The Pre-Production Process

The Pre-Production Process:

In this blog post i will be discussing the per production process within my own short film production and within a more professional feature films per-production process. The first thing we will discuss is the type of production, in which there quite a lot of different types of production like a feature film like the Imitation game or the Avengers films or another type of production is a television program like west world or breaking bad and with in type of production also includes animations, trailers, webisodes and even GIFS. We had to do short film type of production, in which had to be 90 second long about anything, any genre, as long as it was 90 seconds long and we done this to put our short film into a competition on a website called depicT. But before we are entering our short film into DepicT we had it distributed on you tube on our college's media you tube channel with the title"Barking up the wrong tree". YouTube is a type of distribution method as it allows the public to see it easily and loads of people use YouTube every day so they can easily see our short film production, there are other types of distribution method main types, one is called physical distribution which is ever the distribution of DVD or VHS tape and there is then digital distribution method which is the when it is done over online so when the film is done and is ready to be distributed it then they can email it to the different cinemas to show off the their film and this is also can be done over Netflix or amazon prime instant video.

The last known main type of distribution is Illegal method, when people can find it on illegal website and be able to view it without the permission of the film makers and also be able to download it and share between their friends.

In film making in order to be able to make the actual film you almost need money, especially when making a triple A title or even making a film independently, but sometimes like my group we had no money to spend on extra things so we had to use the things that we owned or that we could make. Luckily the college had tons of camera equipment and editing software so we didn't have to spend any money in them departments and luckily we didn't have to spend any money what so ever as with the props, one of our groups members had the prop guns we used and the same is with the mask, as the other member had some masks that we could use in the short film and our costume was just our normal clothes, so we were pretty lucky in the fact that we didn't have to spend any money for our short film. But a feature film would have to spend millions for the production of their movie, for instance the feature film called suicide squad had the budget of $175 million to make that film and they got that from investor from global corporations, in this instance for suicide squad it was Warner brothers who became the investor for it to be made. Investing into a film being made is a risky business also know as risk capital as the investor doesn't know if they are going to make a profit or even their money back from the movie they invested in.An example of a person who invests into movies is a person called Megan Ellison who has changed the film industry with her starting Annapurna Pictures which is an independent production company and without her financing in great films like "Sausage Party" and "Zero Dark Thirty" they would have never been made as good as they were and with her financing she made the them films possible as no big corporation would touch them and instead Ellison did and got loads of money from it as she was winning the risk capital, but there is some investor who lost money because they invested. An example of an investor not making their money back is a movie called "The adventures of Pluto Nash", in which cost $120 million to make and also made just over $7 million worldwide, meaning that the film makers didn't even make 1/4 of what they spent on the movie and that also means that the investor who gave them the money lost over $110 million. They are also other ways movies get funded, for instance one is via the lottery, filmmakers in Britain can often get the funding via the lottery, one film that was funded by the lottery was a film called "The girl with all the gifts" and it was funded by a branch of the lottery called the BFI film fun. Another way films can be funded is by the director funding it themselves mostly, one of the most famous directors who done this is a man called Robert Rodriguez, he paid for his movie called "El Mariachi"

by him self by taking part in a experimental drug test in Texas to raise half of his budget which was $7,000. Another director who did the same is called Kevin Smith who had to raise his own budget for his movie "Clerks" which was over $27,000, in which he had to sell his comic book collection and had to max out 8 out of 10 credits card for $2,000 each and even the money he got from his insurance on his car when it was lost in a flood. The last way of funding i will discuss is competition funding which is when a group of people win a short film competition and win money in order to make another one but on a better budget, that is what my group hope to achieve by winning the short film competition called DepicT and get the money to be able to make another short film.

Once the production team have the funding they need in order to start the getting everything together ready for the filming, before the actually filming there is lots of things the production team need to get to be able to film a good film without any troubles a long the road. Here is a list of most of the things a production team will need to get:

• Equipment - Camera, Mic, Lighting, etc
• Locations/settings
• Editing software
• Cast/crew
• Transport
• Props
• Permission
• Different materials
• Facilities
• Insurances
• Copyright

This is just a hand full of what the production team will need to get and now i shall go into more detail about some of them. With Facilities this means they need to get different places to suit everyone like a studio and sometimes with he studio comes a editing suite in which they can hire editors to help edit their movie and also lavatories for cast and crew. The equipment means all the productive equipment that means the camera, microphone, lighting, etc. With the camera the production team can ever buy the camera or rent it from a website like hire a camera, the websites allows you to buy the lighting and audio equipment along with the necessary accessories needed like the tripods, screens, etc. With our short film we also had to get the required things needed to get things in order to be able to film our short film and here the list of all the things we got for our production:

• Equipment - Camera, Camera accessories
• Cast/Crew
• Props
• Costumes

Compared to a film with a bigger budget, like a feature film we had to get much less things as our locations were on the public property, so we were allowed to film there, but because we were using gun props we sent a email to the police to let them know what we were doing and we never flashed the prop gun in the open, so we didn't scare anyone going passed us whilst we were filming, but luckily that didn't happen hardly. The equipment we used was the college's property and we were allowed to loan it for filming and we took out a Go Pro

we a hand strap to be able to get our POV shots that we needed for our short film. With the cast and crew in order to reduce the amount of pre-production paper work we would have to do by making it so that it was just my group who were both cast and crew for the production, which worked out pretty well in my opinion. Lastly with the props and costumes we didn't have to borrow it from the college as one member of our group had prop airsoft pistols that we could use as the prop guns in our short film and another member had the masks that we used in it as well and with the costumes we just used our regular causal clothes to make it seems the main character is getting attacked by ill experienced people.

No matter what sort of production whether it be a low budget production or a feature film, everyone needs the crew and the talents for the media productions and i will discuss the typical team for a low budget short like a short film called "Above the fold", this film focuses around a journalist following around a new political party and when the journalist, the leader of the political party called "Montag" puts out a hit on for the journalist's life. The short film is directed by Josh Trett, who is an experienced director and mostly films around Norfolk. The film had a very low budget, meaning that they couldn't get a very big cast like most short film on a low budget, this short film had about 30 cast and crew members with the cast having about 19 members, this does include the directer and producers and also head of cinematography. Another short film with a low budget is my group's one as it was a short film and had a very small cast and crew, with only 3 people in it collectively, with only having all 3 of us being the director and one camera person, but unlike above the fold, barking up the wrong tree was published on YouTube. Unlike a short film, television programs have way more cast members, for instance and major television program like The Big Bang Theory has tons of crew members with the writers and directors that have changed over the years to the writers and the costume designer for the cast, in which there is a small amount of the main characters in which there is 8 of them and then there is the extras and special guests like Will Wheaten or James Earl Jones who show up for some of the episodes and then you have the back ground actors who fill in the scene to make it seem more realistic and these change every episode, so there is tons of them within the cast list that you find in the full cast and crew list on the IMDb rather than the credits of the show, which only shows the main people a part of the TV show. If we take a different approach of the TV series to more of webisodes series that isn't posted on YouTube, which is a webisode called by "Rush"which was inspired by the game Battlefield in which you have to ever capture or defend two points, in this webisode's cast there is less people in it than The Big Bang Theory have, but Rush has more people in certain characters than The Big Bang Theory would like, for instance Rush has more people in the stunts department and make-up department because Rush has more need of them than the Big Bang Theory has. The media production that I believe has the most cast and crew members in it, is a feature film, the reason for this is because making a feature film takes ages to get it right from the pre-production to the final edit it can take years some times to get the film just right, for this instance i will be talking about the film called the "The Hobbit:An unexpected adventure".

The entire franchise created by the writer J R.R Tolkien is known to be big especially the movies in which are directed by Peter Jackson as the first lord of the ring movie ran for more than 3 and half hours and for that timing is going to need lots of people to help out to make a movie that big and long. The Hobbit, because its such a big film has a massive cast with more than 250 people in the just the crew and the cast has loads as well as the hobbit is a massive universe with loads of characters so the character's list will be long with having over 30 cast members playing extras, this doesn't include the background characters as there would be a lot of them, these all include the make up artist and the stunt coordinators and producers for the film. The difference between a feature film to a television program is that a television program tells their story in section where as a feature film does it all together, but sometimes their is roles that a television program crew have that a feature film doesn't and it really depends on the type of genre of the movie or the television program as if the television program is like the big bang theory then it won't need hardly any special effects, rather than a the hobbit which will need tons of special effects in the production.

