Production requirements

In this report I will define, explain and relate the various requirements that exist in order to create a media product.

My media production was intended to be used in the Film Competition called DepicT. The competition was setup online as it was easier to access unlike a venue where the participant would have to travel. There are set prizes for the winners of the competition, participants have "a chance of winning up to £2500 prize money, invaluable industry exposure, and a host of other exclusive prizes." These prizes can be crucial to a rising film producer as the interest can bring forwards new deals and sponsorship's. 
Depict's purpose was to bring publicity to the film producer and cast by setting up events where the short film can be played "You’ll get networking opportunities galore, as the festival attracts sales agents, producers, founders, exhibitors, other filmmakers and, of course, short film fans eager to see the best in new short films." The prize money can be spent on better equipment such as cameras and even better talent. Depict distributed the competition online, I then influenced this by  using such websites as YouTube and advertised my DepicT entry through Facebook and other social media websites.  DepicT chose 90 seconds limit for the videos as  "it will challenge you to think creatively and to cut ruthlessly. More importantly, it will get you and your work noticed." 90 seconds will also appeal to short film fans' that alone will bring publicity.  I will need to take out insurance if i wish to film at a location as Insurance will help by paying for any damages my film crew or I make.

The funding comes under Finance, finance is responsible for the spending of the productions money. If the production requires more props or another actor that needs to be paid then a request must be made to finance to purchase said talent or prop. Fortunately we did not need to spend any money for our production but we did have a budget of £5 to cover the cost of any props that were not supplied by the college.
We could have alternatively asked banks to help fund the media entry, this would be ideal for larger films that are dependent on famous talent,equipment and after effects. I can also as for Crowd Sourcing/Funding from websites such as Kick-Starter. Kick-starter allows members of the public to help build and raise a budget that will be spent on a film or media production (). This is and example of a successful Kick-Starter.
Another funding option is to as a wealthy person such as Megan Ellison who is known for funds such movies as Terminator: Salvation for example (more films can be found here. This is also a form of Crowd Funding, similar to asking your parents to fund a low budget film.
In Britain there is a fund that film) producers can use called the British Fund Institution or also known as the B'F'I'. This allows British film producers to borrow money to use in their film in return they must give a certain percentage more than what the producer borrowed. this way the fund becomes profitable for both the producer and BFI.
The DepicT competition itself is funding for a producer as the competition has a prize of £2500. This will profit the producer so long as they spent under £2500 for the DepicT entry. 

For my production I will need to take into consideration some requirements such as:
Equipment: I will need to rent a camera and sound recording device such as a boom microphone. Fortunately I can acquire all of my needs from the Audio/Visual Room, The room supplies all of the equipment I will need such as Tripods and Lights. I will also need to purchase a SD card to use in the cameras as this will allow me to save my video to then be used in a computer I will also need to afford props as in my production I required several different types of props and thankfully they were supplied by the prop room for free.
Crew: I will need to hire crew members such as sound men who are trained professionally to use sound equipment as they are able to capture sound at a higher quality due to there training. A couple of disadvantages are that the cost of a good sound person and that the sound person may not get on with the rest of the Crew.
Transport: This is a major requirement that needs to be considered by the finance team. I my film needs to be set in the Himalayas I will need to provide Transport for all of the cast and crew. This means I will need to book flight tickets and petrol costs for the vehicles involved in the production as will as the cost of the rental minivans that I will need. The van rental I have researched Is based locally so the costs will be minimal if I were to rent a mini Van.
Location: Location is important as I will need a place to film legally. For this I will need to send out people to fill in Reconnaissance forms to identify if there is any plug sockets and other given ports of electricity or is sunlight is able to shine in to give natural light. I will also need to fill in location release forms these forms will reserve the location for me so if another party is using the location I can ask them to leave as we are legally allowed to film on the premises with the permission of the owner.
Sound track: This is important as if I use a copyrighted track I can face copy right fines which can ruin projects as often the fine can cost more that major requirements of the production such as costumes. Alternatively I can use royalty free music and sound effects, these do not cost anything and do not come with copyrights and you do not need to purchase a licence to use the sound file.
Costumes: I will also need to purchase costumes for the talent if required. I can hire costume designers who specialize in personalizing costume to fit the characters. unfortunately the costume designer will cost money from the fund and shop bought costumes/made may cost less. Alumna Marlene Stewart is a famous costume designer that was hire to make costumes in all of the "Night at The Museum" films and in a film staring Tom Cruise called "Tropic thunder'.   Fortunately I did not require a costume designer as I wore the cloths I had at my home as they represent an average teenagers attire, We chose this design as the films primary audience is College students often teenagers.
Talent: this is crucial for the film to go ahead as with out actors and extras the camera crew would not have anyone to film. Certain actors cost more to hire than others such as Leonardo Di-Caprio will cost  "$500,000-$1,000,000" to hire  week of shooting than that of a child actor who is hired for minimum wage.(source:)
Accommodation: this is key as if I am shooting in a foreign county it is extremely unlikely that we will be able to fly or drive home to go to sleep or to eat so I would need to rent accommodation for the cast and crew to rest and eat at so that the crew and cast can work on set and so we can meet out deadlines.
Make-up: This will be important for instance if I am producing a film set in a war zone I will need to hire a make-up artist to put blood,dirt or scuffs on the actors face using make up as it helps the character suit the scene and can engross the audience. this can also be used if there are aliens. I would need to create an alien using latex and make up as it would look unrealistic if the aliens looked the exact same as any other human.
Distribution: I will need to take this into consideration as If I want the finished product to be viewed by the public I will need to burn the film onto  some DVD's and Blu-rays and sell them for a profit. Alternatively I could post the Media through YouTube or a Social media such as Face Book. This can draw attention to my company and provided my next production with a larger audience this will therefore increase my next productions profits. An example of a media production that has given the company interest through YouTube and Social Media is "Trett Films"'s "Civi' Street" The film gain such interest that the film was shown in a Cinema for an event celebrating short films.
Finally Advertisements: Adverts will also have a heavy influence on my media production as it will generate publicity towards my media production. This will help interest in my film company rise and increase my audience. Advertisements unfortunately adverts cost money and depending on, for example I want to advertise on a certain television channel, ITV says "costs can vary from as little as £2000 up to sums in excess of £1million. It really does depend on how big the task is and how much noise you need to make!" This means you can get you moneys worth, the more I put into advertising the more viewed production will become. I can also advertise through bill boards and leaflets/ flyers as this is called product placement.

