Our groups for this part of the unit each developed and fully produced a ninety-second short film for an internet competition which goes by the name of 'DepicT!'. Depict is an international short film competition by Watershed, which focuses on finding talented film-makers from all over the world by challenging them to create these minute-and-a-half short films that show originality, the ability to engage the viewer and imagination. Once our films had been completely finished, in terms of pre-production and post-production, we uploaded them online, specifically on the video sharing site 'YouTube', with the choice given to us to submit the films to the next Depict competition if we were to decide to in the future.
As well as just short films, there are many other types of 'moving image products' out there, with examples including feature-length films, trailers, documentaries, television programmes, music videos, advertisements and online video. Also, with all of these different types of products comes many different types of distribution methods; methods such as television, streaming services, or DVDs & Blu-rays are just some examples of platforms available. Each product requires there own distribution method (aka, there own platform).
'Feature-length' defines a movie/film which has a run-time of at least forty minutes long or longer. Depending on many factors, such as if the film was produced independently or by a mainstream production company, the distribution methods of these products can vary. For a feature-length movie like Harry Potter & the Philosopher's stone (2001), with production companies like 'Warner Bros.' behind it, the movie was first distributed through cinematic release in theatres, but eventually released on DVD & Blu-ray; movies like this are also often distributed to a television channel like ITV or Sky Movies at some point to be watched on TV on a night.
Independent movies are usually different, due to the producer of it often not having any distribution deals for a cinema release. There are many different possibilities for how a feature-length movie which was made independently is eventually distributed, with an example being Lover (2018) by Ralph Sepe Jr released digitally on 'Amazon Video' to be purchased, as well as straight to Blu-ray distribution for supporters of the movie's 'Kickstarter' page. Instead of this though, the creator of the movie could decide to submit the film to a film festival, release it directly on DVD or Blu-ray or gain a distribution deal for the film with a streaming service such as Netflix or Hulu.
As for other media products such as TV shows, the most common method of distribution is onto television channels, such as ITV or BBC, but nowadays, they can also be distributed onto streaming services, either exclusively or as well as a television channel (like in the case of the show 'End of the F####ng World', which had its first series watchable on both Channel 4 or Netflix). For music videos, they are almost always uploaded to the artist's YouTube channel, sometimes also appearing on music-video channels on television, like 'Kerrang!' or MTV in the past.
Finance and sources of funding:
There are many different possible sources of funding for moving image productions which the creators could possibly take advantage of. These include smaller scale sources like 'self-funding', which is when the people behind the project decide to use their own money and income to pay for all the things they need to create their production, or more larger scale sources like getting funding from big companies to help. These types of funding include methods such as pitching the television show or movie concept to a big production company in the hopes of it being picked up by them and them deciding to help with the financial sides of it all, or selling the piece of media to distribution companies who will pay to distribute it once the project is complete.
On top of these sources, there is also the option of including 'product placements' from companies who want their product to be seen or included in the media somehow in order to promote it more, receiving funding from investors of the production or company to create the piece of media, or applying for a large loan from the bank (only if the application is accepted of course). In this day in age, the option for 'crowdfunding' is now available as well, on websites such as 'Kickstarter' or 'Patreon', with the premise of these sites relying on fans of the creators or random internet users who come across the project online wanting to support and see the media product come to fruition at some point in the future, and donating some of their own money towards it (either once or monthly in the case of Patreon).
Often, the people who help fund the project this way are offered incentives to do so, such as seeing the movie or show early or getting behind-the-scene updates throughout whole the creation process for example. like with the film Lover's Kickstarter mentioned earlier, which offered incentives such as a signed Blu-ray copy of the movie, tickets to the premiere and being mentioned in the credits for those who pledged, depending on how much they donated.
Requirements for a production:
For any media production, there are many examples of resources and equipment which the money must be spent on. The basic essentials for any moving media text include equipment for recording audio, (such as 'boom microphones', storage devices to save the audio, etc), equipment for recording video, (such as professional camera equipment, lenses, lighting equipment, tripods, etc), and other resources similar.
