card onto the Mac and also a back up on a USB stick in case any files become corrupted. We filmed on-site at East Norfolk Sixth Form and just outside using my car as both a prop and setting. At college we filmed the majority of our advert in our tutors office, which meant we had to book times that the room was available for us to use. We used props from the prop room available at college, specifically a shirt and tie. There was no charge to use these as they were returned the same day as we borrowed them after we had finished filming.

Personnel:

Depending on the size of your production, the demands for crew and cast members are going to alter. Take a low budget film, such as Paranormal activity. It was written, photographed, edited and directed all by one man Oren Peli, which meant that many role that are usually needed when producing films was no longer needed as he did it all himself. Along with the cast members there was less than 100 total people making the team who produced the film. A television programme has quite a range. Typically a production team make up would involve the producer, director, editor, camera men, sound technicians, writer and cast members. Mainly the cast members change as a TV programme progresses. As a television show is an on going thing new characters are constantly introduced and others are killed off/leave the show. An example of this is Game of Thrones which constantly kills off characters and brings in around 5-10 new characters every season. Now at the top of the scale is a Hollywood feature film. These are usually the biggest of the bunch, with outrageous budgets, and bringing in even more outrageous amounts of gross profit because of the worldwide scale audience all Hollywood films possess. Having such a big budget means that there is going to be a much larger team behind the scenes and on screen. On screen this could even be in the form of extras, such as people walking around a city or on some form of public transport going about their daily lives in order to give the audience a greater sense of realism and making the film come across less artificial when viewing. An example of this would be James Cameron's Avatar (2009). Pretty much all of the film's setting is CGI justifying a budget of 237 million dollars, and a cast and crew size going on 3000 strong. This shows just how big the scale of the movie was, and it paid off by bringing in 760 million dollars profit.

For out advert, we thought about the roles carefully. Ellis was easily the most outgoing and was comfortable in front of the camera so he was the actor. Myself and Jade felt more at home behind the lens operating the camera. Me and Jade also shared the role of director, setting up shots and telling Ellis what to do when the camera was rolling. Once filming was done all three of us shared the role of Editor as we put the shots together and added sound effects.

As well as the on-screen actors, technical crew and director/producer, there are other important roles that often go unnoticed. An example of this is accountants. With the huge budgets and costs being hurled around, someone has to keep track of it all in terms of figures, so accountants are employed to keep the finance side of things in check. Another example would be researchers, who have to study in-depth the topic or location of a production. One example here would be studying in-depth the culture of native tribes for the film 'Apocalypto'.

Time:

For out TV advert we were given around a weeks time time for planning and pre-production paperwork, with a further two weeks for filming and editing. We planned what days we were shooting and the locations for each shoot. We were on course to meet the deadline set but after editing our advert and putting it together, together with ourselves and our tutor we decided the advert would be of a higher standard if we scrapped certain parts of the advert and re-shot an alteration of the story line. This meant that we didn't quite meet the deadline as we had to re-edit the whole advert so in a sense did the task twice over. That's all part of producing though, things can go wrong and you have to work with it.

In the professional media industry, when deadlines aren't met it can be a nightmare. If say a release date is set for a film and advertised to the world, it is expected to be finished and ready to show by then. If that is not the case, like any job, it doesn't bode well for your reputation. It will be a burden to bare for the big names of the production crew such as the producer, director and editor. If things don't go to plan they'll be in the front line and this could impact the roles they get in the future. Nobody wants a director who fails to hit deadlines as the film industry is huge and and hiccups spell millions in losses. Trust will be lost in the production team making their employ-ability questionable for future positions. However, sometimes, it's nobody's fault that a deadline cannot be met, but instead a complete accident on set that couldn't be helped. An example of this is an actor/actress falling ill during filming or even dying. Sarah Jones is a tragic example of this after being struck by a train on set that proved to be fatal.