Personnel: Personnel are extremely important for any production as the overall quality of the production. For my production I assigned Alana as the camera person as she has the most experience with the camera and able to achieve better camera shot than I could. In larger productions specialist camera men and sound men are hired, these people cost more to hire than a non experienced camera/sound man. Make up often varies in low budget productions as in low budget production the make up is often domestic and shop bought. In high budget films make up consists of latex and prosthetic's, these cost more than what the budget would permit.(  an example of a professional make up kit that will be too expensive for a low budget.
In television programs make up Is layered in a darker shade than their natural skin colour on so that when the studio lights shin on them they do not look too pale. Also in action television shows such as the "The Walking Dead" make up artist put a lot of focus on realism such as if the character takes a fall and lands on his/her arm the artist would put fake blood to show the injury. The actors who play the zombies spend hours on a chair backstage letting the artists place layers of latex on their face to build a dead looking face. 

An example of an Actor have Latex applied to their face.

In Hollywood feature films, Actor similar to television programs have a large budget to be spent on make up as the character has to look the part to immersed the audience as if the character looked clean and was in a post apocalyptic wasteland the audience would notice that it was not realist and be put off of the rest of the film.

In my group we allocated roles to each of us for example we allocated Alana for camera woman as she knew the most about the camera and she was able to capture the best camera shots for the film. I was allocated the role of the talent in the film as I have history of acting and It was my strong suit out of the roles available. I was also given the role of editor for the video post filming as I had the most experience with Adobe Premier Pro and I was able to use it more effectively than my peers. We allocated Charlie the role of choreographer as he was given the task of drawing the story board in detail as he had taken Art in his GCSE's and proved that he was better than drawing than the rest of us and by using his storyboard he positioned the camera and me into the correct position to achieve the best camera shot. Charlie also mad a appearance in the film as an extra as he played the hostage that was tied up by the Props (the films antagonists). This is because the original actor who was going to play the character was ill that day of recording and we could not wait for him to get better as we were at risk of missing the dead line.

In professional films and other media productions such as YouTube Feature films special crew members are required behind the scenes to make sure that the films is filmed and published on time and to the best standard possible, such as:
Directors: "A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, and visualizes the script while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision." A director is employed to make sure that all of the cast and crew are ready and know what to do and when to do it so that the filming session flows seamlessly.
Stunt men: stunt men are required to perform stunts that are too dangerous for the actor. Stunt men are trained to fall of of elevated surfaces onto soft mats with minimal risk of injury. If a actor is injured on set the actor can claim of of insurance.
Extras: extras can help set the scene for example in the pursuit of happiness staring Will Smith, Will Smith is require to Que up in a long line to get into the homeless shelter. Extras are important in this scene as it emphasizes the length of the Que. It helps portray hopelessness unlike if there was only one person the odds of them getting into the shelter is very likely.

