The Pre-Production Process

The Pre-Production Process Requirements for a Moving Image Production 

My media group have produce 90 second short film within the project of Depict and  distribute it using one of the well known website "YouTube".

Different type of media production
There are many types of moving image media production that are well known around the world which also have a different process and content and having a different group of audience for example short film, Feature film, music video etc.  There are few different ways  to distribute these type of media text which suggesting the audience in the different way  for example, TV (almost every one in  the UK have television and some like to watch the advert of each production), poster(some people are more interesting about picture and wording ), electric moving screen (other type advertising which usually get a lot people to notice as these usually been put some on the place where people can notice and spend free time on), YouTube and any other type of website (YouTube and other video website can get particular audience as YouTube or other social network website can get the individually that are already interest in some specific type of media text, also social network like Facebook are also free to distribute the any type of media text but sometime can be remove if it's against copyright).

Earn the money from the production
A good way of being able to make money from a production is to seek funding.  Funding is when you earn money by pitching a media product to investors in return for a financial contribution towards the production. For example in the UK there is lottery funding available for talented film makers to develop and progress with their productions. Although, funding is limited with 20-25 awards each year, new and established film makers both have equal opportunities to gain funding. This is a good way for film makers to fund their productions and can upgrade the types of locations, props and actors they use.(Source: http://www.bfi.org.uk/film-industry/lottery-funding-development-production) one of the film that made by funding and success is Man on wire made in 2008.

In the big action e.g. famous or a well known film like Hollywood film will go thought he process of selling it to the company and it's will be show on the cinema, pay per view and the DVD are available to buy when it's release.
Another source of income can be from a goods production companies. The goods production company will contact the film and agree on the contract. For example advertising products for corporations by having their product in your moving images production(film), for example Heineken paid $45 million to have their beer appear in  Skyfall 007 withing the main character drinking it. (James bond movie (source: http://www.livescience.com/24957-james-bond-product-placement.html).
however these type of advertising usually only available for a famous or well known film.

This generates awareness of their product and earns production company large sources of income.You can also earn money by selling(contracted) your character images or brand's name picture to companies for example, if a clothes company wants to make a t-shirt withing  Ben 10 and other character's picture on a t-shirt  they will have to pay for it, this known as licensing deals which usually referred to the copyright's law. The copyright law is the law that prevent an ideas that are contracted from being copy or shown in another way without any agreement with the original creator which is not only referring to media production but it's include other type of production e.g. book,images,music, song.

Although, this can be a good source of income for a production company. Sony/ ATV one of the largest music publishers has recently challenged song lyric website 'Rap Genius' by claiming they are using lyrics which are the property of Sony.However they can also lose money by not following the correct procedures.




Finance
There are a lot of things you might have to pay for in order to make your moving image production for example Props. Props are any item that is used in the moving images type of media (scene) for example, costume, guns, cars, food and drink(in the scene), books, pens and phones.
You will also need to paid the actors , camera team , editor, director ,location , drink and food (outside scene), electricity, makeup artist for the actors and also the music and sound track. However, by asking friends or people you known to help out in the productions can save costs, this content also known as lower budgets. Another option to consider is contacting local drama classes, colleges and schools and speak to aspiring actors/actress's who may be looking to gain experience in a production. The website 'Gumtree' is a good place to post free adverts where you could look for cast and crew members to be in a production. (Source: www.gumtree.com).
 The costs of public transport and/or petrol have to be taken into consideration and would have to be drawn up in a budget sheet. In another side my group have to obtain low cost equipment by borrowing it from college as media students have opportunity to be able to borrow equipment for the project or course work as we wont be able to have any funding in this production. The equipment that we are able to borrow are costume, video camera, microphone and other basic equipment for film maker. We also used some of the probs that we already have and we did borrowing certain object we need from friends, teacher parent etc to save the cost e.g.Harry Potter's wand and clothe. We also been investigating on who should taking part to play each character.  However we can only used our friends who are available in the period of time that we about to begin filming, this also mean they are viewing to do it too.
We have to gain the permission to shoot in the certain place to be able to do it in order of an instruction of our project, in this case we chose East Norfolk Sixth Form College's Liberally.