Equipment/Facilities:
When make a moving image production, you need to obtain certain equipment such as cameras and tripods to film with. You can either purchase them yourself or rent them from places like the AV room at East Norfolk Sixth Form college. Here you could also get voice recorders and SD cards. We used all four of these items for our TV advert and also editing software on Macs at the college such as Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe After Effects. However this isn't the only way. There are such things as professional media facility houses that are available for production needs. They are there to help you out and provide equipment and software you may require. An example of this is The Hall that is an Oxford-shire based Post production and Media facility. You can find it at www.the-hall.co.uk. They offer the full post production process, from digitising, offline & online editing, graphics, audio dubbing & mixing through to trans-coding & final delivery - whether on tape or file. They also have cameras and crew and an in-house studio. It's packed with state of the art technology to really get you going in the production industry. The closest media facility house to me would be the one at The Norwich University of the Arts (NUA) who posess the Monastery Media Lab, a world renowned digital media centre that has everything you could possibly need, and will be able to bring out your full potential.
Locations:

During the pre-production of our TV advert we had to choose multiple locations that would suit the theme of our advert and compliment the final cut. One of the important things we had to consider was being legally allowed to film in the desired locations. This is where 'Location Releases' come into play. These are used so that you can gain permission from the owner of the land/building you want to film at if it's private and isn't open to the public whenever you please. This is useful as you then have proof, with a signature of the owner that you can use to support your right if any legal action comes about subject to any incidents and or issues that could potentially happen whilst on location. After you have permission you then have a 'Location recce'. This is so you can assess the location and what it offers for your filming needs. This includes times that you can film there, amounts of plug sockets for powering equipment and parking available for cars that you use to transport yourself and equipment to the location. For our TV advert we chose 3 locations originally. First of all was my car. This was to create a sense of realism as the actor was setting off for a normal day of work. Next was our tutors office at college. This was because the majority of our advert was centered around an office worker being at work and being stalked by a Marmite drink. Third and finally we chose Gorleston beach, as we initially planned to include a dream that had our character wake up on a desert island, so with a bit of manipulation with camera angles we were able to make the beach appear as a desert. However, we decided against this story line in the end after filming it, so scrapped it. The only real issues we faced was that the office at college was a popular choice with other groups, so there was often a clash of groups wanting to film in there at one time. We overcame this by using the Location Recce to figure out and book certain times on certain days that we knew the room was available to use.


Materials:

Other than the equipment, cast and crew side of things there are still multiple materials you need to take into consideration when making a moving image production. These include costumes, scripts and make-up. The actors you have employed are playing a character, and that can't come just from the interior inside their head. They also need to look the part so they fit the role well and it looks aesthetically pleasing to the audience. Make-up is a big deal in film and TV as it allows creative, surreal looks to become reality and actually take form outside of the imagination. They also need to sound the part, making the script very important as well. A strong script can make a good movie a great one by having an in-depth, thrilling story line that the viewer gets enticed in. Audio and graphics for your production also play a big role. A well composed score can really make a movie. All of these things are obtainable by making them yourself if you have the resources, but more often than not you will rent costumes and props to use. You also need to make sure you are not using any props that have brand names on that you don't have permission to use or show. There is also the option of funding this by allowing product placement in your production. This would mean the brand owners would pay you to use their products, which in-hand are advertising them to a wider audience. an example of this could be a mobile phone prop and Samsung paying you to use a Galaxy S6 model of theirs.


Legal Issues:

There are multiple legal considerations you must take into account when using certain materials in a media production. One of these is license agreements with actors you have employed. You need to make it clear to them what their role will entail, this includes their wages, length of employment and what scenes they will be taking part in. If all of this is not made clear and stuck to you can land yourself in a lot of trouble. If for example an actor is told they have to do a nudity scene but it wasn't mentioned in their contract then they have every right to refuse and even take legal action against you. Another thing to think about is the music/soundtrack you use. If you don't have the necessary rights to but still use or copy someones song without their permission then again, legal action could be coming your way. Copyrighting your work means that you have the protection needed to stop other using your work and claiming it as their own or using it without your permission. You can mark your work with the copyright symbol and from then on you are protected. Copyright didn't affect us greatly when finding audio for our TV advert. This was because we were already aware of it and the limitations it puts on us, so from the off we went in search of 'royalty-free music' which is music/sounds that are not copyrighted, and are open to the public to download and use. This is often done by new upcoming artists and composers who want to get their name out there and their work listened to so allow the public to do it for free until they have a strong enough following to warrant copyrighting their work.