Will Smith in the line of the homeless shelter, with the homeless people being played by extras. 

Sound engineers: sound engineers are employed to record sound effects, these sound effects are crucial for action and shooting films such as zero dark thirty which was funded by Megan Ellison (see crowd funding)as the gun shots sound effects were recorded by the sound engineers from an actual firing range.

Editors: editors are employed to piece together the sound provided by the sound engineers and the raw film provided by the camera crew. editors are required for every film as without them the film would not be complete.
Choreographers: choreographers are employed to plan dancing and stage direction. Choreographers are used heavily in films such as High school musical. as the film is dance orientated.


Time: we were given three weeks to complete the production, first week e=we used to complete the planning and location recces' and fill out the minor release forms. The second week we used it to film out production this took all week to complete the shots listed on the story board. On the third and final week we used the time to edit the video using Adobe Premiere Pro. Fortunately we finished the production early by one day and so we were able to evaluate it and see if we needed to make any changes.
In the professional media industry if a film or media production does not meet it's deadline it can be delayed for month or years as the contract for the cast and crew may run out on the day the film is due to be published. This means that the editing crew may need to be rehired at the cost of my budget.

Facilities+Equipment: In my production I required a camera and props to play the protagonist in the film. luckily my college has a A/V room(Audio/visual) which supplies students with the cameras for production and over the corridor there is a room of which it canon name is The Prop Room as that used to hold props that are used by the students for drama and media productions. 

This is the prop list I used to reserve the props I needed in my production.

To obtain any props in a professional production you need to buy them from a shop or ask costume designers to make them.


I have found a Media facility house called The Hall; post production facility. The locations provides film companies with post filming technology where the production team can edit their films. The location also supplies cameras and sound microphones. "We offer the full post production process, from digitizing, offline & online editing, graphics, audio dubbing & mixing through to trans coding & final delivery - whether on tape or file. We also have cameras and crew and an in-house studio." (A quote from the website listing what its facilities can provide.)
Unfortunate the Company did not tell me any cost to use the facility when I rang up the House and they company does not list the cost on the website.
This is the nearest Facility to the college.

Regulation: 
A regulatory body is a public government  group or company who are in charge of the types of media production being published.  OFCOM are used to monitor radio signals cast'd by mobiles and radios, I order to broadcast on radio signals the station must follow the rules provided by OFCOM to continue using the station.
The BBFC are employed to regulate films and to provided the consumers with an accurate rating on its suitability towards the ages by using age. The BBFC and OFCOM are both funded by the government. The BBFC monitor  television and film shows and rate them on their suitability mean while OFCOM monitor the radio channels and make sure that the station abide by their rules.

The restrictions by the BBFC are listed as above.

I have learnt that there are no legal regulations for a online film such as my DepicT entry. On television shows that include language that the BBFC call unacceptable for children are shown after 9 pm this is called the Water Shed. Television channels have the ability online on their websites to ask the user to make an account and to verify that they are over 18 as online the shows that are seen after the watershed are able to be accessed all throughout the day. As our media production does not contain swearing or any other offensive content the media can be shown pre-watershed.
Trade Unions and Trade Associations: A trade union is a group of people with the same job or alternative factor in common that come together to protect their rights. without trade unions the rights of film makers can become unfair and rule against them. e.g the film maker may only make 1 films a year, or the film maker can only earn £50,000 a year (for example of a rule unfair against the film maker.)

Pact: Pact represents commercial uses of the United Kingdom television such as shopping television channels as well as children s animations,"Pact is the trade association representing the commercial interests of UK independent television, film, digital, children’s and animation media companies"(quote from Pacts:about section)

"BECTU is the UK's media and entertainment trade union; sectors covered include broadcasting, film, independent production, theater and the arts, leisure and digital media."
BECTU are responsible for the rights of the cast an crew of television, they stop and avoid the rights of the cast and crew from becoming unfair or harming the production crew. The two Unions Help protect the rights of the personnel operating the films production and post edition meanwhile associations look after the film industry.

"A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association or sector association, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry"(a quote from Wikipedia) A trade association is a business that are given money to research as specific factor of a subject for example, Television. for example of this is BIMA, they aim to make communication between media companies, it also help people interested in media to get jobs in their specialized sector. As they care more for the industry than personal matters.