Different type of moving images.
The make up of typical team for moving images production are split up in mainly three type,
Low budget short ,
TV program and Holly wood feature film.

Low budget short/
Lowe budget film can be done by having friends or the people you know as actors/actress and used the equipment and prob that you already have. Location and place in each shot are also very important to make lowe Budget film as certain place like studio, certain companies belonging or the main road can be a huge cost. On another hand location like your own house or public place that would not cost any money for example in the wood,sea side and certain park, however this might required a permission.
 Holly wood feature film
 Hollywood featured films cost a lot of money to make, they could spend up to billion pound/dollars to be able to complete the project. This including paying for actors to match the character (holly wood actor cost a lot), make up artist, equipment, camera team, editor, directors electric, studio, music, copy right etc. Also in certain movie story line they have to damn the car or blew it up which cost a lot e.g. Skyfall 007. Some people might say that make up is not so important. I believe that they wrong as one of the best example Holly wood movies that used a lot of make up for actors in the scene is  ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' which is one of successful holly wood film.   



Eastenders: British television soap opera
TV program
In the middle of both low budget short films and Hollywood movies there is a television  program. Television programs are very different to both of them as television program have the longer period of time , some program can go along for years when Hollywood movies along for 1-3 hour and Short film goes on for 1-40 minutes for each (usually). Some television program that is well knows in England is Eastenders. This television program start  in 19 February 1985 ''EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985'' (source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EastEnders) and still on in these days (15/11/2013). The cost of television program is not low as lowe budget film  as high as Hollywood movies, this flow some where between low budget film and Hollywood film as the actors normally not a Hollywood actors and also the effect on this is normally not at great as Hollywood films.
However they will still need to pay for the equipment,prob and every else as the same Hollywood film, this including actors but the cost will depending on the deal they make with the team, equipment company and the actors/actress. One of the highest paid actor in this  program is  Barbara Windsor (Peggy Mitchell 1995-2010) 360,000 a year by 2006(source :http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1721352/Who-is-the-richest-EastEnders-star.html). Even know she get paid that much but  this is nothing when compare to Hollywood start like Johnny Depp, he earn 50 million dollars to his credit for every movie.

On the reflection as our group is a small group we only have 3 members in the group so we have to allocated work by looking at who is the best for each part and which piece of work,  this also mean we work in a group and help out each other  and after we done our work we show it to another member of our team for an agreement and opinion to improve our project. We mainly have 3 main piece of assignment to do which is paper work  (including shot and  time, actors and also permission on the location area), camera work , and editing. II mainly do the editing with some help off teacher and one of the team member and 2 of my team doing the camera work and paperwork. All of my team members including me have some experience of making short film as before this project we have made one of the similar type of short film. However sometime we do find it difficult to understand what other members of the team thinking but we mange to finish it in the end when everyone is happy with the result.

What is location recce
Location recce is when the media team investigation on each place and looks around to make sure weather the location is suitable and  after the media team design to to shoot in certain location ; they need to ask for the permission from the owner before they starts shooting but if they wanted to shoot in the public they have have to ask for the permission from the local police. However it may cost to shoot in certain place including public and private.


The location area for my production
My group have chosen to shoot in east Norfolk sixth from college's library as this is the best location for our film as our film have to be shoot in place where there is a lot of books and this need to be small conner. Also there are hardly any one will go to look for the books in this section.
 However this is not the only reason we shoot in the college area, the main reason for this is the equipment and pros are only allow to be borrowed allow the college (as we have not sign a for of insurance of the college just yet) area and the other reason for this is my group live quite aways to each other so we can't maned to meet up after college and the last reason for this is the location release or in the other words the permission to shoot in the location are easy to get (this is one of the very fist film too so we don't know much about how those work). This will be a lot harder to do. As the East Norfolk College area is the studying area so the student or teacher would differently knows what we doing when they see just walking around holding video camera.

