The Pre-Production Process: Introduction: In that part of the assignment I will be explaining what different things I had to consider use in order to make my own media moving image production. Type of moving image production (media forms): The moving image production that I had to create was a 90 second Depict video. Depict is a challenge for film makers all across the world to create any type of movie within 90 seconds. There is only one rule and that is the video lasts 90 seconds long the media production can be on any sort of topic and any budget. Each video is viewed by the judges and if they think the video is of a high quality and the judges liked it the video is then shortlisted. The person/people with the best video will win a prize of £2500. The type of media production myself and my group created was a video on how to carve a pumpkin in the shape of Yoda. We initially came up with this idea as we had time to review some others videos on the Depict website in order to give us some ideas. We decided to have a similar video to the video ‘A thing’ as this is a very unique video that requires skills and is interesting to watch. After having the basic start to what we would create our video on we thought the best way to come up with a good idea is to think of a theme and stick with it. The theme we decided to go by was Halloween as this was the closest big event in the world at that time. One member of the group said they are able to use their skills and crave pumpkin into Yoda’s face so that that was our final decision was to record and show the progression of a member of our group(Leonie) carving Yoda’s face into a pumpkin. The method that we choose to distribute our video was YouTube, we chose this method as it was a free way of showing of our video and also it was very easy to upload the video and helps with YouTube having millions of users. There are many other types of moving image media products these would include things such as.  Streaming  Television commercials  Advertisement  Films  Information video  Public Announcements/Scirpts  Social communication There are also different methods in which media productions were distributed. For example with a big film production firstly there would be a trailer for a film so everyone gets a taste and a look at what the film is going to be about and encourages people to go watch it if they find the trailer which exceeds their interests. Then after that the trailer the film is realised in cinema’s at a later date where people can go see the film and a small cost. If people enjoyed the film then they would normally buy the DVD of the film which would be realised many months after going out of the cinema. The later life of the film production would be the film going online where you can stream it on things such as Netflix. Some films if they are a big hit and sell well in cinemas and on DVD they will then have a second movie or more which is known as a sequel. An example of this is Fast and Furious after starting as a trailer then to go into cinemas and DVDs it now has 7 movies which they are very popular worldwide. Finance and sources of funding: All sorts of media productions have to be funded from somewhere in order for them to go ahead and have the right equipment. Not all of the best productions have millions of pound spend on them as they are many productions which have been really successful on a low budget. An example of this is ‘The Blair witch project’. The types of funding would include; Private capital-Private equity (Capital) consists of investors and funds that make investments directly into private companies or conduct buyouts of public companies that result in a delisting of public equity. Personal savings- This would be the personal funding of an indidvual or group of people who have saved up their own money and invested to their media production. Public Funding- This is money that generated by the government in order to support or fully fund goods or services to the public. Film Studios- This is where film studios normally very large well known ones would sponsor and finical fund a future media production if they believe it will be successful. Loans- This is where the money is loaned from a company but normally the bank. This money has to be paid back over a certain amount of time with interest. Grants- This is a certain amount of money that is given from an organisation or the government for a certain purpose. It’s part of an agreement that they may or may not have to pay back. Advertising- This is where an organisation would get money in from their film being advertised and promoted physically and online. Megan Ellison: Megan Ellison is an American film producer and founder of Annapurna Pictures. Megan is a very well-known producer all over the world who spends a lot of her own personal money in media productions . With such love for media productions and producing big movies she founded her own organisation called Annapurna pictures which is a successful business in the film industry. Megan shows off to be a good role model in the media industry by showing her love and passion and being very successful. Requirements: While making a media production there is a lot of things that the organisation/people making the production will have to spend money on. Firstly the main thing is having a crew in place in which can help organise the plan and carry out the actual production in order for it to be successful. If the production is going to be a big production a lot of money will have to be spend on professional staff members with the knowledge to know what they are doing. Another important requirement is the equipment. The equipment would not be the things in the production that are used it would be things to help film the media production items such as, cameras, tri-pods, computers and microphones. These are key things every production needs as without them there will be no recording. The higher the movie production and the more money spend on it the higher quality the equipment would be which will lead to better movie clips. Also another requirement is needs to have money spend on it is the location and travel of where the filming is taking place. For example if the media production was being filmed in a local café in London the