2. Content Index
Page
Type of production 2
Proposal form 3
Finance 5
Time 7
Personnel 8
Facilities 9
Materials 10
Contributors 11
Locations 13
Market research 14
Codes of practice and regulations 23
3. Types ofProduction
There are many types of production when it comes to film. For example there is
short films, adverts, drama, comedy, different genres of films, documentaries
and entertainment.
Within the creative media industry there are many forms of media such as:
Comedies
Horrors
Romance
Thrillers
Adventure
Action
Sci-Fi
When it comes to our short film we will be focussing on making a horror/thriller.
Along with this, our target audience is towards 15 and plus, as that’s what most
horrors are, and our film will be quite jumpy, making it not for the faint hearted.
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4. Film Short Proposal
Names Jess
Courtney
Adam
Jordan
Ben
Working title for the film The Uninvited
Idea or theme
(Comedy and Drama)
Drama Horror
Crime Mystery
Thriller
Murder
Outline of narrative Courtney gets an invitation to a party. Tells Jess to
meet her outside of walkthrough near Courtney’s
house. Courtney is walking through the forest. Sees
hooded figures hiding in trees and shrubbery. Picks
up the pace and starts running. Whilst running, she
sees one stood in the distance. Turns around and
there’s another one stood behind her. So she makes
a quick right into the trees and phones Jess and
asks her to come help. A few minutes have gone by
and Courtney emerges and goes to look for Jess and
she trips over Jess’ dead body. She turns around to
be greeted by the masked men and screams.
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6. Finance
An important part of the pre-production process is to assess the financial
viability of the proposed production. There are two aspects to this: first, the
potential sources of the finance (such as advertising, sponsorship, subscription
fees, cover price, sales, rental charges) and second, the expenditure (covering
such elements as equipment, materials, transport costs. Crew, personnel, facility
hire, clearances and legal costs).
It Is likely the productions that you will undertake for your practical units will be
subsidised by your college, as you will be using their equipment and materials
and you will not have to pay for the personnel on your team. This means that
your financial needs will be minimal and you will not necessarily need to secure
funding for your projects.
However, you need to demonstrate that you are able to work in in a realistic
vocational context and you should explore the potential funding for your project
as well as the potential costs, as both of these factors are critical to all creative
media productions if they are to be viable.
Types of Funding
British Film Industry Fund: The BFI uses National Lottery funds to
develop and support original UK filmmakers and films. They help with
production and development funding: support production and also give
support with distribution and exhibition funding.
Crowdfunding: Crowdfunding is known for as a way of raising finance by
asking a large number of people for a small amount. There are some
websites that are created specificially for fundraising, such as ‘Go Fund
Me”People uses these website to try and raise money for their own short
film project. Pros- A good way to raise money yourself because if people
like the idea of a film there will be a good chance that they will donate.
Cons are that it could take years to reach the budget set for your film.
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7. Finance
Film Studio: Funding is availiable from some studios. For
example Pinewood Studio has a range of UK film such as
Spooks, Belle, and The Riot Club. They offer three types of financing:
The Isle of Man Development Fund
Welsh Government Media Investment Budget
Pinewood Group Equity Investment
We will be using crowdfunding as the method of finance for this project, we think
this is the best way, as we will be explaining our ideas for our project, when
explaining we can expect to get some suggestions and help from the people who
will be donating, we also do not have to pay back the budget. The problem with
this is that we won’t know when we will get the budget we want for our project,
it could take months even years before we hit our target of £5,000. We did
consider applying for studio funding to get the project up and running sooner
but decided against it due to some of the content that we felt might be a risk.
After some research we felt that a studio would more input and try to change our
initial ideas which would change the message of our film completely and we
would maybe not allow us the freedom we want to shoot this film.
Requirements
- Transport / Travel - £200
- Costumes - £200
- Catering - £400
- Actors - £700
- Equipment - £700
- Location - £500
- Crew - £500
- Advertising - £300
- Marketing - £400
- Props - £500
- Accomodation - £500
Sources
http://www.bfi.org.uk/supporting-uk-film
http://www.pinewoodgroup.com/our-studios/uk/film-
finance
http://nofilmschool.com/2014/08/film-finance-101-
equity-pre-sales-gap-tax-incentives-deferred-
crowdfunding
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8. Time
Availability of Equipment
It is vitally important that the duration that equipment is hired is timed
appropriately. To elaborate, it is important to ensure that all equipment needed
successfully film a particular shot are available at the same time. Time is
exceptionally important to manage with regards to equipment, as certain items
of equipment are only available to use at certain times and with limitations.
