Requirements for a moving image production

large amount of work goes into moving image productions. I n our 90 second short/ TV shows, feature films. In this post i shall go through and thoroughly explain the different requirements for moving image productions. Whether it be Feature films, trailers, TV programmes, Web series. Or our depict entry. DepicT! is a competition for filmmakers to show their skills by creating 90 second short films.

Firstly, for a film to be created it must receive funds in order to begin production. There are several ways to do this such as a Global media corporation fund the film. These companies are the likes of Sony and Time Warner which usually fund films for their film production teams quite easily, Film budgets by these companies can reach up to 300 million dollars in price, Pirates of the Caribbean on stranger tides currently holds the record for the most expensive film costing 387.5 Million dollars. Another way of funding is a kick starter which is when fans fund a film with interest in the film. The Rooster teeth film "Lazer team" which was kick started on indiegogo, Rooster teeth is a online company which produces podcasts and gaming videos for their online audience, so it was a natural thing that the kick starter with the goal of $650000 would easily be filled, It was filled in about 10 hours and at the end of the kick starter it surpassed 382% above its desired goal. For the audience that is funding the film they get given different perks depending on how much is given. from rewards such as a digital copy of the film to being an executive producer to the film. It is the second highest kick starter in indiegogo history. As well as the ones described there is some rare cases where one singular rich person funds films for example Megan Ellison who began funding daring and different films in 2008 she even went to much bigger funding by even outbidding the rights to the terminator franchise in 2011 against lionsgate. For our depict entry we didn't need funding because we had all the required materials before hand.


Once funding is completed they need the requirements for the production And with all the money collected from any methods spoke about above they'll need a few materials. Firstly a camera is required to shoot the film  and record the footage. Actors also must be paid for their time and effort for the film, this is usually why the actual recording phase of the film making process is a lot shorter than say preproduction or post production we were lent a camera for our depict entry which we finished recording in about a week. Films also need to have insurance just incase they break anything Our film was insured by the college and luckily we didn't break anything. Props are also required for film making to keep the films immersion. for our film we didn't require many props aside from the letter. Copyright has to also be covered in case of the use of songs or brands shown in films.copyright basically required a fee for any use of copyrighted material in films. Some copyrights are quite bizarre to the fact that even the song "Happy birthday" has a full copyright protection (The summy company registered a copyright in 1935 then in 1988 Warner/chappel music purchased the company owning the copyright meaning they took control of it) and to show the song being sung on a released video that receives money from the production has to be paid for use of the song.

For our film and all films they require permissions for actors to appear in the film because they're using their persona so a written permission has to be given, if the actor is over the age of 18 they can give permission to their selves. However if you are under 18 you need signed parental permission to be shown in the film. Location permissions are also required to allow filming in the location as well as police permission if you are shooting in a public place. Permissions for films that use weaponry are much more important because there might be some trouble with citizens phoning the police because they saw some people with weapons.

any sort of media production will require a crew in order to pull the production together and produce the media to be shown to the public. media productions can have crews from a few people all the way up to over 3 thousand. The largest crew to work on a film production was Marvels Iron Man 3. On average. Visual effect makes up more than 25% of the credited crew due to the high amount of people needed to make the visual effects so they outweigh the other credited crew in the film. 2/3rds of the harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 crew was working on visual effects. Peter Jackson films such as the Lord of the rings or the hobbit series uses way more special effects crew than the average. having some of his films using 225,217 211 and 195 Special effects crew members. Beating the average of 22 by a long shot. our Depict film had me and two others creating it, We split jobs between us by having drawing of the storyboard drawn out by one person, The shot times all worked out by one person and the sound worked by one person.

TV productions have a much smaller cast than a massive feature film production. TV productions seem much bigger due to having a large range of episodes that feature more actors. however if you look at one singular episode of the series it shows that only about 100-150 people worked on the cast for that episode.