Personally, for my group's Depict project, a lot of the equipment was provided for us as it was already bought previously by the college in the past. Stuff like the camera and audio equipment was easily accessible for us, with us just having to sign them in and out of the library each time our group made use of them, as well as things like the macs we needed to edit the footage on, the editing software itself and all of the blank pre-production paperwork we had to fill in being provided in the classroom. When it came to the costumes and props we needed for our filming, a few of the pieces we needed were again already owned by the college and provided to us while we needed them, including a lab coat, cape, bed sheets, prop microphone, punching bag and some DVDs for a scene's backdrop, while others, like a bean can, casual clothing, the 'bad superhero costume', a bowl of cereal, toys for a backdrop and a car, were provided by member's of our group on the days we needed them for our filming.
Personnel:
Typical teams for a moving image production differ hugely in size for low budget short films, television programmes and Hollywood feature films, with the smallest being the short film, and the largest being Hollywood movies (by quite a considerable amount). For the low budget shorts, they can range from including only a few people, those being simply someone to work the camera and audio recording equipment, the on screen cast, and the video editor(s), to a larger team, perhaps with many individuals working on each of these jobs. Often though, these teams consist of a quite small number of people. Levelling up to a team behind a TV show, this will include a lot more people, which can include multiple script and screen writers, professional camera crew members (as higher quality equipment is often necessary for this kind of production when it is not for a short film), many editors for the post-production work, casting directors, and more. This idea is enhanced more for the Hollywood movies, with even more crew members needed and wanted. These increasing numbers of team members for each moving image production type is often due to a few reasons; these could include the fact that larger productions like TV shows or feature-length movies are supported and financed by many more people, as well as them often having many investors, compared to the independent short films which do not, so the extra members on the team are needed in order for the quality of every detail of the product to be as good as possible in order to please the investors and make as much money back as they can. It could also be due to the much larger scale of these productions, so more team members are required in order for the development of these media productions to be completed in a decent time frame, as opposed to taking a lot longer like they would with less crew members. Platforms like television and cinema have a lot higher expectations than platforms like YouTube or short film competitions like 'Depict!', so more production crew members are usually brought on board to meet these standards.
For our very small group of only four people working on our short film, we allocated our working roles pretty loosely. No one always had one specific job to work on only, with everyone helping out with each other's jobs often times throughout. That said, there was some planning done in terms of roles to concentrate on each; me and Sydney were responsible for a lot of the editing when we were at the post-production part of the project, with both of us having some past experience with it already, with the other members of the group helping out as well but just to a slight lesser extent, helping with ideas and changes, while also helping with looking for royalty-free music or sound effects to use in the film and other jobs similar to that while the editing was being done. When the filming was going on, I was on camera for a vast majority of the scenes, meaning I was not able to help with the camera work for example during that, so my role was solely 'on-camera cast' for the majority. During that, the rest of the group had their own scenes where they had to be doing a job on camera, so being responsible for the camera work was passed between the three others in my group alongside me during that period of time, with the role of main director primarily taken up by Meghan.
Time:
We were all set a total of roughly four weeks to complete the short film in its entirety - this included all pre and post-production work, as well as the filming itself. As for the specifics, the basic outline of how much time we were given to do everything to the best of our ability was quite evenly distributed, with around two weeks dedicated to all of the paperwork and pre-production details we had to fill out and confirm, followed by a week to get all of the filming done and a final week to get all of the footage completely edited to the quality we wanted it to be. When it actually came to producing our media product, we did not perfectly revolve all of our work around these time outlines, completing our pre-production work earlier than expected and spending a lot more time on the actual filming due to this.
