Requirments for a Moving Image Production

 Types of moving Image Production

The product that we had to create was a ninety second short film for the Depict competition. The product has been distributed via YouTube. This  video was distributed on an internet media Platform.

Film is only one of the types of media forms. Others Are TV programs which can both factual e.g the news and non –factual. There are adverts which can reach the audience. one of these is through the use of viral video . A viral is a video that gets a large number of views in a short amount of Time . Others Are Animation, Music Video.

These types of product have to get to the audience; to do this the media has to use different media platforms or distribution methods.  Some of these Methods are:

• Cinemas
• Festivals
• Internet  where you can find streaming sites and illegal download sites such as Pirate Bay
• Digital Copies such as DVD and blue ray 

Without these, the media would not reach the consumer. This is important in the industry when in any product there is a possibility of not earning money. The process of earning money however is getting harder because of sites like pirate-bay which helps people get products illegally.

Finance and Funding  

In the industry there are  many ways to get funded. To get a film funded the project has to get it's budget drawn up. However based on how much money  you  have as a novice director,  the product might not get  funded by a studio.  The money  you can sometimes be the only money in the budget. There are budgets known as no budgets that can be made under $100 or £50  eg black-and-white films Hag in a Black Leather Jacket allegedly cost $30.00 to make. Accessed on wikipedia

 However this did affect the project as the college had props and costumes which we could use as

as equipment.

There are also very small budgets known as Micro Budgets: these can be as small as a $ 1000 which is around £500. However films such as no budget and micro budget films can mean that the film cannot have more than one shoot as logistically the money could not be enough to secure or location, some cast member or equipment.

Low Budget films can be small sometimes even smaller than tens of thousands ,this important  mainly because new Directors don't have backing from studios and global media companies such as World wide media .

However after the budget is drawn up you will get the funds needed. There are many ways of getting funds such as :

• Crowd Funding this is done via websites such as Kick-Starter which allows someone who has an idea to get money off people  to grow the amount needed  for their project.
• Studio funding studios are usually owned by big media corporations such as News Corporation which owns 20 Century Fox
• Private Capitol this when an affluent contributes to funding the film
• The National Lottery  gives money to a lot of film projects, this is done via BFI witch is the British  Film Institute.

Requirements

Before getting money the filmmaker will have to think about what he needs for the production. This is important  so that he knows how much money he will pay for everything he or she  needs to make his film.

When The filmmaker does this he has to take in consideration the things money will go on, such as :

• Cast and Crew
• Equipment
• Locations, sometimes in films  there is money involved in securing locations. This can be hiring out hotels or even closing down streets for filming; this costs money as the council will have to resolves the matter legally with  the film maker
• Transport, this is important for  new directors especially in the case of college students as members of the crew could not get to the location.
• Food and accommodation 

In our case  there weren't many things to obtain except the Signatures from  the parent or guardian of the cast as most of the cast was under eighteen . If we didn't do this we would have broken the law which is not acceptable in a professional environment,

Also for this project we had to inform  the police if we were filming  in public space . This was done for our protection if any suspicion arose .

Personnel

In the film industry the budget of  the film can affect the number of people working on the  project .

in a low budget the teams are small. In our team we decided to let one person do the camera work and then  shared the editing .

In television programs the teams are smaller than the teams on Hollywood Features, this may be because television programs contain mild use of  special effects with the exception of  the sc-fi genre. Also this is because episodes are short and  usually around half an  hour. Even  so teams contain sound engineers, directors , writers editors  engineers ;for sitcoms they sometimes use advisers especially with jokes containing scientific information.

The team make up for a Hollywood  feature film is great. This means that the film will need technicians for a every area. This means that the team will have major camera teams and editorial teams . There are also stunt doubles which are specialized to act in the more dangerous scenes.

There are other people who contribute to the making the media product These  are know as contributors .

Contributors are not always in the credits because they did take part in producing  the film however they did help the cast and crew.

Such  contributors are :

• Advisors
• Transport teams  
• legal teams
• First Aid Teams
• Security
• Translators

   Time

In the industry time is very important as deadlines are very strict. If the production of any form of media goes over the deadline then a lot of problems could appear. These could be contractual , by this I mean  having to renew contracts with actors.Also going over the deadline might cause a film or any media production to go over budget.
 Time can also affect the success and reputation of directors as a film that was extended

 over the dead line is never good for this . And might tarnish the name of the director

   Equipment / Facilities

The equipment is one the most important things in film production. However for new filmmaker  some equipment might not be available, and the individual can not afford to buy equipment.Therefor he can use providers such VMI to rent equipment. VMI and many others provide equipment, such as cameras at different prices.There are many choices, for example VMI charges between 165 and 600 pounds a day for their cameras .Other prices are:

• Fluorescent lighting £50-£60 a day
• Sliders Between £45 and £250 a day

Prices for the equipment above have been taken from VMI.TV 

Another very   important part of film making is the editing. However the novice film maker might not have access to professional editing software . There are post production facility houses which have the professional software and experienced staff, an example of a facility house is FliX, which in the past has done work with the BBC and have sound dubbing facilities and other Post production facilities. Information taken from flixfacilities.com

However in our case the equipment and facilities needed for the product were provided by the college. The  equipment was borrowed meaning that if it got damaged we wold have to pay for it.

