The Pre-Production Process
Pre-Production, which mainly involves research and planning. It is the vital starting point for a successful production. DepicT! is a short film competition that has been challenging amateur filmmakers to create 90 second short masterpieces. In our case, the successful creation of a 90 second short for the DepicT! contest depends on research of locations, materials and personnel. Pre-Production paperwork ensures that creative planning has taken place, with legal paperwork such as talent releases or location recces, once this paperwork has been completed, the production can be continued.
Types of Moving Image Productions
In today's society, there are many different types of moving image production, with each one requiring a different method of distribution. One of the main media forms produced in our society is movies/films. Usually, these are mass productions, with large production companies such as 'Warner Bros' or 'Walt Disney Studios' creating pieces to be released internationally in cinemas, eventually moving to DVD and Blu-Ray. A movies exposure to the public is based on aspects such as how big/well-known the production company is, to how popular the talent featured in the film is. For example, Avengers: Endgame a film released in 2019 by 'Walt Disney Studios' became the highest grossing film of all time, with a worldwide gross of $2,797,800,564. This is believed to be a majorly popular movie because it entails the story of the popular Marvel Universe, therefore intriguing more viewers as the plot-line and characters are already popular from previous motion pictures.
 |
| Highest-grossing films of all time |
 |
| Most watched TV programs |
In the film industry, of course, proper funding is needed.The bigger the film (for example, films produced like Marvel) are obviously going to have many big companies liking to invest in their product, to have their product featured. To begin a film, the director would go to a company and pitch their idea, depending on whether people wanted to make the film, would depend on the idea, and its potential for success. The funding for big movies is usually obbtained through big conglomerates, for example, the late 90s Spider-man movie was funded by Sony.
 |
| Sony Funding |
Another example of funding is Self-funding. Directors who may be just starting in the world of film may use projects such as kickstarter to raise people's interests This is where directors will ask the public to help out, in return giving back when the film is produced. An old example of self-funding is Orson Welles 1939 creation of Shakespeare's 'Othello.' Because Orson was just starting out in his career, he took to using his own money to sort his production out. When he ran out of money, he took to acting jobs to refill his bank account to get the film funded and ready to go.
 |
| 1939 'Othello' by Orson Welles |
Requirements:
Many films have multiple requirements that money is needed to fulfill. For example, the basics like camera equipment and props, through to actors and even crew. In professional film making, companies and directors look for the best equipment possible, to make the film look as good as possible, however, some low-budget films such as the blair witch project would not use expensive materials, instead offering to use old home-style cameras instead.
Our requirements included lighting, thankfully this was already owned by the college, so we used LED boards to help create a party atmosphere, we needed costumes, which were already owned by the actors in my group. As a very low budget piece, rather like the Blair Witch project, we made do with what facilities we already had available to us around the college.
 |
| The Blair Witch Project makers. |
Personnel:
In our short piece, not too many of us were needed, as there was no massive production effort needed for success. The three of us in the group decided to double as both talent and crew, so anybody who wasn't in the scene being shot, was either helping out as a director, or working the camera. Big budget films such as 2015 release 'Jurassic World' require many extra talents, and will often put out open calls on social media to fill these roles.
 |
| Jurassic World extras. |
 |
| Examples of movies Steven Spielberg has directed. |
Time:
We were given our task by depict to create a short 90 second piece, so this is what we had to fill. Our pre-production paperwork was completed in a month, for then which we had two weeks to film and edit our entries. Missing a deadline in the film industry can snowball into an absolute disaster, so it was essential that we stuck to this timeframe, which I believe we did successfully. I managed to complete most of the pre-production paperwork by myself, in the short time that we had.
Location:
Two of the main pieces of pre-production paperwork were about location. The location release forms required signatures from people who owned them, fortunately we decided on locations inside the college, so the only signatures we required were from the teachers who owned the classroom. We decided to film in room W16, which is owned by the media department. The best thing about this room, was that it already housed LED lighting, which was great for us to set up a party atmosphere. However, a problem we encountered was that we weren't the only group who needed this specific room, so we did lose some shooting sessions to free up the room for other groups in our class.
 |
| Example of a location recce. |
Materials:
Many productions require many different materials to succeed, such as research into a specific topic. For example, 2019 release 'JoJo Rabbit' whilst seen as a comedy, is also set in war times of 1940, so much research was needed to find out details such as costumes or historically accurate atmospheres of these times. Another load of materials that are essential for a production is sound. As a small local production, we could not afford copyright laws for popular music, so had to settle on royalty free music obtained through a website called "incompetech". Many big films may have their own composer to create the music for them, such as John Williams for major releases such as Star Wars or Jurassic Park.
Legal Issues:
When using certain materials in a media production, there are legal considerations which should be thought about in terms of whether or not those materials are legally allowed to be used in your product., Copyright should always be strongly thought about and looked into. In terms of how copyright personally affected our production forour short depict entry, the only time it was relevant was when it came to the music we decided to use for the background of our film. the music we used from incompetech was royalty free, meaning we did not have to spend any money on purchasing a license for the song. However, in order for us to legally be able to use this material in our film for free, we did have to credit the website in which we got our sound.
Regulations:
The office of communications, or as its more commonly known, OFCOM, focus on regulations of films, and can recieve complaints from people who believe productions are breaking regulations, such as being harmful to children, or combating the abuse of minorities or the handling of sensitive subjects. Our short piece, as it was a local filmed comedy, needed to be fair treating of all individuals, which I believe we handled successfully.
Trade Unions and Trade Associations:
Trade associations are defined as organisations which do not profit from their actions, they act as a member representation service, and they put forward common interests or focus on their collective view into industry led trades such as the film industry.
Many people in the UK are part of a trade union. A local definition of a trade union is: 'a group of employees who stand together to create/fight for better conditions of employment.' They are important to help anybody take legal action against anybody who violate their rights as employees of a business or wider industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment