Media!

Type of production: Our production was 90 seconds long. It is for a contest which is called depict. Depict is a contest were people sent in 90 second videos and it is a contest where people vote for which one is the best. Some of the awards can be the most creative and best filmed. The point in this contest if to get young people making video and to test their skills out. The skills which the contest is looking for is topic, video quality and editing. Depict is a really good example of low budget filming and test people to use what they have.  A low budget film will be around £0-£50,000, for a film this is really low as this is everything in the cost, camera, lights, props, wages and editing.

              Hollywood is renowned for having the most expensive films out there, for example John carter had a budget of £250 million. These sorts of movies are around 90 minutes so they are much longer than sort films. The amount of effort that goes in to the movie is massive. There are loads of rolls in films such as filming, acting, catering, hospitality etc…. All of these jobs are key to one another as it means that everyone is looked after and that the film is running smoothly.  A lot of the films now will rely a lot on CGI which means that you can make a image with a computer that can interact with a character. 

(Expensive films, n.d.)

Finance: The pricing for the filming of our video was £10 and there is a reason for that as it is a really low budget film. As we already had the equipment for filming we were did not have to spend any money on getting lighting, camera or a tripod. All of the locations which we had filmed at were free and all we had to do was to ask for permission. The actor’s which were in the film were volunteers and were not payed for their time. This means that the film had no money spend on it as we did not need to buy anything. With having a professional budget, they can have millions at hand just to spend on their productions. Most Hollywood block busters will have 500 million dollars to work with and that all crew, equipment and locations involved in to it. If the filming companies were to work over the predicted time they will lot of money for example. The movie called ‘Long ranger’ by Johnny Depp has went up to a massive £225,000,000 and the reason for all of this money was that he wanted to have a really cool hat and the story had to be re wrote. The movie had started off at a budget of £70,000,000. This is why everything needs to be sorted before filming a it will make delays and also cost more to change the story. How a lot of people get funding in making movies not is through backers such as sponsors, social backers, advertising, government funded and backers, a lot of this moany does come from massive company’s but it does come at a price, a lot of these company’s want their image in the movie so they will back the movie but have the main acuter drinking their drink or eating their food. This is called product placement

(Over Budget, n.d.)

Requirements: The requirements for this film was:

·       Camera

·       Tripod

·       Makeup effects

·       Props

·       Location rights

The equipment which we used are low in cost and easy to get hands on. All of these are provided by are collage but were low budget so they would not have costed a lot. As they are low in price we had to used what we had and make the video feel better. One scene used a branch falling on someone, we had to fake drop a branch on the camera. We also had to use props which we had to get from one of the actors. The blood which was used was put on and was provided by someone who we knew and was a special affects artist.

              For a Hollywood movie to make a film they would have millions to spend on just equipment, this means that they would be able to get some of the best cameras  and tripods around. The equipment they would use is similar to a small filming budget but will be on a massive scale such as the cameras will be £100,000 and a small budget will be £500. The tripods which will be holding the cameras will have to with stand the weight of them so they will be big and strong. As the company has more money they can buy/rent equipment which will make the shot better such as a drone or a crane, these both will get a higher angle on the target but at the same time will be cheaper and more stable than climbing a ladder. Here are a few thing which would be rented/ bought:

·       Dolly

·       Rail slide

·       Cameras

·       Drones

·       Cranes

·       Tripods

·       Lighting

·       Reflectors

·       Props

·       Settings

·       CGI

All of this equipment will come at a price and that why not many small filming companies can afford these things.

Timings: The timing in our group was not too good as three of the members had a free period and then one had lessons so it was very hard to all be working. What we had to do was film a lot in lessons but then film certain scenes in the free period. The timing in the lessons was good as we all worked on the filming for the whole lesson. The timings in short films are when people are free, this means it is not a priority and is not a full time job. Short films are what you do in your free time to have a little fun or to make money on the side but as it takes some time and you do it in your free time it will take a lot of days to film the whole film.

              With a filming industry, it is a job so when someone is told to work or do something it is usually done straight away, with our depict we have other stuff like other subjects, work and other stuff out of college. The filming industry will have the availability of whatever whenever, they can have this as the actors are being payed and are signed on a contract.  The contract will have a certain amount of hours a week on it and will allow the producer to film as any time.

Personnel: The actors which are needed in short films are not often full time. This means that they will be low skilled actors. A lot of the time they will be trying to work their way up in the filming industry. The cost of them is not too high as it is a low budget film and they won’t earn enough to pay them loads.  In our small groups all of us had acted and all of us used the camera. It was hard sometimes as lot of people had their own views, also some didn’t know how to use the camera so they were given a lesson. The acting side of this was fun as it showed what everyone was like. As everyone was not a professional actor some of the scenes don’t look good and also with some of the camera shots could be better.

In a filming industry the people who will be working will be professionals from actors, camera men and directors. All of these people come at a price but at the same time they all work well and will do their job. The money which will be spent on the actors is around £100,000 but in 2003 when the “Matrix” came out Keanu Reeves earn £30,000,000 as this was one of thy most popular films in that time. The film made over £156,000,000.

 (Hollywood actors, n.d.)

Facilities: As a lot of small independent productions don’t have lot of money to spend and they need to ensure that their budgets are well planned and organised. Independent film makers will often use facilities that come as very little or no cost at all – in Kevin Smith’s ‘Clerks’ he filmed most of the film at the shop where he worked so save money on location hire. He also filmed at night when the shop was closed. Most of the equipment that was used for filming and editing was very low budget and equipment owned by Smith or friends that he knew in the film industry.