Locations

Before the location is chosen certain documents have to be complete,  a location  recce has to be made. The recce is a form containing information about the locations, for example the travel time. The location recce  is basically a document used for  scouting locations and is used in deciding  where the shooting is going  to take place. This is  based on factors such as .:

• Availability
• Transport
• Parking space 
• distance

These factors are called logistics and are very important because if something that wasn't taken in consideration happens it can affect the production, a good exampleof this is the location of our depict project as we did not take in consideration bus timetables and  the usage of the bus stop . This resulted in us changing the location.

Materials

In the media industry there are other materials needed alongside the equipment , crew and cast.

These materials can affect the sucsess of  product. Such materials are :

• Props and sets which are made by specialised designers a good example of this are weapon replicas as as weapons made  from scratch . The making of the props will cost not manly because of the designer but because the materials used.
• Music is one of the most complex materials used in films not only it affects the pace of a film. The  music can be designed  for the product .  This called a score and is done by paying a film music composers such as Danny Elfman to create it. Also music and sound that were already made can be used if the  production buys the rights to using the track .

Legal Issues

The media has to abide the law . Therefore it is important to make that all legal procedure has been flowed ,  that's why everything is planned.An of the effect of the in media is the need for a parent or guardian to sign a

talent release form  if the performer is under the age of 18 at the time of the production.

Another legal matter is ownership and copyright which is the legal term for the protection of you intellectual possession from being used by another person fot his own gain . This ensures that the credit goes to the rights person. taken formhttp://www.creativeskillset.org/film/knowledge/article_5097_1.asp

My groups final product however was not affect by by copyright as the work was our own all the sound tracks were recorded by the  group there fore we did not have to get any clearance, or the process  of negotiating terms to the permissions needed to the use of an others intellectual property http://www.creativeclearance.com/whatisclearance.html

There are also insurances that any film should have these are :

Public Liability insurance which is used to protect you from damage caused in the public domain  e.g a member of gets hurt as he trips over a misplaced camera case (http://industry.bfi.org.uk/filminsurance) and a completion guarantee is a legal procedure used to make sure that the product is finished in the contacted specifications.   http://www.creativeskillset.org/film/knowledge/article_5105_1.asp

Regulation

In the media industry there are many regulating Bodies which have been created to control media content. Such a body is OFCOM which that content shown on tv is not harmful to the target audience. To  this they that false calms a re not made , that no under age children are abused in the media .Another of ofcom in responding to complaints

Thou it is true that OFCOM Regulate television Content it does not regulate the BBC Trust which is used as of making sure that public gets the best for their money this means that the BBC controls the quality of the programming  wile OFCOM Regulates what should be allowed on tv .
The BBFC Or British board of  Film Classification regulates the age ratings of films based . this is  via requirements. These are in amount violence ,strong language and references to drugs and sex that are used in the product.

 Some of The certificates Are

The universal rating or certificate  means that the product is suitable for all ages. However these types of films are usually targeted at young audience by these are mean 3-9   .
To get this certificate the film must not contain extreme use of bad language however mild usage is allowed e.g "Darn"and "hell". The use of extended scenes containing sexual behaviour or innuendos however kissing and cuddling are allowed. Violence
such as fight scenes are allowed  however they have to finish quickly.




The PG rating is done with  a young audience in mind this however  means that the product is allowed to show or imply sexual activity however these scenes have to be short .
The product cannot condone any extreme usage  violent behaviour or or use of bad  language (profanity) is not allowed. However mildly violent scenes are allowed as long asthey happen fast and you can't how the  characters have been hurt . This means  if there  is blood the infliction of cuts and any other form of  harming is not                                        allowed.  Also the use of mildly bad language is allowed e.g ‘shit’. The use of drugs is not allowed but can be permitted  as the product show s how bad drug use is.



The internet is impossible to regulate manly of the speed the information appears on this platform.. However The laws regarding the media on line there fore this that ranting requirements as as censorship wold stay same.
This is important when in on line film competition as you need to be aware of the rating of your product and if it is appropriate for large public distribution

Trade unions and associations

 As in any industry the media has trade unions which  have been created in order to protect the rights of the individuals that industry or profession.To do this they have to make sure that all their members get a fair contract  .This is where BETCU comes in . While  BETCU  looks after contract and staff mater they protect freelancers 
Pact on the other hand is trade association which promotes independent producers. As well as defending their rights

BIMA is however are trade association which it occupies with the :

Support and promote the British digital industry
Share knowledge and best practice
Reward great work
Encourage the next generation

This mean that the trade associations  wi=ork with promoting the industry and help the peope in the insurry  feel rewarded for their work h which is different form the trade unions which protect the right of the worker