Our group managed to meet the deadline we were set in class, having the short film completely planned, filmed and edited to be under ninety seconds within the time frame we were set to do it in. For our case, it realistically would not be too big of an issue if we were to miss our deadline by a little, but in the professional media industry, missing a deadline is a huge problem. One member of the team missing their deadlines on whatever part of the project they are responsible for could potentially lose the team money, and often the repercussions for missing a deadline in this case is being fired from your position. Deadlines in this industry are very strict and must be followed in order for the whole process to go smoothly, partly due to just how many people are working on separate pieces of the project at once in cases such as larger-scale feature-length films for example.
Equipment/Facilities:
There are a few ways to obtain high quality equipment for use in a professional moving image production. One way would be to purchase each individual piece of needed equipment, either from online stores like Amazon or physical stores like 'London Camera Exchange', but this is an extremely expensive option to choose. A cheaper alternative would be to hire equipment instead of purchasing them, from a professional media facility house nearby to you. An example of one of these facility houses which is located near to us is the company by the name of 'Epic Studios Broadcast Facilities', located specifically on Magdalen Street in Norwich, Norfolk. In order to be able to hire any of the equipment this studio has possession of, the website states that all a producer has to do is reach out to them via the 'contact' area of their website, where a phone number and email address is provided, and discuss with the company how they can "assist" with their production.
As for the equipment we had available to us throughout the project, the vast majority of it was provided to us by the college, with only some exceptions such as the SD cards we needed to save our footage on, which we had to bring in ourselves. This equipment which was available to us included the DSLR camera and all of its added features like its lenses, boom microphones & the audio recorders, tripods, video cranes, sliders, boom stands, and other resources similar along with all of the wiring needed for it to work. To obtain it each time we needed it, all we had to do was have a member of our group go over to the 'skills' room of the college with their student ID card and check each piece of equipment we needed out for as long as we needed it; as long as we checked the equipment back in as soon as we didn't need it anymore in that lesson, we were allowed to do as such as much as we needed to.
Locations:
There are two pieces of pre-production paperwork my group needed to fill out in order for us to be able and allowed to film in the locations we wanted to; location recces and location releases both serve their own job, with both being absolutely necessary for the planning of a moving image media production. First of all, a location recce is very important for the researching portion of your product's pre-production. The purpose of a recce is for a member (or potentially multiple) of the production team to scout many different locations which have the potential of being used for recording purposes in the media product they want to make, like our short films for example, and check if they fit the wants and needs of the production. These needs can include whether or not there are enough power sources in the area for the technology and equipment which would be used there during the project, any health and safety issues or considerations that would need to be put into account if the area was to be chosen, the lack or ease of access to the area for things like vehicles or transporting all of the equipment there, and any other details about the location which are noteworthy or relevant to the production you are doing and its needs. They also often should include some basic pieces of information about the location as well, like the area it is in, contact details for the place, when the crew wants the area and if that's possible, and so on.
As for the releases, these only need to be filled out once the locations written about in the recces have been decreased down to just the ones which the crew want to and can physically work in, as these are the only locations which need releases made for them. Releases essentially act as permission forms which must be signed and approved by both a member of the production and the an owner of the location so the production crew of the film are legally allowed to film there when they have specified on the form and can prove it if they ever need to. These are extremely essential in order for a crew or group to be able to legally create the media product they want to; even if the location is one of the crew's homes, a release form still must be filled out for it.
For our short film project, we filmed all of our scenes in different areas located within the college grounds. Each location was chosen for specific reasons. For example, the science lab S10 was used to film the scene when the protagonist is testing his powers on a bean can; a science lab specifically was chosen for this scene due to it fitting the context of what was happening in it very well, as the character is experimenting in the room. W12, aka our regular room for the subject, was used for a couple scenes, these scenes being the ones in the main character's bedroom and the hospital room at the end. For each set piece, we decorated the area differently as to fit the atmosphere and look we wanted, setting up shelves and a typical looking bed for the character's room, and a more medical-looking bed for the hospital. The mini studio was used due it having a sofa chair in it, which was perfect for the film's opening scene of the character watching the news on television. The news clip itself made in A1, due to its backdrop looking fitting enough, and the college gym was used since it had a punching bag in, which we needed for a 'failed' training scene. As for the remaining scenes' they were all filmed in miscellaneous outside areas of the college grounds which allowed us to succeed in what we wanted for our film, lie near the car park for the scene including the car or outside the entrance for the one we needed a tall wall for.
