Assignment Brief

Assessment Feedback

First submission
GC1
You have made a very good start here and this is a very encouraging first formal written assignment. You write very nicely and you are articulate. You have explained requirements and sources of requirements for production in some detail and you have provided a range of broad and specific examples throughout.

GC2
Professional standard pre-production produced independently and to professional expectations for a specified media production.
All work was shared evenly throughout the group and all contributed equally.

GC3
You worked independently and to professional expectations when following your planning.
Successful video made.

Requirements for Production

As a group we produced a 90 second short movie for the DepicT film competition. This contest is for low budget filmmakers like ourselves to get a chance planning and recording movies in hope to win a cash prize. Throughout the making of the movie we included all of the essential elements of pre-production to compose the end product, this meant it was made to the best of our ability. Once shooting was finalized and the film was complete we came to the decision to distribute it onto the internet via YouTube and possibly other social networking sites. Knowing most people have some sort of access to the web we thought this would be the best way of getting views easily. Looking into the professional industry of media production, we begin to understand the different varieties of media text; such as feature length movies, animation and TV shows etc. Big companies that create these media texts mainly has a specific method of distributing there products: for example DVD's, downloads, cinema and online streaming. Cinema's such as Odeon and Vue release mostly high budget movies as they are over-powering the theatres massively.

Many sources of funding exist for professional and even low budget media texts. Megan Ellison is a perfect example of a private investor as she was brought up from an intensely wealthy family, not knowing what to do with the excess amount of money, she decided to become a film producer (Annapurna Pictures) and fund lots of movies such as 'American Hustle' and 'True Grit'. Self-funding also happens in the world of media, this is where filmmakers fund and budget the movie themselves without the help from any company. Kevin Smith, the director of 'Clerks' self-funded this movie. Now production companies are a much more expanded source of funding as these are normally used for blockbuster Hollywood films and other movies that have made it to the cinema/theatre etc. Some people prefer to use crowd-funding over production companies as they are able to have full control over their film in terms of the final cut of the movies box office. Most of these are located in the US which is why the American film industry is dominating the cinemas at the moment, this impacts the quality of British films as they are limited to a smaller budget. Many low budget filmmakers tend to use loans from a bank to fund their movies, this allows them to purchase all required equipment and other things for the production, then once everything is complete, they would usually pay it off annually or every month. Kickstarters has now become a quite popular way of getting films known to the world, 'Ashens and the quest of the game child' managed to bring in $70,000 from crowd-funding, which was enough to get the film produced professionally. However this is only 41% of their targeted budget of $180,000. Youtuber's that make short films such as Corridor Digital have their own page on a site called 'Patreon' this is where you can pledge money towards videos that your favourite Youtubers upload, this may be a great help to fund their future moves and help motivate them to carry on with the channel.

Before creating your media production, their are many requirements that have to be in place that will allow you to film legally and efficiently. The basic things needed for filming is a camera, lighting and actors, without these your movie would not be a movie. Other than eq
uipment you also need costumes/props and catering for your actors on a long
day. Taking a lot of people to film on a long day means they will get thirsty and hungry which is why you need to prepare and take food and drink with you for these occasions. Lastly, the most serious things that you can come across when making a production is accommodation, medical care, permissions and transport. These are vital for your cast/crew's safety and sometimes to their benefit in the chance that they live far away and may need to live closer for the days that they are going to be in the film. Permissions are also necessary as you may need to contact the owner of a property/piece of lad before actually acquiring access to shoot there. The requirements for my production of the DepciT Short was only Camera, green screen, lighting and costume/props. This is because it was a very small piece of work and we had a low budget to make it from. However, we still managed to make a very high standard film for the minimal amount of production elements we had.

For the production we created, we were given 3 weeks in total to accomplish a finished movie for the DepicT competition. This time was divided into 1 week partitions for pre-production planning, filming and editing the film. By using this technique we were able to use our time efficiently to finish each section with equal quality. As a group we met all deadlines very well and accomplished to hand in our media text on the hand-in date, despite a few hold ups we had when recording, we still managed to get everything done in time. In terms of the professional media industry, if you were not successful in completing work for a deadline you are likely to get in all sorts of trouble. This could range from the release date of the film to be put back, which may result in you being fired from your job, extra money to be put down for more workers so it gets done on time and many other things that would really put your career at risk.

Within a a big production many actors and members of crew are needed to make it successful. Although some low budget movies like my one 'Parallel Justice' was made with only 4 people, 3 of which was part of the media class and 1 being a friends of the main character (Mr Justice). before hiring members of staff for your film crew and cast you need to know a little bit about them first, this includes a CV (explaining previous job roles within the film & TV industry). Looking at this can help you make a judgment on if they seem worthy enough for a role such as skills and experience. People that come to audition for your movie often audition for certain roles. sometimes having very talented people applying for the same role can certainly be challenging when having to choose one person, which is why it is useful to use the CV to reflect on who has had more experience in the industry. So when decided on an actor so to speak, you
would have to find out from them if they are available for everytime you are shooting, if not then the chances are you will not meet your deadlines for filming. But as I have previously said, not only would you be hiring actors you will have to hire out crew members too. These people will manage the camera, lighting, sound, editing and transport etc. when you have a full set of personnel for your cast and crew, it is time to move onto the facility part of things.