              As a lot of filming company’s want to have the best places to film they will move a whole set out to an area to film. This means that there will need to be catering for the actors and staff. The big sets must cater for all of the crew and will a lot have to have hospitality as they have to stay near the set to film other days. There are some films like Harry Potter which were filmed on sound stages. The building which was used was closed in 1994 and was reopened as a sound stage to produce Harry Potter. The facility’s which massive companies will use are rigs, dolly’s, drones, rails, etc.… these are used to make massive budget films. The facility’s which are being filmed at must be able to accommodate theses as they are key to making a good movie.

Materials: In big Hollywood films, there is a lot of CGI (Computer generated image) now, which something is a lot of skill. The way CGI works is with a green screen, the actor will act with an object which needs to be in the movie, in post-production they will edit the green out and out a layer over the top to make it look completely different. For example, “Game of Thrones” Most scenes in it will have a CGI layer just to make it that more impacting. The CGI industry in Hollywood is massive, there are some movies out there which will just be CGI. There isn’t much you can do for a small scale as CGI cost a lot if you were to do a whole movie. CGI is affordable for small scale industry but if the editing in post is not done right it could mess up a movie.

(Green Screens, n.d.)

Locations: Locations for small budget productions are often in easy to access places, whereas large scale productions make use of extensive, various exotic locations. In Kevin Smith’s ‘Clerks’, most of the film was shot in the shop in which he worked. This enable the director to utilise locations without hindrance and free of cost. This did give him certain restrictions in that he could only shoot the film when the shop was closed, which was largely at night. This did cause further issues with adequate lighting and this is why the film ended up being converted to black and white.

With the locations for small budget places it could be anywhere really, it could happen in a small shop or a wooded area. Take Clerks for example they filmed it in a shop where they worked during the day. As the shop was free to use there was no cost the making the movie. A lot of small film maker will not have a cost where they film as they can’t afford it and the timing which they have could be hard to work with (early in the morning or late at night). With large scale productions, such as the Hobbit, where they filmed it will bring in loads of tourism as people want to have the experience of what the scene looks like. So, when big filming industries ask to have access to an area which they would like to film in, they may not even have to pay as it will bring in money for that area. The money which will be brought in through the film will pay for the use of the land. Another example of this is with Game of Thrones, the location which they chose was Stanocum in County Antrim, Northern Ireland

(Game of Throne , n.d.)

Codes of practice:  

Legal issues: There are loads of things which every movie industry must look out for and that is copy right. The could be a coke in the back ground and it could be classed as incorrect product placement. Massive companies will sue other company’s if they don’t ask for promotion to uses their branding in their movie as it the product company will not benefit. But on the other hand, there are some product company’s which will go to movie makers and will ask to put their brand in a scene or two.  This is called product placement, this is used to get branding out there and to show the main character interacting with it. Even in small production you must be careful because you can just use anything which you see. Take music, there is a lot of laws which will prohibit you from using a song in a film which is making money. What you must do Is a find royalty free music or create your own. Copy right is there to make the producer of the content get the recognition in which they deserve. Some copy right laws are just as simple as saying where you got the music from but most of the others are that you must pay a fee to use the content. Our Depict has music in the back ground which we got off a website which specialises in copy right free content, this means we don’t have to follow any rules and that we can play it anywhere.

Regulations: OFCOM make all the signal for Tv’s, radios and videos much stronger. Ofcom is a company which is funded by grants from the government and large industry’s which are regularly broadcasting. This company was set up by the government to make the networks more connected. The government have done this so then the citizens and consumers of the United Kingdom will be more competitive. Ofcom have powers which will allow them to make laws to make the competition harder, this is made so then other companies will try harder to beat them which will in result make other company’s better.

 (What is OFCOM, n.d.)

BBFC: BBFC (British Broad of Film Classification) is an organisation which provides a review of every film which is made. The BBFC was set up in 1912 to give the audience a guide line on what the movie will be like. The organisation will watch the movie and will rate the movie on what the violence, action, horror, humour or whether its child safe. This is similar to the games review which is called PEGI, they do similar things such as grade what age the game should be for people playing it. On every movie case, there will be a description of the movie and what sort of age and genre it will be. This movie case for example has two ages at the bottom and they are both 18, this is letting the audience know that it is not suitable for young people. BBFC are able to cut, change and even ban movies if they are not acceptable for the general public.

 (Bad Guys, n.d.)

(What is BBFC, n.d.)

What is a trade union? A trade union is where members of the working class make decisions on what is happening in the work place. These are set up to make the workers feel more in control of their future. This will bring people together to discuss how problem can be resolved. There can be loads of party’s in the trade union but all of them will have different views. The use of a trade union in a filming industry could be used to put people’s views in the film such as if something doesn’t look good people will have the freedom of speech to say what they feel about the productions.

Pact:

BECTU:  Bectu is a company which is set up for young people to get the learning what they need to get in to the media industry. The company will allow young people to go to college for a low price and learn all the key information. The company is a trade union which covers lots of different sectors such as, broad casting, filming, independent productions and many others. This is all set up to make young people more involved in the making of movie.

What is a trade association: There are many trade associations but the British association travels around the world to help spread work to other countries.