Evaluation.

The media product we produced was a low budget short film for an online competition called DepicT! We then put it on YouTube and our blogs to distribute it before entering it into the competition next year.

Other types of moving image production include stop frame animation, live action drama and documentaries. They can be distributed many ways including on television, online (e.g. YouTube), and cinemas.

Sources of finance that exist for moving image production include lottery funding, investments made by an individual or a company or loans.

Things you may have to spend money on could include:

Cast. Costumes, props and make up. Sets. Places to film. Insurance. Permits. Camera, filming and sound equipment.

For our DepicT! Project we had to make 90 seconds worth of short film that had to have a narrative.

In a low budget film the crew is probably a lot fewer people which would be on little or no salary due to budget. This would probably consist of less trained or untrained people who combined roles, for example the camera and lighting person is the same person. However in a television pro-gramme or Hollywood production the budget is very much larger this means that there will probably be more crew with sound lighting, camera and directors.

In our group we had three people. Andrea, Max and myself. We split up the work pretty much equally. Max had to do a risk assessment, props/costume list and a college location release. Andrea did the budgeting, production schedule and minutes document. I has to so the rest of location releases, the talent releases, the shot list and the storyboards.

Contributors to a production aren’t just the crew and the cast. Musicians (make the music for a film or Television show), Sponsors, storyboard artists, costume designers, make-up artists and writers. For example a writer is where the original story or plot has come from and they adapt this for the type of media. Another example is costume designers, they interpret characters and situations and interpret them into clothing.

Our time frame was very slim as none of our group and our actors were free at the same time. Therefore all of our filming had to happen outside of college hours. This also meant that one member of our group, Max, wasn’t there for most of the filming. However, in the times we had set for filming we stuck on schedule and finished before we originally thought that we would. We mostly stayed focused during lesson time when planning and editing. However due to a lack of communication in the group not everyone was happy with the narrative we had chosen. We however stuck to deadlines as best as we could only running over with technical issues and I missed the ideal deadline for the per-production paperwork due to being ill.

 

n the professional industry there is no room for missing deadlines as the company would have set a release date for the film or television pro-gramme. This means that if they were to fall behind they would have to push forward the release date thus upsetting a waiting audience which they would have probably advertised to already.

In professional moving image productions media house facilities are a place to get crew or equipment. For example, The Hall in Oxfordshire provides film crews and kit, shooting in HD on tape or solid state, a sound proof air conditioned 30m2 TV studio with blue/green screen, Media Composer Edit Suites, Final Cut Pro, ProTools HD Audio suite and DVD / Blu-ray authoring. These cost a lot to buy so to pay to use them is a lot cheaper in the short run.

For our project we could borrow a camera, SD card and tripod from college however we used Andreas as it was easier due to the fact most of our filming was outside of college. We also had access to premier pro editing software which would usually cost around £1,000, however this is free to use at college. The college also had a green screen however we didn’t use it for this film, but the option was there.

For our locations we had to get a signature for to say we could use them, they can be seen in the location releases. A location recces is a location we thought about using and the location releases are the documents for the locations we used. For the valentines date, New Year’s/Karma’s birthday and the coffee date/skype call/move in scene we had to get location releases for. For Roman wood in Acle the grounds are open to public use therefore we didn’t need a location release for there. I chose those woods as I know them well and the bench and setting worked well for what we wanted. We picked my grandparents’ house for the valentines date as they had a kitchen table that was a good size for the film. We chose our actor Billy’s house of the New Year’s party and Karma’s birthday, we chose this as the location worked well for what we wanted to do and it was the only option we had left for filming. For the rest of the scenes we used college as we were allowed and it was easiest transport wise for the group.

We needed coffee in our short film and decided that even though Costa is expensive at about £3 per coffee it was worth it for the effect rather than having a terrible looking scene. We also needed food for the meal so we bought some ready meals for quickness. Financially, it would be wise to chose cheaper foods, which we did in the case of the ready meals.

 

Legal issues would include copyright of products that appear in your production. “Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution. This is usually only for a limited time.” (Wikipeadia 2015). Copyright didn't really impact our DepicT! However, it did make us make sure that our work wasn't too much like what inspired us (Extra gum advert 2015.)

All your content has to be 'cleared' if it is to be released to the public. This means to get permission to used things in your film.

Public Liability Insurance protects you if clients or members of the public suffer personal injury or property damage because of your business. This is extremely important in the industry as it could save you money and protect your business.

A completion guarantee is a form of insurance offered by a completion guarantor company (in return for a percentage fee based on the budget) that is often used in independently financed films to guarantee that the producer will complete and deliver the film. An example of a completion guarantee company is “Film Finances.”

A regulatory body is a public authority or government agency responsible for exercising autonomous authority over a public area. Their job is to protect the public and they are legally given the power to do so.

 

OFCOM is the communications regulator for the UK. They regulate TV and radio,fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. BBC is regulated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the European Commission, and Ofcom.

The British Board of Film Classifications (BBFC) rate films depending on what audiences should be watching them. They are non-profit and only charge what it costs to do the work.

A trade union is an organization made up of members and its membership must be made up of mostly workers. One of its main aims is to protect and the interests of its members in the workplace. Most trade unions are independent of any employer, however some work closely with the employer. They are important to keep the workers happy and keep equality and fairness in the workplace. PACT and BECTU are media/entertainment unions. They work to keep fairness and happiness with workers in the industry. A trade association is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. This means that they are basically a trade union but for businesses not workers.