In our short film production we had to allocate multiply different roles for us to take on because there was only three of us, so what we did the the pre-production stage is that each of us did a different piece of pre-production paperwork to get everything done as quickly as possible and each of us helped each other out if they needed and when they thought they were done we would check it and change anything that needed to be changed. At the start we had me and another member doing the storyboard and then passing information on to the last member on what to say on the risk assessment that he was doing and then switching to finish the other paperwork we had to do before we started filming our short film and during the filming we allocated the roles, like being the director by making all three of us as the directors that way we could make the decision and we all could agree to it and then do it and because we decided to be the actors as well,because we knew what we were doing and knew how we wanted it and the main character of the short film also became the camera man as well because it the entirety of it was a POV shot and when it eventually came to edit what we have recorded and we started we made one member of the group the editing supervisor as he knew the most about editing and can tell what to do and how to make our short film look better as we each took turns to edit our short film. When it comes to a massive Hollywood feature film or a major television program then there are people in the production that help the media production significantly and don't get the recognition that they deserve, this is most seen in television programs as they only have a limited time for the ending credits so they can't be credited properly and this mainly people like the extras or the background characters who are only there to fill in the scene more and make it seem more realistic and that is same both in feature films and television programs and even short film as well. Another example of ill credited people is the stunt coordinators and stunt doubles like people Donnie Yen known for his work in the IP man series or David Barrett known for stunts on television shows like the Arrow or supernatural who make the main characters look good and yet aren't credited as much as the actors are and the same goes with the make up artist like Rich Baker who did Men in Black or Sarita Allison who is both a film and TV make up artist the TV show skins or the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and people like her make the actors look good. The last crew member is not given the correct recognition I will discuss is the Set builders as without them both feature films and television programs wouldn't have good locations and sets to film their movie on and becomes like the film the hobbit then there is tons of different set builders, so trying to credits them individually in the ending credits would be impossible and most likely they credits the company of set builders instead for building their sets, an example of a set building company is a company called "Jet Sets" which has built sets for commercial and broadcasts for the news etc and then if they were to build the sets for the movie then the company will be credited not each individual person.

Every feature film has a deadline for which it has to finish the movie by and be able to distribute around to cinemas and the same goes for Television products for each episode and that is usually once a week, but most of the time they film the entire season first and then edit and then give out each episode each week. Actually all media production have a deadline set in which they have to get their project done by and that was exactly the same with our short film production "Barking up the wrong tree" in which we had four and half weeks to finish the entire production, we had a week and half to do the pre-production and also to a week and half to film and edit. If we were making a feature film and we had to run over the set dead line then we would end up running over budget and that can make the investor not like us because we have to ask them for money in order to finish the film and some times they will even pull the plug on the entire film if the filmmakers miss the deadline or even bring in someone else to help finish the project and fix the issue, an example of that is when James

Bond theme's composer Monty Norman couldn't finish his piece by the deadline he was set and then the investors sent in John Barry to help Monty finish the piece as quickly as possible. Luckily with us this didn't happen as we meet the deadline and even if we didn't make it on the deadline we wouldn't risk going over budget as we didn't have a budget, but it was to over the deadline we could of risked not getting a distinction.

Each media production before they start filming they need to gather the equipment they need in order to actually be able to film and they are different ways in which film makers get the equipment they need, one is buying the actual equipment and have it and by able to use it indefinitely which can be a risky investment just in case the film doesn't work out and you don't make any movie, so most film makers rent their equipment instead so they know they can always give it back, they usually get it from media facility houses in which you can rent filming equipment and use it, an example is a website called "Pro Cam" this websites allows you to hire any equipment imaginable, from camera to even vehicles, all ranges of things unfortunately it doesn't show the prices for the hiring and they are based both in the USA and UK, within the UK they are in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Another website is called "white light"which is same as Pro Cam as it lets

you hire out filming equipment and like Pro cam doesn't show the price for the hiring but it does also let you buy the equipment as well and does show you the prices, an example is if you wanted to buy a microphone, specially the Beta 58A QLXD2 Handheld Transmitter for £387 and its not only audio equipment but other things as well like lighting and staging equipment, but unfortunately they do not sell cameras, so you would have to go to a different place for that like hire a camera, in which i spoke about before. The closest facility house i could find near me is a place called "White Label Media", they are based in Norwich and like Pro cam or white light, they provide all the equipment for your project in mind, they have HD cameras and audio all the way to hiring out personnel up to a six man camera crew for your production. For our production of our short film we had to only get two things for filming, which was a Go Pro and the head strap to go with it, so we could have the POV shots and luckily our college could provided it via on a loan with insurance, so if we broke it, we had to pay to replace it, especially if it was used out of college premises and when it came editing, our college's computers and the best editing software both adobe premiere and after effects, in which we both used in our short film.