When dealing with facilities you need to think about accommodation for you cast and crew, on long filming days away you may need to stay there for a few days as it would be to long to go back home and travel again the next day. Accommodation is usually used as a convenience to actors that live far away from the shooting locations. Though not only do you have to seek for places to stay, you also have to use money for food and drink during production for your personnel, without this luxury your production crew may be frustrated and feel restricted during the film. However we all know that this all has a total cost, which isn't cheap. This is why you would need to partition your budget for the film so you have enough money to buy everything you need without any issue. Media facility houses are available to film makers and supplies them with equipment they need for certain shots, catering for the cast and crew and a recording studio etc. Prices for renting the facility vary depending on what you wish to hire and how long for; for example, Millennium Studios in Bedfordshire costs £900 per 10hr day. Obviously this wouldn't be a problem if you are making a high budget movie, whereas if you are a low budget film maker there is no way you could afford something like this. The closest media facility house to our location is probably The Hall which is based in London, so for the easiest accessible option this is the place. For the making of my movie we hired out equipment from the college's AV room. From here we were able to use a Canon DSLR 700D, movie tripod, mounted microphone and a green screen. Many other movie equipment was at our disposal however this was all we needed for the film.

Before shooting your film it is important that you scout of desired locations which may be suitable for your movie. We do this by choosing members of your crew to scout with recce sheets, these give everyone an understanding of the location sch as the time it's available, what weather is needed there etc. Big movies use loads of these as they shoot in a variety of different places. For us however, we only needed to as our filming locations only consisted of using the Gorleston recreational park and the college studio. Sometimes photos are attached to these forms for more detail however they are not essential. Now location release forms are different but are also needed as these are used as permission for using certain buildings, studios or in general locations. These forms usually require a contact number and address and other extra notes about using the location from the owner, these may also be used as legal proof of shooting there and may tell you times when it is available to you. My group and I decided to used the recreational park as our main location as no permission was needed to film there, it is also a massive place so we would have no trouble involving other people getting in shot or others disturbing us. This outside location would also be windy which we found out to help us get the blowing effect on the main characters cape. The other location was the college studio which was used for all of the green screen shots at the beginning of the movie. We instantly chose this as our location for these shots as everything we needed such as the green screen and lighting was already set up for media students to use. This place also needed no location release form which also saved time for us. For the first shots of the film we had to have me standing on a building, as this was not possible we had to overcome the logistical issue by using VFX to portray the effect of me on one. This was done very accurately and precise, ensuring it was good enough to our standards.

In addition to cast and crew, other m
aterials are needed to make a moving text. There are various things such as; costume/props, scripts and sound (sound library) etc. costumes and props for big films are normally tailored especially for the film as they have enough money to do so, along with props. However compared to low budget films, we search for cheap clothes and props down town in hope we find something worth using. To prevent any terms of illegal copyright, we used all imagery, video and audio that is free to the public domain. The sound libraries we retrieved our music from was all free and the image of the moon we used for the intro was also free as it is a picture taken by the NASA space station, this of which states that all concepts of files are free to use for the public with no act of illegal copyright issues. Copyright is a massive thing in big production companies as once the film has been released, the developers also release music and imagery used within the film, however these go for massive values so they are not ideal for low budget film makers.

Ofcom is the communications redulator in the UK that redulates the TV and radio sectors, fix line telecoms, mobiles, postal services plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. Whereas The British board of film classification (BBFC), before 1985 known as British board of film censors, is a non-goverment organization, founded by the film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the united kingdom.

A trade union is an organized association of workers in a trade, group of trades or a profession, formed to protect and and furhter their rights and interests. Working in a trade union means you are able to earn a higher salary than most people that aren't part of one. Trade unions can also act as a representative for workers in case of any legal matters. The writes of workers are also better protected, for example they cannot be unjustly removed from work without specific reasoning.

DepicT Short: Parallel Justice

Reflection of DepicT Short and pre-production process

During the pre-production stage I most of all enjoyed the storyboarding as we could all come together as a group and share ideas about filming our movie. This helped expand our thoughts on how the film would look and how we wanted the end product to look like. Agreeing on everything that was down on the storyboard we decided to carry on with the rest of the pre-production work in time for shooting. The thing I enjoyed the least about pre-production was writing out the risk assessment sheet, we had to make many alterations to this sheet as when finishing it we then found other risks that we may come to contact with. We were relieved once this was complete as we could then focus on shooting the movie with hopefully no-one being at danger.