For time we were given a week and a half for each separate stage of film making. Pre production, production and Post production editing. Deadlines are an important factor in the Media industry, If your newest TV episode isn't ready to be released you're just cut out of the time frame that your show would air on television and would be replaced with another show, losing you a lot of money, time and fans that are expectant on the show. With Films they have to meet a deadline but can be delayed for reasons but failure to release on a planned date does have it's drawbacks due to a lot of time wasted as well as additional budget required. For example The film The cabin in the woods was delayed so they could add 3D post production effects but the company hit bankruptcy in November 2010 and the film seemed like it would never be released until Lionsgate bought the rights in April 2011 and they announced that the film would finally be released in April 2012. Titanic also suffered a drawback when it's crew members struck illness after being in cold water for extended periods of time, The  Budget had to be increased and the original July 1997 release date was pushed back to December 1997. For our depict production we fit the deadline perfectly and had everything handed in.

For locations. releases must be filled out that give permission to film there. For example in our Depict  production  we had to get permission to use areas of the college that was signed for by Josh this allowed us to go and record all the shots we needed for our film. We also recced the location by taking images of key parts of the location that we would use for the film. These images can be viewed on my post about the preproduction used for our film. We had to also write risk assessments so that harm could be prevented to the actors or equipment and if an accident were to occur then how it would be fixed.

For our Depict production copyright wasn't much of a problem due to the use of non copyrighted music in our film as well as no inclusion of any brands or such.

Most films have to have a Public liability insurance which is basically insurance that will cover the expenses if clients or citizens get damaged because of the shooting of the film. the insurance usually costs varying amounts so it's quite difficult to pinpoint an exact value it usually covers up to 5 million in costs. there is also completion guarantee which is a signed insurance in return for a percentage fee for the budget that ensures the film maker completes the film by the agreed date.

every film has a specific age rating given by the BBFC which is the small logo usually on the bottom left of the dvd in cases of movies. they have 6 possible ratings. U, PG, 12A,12, 15, 18. They all contain varying degrees of what is allowed in their ratings. With U allowing no material likely to offend or harm. PG having most suitable content however some scenes may shock or frighten young children, 12A will feature violence and other themes that can be viewed with an adult in the room. 12 Features violence and other themes which are strictly viewable by 12 and up. 15 having moderate violence with a lot of detail and tackle more darker themes. 18 will feature high violence/sexual content and dark themes.

The Day Silence Stood Still -DEPICT

We were tasked with making a 90 second short film for the Depict! competition. We decided on the idea to discover the theme of loneliness with our film. The film follows a man known as Simon (played by me) who is a man who has fallen into a state of depression for a reason unexplained.

Camera Use:

Shot distance:

 We used shot distances that varied throughout the film, using different shot distances gives a good representation of the setting. In the beginning scene. Simon is distanced from the other party participants to show how disconnected he is from the world in a social aspect, The lighting for this scene has more lighting on the side with the party participants and less so on the side with Simon showing the darker times Simon is going through

Composition:

Composition is also used in this shot, through the rule of thirds which is a technique of treating the camera like having 3 sections. The Right, Mid and left. By positioning actors or props in the left and right sections it creates a better effect for the shot.

Camera  movement:

For camera movement we did a pan for Simon being at the party however it is much later into the film after it is revealed that his wife has gone away and the letter gets read. It was originally planned to have a pan to close up to another pan but the second pan went wrong so it had to be removed because it began way too over to the right.

Editing:

Editing effect:

There were a fair number of dissolves in the scene when Simon returns to his home from the doctors office. The dissolves were used to speed up time during the walking section. We recorded the whole walking scene from 3 different angles then added in the dissolve between them.

Continuity system:

With the conversation scene between Simon and the Doctor it carefully follows the 180 degree rule closely never breaking it. having Simon on the right and the Doctor on the left. The match on action in this film are the handing of the letter in the scene prior the doctor picks up the letter then closes up to the handing of the letter.