organisation would have to pay to use that café as they will be taking up space and time inside the café and also the café would be someone’s else property. The travel of the staff members is also a very important factor as they will need everyone to help record the production so the organisation would have to make travel arrangements also if the film is due over a certain amount of days they will also have to provide accommodation. A large sum of the money from the budget the an organisation would set themselves is advertising as they will want to get the production to grab peoples attention so they will have to promote it somewhere in order for people to notice the production in order for them to view it and the organisation to make money from it. Lastly money will be spending on the staff working in the production (actors). The amount they will pay will very on their experiences, how good they are and also how popular and well known they are. If an organisation has actors who are armatures they will pay them an average way or possible have apprentices in which they can progress and earn more money. Larger and well know organisations will pay a lot of money to get actors to be in their production as this will help promote their production as the actors would be recognised by people who watch the production. An example of this is a Pepsi advert which payed a lot of money to have popular professional footballers in their television commercial to help promote their product. Personal requirements: As this was a small media production that myself and the group I was in we didn’t need to spend much money at all which was a positive. The only prop we had to buy was the pumpkin itself that we were going to carve. The pumpkin cost one pound fifty which one of the members of the group (Courtney) paid at of her own money which was not a big deal. The equipment we used to film the production was all property of East Norfolk College the items we borrowed from there was a camera and a tri-pod nothing else was necessary to borrow. The location we used was at my own house which did not cost us to be there at any point during the production and also had some props there that we was able to use for free also. The props we used were:  Knives – which was at my house we used them to carve the pumpkin.  Pens- which was also already at my house we used them to draw yoda’s face on the pumpkin.  A spoon- to empty the pumpkins flesh as part of the production.  A bowl- to empty the pumpkins flesh into from the pumpkin.  A candle- Which was also my own property we used a candle to show light from the outside of the pumpkin Personnel: Personnel: The personnel would be the typical build-up of a team/crew in a moving image production. The size of the cast and crew on a production will depend on how big the movie is planned to be. There will always be the basics number of staff but then the more crew members and actors will increase on the expectation of the films outcome. The basic production team crew a media production would have is; Cast/Actors- these are people who will be in front of the camera or where you are able to hear their voice in the production. Producers- These will be the people who help create the film with initial ideas, they will also own a fair proportion of the film and the income for the film. Director- The director is the person who will be in charge of controlling the content of the production and help keeping the flow of it. They will also be in charge of selecting locations where the scenes will be shot and in control of the positioning of cameras, they will have basic control of the production. Accountant- This is an important role as part of production as this will be in charge of financial issues that will occur for the production for example the staff getting paid , the expenses for everything needed and rentals. Camera staff- This would be the people who actually record the production with the camera’s their position is important as without them the production will actually not be recorded. These are the basic staff members any sort of production would have for it order for it to be a successful production which is distributed. Time: Timeframe is a very important part of making a media production if a production does not meet its deadlines days it may cost the organisation a lot of money in profit and the production may not even be published if it does not reach time requirements. Also it could be bring a lot of bad publicity to an organisation and staff working in the organisation which could result in them getting fired. Below is a list of some movies that failed to breakeven and made a lost on their productions. Personal deadlines: While making our film production there was a few setbacks that happened that lead to us not meeting some of our deadlines. Overall these did affect the way in which our production did not come out as well as expected. The first set back was that we took a little longer planning than we first thought which lead us to having one less filming session. This was not a massive set back as we pretty much got all the filming done with in the 5 lessons provided anyway. The main set back was that after filming everything we done I was expected to look after the SD card which we saved our recording on which I lost the SD card for a few days. This gave us less editing time after I found the SD card again. With that happening that gave us less time to sort a soundtrack out we originally wanted on the production but we came to an alternative which worked for us. Equipment/Facilities: Almost every media production will need equipment either big or small productions they would get their equipment from professional media facilities houses. These houses provide loads of different varieties of equipment for either hire or to buy for media productions. This equipment will come at a certain cost to use. Below is an image of a media production facilities house in Oxfordshire and the services they provide. \ In the image above as you can see you are able to rent out all different sorts of equipment. In this image I have concentrated on the hire of camera equipment. As it’s a large media production house they allow you to pick a time you would want to rent the equipment out for for example