Additionally, some pieces of equipment often have to be booked in advance – this
could take up to booking equipment up to months before planned use. Therefore,
if time is not managed thoroughly it may result in not having certain items of
equipment when it comes to filming.
As opposed to the professional film industry, our film will be produced with
college equipment. Therefore, we will have to hire our equipment at the
availability of the college instead of hiring or buying them professionally from
our own budget.
Another aspect of time we will need to cover is crew and the people that we have
access to on set. Because we aren’t in a professional filming environment, we are
able to save time with regards to hiring sound technicians and editors. However
if we were making a film professionally we would have to do this properly.
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9. Personnel
The size of a team on a film set all depends on the scale of the story, for example
if it’s a war film I will require a large range of people as opposed to a small scale
love story. Different genres of films require different roles as a musical would
mean that the cast need some musical skill whereas a fast paced thriller will
require the cast to have stamina and intensity within their acting range.
Costs to consider include; food, transport, costume etc.
For our project it only requires the small scale of 5 actors to carry out the
sequence who have been gathered together due to their skill of acting and the
convenience that they’re all available and reachable at similar times. The costs
for this project not including the actual production are all fairly reasonable as the
individuals themselves pay everything for as they arrange their own transport
and food.
Each person has a similar role of being required to have to be chased through the
woods, which they’re aware of already and have agreed to participate in. As it’s a
small project it only requires a small group of actors to carry out the action to
enhance the full effect of the message the story is trying to give the audience.
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10. Facilities
Equipment we require for our production is:
Canon 700D.
Tripod.
The equipment we require for postproduction is:
Apple Macs.
USB cable that fits Canon.
We will edit in our media classroom at college, as everyone in our crew will be
easily able to access an iMac that has Final Cut already installed, which is what
we’ll be using to edit our short film. As we will be editing around other students
we could get distracted and take longer to get our editing done. We will be
filming in Bomber Woods, which is a public footpath and will not need to ask for
permission. We may need to tell the people who live close to it/behind it that
there will be filming taking place.
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11. Materials for film
Different types of film, especially in length, require different types of materials.
All films require a camera, however depending on the type of film it may require
a different type of camera. Other areas to consider are sound and lighting, which
can be fulfilled by using boom microphones for sound and special lighting if
required, for example if your story requires a bright day yet the actual weather is
dim then you will need assisted lighting. However, the most important aspect of
materials is in fact gaining permission for what you use, most importantly for
music rights. If you don’t gain rights then you can encounter issues
For our film, it will require a camera, potential lighting and sound tools. The
camera will be used to capture the action involved in our project and the lighting
involved will require dim lighting potentially off the casts phones. We will be
using the boom mics to capture the sound that is occurring throughout the
action. For the clothing our project will encapture the gloomy atmosphere by
having all the characters wear entirely black clothing. Also for the sound we’ll
need to first pick out music to build suspense then analyse if we need permission
to use the track. The place where we are filming doesn’t require any permission
or clearance as it’s a public place where anyone can access on their own accord,
however, we may need to assess the area for any safety hazards before filming.
Sources
http://www.raindance.org/your-basic-filmmaking-kit-
crew-a-3-level-guide/
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12. Contributors
There are many different contributors involved when making a film. This can
include:
Specialist and experts – This applies for many things such as documentary and
interviews, but when doing and documentary, you will need to find experts on
what you’re doing.
Talent – The actors performs the best of their abilities bringing the script and
their characters to life.
The Public - When making a film hoping it’d be the next big thing you will need a
wide audience that would watch it and tell their friends about it.
Extras – Extras is a big part of the movie because without it the movie wouldn’t
look as realistic to the real world, an example of this would be Batman – The
Dark Knight Rises when Batman has a fight with Bane and you see a lots of
innocent police officers fighting with prisoners, when the audience watch this
they think it’s real.