Getting into costume and acting in front of the camera were the strongest elements within this task as everyone thought ahead about what to wear on production dates and were at their most confident points when acting. This made the whole movie a whole lot better as everyone performed their best on the day of filming our movie. On some of our productions dates were unprepared, as in, we forgot to take some of the equipment to the location so when we arrived certain members had to return to collect them for shooting. This meant we had much less time to film, making us feel like we had to rush to get things done. If we could do this task again I would definitely like to be more prepared on the dates where we would film.

Through the process of pre-production we were able to accurately plan out everything that would be included within the movie, without all of the sheets we produced whilst planning we wouldn't of been able to produce a film of such a high standard. ensuring we brought along all essential paperwork to shooting days meant we could get everything we wanted to get done, done. Pre-production also helped us communicate with each other better which made us stronger as a group. Without doing any of this planning will probably mean your movie won't be as successful as a movie with planning and pre-production work.

DepicT! Short: Paperwork

Pre-production paperwork

Sheet for tracking costume and props bought

Receipt for red cape 

Location release, used for permission to record

Production schedule is used to tell us when and where we will be filming

Other Ideas for filming

Location recce for filming in the park

Location recce for filming in the studio

Risk assessment is used to identify and filming hazards

Shot list we used for filming the movie

Storyboard Page 1

Storyboard Page 2

Storyboard Page 3

Storyboard Page 4 

Talent release (Me)

Talent release (Faye)

Talent release (Roisin)

Talent release (Peter)

My DepicT Movie Idea!

DepicT Movie Idea

A person,  just as normal as any other day-dreaming of being an amazing superhero. flying off into the sky, super strength, super speed etc. Not only just playing the part but also dressed suitably aswell, this hero will have a mask fitted with a metallic red visor and a long red cape to symbolize his superhero-ness. this would be filmed with city/urban structures in the background as this is the prime location convention for a superhero movie. Shots for this part would consist of low angles and close-ups to show his dominance and power. At the very start we would include a voice over of the hero describing his mission and brief info about himself, similar to Spiderman. After about 50+ seconds of epicness we snap back into reality where the man has some old red e.g. tissue paper around his head and a worthless cape wrapped around his neck. realizing he can't protect mankind he dismantles a wall he was sitting on and walks away. This part of the sequence would include a music change to show what you were watching was all made up, maybe a slow depressing score or even just background ambiance to add a pinch of humor into the movie. We would have wide/long shots to establish the character and location to show his is not in a big city and that nothing is close to him becoming a superhero. This short would work incredibly well as it contrasts the difference between imagination and reality, showing the difference between possibility and impossibilities. To improve the narrative we could have the person dreaming of himself as a superhero and defeating people that bully him (Villains) for imagining such thing, and when we switch to reality we see the bullies picking on him for being different from other people.

DepicT! Shorts Analysis

Analysis

Webbed

My first chosen video is webbed, this 90 second short features a stranger that comes into contact with a young boy dressed as a superhero, both clueless as to eachothers power, the man can't help but be inspired. I really like how the F-stop is very low throughout the sequence to put the main focus on the child, this makes us pay attention to what he is up to. We see the boy's sad facial expression as everything fails to happen, until the stranger plays along. It's great how this builds up a great connection between both of them as he reveals his 'Superman' shirt, making it believable for the kid. From this point the child's facial expression changes to happy as he finds out he is as powerful as he thought. This short is amazing as it realistically tells the imagination of a young kid that adores superheroes. The costumes also makes it much more convincing for the child as he thinks that is what gives him these abnormalities. As an audience we would show affection and tenderness towards the child knowing that the stranger has made his day of being
a superhero.

La Flamme


This 90 second short named 'La Flamme' has been shot and edited in style of an olden day comedy. It's about a beautiful young lady that is being admired by a local man, bigging up his chances he decides to show of in front of the lady. However disaster strucks and he ends up running for his life from a burning celluloid, with that his arm falls off and gets eaten by a dog. This is a great narrative of good to bad to worse. Even though this was modernly shot, they have cleverly added effects such as scratches, burn and other imperfections to make it seem really old. The sound is also of a low quality to really give the effect of watching a black and white comedy. The burning celluloid part at the end of the sequence also shows its set earlier on as movies were produced on strip of film instead of modern day disks and DVD's. I really love how the credits link nicely into the film due to the vintage effects and sound overlay.

The Date

This short is simply a romantic couple sharing the moment of a picnic together in the world of CGI, the green screens and added landscape animation makes them look like they're in the most perfect spot, until suddenly......A velociraptor makes his appearance to steal a strawberry. I really like this short as it brings into context the basic good to bad scenario. The CGI interacting with real life objects really make this sequence a masterpiece through the skill of editing an incorporating this design into their short film. The score draws you into a sort of romantic state of mind due to its slow paces and high pitched classical tune, however when they encounter the inevitable we become completely distraught as to whats happened and as a result question how it happened.