Issue in our production
As we starts shooting there is some issue that we have to face and the first issue for this is as to area we used to shoot is too small so we have to be very careful on our camera work. The second issue for this is lighting as  some shoot catch more light then other does by the camera angle while we using to get a different type of shoot. Other issue for this is the effect on the editing as in one of the special effect using green screen, this take us a long time to be able to fixed it out. However with the help of our teacher advice we maned it to be done perfectly on the green screen effect on the editing problem and also by re-shot some shot.

The effect on out production and copyright
in the professional level,to be able to completed or make a great moving image text you may need to addition equipment, crew and cast these can be obtain by hire or buy from the companies or you can either borrow it from friend and used some of the equipment that you already have this including Prob, actors and extra in certain product you might have to make it your self or either ask for the company to do it for example soundtrack and music. However there is a financial consideration when you used certain materials known as copy right, also you must to be very careful while using certain product as you could be find if you break the copyrights's law.
The current act in the copyright in design and patterns is in 1988  to protect the musical,  actor/actress , sound according , artistic and film, In many case the creator have the right to unidentified thief his work, this laws  give the protection to most of the country subject to the national laws. However if you have the permission to used certain products from the owner then this is in the legal case but in another side if you doesn't follow the instruction or the deals with the owners of the production then this would turn into an illegal case.

Copy right effect our  Depict production  because we don't allow certain product and materials in our scene unless if we ask for the permission. However this could take times so we decide to recorded our own sound track and the voice over. In order to show our film clearance is vital to make sure that we have permission to use the material in our production. However, before you start you must ensure that public liability insurance is taken out in case of any accidents which could cause damage to any property through the actions of the cast and crew. In professional productions it is quite often likely to be covered for £5 million. (Source: http://industry.bfi.org.uk/filminsurance)


OFCOM
The OFCOM established the body of the communication in 2002 and developed using that communication act in 2003, the wireless telegraphy in act in 2006, broadcasting acts in 1990 and 1996, the digital economy act 2010 and the portal service in 2011to develop it self  OFCOMis a communications regulator that deregulates  TV and radio sector, fixed line telecoms and also taking care of airwaves with wireless device operate. OFCOM look after TV and radio service and given the high range qualities to the public in the UK. OFCOM also taking control of the content service all over the UK. OFCOM also have certain power to regulates the BBC licen on TV and radio service aimed at the audience in the UK this including protection of under 18, Harm and offence, crime or disorder, fairness and privacy and BBFCare also available to set out the rules that the television and radio must
follow.


BBFC
BBFC is short fore British Board of Film Classification and Theatre Union it's the company that  taking control over age guideline on film production. BBFC also employ wide rang of staff including film and video examiner, IT and techniques. Almost of the time you see these logo of age on the back of the DVD and sometime in the cinema just before to film started. it's also have around 25000 members who work for broadcasting ,film
theatre, entertainment, leisure, leisure and interactive media.



Trade associations
Trade associations are important to any industry as this is a connection between companies and organisations. There for keeping industry professionals up to date with the latest news and information in that order. This is important for the Media industry as technology is always improving and it is important to keep up to date in to stay ahead of the competition.
After the research (trade associations within the Media industry), Association of Motion Picture Sound this is an organisation that helps different level of experience membership to be able to keep in touch with (professional) members. That way it allowed them to aware of the technology that improving and keep themselves up to date .

BECTU
After looking up other associations, I came across BECTU (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematography and Theatre Union) and they focus more on giving advice to professionals in the industry. They are trying to stand up for the employees’ rights and ensuring they are paid and treated in the right way.   On reflection, the time that was given isn’t long enough (three weeks) to create this production.



Conclusion
 Our group needed more time to create and develop our ideas to make the project and by the time we finish developing our Idea, it didn't leave long to produce the great film. From my research I have also found out that a more professional production company would have created a production schedule allocating the time to certain project, task. In a professional production, it is very important to keep to a production schedule because it will cost the organisation money, For example, if we are paying for the team, actors, location, etc. Then we don’t finish in the time allocated, it will cost the company to hire the same people for a longer period. Not only this but its not very professional to not give the team a schedule indicating when they will be needed and you will lose contacts that could help you in the industry. In class we met our deadlines but we get less helped by the absence of a member of the team which made the job harder.