Assignment Brief - Depict

Depict entry and reflection

Reflection of depict short and pre-production process.

The element of pre-production that I enjoyed the most is finding the locations that were needed for filming. I enjoyed this because it was interesting finding new places to film and exploring the local area. I had to imagine the shots in my head and try to find a place that would work well within the shot. 

Assessment feedback

First submission

GC1
You have made a very good start here and this is a very encouraging first formal written assignment. You have explained requirements and sources of requirements for production in some detail and you have provided examples throughout.

GC2
Pre-production was completed to a solid standard but has not yet all been uploaded to the blog - this must be uploaded and evidenced.

GC3
You worked fairly independently and only required occasional assistance to follow your planning.
Video was recognisable from planning.

Resubmission
GC2
Solid standard pre-production produced for a specified media product with only occasional assistance.
Contributed well to group work but could have taken on more responsibilities.

The pre-production process

The pre-production process
Requirements for a moving image production

Types of moving image production (media forms)

For our task we had to create a 90 second short film for the online competition Depict. Once we made our short film we uploaded it to YouTube and we also had the option to upload it onto the Depict website. There are other types of moving image media products. These include feature length films, animations, T.V series/ soaps, adverts, music videos, indents for T.V. channels and online videos. There are a lot of different ways in which these moving image media products can be distributed. These are DVDs, blue rays, cinemas, various online websites (YouTube, Netflix), on-demand and public screens.

Finance and source of funding

Various sources of funding exist for films, television and other moving image productions. You can ask money from a lot of different places including private investors like Megan Ellison who is a film producer, the website Kick-starters, studios like the Marvel studio, self funding (using money that you already own), banks, winning competitions like depict, selling rights, merchandise and getting sponsors.

Requirements

After you have required the funding for you film you need to spend that money on what is needed to make your film. This includes locations (paying a rent to the owners so you can film on their land), accommodation/transport, equipment (camera, tripod, green screen, editing software, etc..), the talent who will appear in your film, crew (who is going to help you make your film, caterers, editors, camera operators, costume and props department, lawyers/legal team), props/costumes and ads. Ads are important because your film will not be successful and not sell very well when nobody knows about it. For our short film we had to find locations, luckily we didn't need to pay anyone for the places we need because they were all public places. We were given a £5 budget, Our group didn't spend any of it because the props we needed (white masks) were already at college. We didn't need to buy equipment because college already have camera, tripods, microphones and editing software. All we had to do was hire the equipment out for the lesson then returning it after we had finished. This means that we would not need anything more than £5.

Personnel

Different media types require different personnel and different levels of experience. For example an animation film would require more animators and artists rather and less actors. 

The typical team for a moving image production in a low budget short film is very few people. This would include a director, an editor, a few actors, props/costume department. These people wouldn't be well known and cheap because a low budget film wouldn't have much money. A maximum budget for a low budget film would be $2.1 million. An example of this would be Paranormal Activity. This is because it's budget was $15,000. This means that the cast and crew were unknown and quite cheap.  Because the film was shot in the same place they saved money by not flying the cast/ crew all over the world and just stayed in the same spot.

 

A television show would need a big cast and crew because it is a recurring thing. Usually one episode is made a week, especially for a soap, so there would need to be a big team working all the time creating the episodes for the series. This means that the team would need to be big enough that it can maintain production levels. An example of this would be EastEnders. Eastenders is shown 4 times a week which is 2 hours a week. This means a team of script writers would be needed to produce enough material.

 

For a Hollywood feature film the crew and cast would be well known and be good at their job. As the film would be Hollywood backed it means it would have a lot of money behind it so it could afford these experienced people. The average cost for a Hollywood feature film is $139,084,697. An example of this would be The Dark Knight. Their budget was $185,000,000. They employed experienced actors like Micheal Caine and experienced directors like Christopher Nolan.

As this was not our first film in this class we already knew what we could do and what we were better at. We each took it in turns to do a bit of everything but as I had already acted in the previous short film I wanted to act again. Will was the camera man and Vicky came up with the storyboard. We all did the editing because we all wanted to expand our skills on Premier Pro.