This is a list of some of the job roles that are needed in a production.
Job Role Description
Cast Actors that will read the script and bring it to life by using the best of
their acting abilities.
Producer Oversee each project from conception to completion and work closely
with the directors and other production staff on a shoot.
Music Creating and choosing the appropriate music for each scene that need
music.
Cinematographer Working as the director of photography department and their job is
to capture the impression of the directors’ vision.
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13. Job Role Description
Film Editing The editing department that publish business and edits material for
publication of the film such as putting all the clips together and
cutting them out.
Casting Choosing the right people and who get the roles.
Production Design Production designers are responsible for the visual concept of a film,
television or theatre production. This mean they have to identify a
design style for sets, locations, graphics, props, lighting, camera
angles and costumes, when working closely with the director and
producer.
Art Direction Art director is known to be the one who directs the artistic features
of a theatrical production (such as scenic, costume and lighting
effects)
Sound Department Sound Department has varies of different jobs which includes
dialogue editor/re-recording engineer, boom operator, additional
rerecording mixer and a sound mixer.
Camera And
Electrical
Department
Camera and electrical department has varies of different jobs which
includes cinematographers, cameramen, gaffers, grips, electricians,
still photographers and so forth.
Catering Organising and developing the food and beverage services for the
crew and actors.
The contributors of our production will be:
Camera/ film editing – Adam Hester
Cinematography/ Makeup/ costume – Courtney Fishwick
Sound/Music – Ben Saunders
Props/Locations – Jessica Cartwright
Advertising/Marketing – Jordan Painter
Sources
http://www.bfi.org.uk/supporting-uk-film
http://www.pinewoodgroup.com/our-
studios/uk/film-finance
http://nofilmschool.com/2014/08/film-finance-
101-equity-pre-sales-gap-tax-incentives-
deferred-crowdfunding
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14. Locations
The location of a film is where the shots are primarily set, more specifically the
initial setting of the film. The location can sometimes be one set place, however
the location in a film usually changes to develop the plot and content of the film.
The location acts as one of the main catalysts for the entire film and therefore it
is vitally important that the location is set perfectly to compliment the theme,
characters and narrative of the film. Without the location and setting, the film
would not be properly developed or explained to the audience.
Recce shots are taken to explore the location of the film prior to filming. They are
taken to critically assess the detail of the set, analysing how the scene will unfold
within the setting of the chosen location. Here are our own recce shots of our
chosen locations:
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23. Summary of Data:
The majority of responses were from females rather than males. 71.43% of the people who
answered the survey were female and the other 28.57% were male. Our audience may feature more
women than men. 42.86% of the people who took part in the survey were 18, 28.57% were 17,
14.29% were 16 and 14.29% were 20+. 28.57% of the people said that their favourite genre of film
was Crime & Gangster; another 28.57% preferred Horror & Thrillers. 14.29% preferred Comedy;
another 14.29% were for Romance and another 14.29% were for Film Noir. 71.43% preferred Fast
Pace to the film and the other 28.57% preferred Slow Pace. Most of the people said that they
associated Suspense and Mystery with Thriller Films and Slow-Paced tense action. We asked in the
survey; what location would they want to see and 28.57% said Forest, 28.57% said City, 14.29% said
Remote and 28.57% said other. The others specified as Black Hall Rocks and the Academy Awards
Ceremony. When asked what types of characters do they want to see; 57.14% said Psychopath and
42.86% said Damsel in Distress. Finally, when asked what rating of film they preferred; 71.43% said
18 rating and the other 28.57% said 15 rating.
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24. Legal Issues.
Clearance is getting permission to access files of documents and copyrighted
material. Clearance is important for many things, such as using a person’s name
for a film that are deceased, also to use a certain soundtrack, because if you do
not get clearances of in all aspects of a production then you would be breaking
the law and you could face court and fines.
Copyright is also very important for media productions as it affects whether it
allows or not allows a sound track, which could change the mood of a scene from
the movie. Before using any music you should send an email to the rightful
owner for permission to use their track for the film.
Public Liability insurance is known as insurance where if a crewmember or
actor are, injured during the making of a film the insurance would pay for the
treatments, compensation and any legal expenses too.