Some of the locations we planned to film in, such as the counselling room, we did not end up filming in after all. This was due to running out of time to film there when we had been allowed because of setbacks in our group. To get over this issue however, we simply decided to just film the scene we had planned for that location in one of the areas we already had permission for for other scenes which also fit the aesthetic of what we needed.
Materials:
In addition to the obvious essentials like filming equipment, a cast and a crew, there are multiple other materials which are needed for the proper creation of a moving image text. Examples of these materials include things like the editing system, which is of course required for the post-production section of video creation and may different pieces of pre-production paperwork such as location recces and releases, a risk assessment, a shot list & storyboard, production schedules and talent releases for the on-screen performers. Potentially, materials like music of sound effects may also be needed, depending on the individual project.
When using certain materials, there are some financial considerations that must be thought about in order for them to be used. One of the most expensive pieces of material needed for a moving image text to be made properly which isn't a piece of the physical equipment is a professional video-editing program, very often costing hundreds of pounds to purchase a license for. The program we were given to use in our class was Adobe Premiere Pro, costing just a few pence under twenty pounds a month to be able to use on an individual plan, adding up to a yearly cost of just under two-hundred and forty pounds annually. On top of this, if the group were to decide they wanted to use some sound effects or music in their production, there are definitely many options for free versions of these resources under the name of 'royalty-free', found on sites like YouTube or Bensound.com for example, but if the ones chosen are not under this, a licensing price would need to be paid for the legal use of resources such as these.
Legal Issues:
When using certain materials in a media production, there are legal considerations which should be thought about in terms of whether or not those materials are legally allowed to be used in your product as easily as first thought. Specifically, copyright should always be strongly thought about and looked into for all of the resources which are not your own used in the media piece you're creating.
In terms of how copyright personally affected our production for 'Depict!', the only time it was relevant was when it came to the music we decided to use for the background of our film. We found a piece of music called 'Epic' from the website 'Bensound.com' which was royalty-free, meaning we did not have to spend any money on purchasing a license for the song and were allowed to use it in our project free-of-charge. However, in order for us to legally be able to use this material in our film for free, we did have to credit the website we got the track from in the YouTube description of our short film's upload.
There are three terms which relate to the legal side of media productions which are important to know about when creating; fully understanding the terms 'clearance', 'completion guarantee/insurance' and 'Public Liability Insurance' when being behind the production of a moving image production is very useful for many reasons. When it comes to understanding the term 'clearance', in the context of the production of a media piece, it relates to the product itself being approved or what can also be known as 'green lit' by the likes of higher-ups in the industry or company. A completion guarantee or insurance is assurance provided by the guarantor of a production that the media product being developed will be finished within an agreed time schedule. If this schedule is not kept or the deadlines are not met, punishment for the overruns such as fines are very possible to occur. Finally, the term Public Liability Insurance is a specific type of insurance which covers the cost of any compensation claims or legal action which is made against the business in charge of the media product's production if a third party gets injured or if their property is damaged in some way during said production.
Regulation:
'OFCOM' is another name for the 'Office of Communications', who regulate the content of every television programme, as well as radio, in the United Kingdom. The main function of them is to make sure that all programmes follow the 'Ofcom Broadcasting Code' in order for it to be allowed to broadcast. This code covers standards in areas such as the important protecting children under the age of eighteen, prohibiting the broadcasting of content that is likely to incite crime, assuring the respect of people's religions and the fair treatment of all individuals, ensuring the accuracy of any news broadcasting, and ensuring the transparency of any commercial presence such as advertising or product placement.
An example of a piece of media Ofcom once banned from airing is an advert that ran on Sky 1 back in August of 2018. The advert was for Saudi Arabia and promoted the country's 'Vision 2030' reform agenda, showing a montage of images promoting Saudi society. Ofcom ruled that Sky were not allowed to repeat the advert, saying that it promoting the reforms and UK-Saudio links ignored "heightened public controversy" about the issues.