Copyright clearance is the exclusive right to produce copies and/or control an original literary, musical or artistic work by law for a certain amount of time. An example of this is a song being used in a film, such as Fifty Shades of Grey, which features music from The Weeknd. This means that the film production team would have contacted The Weeknd to request and gain clearance to get the green light and go ahead and use his work in their film. This helps both parties as it fits the film and also the songwriter/artist is getting their work advertised on a box-office movie.

Public Liability Insurance is in place to cover a business should a customer, member of the public or employee suffer an injury, and will make sure that the production budget is protected but fair compensation is still dished out. Legal expenses will be taken care of and wont burden the film production in terms of budget or stalling in shooting at all.

Completion guarantee/insurance is offered by a completion guarantor company that is often used in independently financed films. It's a formal agreement that the producer will complete and deliver the film on schedule to the distributor and that no payment will be made to the producer until they have done so.

Regulation:

A regulatory agency is an authority or government based agency responsible for exercising autonomous authority over human activity in a certain sector.

OFCOM is the communications regulator. It's function is to provide a code which includes multiple regulations and requirements that must be matched by companies before they can broadcast on TV or Radio. It makes sure that everything is at a legal standard and nothing is breaching it, broadcasting inappropriate content. Examples of some of the sections broadcasters have to meet by are protection of the under 18's, harm and offence, responsible approach to religion, fairness and privacy.

The BBC Trust is the governing body of the BBC and assists the running of it making sure everything goes smoothly. It's not like OFCOM as it is separate from the executive board which is responsible for he delivery of BBC content. The main focus for the BBC Trust is to entertain the audience, whereas OFCOM aim to protect them from any damaging content being shown, be it physically, mentally or emotionally. The BBC Trust set goals for the BBC to reach. These include providing more creative and unique output than competitors, make the BBC as personal as possible for the viewer and serving every audience out there in one way or another.

The BBFC is the British Board of Film Classification is an independent company that classifies films in terms of age depending on what features in the film, such as nudity or foul language for example. It gives a rating so that people deemed to young to view what is featured in the film without being damaged are not subject to it. It is another way of protecting individuals from potential harm or offence.

After researching it's clear that OFCOM and BBFC share similar interests. Everything we view on television, at the cinema or on DVD, it has all been through thorough inspection to make sure it fits regulations in place to protect the public. If it's deemed unsuitable, it could either be given a higher age certificate, or even banned, such as 'The human Centipede'. This is a horror film that was deemed too vulgar and damaging to watch so the BBFC originally banned it in the UK. On the internet it's a different story as it's such a vast platform, it is difficult to keep track of everything being uploaded, streamed or downloaded. However, mainstream sites like YouTube do carry out checks on uploads to check that videos are suitable to go out to the public. If they are deemed acceptable but only to certain audiences, a warning will come up letting viewers know, and they must click to proceed before viewing the video.


Trade Unions and Trade Associations:

A trade union is an organised association of workers in a trade or profession to protect and further their rights and interests. Many workers join trade unions, for a yearly fee, as they believe that they are effective at what they do, and make the employee feel like they aren't on their own and have the help if they need it. Trade Unions can help you get wage improvements, better working conditions and if you are being treated unfairly they will challenge the employer.They also provide training to learn new skills, provide support and advice when called upon.

BECTU is an example of a trade union in the UK. This is the media and entertainment union of the country, covering broadcasting, film, independent production, digital media and arts and theatre. They focus on protecting jobs, improving working conditions and increasing pay.

A trade association, also known as an industry trade group is an organisation founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. It's main focus is collaboration between companies and achieving standardization. Trade associations, unlike trade unions who focus on the individual, focus on the industry as a whole and improving that.

PACT is an example of a trade association representing the commercial interests of independent television, film, digital, children's and animation companies in the UK. It provides legal and business affairs advice and support, as well as a lot of campaign work in the interest of said companies.

BIMA is another trade association but it is specifically for the media industry. It concentrates on promoting the British digital industry, rewarding strong work and encouraging the next generation of media industry workers by providing platforms and pathways into the sector.