The pre-production process

Requirements for a moving image production

Types of moving image production

For our first assignment we have done a 90 second short film for the
Depict online competition. Depict challenges film makers to get a
narrative across in only 90 seconds. We did this in our three-man groups,
our group decided upon a Mockumentary entitled My life is Death which
is about a day in the life of Death. However he was just a regular guy
working his day job. However many other types of moving image media
exist, such as:

Serial TV programmes (Soaps)

Feature length films (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Vlogs(Video logs)
Webbisodes(Online series e.g VGHS)
Music Videos(MTV)
Adverts(Played on most channels between programmes)
GIF. Files
Idents(Often shown before programmes)

Feature Length Films

As well as big Hollywood blockbusters such as Pirates of the
Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) which had a budget
of $140 million. There are also Low budget films that can
sometimes achieve just as much success. The most famous of
these is Clerks(1994) A black & white American comedy which
was directed by Kevin Smith who also features in the film as
Silent Bob. The film was shot for only $27,000 in the Video Store
and Convenience store that Kevin Smith worked on prior to his
Director Career taking off. Upon its release Clerks grossed over
$3 million, which then launched Smiths director career.
Serial TV programmes
As well as episodic or one-off programmes a lot of channels have serial
programmes. The best example of these are the Soaps (Coronation
Street for example). A lot of Soaps and serial TV programmes take
episodic form, and are on a specific time and have a continuing story arc

throughout the shows run time. However there is no limit to the number
of episodes in a season. For example if you were to look on a TV guide
(Sky, TiVo, and Freeview) and highlight something such
as the BBC series Merlin, you would see a description
of the episode but you would also see two numbers
somewhere such as 3/6 that shows how many episodes
are in the series and what number that particular
episode is. Soaps on the other hand would have a
description of the episode, but not the numbers telling
how many there are in a series. Because Serial TV programmes dont
have series, they have the same structure and episodic presentation, but
arent limited to a certain number of episodes per series. Serials also have
continuing story arcs, that, in some cases can span the entirety of the
shows run time. While, at first glance Serials and episodic programmes
seem the same they in fact arent.
Webbisodes
Webbisodes are one of the newest forms of moving image media. They
began back in 2012, with some recognition, but
really took off when a Youtuber by the name of
Freddie Wong began making Video Game High
School which is often abbreviated VGHS. When it
first began, the actors and actresses were largely
undiscovered and the show had a budget of $600K
which was raised using crowd funding on sites like
Kickstarter and Indiegogo. VGHS first aired on May 17th 2012.
Adverts
Adverts come in many forms, the most common ones are played on TV
between programmes. However some channels like the BBC have chosen
not to have adverts, these are the channels that get the money from TV
licenses. Of Course Companys pay for their adverts to be aired at a
certain time, they also pay if they want someone famous to endorse their
product. For example one of Wrigleys more recent adverts has Antonio
Banderas in (click here to see it). For some companies theyre adverts are
as recognisable as the brand themselves, a good example of this is the
most recent John Lewis Christmas advert with Monty the penguin. As
with every year John Lewis bring out a Christmas advert that is
specifically designed to melt peoples heart and get them to buy from
John Lewis. The advert & associated campaign cost the store 7M to
produce. The Mini- Blockbuster follows young Sam and his sidekick Monty

the Penguin. While the advert is only 2 minutes (a sickly sweet two
minutes at that) the store has created an entire storyline for Sam &
Monty, with TV personality and well known X-Factor presenter Dermot
OLeary narrating the duos adventures. The store is hoping to cash
in on Sam & Monty with a range of Toys, Onesies, pyjamas &
even a book or two based on the advert. John Lewis is hoping
this year they will have the same success with Sam & Monty as
they did with the Bear & the Hare last year. And of course there
are those that want to adopt their own Monty the penguin
recent reports suggest that WWF have had their phones ringing
non-stop and their website has been jammed ever since the
advert first aired. Their website now has a picture of a penguin
and adoption advert on the front of their website. However some
adverts are not to family friendly and have to be on after the watershed,
such as the graphic Richard seatbelt advert which graphically depicts
the effects on an unprotected human body during a 30mph crash. Post
watershed adverts are often scary or deliberately shocking to get their
message across.
Distribution methods
Moving image media also needs to be distributed in some way shape or
form. There are many different types of distribution methods such as;

YouTube(Launch Trailers)
Cinema Release
OOH(Out of house such as Buses & so on)
Giant TVs(Like the One in Norwich)

YouTube
YouTube is used by over 1 Billion users worldwide, with an astonishing
100 hours of video being uploaded every minute! Everything thats ever
been put to video can be found on YouTube, so it makes sense that
YouTube is used to distribute a lot of moving image media. For example
the Webbisode Video Game High School started on YouTube and
continues to thrive on the site. With over 6 billion hours of video being
watched each month a lot of big Hollywood productions have started
releasing teaser trailers and such on YouTube to attract a bigger
audience. One such film is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.
Cinema Release

A cinema release is what it says on the tin. Its when the full length, final
cut film gets released into Cinemas. The highest grossing Cinema release
was James Camerons Avatar which grossed over $2.8 Billion.
Finance & Sources of funding
There are many ways of getting funding for a film. Some are more
frequent than others, such as;

Bank Loans
Crowd funding(Kickstarter/ indiegogo)
Self-financing
Private capital/investment(Megan Ellison)
BFI Film Fund
Various Government grants
Selling right and marketing details

Crowd Funding
I didnt do bank loans as I thought they were fairly self-explanatory and
wouldnt have made for an interesting paragraph. Crowd funding or
Crowd sourcing is often done by smaller developers or
developers making their debut. Crowd funding is done
through sites such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo. One such
film thats being crowd funded is Hardcore Which is the
world first POV action films and a very cool idea. So far they
are halfway to their $250,000 goal. However films like
Hardcore and small indie developers thats are just getting
started that use crowd funding. Actors/Directors such as
Zach Braff have used Crowd funding for their own side
projects, such as Wish you were here. Some people think
that people like Zach Braff shouldnt be allowed to use sites
like Kickstarter because they may already have enough
money or they can ask someone else, whereas smaller, undiscovered
directors might suffer due to their project being overshadowed by bigger,
or just more famous projects.
Private capital/investment
As well as Bank Loans & Crowd funding, film makers can also look for
private investment from Money people one such person is Megan
Ellison, the very wealthy daughter of Larry Ellison, the chairman or Oracle
Corporation which is a multi-million dollar computer company. Megan
Ellison has so much money she doesnt know what

to do with it all(lucky for some) so she has started to invest very heavily
in the film industry, financing films such as Killing them softly and
Lawless.
Various Government Grants
There are various government grants that film makers can apply for, such
as the BFI Film Fund. The BFI or British Film Institute is a charity that
shares out a large pot of money for film projects, whether its
to help small, indie films get off the ground, or subsidies a
slightly larger film, they have 26million in Lottery funds to
share out, however by 2017 their budget is set to rise to
30million. The BFI was founded in 1933 and has since been
investing almost 26million a year into UK based independent
films. The BFI is the main body that deals with film funding,
while there are others, non are as recognised as the BFI.
Requirements
When making a film a lot of things are required such as;

Talent
Equipment
Crew
Advert
Deals(distribution and such like)
Locations
Subsidiarys
Props
Transport
Make up
Costumes
Accommodation
Copyright permissions
Facility houses(Editing software on pcs etc)
Paperwork

Above is just a few of the requirements that are needed to make moving
image media, whether it be TV or film. If a particular production is being
shot in multiple locations then the whole team will need transport,
accommodation, etc. Also if its a low budget film and the team doesnt
have computers with the necessary editing software than they may have
to hire a facility house which is basically what it says on the tin. Its
place that production crews can go to make sure that they can edit and

its often a cheaper alternative that buying all the software and
computers needed to edit the production from home or from the office.
However they will then also need to travel to and from that specific
location, which will then put up the cost of traveling, however over all it
would be cheaper and more cost effective to hire a facility house rather
than worry about buying all the software and computers needed to do
the editing.
Depict
For our depict project we also had certain requirements that
we needed in order to bring our production to life, of
course most of that was supplied by College, such as the;

Camera
Tripod
SD card
Locations
Editing software and computers

However the props and costume were done obtained by us, as we

needed to get a grim reaper costume and scythe which Stuart managed
to get hold of. If we were filming outside we would have needed to make
sure that we had gotten permission from both the College(specifically
our teachers) and the Police, but because the only out of college filming
we did was at Stuarts house, we didnt need to e-mail the Police,
although I think Stuart got permission to take the camera home.
Personnel
In every production personnel is needed to keep everything running, but
the amount of personnel needed depends on the size of the production.
For example a low budget short film will have a different, size cast and
crew to a TV programme which will have a different size cast and crew
to a big Hollywood blockbuster.
Low budget short
The crew of a low budget short would one of the smallest, primarily as
they have a low budget so they would have to be very careful on how
many people they brought on as it could end up cost far too much! The
key crew members for a low budget short would be;

Director
Producer

Talent
Camera operator(s)
Editor(s)

While that doesnt seem like much, there would be more, less important
people, however they would often just float around helping whenever,
wherever they are needed, but the most important people are those I
have listed above.
TV Programme
The crew of a TV programme, would be quite substantial, definitely
bigger than a low budget short, but smaller than a big Hollywood
blockbuster. The cast of a TV programme wouldnt change too much,
especially on Serial programmes like Soaps and such like. The key
personnel on a TV programme would be;

Director
Talent
Producer
Editor(s)
Camera operator(s)
Costume Designer
Set designer
Location Manager
Make-up artist
Writer
Screen Writer
Casting director

Those listed above are some of the most important people that are
involved in the creation of TV programme.
Hollywood Feature Film
A Hollywood feature film would have a very big cast and crew. Unlike a
short film everyone would have their defined roles and responsibilities,
one person wouldnt be in charge or three different things for example.
The key cast and crew on a feature film would be;

Director
Editior(s)
Talent
Producer

Writer
Screenwriter
Set designer
Costume designer
Casting director
Location manager
Production manager
Publicist
Sound Editor
Title sequence designer

The list above gives you a small idea of how many people it would take
to make a feature film, they are just the important ones, PAs, Runners
and various other jobs certainly add to the crew size.
When we were doing our Depict project, we each had a few roles,
Stuart looked after the prop and costume side of things(he was the only
one wear a costume and using a prop) I operated the camera and
gathered some paper work, which I then made sure was on a shared
document so that we could all put it on our blogs and Lois handled the
majority of the paperwork. As for the editing we attempted to share it
out as equally as possibly, when one of our group was away (which
wasnt very much thankfully) we got them editing as much as possible
when they got back, so that we all had a fair crack at it. I dont think
any of us had very much experience, I think Stuart probably had the
most then me & Lois were about the same. We all sort of fell into our
roles naturally, we spoke about when we very first started filming and
we just stuck to them (as you might expect).
Other contributors- Personnel
As well as having the cast and crew there is also a lot of other people
that contribute to creation of a media text, such as;

Experts
Interviewees
Extras
Presenters
First aider
Accountants
Studio Audience(primarily for TV)

Those are just a few of the people that would contribute in some way or
another to the creation of a media text. For example, the news wouldnt

be a very good programme with the presenter or news reader telling

you whats happening around the world and linking to the various
correspondents. Similarly, a show like Piers Morgans life stories
wouldnt be very good without its interviewees. While First Aiders are
never really seen or heard from by the public, behind the scenes they
are vital to making sure no injuries occur, and if they do the first aider
can deal with it to stop it getting worse and holding up the production
which then costs more money.
Time
The time frame for our Depict project was two weeks, the first week
was filming and the second week was editing. We used our time well
and effectively, we got all our shots and were able to start editing
slightly before which meant we were able to finish our overall project
earlier. As a result of this we did try to tidy up and polish our production
as much as possible. We met all or deadlines and finished quite
comfortably within that time.
In the professional media industry everything is done to a very tight
schedule, because everything costs money, and the production only has
a limited supply, so deadlines are set to insure that the
production doesnt over run and cost too much money.
However if these deadlines are not met then that will
cause delays, sometimes things will have to be postponed
which unfortunately will then cost a lot of money. For
example if a Crane is hired for 3 days, but it ends up
being needed for a week then that will cost far more than
just three days, that also means that the production will
have fallen behind schedule. Entire films have been
cancelled because they ran to over budget that then can
also kill the career of the director because they will be
seen as too unreliable. Some notable films that went over
budget are; Avatar Alexander The Lone Ranger & Titanic Titanic
cost $200 million dollars to make. So the film about the ship cost more
to make than the actual ship! Also Titanic stole the title of most
expensive film from Waterworld.
Our group met our class-set deadlines, in fact we finished quite
comfortably before the deadline, so we double checked everything,
polished up our final piece and made sure everything was in order and
on our blogs.

Equipment
In the professional media industry equipment is obtain through facility
houses usually, which offer a rates card to the production. A rates card
is simply a card with the rates of all the different pieces of equipment
on it. One such facility house is The Hall. There are a number of
media related services that The Hall offers, these are;

Film Crews & Kit filming in HD or SD

A sound proof 30m2 TV studio with blue & green screen
Avid Symphony Nitris DX editing suite will full broadcast video
and audio monitoring equipment
Three HD/SD Avid media composer editing suites
A HD/SD final cut pro editing suite
Protools HD audio suite with V/O booth
Harding FPA testing
Format conversion suite
DVD/Blu-Ray authoring
I couldnt find any prices listed on their website, so it maybe that
a client would have to contact them about prices.
During our Depict production we had various equipment available
to us, such as;
Camera
Tripod
Dolly (or something very similar)
Studio
Various locations within college(offices etc)
Above is just a small list of some of the equipment available to
us. Unlike in the professional media industry we didnt have to go
to a facility house, but rather Dave Higgins in the
AV(audio/visual) Room. So I suppose it was sort of like a
production house, except its just a room & it doesnt cost.
Location
Before filming starts Location Recces are done and Location
Releases must be signed. A Recce is a few, or maybe just one
crew member(s) go and observe a location, to see if they would
like to use it for filming and what preparations would need be
made. We did a few Recces for our Depict production as we
needed to find a room we could use for a few of our shots, we

ended up using one of the small offices, which was fairly easy to
Recce, the only other place we used was the college Lobby, but
that didnt need to be Recced. During the Recces we did for our
Depict production we had to count the plug sockets in the rooms
we wanted to use and make sure there were no safety hazards.
Location Release
A location Release is what often comes after a Recce, its a form
that outlines the terms of the production team using a certain
location, often keeping it clean and returning it to the way it was
when they arrived is on there somewhere. A location release must
be signed by all the parties involved, and is often presented
during arrival.
When we were doing our Depict production we chose certain
locations because they were easy to get to and fit the narrative,
the first place we used was one small office usually occupied by
member of staff called Anita. This was easy to use and it fit our
narrative quite well, as for a couple of scenes we wanted our
protagonist to be in an office environment. The second place we
used was the college lobby, for pretty much the same reason, it
was easy to access and fit the narrative well.
As most of our film was inside the weather was not too much of
an issue for us, regardless, we also planned that if it was raining,
the one shot we needed outside could be shot just inside the
lobby. Another, and perhaps more substantial issue we faced was
absences. If one of us was absent that could have messed up our
schedule, but luckily none of us were off. However we made sure
that we filmed all the shots in which we needed specific people to
be there to make it work, first. During the production there is an
interview scene, however I wasnt filming that, because I was
absent that day, however we managed to sort it out by Lois
filming it and the cameraman remaining silent. Lack of equipment
or lack of location were two more issues we could have faced, but
by choosing to use college equipment and shooting in college we
negated that risk to almost nil.
Materials

Below is a list of the various materials that may be needed for a

production. Such as;
Food
Costumes
Petrol
Railcard
Script
Props
Documentation
Equipment
Achieves

Above is a small list of some of the things that may be needed for a
production.
Financial issues
Things like;

Cast
Crew
Equipment
Insurance
Copyright
Overall cost

Can all be labelled as financial considerations or issues. Luckily we had

very few if no financial issues what so ever.
Legal issues

Rights
Releases
Copyright(in all its many forms)
Product placement
Photos
Those are some of the legal issues when making a film, although
that doesnt seem like much, copyright comes in many forms, so I
have just put copyright on there as a whole and also the various
rights and releases can take time and money to acquire.
Copyright

Copyright is when a person, band, company or someone else has

their media text (music, TV shows, logo etc.) patented and
copyrighted. This then means that anyone who wants to use
that media text must pay the owner a certain amount of
money. Copyright can be the cause of many films and such not
being made as it can cause such a huge issue. However
copyright is not eternal, it only lasts 70 years, albeit that is a
long time. Copyright protection is automatically given when
someone creates;
original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work, including
illustration and photography
original non-literary written work, eg software, web content and
databases
sound and music recordings
film and television recordings
broadcasts
the layout of published editions of written, dramatic and musical works
Copyright acts like a barrier, to stop people from;
copying your work
distributing copies of it, whether free of charge or for sale
renting or lending copies of your work
performing, showing or playing your work in public
making an adaptation of your work
putting it on the internet
Luckily for us copyright didnt affect our production as everything in it was
copyright free.
Clearance is when a certain person, company etc is given permission to
use something by someone else. E.g. If I wanted to use one of Ed
Sheerans songs in a film I was making, Id have to get clearance from
him first.
Public Liability Insurance is when a production is insured up to a certain
amount for damages etc. For example I am Legend Had public liability
insurance totalling $5million, but this was due to the fact that they were
shutting down parts of New York City and were using Military personnel
and vehicles during some of their scenes.
A completion guarantee is when the investors are given a guarantee that
the film will be finished. An example of this would be if the film doesnt
get finished the production the investors will get their capital returned to
them with interest.