Their are a lot of Lpeople who work on a film. Not only the people who are on screen and casually making the film. But a lot of other people work on the films this includes costume department, lawyers, mountainous like people who make the sets, advertisement people, people who look after the child actors. researchers who research the past to get accurate films. An example of a costume designer is a Milena Canonero, she worked on films like Grand Budapest Hotel and Snow White And The Huntsman. An example of a catering service that work with film studios is Bon Appetit. Halliford Studios Construction is an example of a company that make and design movie sets. To get your film known so it can make a profit you need adverts. An example of a company that makes adverts are Designate. Wiggin lawyers are a professional team of lawyers designated to gaining copyright, insurance and contracts. 

Time

We were given a week to plan, a week to film and a week to edit. For the filming week we made a plan to film each storyboard page a day. We were a little ahead by the first day so we had more time to film everything to a higher standard. Our filming days were the 5th to the 10th of October.

If you don't meet deadlines in the media business then you waste a lot of money. This is because if you have hired out a certain filming location and the script isn't ready or the actor hasn't learnt their lines in time then you have to pay for an extra day on location. We met all of our deadlines. It was raining on one of the days that we needed to film outside so we filmed on one of our editing days instead. This didn't matter because we weren't paying for any locations or equipment.

Equipment/facilities

To hire equipment to make a moving image media project you can go on The Camera Hire Company website and hire a camera. You click on the camera you want to it gives you a quote for how much it would be to hire it out for a month. For example to hire a Sony PMW-200 camera for a month would be £1103. There is a shop called Jessops which is on the Great Yarmouth high street, it sells cameras that can be used to make a film.

For our Depict short film we had a lot of different kinds a equipment available to us in the AV room. All we had to do was use our college ID cards to keep a record on who has taken out what equipment. 

Locations

Location recces are to find possible locations to film. They are there to fill in when the location is free, its availability and it's private land or not. Location releases are permission forms signed by people who own the land that you want to film on. You have to complete one for each location you film on. If anything is damaged or changed for the worse in any way then the film crew/cast will be held responsible.

We filmed most of our short film in the college. We used the room the classroom W16 and the field opposite college. We picked W16 because that is the class room we already use. We needed two tables, one behind the other, so we can see Vicky spike my character then I go off out the room on a trip. The other location we used was the field opposite. We knew about a wooded area at the top of the field which was perfect for the drug deal. 

We faced a few issues with filming. For example we were going to do a scene where I was being chased and found a door which isn't there and crawl towards the door. We couldn't find a door that fitted the scene. This meant that we couldn't do the whole scene. We had to change the whole scene and ended up being attacked in the disabled toilets. When we were in the forest area there was tripping hazards and places were we could harm ourselves. To over come these we assessed the area before filming and moved dangers and cleared the ground. To get to the forest area we had to cross a fairly busy road at the front of college. To make sure on-one was hurt we crossed the road in the proper place and double checked for speeding cars.

There are a lot of different materials needed to make a moving image. Things like scores and sound effects adds a dramatic feel to the film. Props and costumes make the film come to life. Props and costumes can be expensive especially if there's a lot of cast that all need costumes. Another expensive thing you've got to thing about is copyright. To make a film you first have to make sure it isn't like any other film already made. This is quite hard because there are a lot of films out there. If your caught using copyright material then you will be fined a lot of money. You can hire lawyers to find people who have used your work without permission so you can sue them.Copyright laws prevented us from using most sound effects and music for our short Depict film. We had to use websites like "free sound" and "incompetech". We couldn't just take anything, we had to read into the copyright laws before using other websites.

 - Clearance means that everything in your film had been checked and none of it has been copied from other media productions.
 - Public Liability Insurance is when you have insurance for if someone on set gets injured.
 - Completion guarantee/insurance is when your investors have paid you money and wants a complete film so they have the power to stop paying money out if something went wrong.

OFCOM's function is to watch over the wireless TV and mobile lines to keep communication up and
working. BBC is different to OFCOM because the BBC shows programmes as well as protection the communication lines. The BBFC classifies different TV shows with age restriction and decides when to show them.