a day or a week. I believe the hire prices are quite expensive and the better the camera the more expensive it is to rent out. Personally I believe it would be a better idea to buy your own equipment than rent it out for them rates as there is always a chance the equipment can break which would lead to more costs and also as an media organisation you are most likely to use the equipment a lot more time. Quite a local media house to us is Oxfordshire it is a big media house with a lot of things to rent or buy . Organisations would go there and get a lot of stuff at once to save them keep traveling. Personal Equipment/Facilities: Our media production was only a 90 second amateur DepicT video. Also the video that we choose to record was very simple and did not need much movement of the camera at all or different positions. This helped us a lot as that means we didn’t need much equipment. The only equipment we used was a camera, tri-pod and a SD card. With these we were able to get our media production completed how we wanted it from borrowing the equipment from the college. This made it easy for our group to carry the equipment to and back from our location. Luckily in the end there were no damages and all the equipment was returned safety just as we borrowed it. Locations: Recce-It refers to pre-filming visit to a location to work out its suitability for shooting, including access to necessary facilities and assessment of any potential lighting or sound issues, and is closely related to location scouting. Releases- Refers to a signed documentation of where a location can be used for a purpose and to be available. Our group decision was to pick a place where it was quiet and where we weren’t going to get distracted while filming. Instead of looking around the college and local area looking for a place to record I recommended my house which was a 5 minute walk away from the college also it was going to be quiet with my parents at work during them hours. To confirm the house was a good location to film I then got my parents to sign a release which allowed us to record there during the day. The only situation we had to face was timing our filming production so members of the group can get to my house and back in time for their lessons. This was an easy location to use as it was not far from the college and also gave our group the space and quiet we needed in order to get the production recorded. Materials: A lot of big media productions which are expected to do to be really popular will spend a lot of money and time on different materials to make their production as successful as they can. These things would include costumes, make-up,props,music,scripts,photos and experts. All of these things will be very important in a big media in production whereas in a smaller one finical and concentration may be spend on a lot more. Its most likely that in media products products and materials which are possibly not as clear on screen than other are meant to be in the background as product placement. This would be important in production as companies would have paid for products to be in certain movies. Legal Issues: There would be a lot of legal issues included in any sort of media production the main one being copywrite. Any production cannot include something they do not own or do not have permission to include into their media production as this would be illegal. If an organisation was to use different products in their product without permission this could lead them into being sued and costing them money. Most organisations would allow their product to be in production with payment. Sometimes an organisation may pay productions to have their product in their production as advertisement. Copywrite slightly affected our DepicT video as we was going to use the ‘Monster mash’ soundtrack over the top of our Halloween filmed production but we had no legal rights so we had to change it. Copywrite definition- This would be the given legal write to use something someone’s owns for fixed amount of time and this to be allowed to use as their material. Clearance- A term used by short-form media buyers to indicate which part of their media order, or campaign, in any given day or week was actually broadcast. Public Liability Insurance- Public liability insurance covers your small business against legal costs and compensation payments resulting from injuries or property damage to your clients, contractors or members of the public which was caused by you or one of your employees. Completion guarantee/insurance- is a form of insurance offered by a completion guarantor company this is an a guarantee the producer will finish the film. Regulations: OFCOM and its function- OFCOM is short for the office of communications. It has a lot of powers across the television industry. There function is too look after the public by providing healthy competition and entertainment. Also to keep the public from harm things such as bad language and scenes in television. What is BBFC and its function- BBFC stands for the British board of film classification It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and, to a lesser extent, Trade union and trade associations: What is trade union and why are they important? Trade union are a union which protects things such as trading to make sure its fair and doesn’t get out of hand also helps increase the amount of employees and employers. They help benefit the country which makes them very important to everyone as they also provide fairness and help people and businesses. What are PACT and BECTU and what do they do? They are types of trade unions in which they help formal agreements between countries. An working employee in the UK are covered By BECTU to can apply to a membership. What is a Trade association?- Trade association is a special group also known as a business group .They are a group that participate in public relations things such as education and advertising but its main focus is collaboration between companies References: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/privateequity.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recce_%28filmmaking%29 http://www.the-hall.co.uk/services.html http://www.hiscox.co.uk/business-blog/features/what-is-public-liability-insurance/