Completion Guarantee is an insurance that is offered by the company, which
sometimes independently finances films to make sure the producer will
complete, and delivered based on the script, cast and budget.
Codes Of Practice
British Board Of Film Classification.
Their mission is to:
The BBFC services measure the running times of films, DVDs/videos
and other works submitted for classification. The BBFC's income is
derived solely from the fees it charges for its services, calculated by
measuring the running time of films, DVDs/videos and other works
submitted for classification.
It is not organised for profit and fees are adjusted only
as required to cover its costs, the BBFC's income is
derived solely from the fees it charges for its services.
The Council of Management administers the BBFC’s
financial affairs. Members.
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25. Protect the public, and especially children, from content,
which might raise harm risks.
Empower the public, especially parents, to make informed
viewing choices.
Recognise and respect adult freedom of choice within the law.
Respond to and reflect changing social attitudes towards media content
through proactive public consultation and research.
Provide a cost-effective, efficient classification service within our
statutory remit.
Work in partnership with the industry to develop innovative service
models to provide content advice, which support emerging media
delivery systems.
Provide an effective service to enforcement agencies.
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-bbfc/
PRS for Music is the home of PRS and MCPS; they represent the rights of over
118,000 members. Wherever recorded music is used for public purposes a
licence will be required from PRS for Music.
They allow licensed organisations to play, perform or make available copyright
music on behalf of their members and those of overseas societies, distributing
the royalties to them fairly and efficiently. They promote and protect the value of
copyright. The income they receive from licence fees is distributed back to their
members.
http://www.prsformusic.com/aboutus/ourorganisation/Pages/default.aspx
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26. Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union.
BECTU is the UK's media and entertainment trade union; sectors covered include
broadcasting, cinema, film, digital media, independent production, leisure,
theatre and the arts.
BECTU provides a wide range of services to over 25,000 members, including:
Negotiating pay, conditions and contracts with employers
Personal advice and representation for individual members
Advice and representation on health and safety
Benefits and services for BECTU members
Training support and courses
Networking events and career development opportunities
Union journal, Stage Screen and Radio, published six times a year.
Website designed to improve access to the union's advice and support.
Membership is voluntary, and anyone working or seeking employment in the
sectors covered by BECTU can join.
The union is financed entirely by individual subscriptions from members.
The key aims of the union are to:
- Protect jobs
- Increase membership
- Win new recognition agreements
- Improve pay and conditions of service, including pensions.
https://www.bectu.org.uk/about/union-policy
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27. Pact is the trade association representing the commercial interests of UK
independent television, film, digital, children’s and animation media companies.
Pact supports its members with legal and business affairs advice and support, as
well as a wide range of services and campaign work.
In just over a decade, the sector has grown from a cottage industry to a world-
beating multi-billion pound business. Pact seeks to influence the wider industry
to commit to diversity on and off the screen. Pact works closely with
broadcasters and producers' groups to create training opportunities and
promote fair access for all.
http://www.pact.co.uk/
British Interactive Media Association
BIMA has represented the diverse interests of the British digital industry since
1985 and exist to do four main things:
Support and promote the British digital industry.
Share knowledge and best practice.
Reward great work.
Encourage the next generation.
WIDE MEMBERSHIP
With hundreds of organisations and individual members from all sectors of the
market, BIMA provides a vaulable way to keep up with developments in a fast-
moving sector. BIMA provides access to market data and intelligence trough
links with government departments, professional bodies and olds regular talks
and conferences on key industry issues.
LOCAL AND GLOBAL
BIMA is dedicated to serving our membership in the
UK and abroad. Locally, we are active in discussions
with Government, leading industry players and other
partner associations. Globally, we represent and
champion the UK multimedia industry. BIMA is
consantly expanding and edefining its activities to
better represent the needs of its members.
http://www.bima.co.uk/about-bima/index.asp
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28. These are important factors that need to be considered when starting our
project. We will need to make sure that we have all the clearances and
insurances in place to protect all cast and crew. Any music we use we need to
make sure any copyright issues are addressed and permissions put in place
before commencing filming as this could have implications on the finished film
by changing the mood of scenes we are trying to create. For example we can use
copyright free music for our chosen project, which we do need to get permission
to use.
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