When it comes to the film industry though, regulation is instead up to the 'BBFC' to do, also known as 'The British Board of Film Classification', who are a completely not-for-profit independent company. The main function of this board is to classify films and give them age-ratings depending on the film's content and what age classification they believe to be suitable. As well as film though, they are also now often responsible for the same job for content on online VoD (aka video-on-demand) services.
There are six main common age groups that exist for film in the UK, consisting of, from lowest to highest, Universal, Parental Guidance, 12, 12A, 15 and 18. Films rated with a 'U' symbol, or Universal, are films that have been identified as suitable for those aged 4 and over, with films like 'The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie' and 'Finding Nemo' falling under this category. Following this is Parental Guidance' (represented by the letters 'PG'), since they have been identified as including scenes or features that may be unsuitable for children, so the permission for children to watch the film is left up to the parents. This rating is quite loose in terms of what films fit under it, with films under this rating varying from very clean and close those under the U rating, like 'Moana', or not almost at all close to them like 'Men in Black 3'. Next is the '12' rating, with the similar '12A' preceding, usually only being rated for theatrical releases while they are still being played in theatres. The prior states that the film is suitable for those aged 12 and above and that they can see it unaccompanied, while '12A' means that people below that age are allowed to see it if they are accompanied by an adult who will watch it with them (as the 'a' stands for both "accompanied" and "advisory"). An example of a movie which was rated 12A in cinema upon release is 'Iron Man 3', while a movie simply rated a 12 would be 'Top Gun'. The next two, '15' and '18' are quite self explanatory, being suitable only for the ages in their names and above, with examples of films like these being 'Deadpool 2' and 'Pulp Fiction' respectively.
There are, however, some more ratings by the BBFC which are just a lot more uncommon in modern day, both being at either ends of the rating system. The first is the rating 'Uc', which is the rating immediately below the regular U rating, signifying that the content is made for extremely young children or babies, with an example of something being rated this way being 'Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'. Finally, at the complete other end of the spectrum, exists the age rating 'Restricted 18', which is represented by the letter 'R18' above the word 'restricted' in a blue rectangle. This is similar to the regular 18 rating, meaning that only those aged above 18 are allowed to watch the content, except for the fact that films with this rating are only shown at specially authorized theatres. This is a very uncommon rating in mainstream entertainment nowadays, with only films like the indie horror film 'The Bunny game' being rated as such.
Trade Unions & Trade Associations:
Almost seven million people in the United Kingdom are a part of a 'trade union', which is defined as "a group of employees who join together to maintain and improve their conditions of employment". Typically, a trade union takes part in attempting to get better pay and treatment/conditions for all workers and providing assistance to members of their union. These unions are quite important, as the changes they work for are very important and necessary changes in some cases, with trade unions already having brought significant improvements to the national minimum wage, worker safety and even the stoppage of child labour.
'PACT' and 'BECTU' are examples of a trade association and a trade union respectively. PACT is a trade association who describe themselves as "representing the commercial interest" of United Kingdom film, independent television, digital, children's and animation media companies. They claim to have been highly influential in the reasoning for the current production business environment and the 2003 'Communications Act', which gives independent United Kingdom producers the rights to their intellectual properties. BECTU though is a union, giving their members support if they ever have a problem, as well as other benefits offered for their "work and leisure life" as the website describes it.
As for what 'trade associations' are, these are defined as not-for-profit organisations which are made up of multiple individuals or companies who work in the same industry or simply have similar common interests. These exist to act as a representative of the industries they are a part of, speaking on behalf of their members and putting forward the opinions and collective views of them to the government, media, agencies and regulators. A relevant example of one of these associations would be the company 'ScreenSkills', who call themselves the "industry-led skills body for the UK's screen-based creative industries". Something else associations like this often offer to people includes providing them career information to those who need it.
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