For any media production some of the shots need too be shot in real life to make the film seem more realistic, even films like the hobbit have shots filmed in real life and not on green screen or in a studio and before they can do that they need two things, a location release and a location recce, a location release is used when film makers want to film or take photos on a property that they do not own and once they have it signed they are allowed to film on that land and a location recce is done before the location release and it means when the film makers go to the locations, in which they have an idea on where to film and they check it out and take pictures and sometimes start to plan where and what to film if they like the location and they also take the pictures with them to show the rest of the production team, like for instance Peter Jackson, before he started filming the hobbit he went to New Zealand to check out the locations and take pictures and also had to do a location release for the places he wanted to film and it would have been easy for him as he done it before when filming lord of the rings. With our production we had two different locations one was called the nexus forest

which was near nexus engineering college and the other was the called the rec forest which is near our college East Norfolk, we obtained these places legally because both of them were public property so we didn't need any permission from someone about their property and we still emailed the police telling them our locations of where we were filing and that we were using prop guns as well so that we didn't get in trouble. We decided these two locations by, well firstly our first idea was to just film everything at nexus forest because we wanted a beautiful establishing shot of the sun coming in through the tree and one of our members of group knew the forest and how it did that exactly and the only reason we changed locations is because of time restraints, to make sure that we got everything recorded on time, so we could edited with the most time left. Also with filming any sort of media production there is bound for for issues and risk to arise before filming that is why doing risk assessments are important because knowing the risk before hand and knowing also how to prevent them can stop almost all injuries on set whilst filming and our film is not stranger to the risk and issues. One issue that came up is that originally the main character was riding a bike and he falls off, but due to transporting the actual bike to nexus forest became an issue, so we over came it by making it that he was walking and then gets tasered and also changing the bike to just walking saved us writing down a lot on the risk assessment because the main character would actual be falling off the bike and hitting the ground. The last issue we had was filming at the first location as it was difficult to get there and be able to film for a bit before having to come back and put it on the college's computer, but we over came this by changing locations to one near the college to save time, which worked perfectly. When it came to the risks, because we were filming in a forest there were risks about falling or tripping up on things and falling on the floor, another risk is that that the second scene of our short film is when the main character has to fall over on to the ground and we overcame the risk by making sure that when he fell over that it wasn't done to aggressively and end up hurting himself and also made sure we got the shot perfect so he doesn't have to do it again.

When it comes to doing a media productions it's not just the filming equipment you need but there is a materialistic side as well, meaning that we need things like:

• Props
• Costumes
• The visual footage
• Pre-production paperwork, Storyboard, script, etc.
• Graphics, titles, posters,etc.
• Music

This is just a handful of the things film makers need to make their media production look good. With the music section this is for all the music needed to make the media production look, but with most music unless you have permission from the author of it or you get royalty free music then you might have to pay for it, an example of this is a website called "Imcompetech" in which is a music website that provides music, in which you have to pay, $30 for one piece or two for $25 each or three or more for $20, this is only if the person doesn't have a creative common license in which then they don't have to pay for it and depending on what creative common license they have means they might not have t credit the author ever. The creative common license is several different types of licenses, one is the attribution one which you can copy and use the music as long as credit is given t the music's author or there is non commercial license that allows use the music how you please as long as it not for commercial use. For the props are used loads in things like feature films or a television program, like if its a rubber sword to a plasma cannon, props make the movie or TV show feel more realistic as its not all CGI and fake and give the media production a better depth to it. there are plenty of prop making companies that make specialised props for movies, an example is a company called "M

DM Props" and they can make ever massive or small props as they're specialised in all things to do with art and prop making. With the financial side of a media production they is always financial considerations for instance there is legal consideration, so making sure that everything you are doing is in a legal manner, this could include making sure that you have the proper location release filled out and done and you are allowed to film there, because you could be finned if you haven't be given permission to film there and it can be seen as trespassing. Another financial consideration is insurance or most specially liability insurance, liability insurance is basically when if someone gets hurt then the insurance covers that person's injury and doesn't make the film makers pay out for it instead.