Continuity mistake:

No film is without fault, There is an error because Simon walks into the room and the letter is already there however Simon walked from the room the doctor was in holding no letter meaning the letter appeared there magically.

Identification devices:

We used a couple of reaction shots in the film. The first is when the Doctor tells Simon his wife has gone away as it says the line the camera faces Simons direction to show the emotional impact. the other part is when Simon walks into the empty room it closes up to his phone contacts being removed then has his reaction to the world around him.

Mise-en-scene and lighting

Props:

there weren't many props used in this production. the only props used was the letter that Simons wife wrote. since most costumes fit the most casual setting of our film we didn't really need a change up of our normal clothing we would wear.

Settings:

the setting was casual and we decided on small isolated rooms to give a sense of Simon being trapped emotionally so picking small areas worked for this narrative than big large rooms.

Sound:

The sound mostly used it Non-diegetic. The sound is used when Simon is walking back through the doctors office as well as over the opening/ending credits. the music is a soft keyboard piece which gathers intensity whilst Simon walks. We didn't use any Diegetic sound in our film.

Lighting:
Lighting wasn't used much in our film it was all most natural light due to the natural nature of the film and the dark scenes were the right sense of dark that it appeared dark but the characters could still be seen.

Pre-production for The Day Silence Stood Still

12th October

Completed two storyboards composed of 10 shots and began to write production schedule. Began writing Location recces. Began writing actor releases.#
19th October
Began shooting. got about half of the shots done. finished all pre production paper work
20th October
continued filming about two thirds of the shots recorded.
21st October
all shots have been recorded and editing has begun
2nd November
Editing is completed and the final film is produced


initial idea:
We went through a lot of different ideas for the film before it was finalized. The final idea we decided to go with was the theme of loneliness but amplify it to an extreme extent so when the characters wife perishes so does the world around him, making his only source of happiness the only thing that really matters in the world.


Recce ideas/Photos:
We explored some different locations that we needed, we required 2 different locations. One for the party scenes and one for all scenes filmed in the office with

Office:
We needed to have a room that could be shot to have a conversation with the main character and the doctor

We will use the office for scenes involving Simon and the doctor. The tables will have to be slightly moved due to too much background distractions in the shots as all shots shown are 1:1 meetings with Simon and the doctor. Later on we changed up the room to have one singular table. It will then have some of the final shots in which simon breaks down 

Party Room:

We needed a room which is large and could change up the lighting for the scenes that will appear at the beginning. The room will possibly be illuminated for the beginning scenes and then later on when it pans past simons head it will be much darker, meaning the world turning dark after the wife dies.

Props and costumes list:
In the short film we didn't use many props or costumes, the clothing was casual due to it fitting the setting and theme we were going for. The only prop used was a letter which gets read out at the end using voice over

Storyboards:

These are the storyboards for all the shots we recorded, Tia drew the scenes, I wrote down the locations/shot numbers as well as timings. Billy wrote about all the camera directions 

Releases:

Risk Assessment:

Depict short which i like (Hen)

The short film "Hen" by Payam Seidi. It follows the story of a girl who is from another country who doesn't get rights until she is a senior rather than always having them in the country she currently lives, this is shown because in the shots she can't be allowed to hold the chicken until she is an old woman and can get one of her own. in the shots the way they don't let them hold the chicken is by a close up shot of a hand signifying no. It shows her growing up from a child to an old woman all shots featuring a chicken which gets older as the girl does throughout the film. In the first shot it's a baby and a chick, then in the next it's a woman and a hen then in the last scene it's old woman and an older chicken. I like this short film because it is very powerful as a message that people who move countries are denied rights (especially women) of people that originally lived in that country just because of different race or ethnicity. This film features a lot of close ups especially for the chickens featured. The music is of a nice mellow tone which really sets the mood for a meaningful film which shows a message.