 

Trade unions are set up to help works gain fair pay and pensions. They are important because they help workers get fair rights. PACT represent film works within the media business. BECTU is the UK's media and entertainment trade union. They work out pay for their clients, create training programmes for young and old film workers. A trade association is funded by businesses to operate in a specific industry. They work with a lot of different businesses at the same to get businesses to work together to help them.

Depict shot film pre-production

Pre-production paperwork

For our short film we had to do a lot of pre-production forms before we were allowed to film. These are the forms we had to fill in and why we had to. We had to blank out the signatures, phone numbers and names because the people involved don't want their names and personal details posted online.

 

This is a location release form. They are for the owner or someone in charge to fill in, giving the film crew permission to film on their land. There are a few conditions with this because if the land is damaged or changed for the worse in any way then the film crew can be held responsible. You have to get a signature and date for it to be valid. This one (right) is for the corridor that will feature within our film. We had no problems getting the signature from our teacher because we need it only during college hours so it was available. The other one (left) is for W16. We had to get a different person to sign for this room but, because we needed it within college hours, we got the signature without any problems.

These five sheets are called recce's. You have to fill them out for each possible location that you want to film in to help plan for the film and to find out when we can use these locations. We used the field at the back of college, the classroom W12, an alley way near the church in Gorleston, room W16 within the college and recreation ground opposite college. 

 

This a risk assessment. They are used to explain all the dangers that could possibly go occur. The things that we said could go wrong is that when we were crossing the road we have to be careful not to get hit by a car. Another one we stated was that when filming in a forest area we should be careful of branches and roots so we don't hurt our selves. When filming in the class room we stated that we could hit into tables or chairs as we were filming. We had to get a signature from our teacher so they understood our risks and the measures we are taking to prevent them. 

 

This is a talent agreement release. Anyone under the age of 18 has to get their parents to sign to give their consent about letting their child's image be posted online. Because I am over the age of 18 I can sign this myself. This form is to make sure the actor(s) involved give permission for their image to be posted on the college's YouTube channels. These are the talent release of my whole group.

These are storyboards. They need to be done because they give you a chance to plan each shot out by drawing each scene an writing about what goes on. Like the music and costume and location. 

These are the pictures that were taken for the film. They are photos of possible locations to film in. They were taken to see where we would like to film. We need them to choose which one we would like to use.

90 second short film ideas

Depict Movie Idea

My 90 second short film will be about a character who is very paranoid running about from someone who is chasing them. The person chasing him is yelling at him to stop and to slow down, in a menacing way that make the runner nervous and doesn't stop just runs faster. As the film progresses the running gets faster and the yelling gets louder. But at the end the chasing character catches up to the chased character and only wants to return his phone. As the character is paranoid then it makes it look like his being chased from a bad guy rather than for the real purpose. There will be a build up of suspense until then end when he gets caught.

Depict Film Reviews

Geoff, World Destroyer: In this animated short film a large kid is not aloud to play football. The kids friend asks if he can play football with the other kids but they still say no. The friends of the large kid tells them a story to try and let him play. The story is about a postman who goes insane because his dad beat him and his mum was crazy. Geoff built a massive armored plated killing machine but all he wanted was a bag of cheese and onion crisps and a chat with the Dalai Lama. But met an unfortunate end. This was my first choice because i like the randomness of the story that was told but it still made sense to why it was told.

The Sun: This animated short film is my second choice because i like how it changes our views on the sun. instead of it being a source of light and helping us, it's trying to kill everything that is living. It tries to kill a human but doesn't succeed. The little man is helplessly running form the sun until he is saved by the moon. The score draws you to feel sorry for the little man because when he is running away the music gets louder and quicker to show he must run fast to out run the sun.

A TV Movie: This animated short film is my third choice because it shows how a bored and unhappy TV just wants to watch telly rather than provide it. Throughout the film he struggles to find a comfy place to sit and wants him self in the mirror. As he makes him self comfy on the sofa with a blanket he forgets the remote. In the process of getting the remote he opens the curtains and discoverers the outside. After that he telly moves the seat over, grabs a bag of crisps and happily watches what is going on outside. I like this because it reminds the views that there is a life beyond the TV screen and encourages us to go outside and explore new places and new ideas.