If we were to go into more detail about the legal consideration about certain materials in a media production is that when making a media production, you have to make sure you are following the OFCOM broadcasting code as if you don't, you potentially breaking the law.  For instance if the material you are filming has children in it then they must have an appropriate schedule that is not too long as children can only work for so long, which depends the age of the child actor/actress. Another one is if the production revolves around a certain religion then then program can not involve the religion trying to get recruits via the program unless its a specialist religious service then it is allowed. The last OFCOM broadcasting code i will talking about is that they have to avoid unjust or unfair treatment of one person or even a organisations in their media productions. The most rule of broadcasting is copyright, as copyright protects you from other people from using your work without your permission, in the UK we get automatic copyright for certain things, like broadcasts or music recordings and obviously includes film and TV and you have the ability to mark your work with the copyright mark. In our media production copyright did effect us as we couldn't use some of the music

we wanted to as we had to use royalty free music for our production, which worked out in the end. But with copyright you can be surprised on what is an actual copyright claim, for instance Happy Birthday is actually copyrighted so when someone sings happy birthday and records and posts it on YouTube or on Facebook then that is violating the copyright. Another example is when a two you tubers tried to secretly claim the rights to reaction videos and which caused a scandal as they would have made tons of money on being paid for people making react videos if the rights claim went through. Some examples of different things that are sometimes need in media productions, like clearance which is basically getting permission for certain things like clearance on locations or talents. Another thing is Public Liability Insurance in which i have spoke of before and it is insurance just in case anyone in the cast or crew or even a member of then public gets injured and they can get compensation for it and the last thing is Completion insurance which is if the media production goes over its deadline then the insurance can give you the money or help you finish the media pridciotn as fast as possible.

In media production there is someone called a regulatory body, the primary function of it is to basically to protect the public by creating requirements and restrictions to make sure everyone is in a safe environment and nothing will happen and cause an injury. An example of this is a organisation

called "OFCOM", they regulates the UK's TV and radio sectors through telecom and mobiles and also the airwaves over wireless devices and also protects us from scams. The BBC is also regulated by OFCOM and others as well like "The Office of Fair Trading" which does almost the same thing as OFCOM but it protects the consumers interest instead and having these outside bodies regulates the BBC instead of OFCOM regulates itself as an inside body. After a media production, especially a feature film has been finished it has to get a age rating by the BBFC or the British Board of Film Classification which is an independent organisation which classifies film with an age rating, whether it be U,PG, PG13, the age rating that they are given depends of the BBFC guideline, in which they then figure the out age rating appropriate for the film. With other types of moving image productions regulation when its distributed via the internet and after some research i have learnt quite a bit, for instance i learnt that it is really hard to regulated movie images on the internet because of web 2.0 which allow people to upload and add things to it themselves in which would have been different with web 1 as unless you knew how to code then you couldn't make things on it as easily. With a organisation like OFCOM who regulates the TV and radio, they code for their regulation wouldn't work as well on the internet, for example it says on the code for TV that advertising can't exceed 12 minutes within an hour, this is different on YouTube as as long as the person pays for the advertising then they can have the adverts for as long as they like and can give the ability to actual skip the advert, which cannot be done on TV or radio. Another example is that on OFCOM's code states they you can only record telephones call for a note form and this is different on the internet as phone calls are sometimes recorded with or without any permission and can often come under a prank call which is mostly found on YouTube. This is different with the BBFC as they

make sure their age rating system is up to date by asking the public about it and then changing it based on the feedback they got back and with the age rating, is the same on the internet as if something has too much mature content on it then it will come with a warning and if the

computer has parental controls then they wouldn't be allow on the website at all. This didn't really effect our Depict project as we did have adverts on for our media production to be able to get a virtual feedback by the amount view or like and the comment as well.

Sometimes people who work in the media production industry sometimes join a trade union which is when groups of workers join a union to make sure they get payed the right amount and are working in a safe and healthy environment and that is important as if they don't have this then it is discrimination and sometimes can cause an outrage and that is how strikes start and fights for the worker's rights if they are not provided and this exactly the same for people who works in the media industry specifically the people who do the manual work,so building sets and making costumes. An example of a organisation that help people in the media production industry is like "PACT" or the Producer Alliance for Cinema and Television in which supports independent media productions company and another one is called "BECTU" which is another union that supports  staff contractors and independent workers that are based in the UK and this organisation like PACT help workers in the media production industry by helping negotiate wages that the workers get and the environment they are working in. There is also something called a trade association,which when a specific business which creates an organisation and they usually support each other so if one needs help the rest will help as well. A trade association uses involves itself in public relations like advertising, education, publishing, etc. But mostly they collaborate between companies and most of the trade association are non-profit organizations. An example of an trade association is one called "PMA" or "Produce Marketing Association" and they are a trade association that represents lots of different companies within the global fresh produce and floral supply chain and they aim to help their members grow their businesses by PMA giving them connections that are able to expand their business opportunities and also increase their sales and the consumption of their product as well.