Regulation
OFCOM
Ofcom is the communications regulator for the UK they regulate
everything from Phone lines to TV. They were
formed and operate under the communications
act of 2003. Ofcom is a government funded and
set up regulator, thus they are accountable to
parliament. Below is a list of all of Ofcoms main legal duties;
the UK has a wide range of electronic communications services,
including high-speed services such as broadband;
a wide range of high-quality television and radio programmes are
provided, appealing to a range of tastes and interests;
television and radio services are provided by a range of different
organisations;
people who watch television and listen to the radio are protected
from harmful or offensive material;
people are protected from being treated unfairly in television and
radio programmes, and from having their privacy invaded;
a universal postal service is provided in the UK - this means a six
days a week, universally priced delivery and collection service
across the country

Moderate the radio spectrum (the airwaves used by everyone

from taxi firms and boat owners, to mobile-phone companies and
broadcasters) is used in the most effective way.

BBC Trust
The BBC trust is the regulator of the BBC. It consists of 12 trustees and
the chairman Rona Fairhead. The BBC trust is different to the executive
board as all the trustees are appointed by the Queen. The BBC trust is
different from Ofcom in a few ways, the first one being that only it
regulates the BBC, secondly the trustees are appointed by the Queen and
finally, the BBC trust answers to the general public and some BBC
bigwigs, whereas Ofcom answers only to the government.
BBFC
The BBFC are the British Board of Film Classification and they regulate all
British Films. The BBFC is entirely independent and all its money comes
from the fees it charges for it services. It has one President and two Vice
Presidents (click here to view their profiles on the BBFC website).
The BBFC film regulations are;

U- Suitable for everyone

PG- Parental guidance
12A- Cinema release suitable for 12
year olds if accompanied by an Adult.
12- Video release suitable for 12 year
olds
15- Suitable for 15 year olds
18- Suitable for 18 year olds
R18- Adults only working for licenced
premises

Ofcom have a lot of regulations the sections are;

Protecting Minors
Harm and Offence
Crime
Religion
Accuracy and Due impartiality undue prominence of views and
opinions
Elections and referendums
Fairness
Privacy
Commercial referencing in TV
Commercial referencing in Radio
Theres lots of regulations, however none would have affect our
depict production because we didnt tackle anything on the
regulations list. It wasnt scary, so if the BBFC rated it, it would be
either U or PG and as for Ofcoms regulations, we didnt do anything
that would damage minors, we didnt cause anyone harm or
offence, no crime or religion was portrayed etc. All in all our Depict
production wouldnt have been affected by the regulations.
Trade Unions & Trade Associations
Trade Union

A Trade Union is an organization of works that belong to a trade,

group of trades, or profession. They exist to protect the workers
rights and further their interests. Often workers will join a trade
union for that exact reason, to protect their rights and interests,
however another reason they may join a union is to achieve a
common goal, such as protecting the integrity or other aspects of
their trade. Some examples of trade unions are;
NUT(Teachers union)
BALPA(Airline Pilots union)
CATU(Ceramic & Allied trades union)
ATL(Education union)

ASLEF(Train drivers union)

BECTU(Media and Entertainment union)

PACT
PACT are a Trade Association that looks after independent film. According
to their website, PACT focus their efforts on four main areas, these are;
Policy
Diversity
Legal & Business affairs
International Exploration
PACT work both domestically and internationally helping to mould the
best regulatory and legislative environment for independent film makers
and their work. They provide a lot of advice and support for the legal &
business side of things, on their website they also say they campaign
strongly for producers rights. One of PACTs goals is to influence the
wider industry to commit to diversity, both on and off screen.
BECTU
BECTU is a Media and entertainment union broadcasting, theatre and arts,
independent production, film and digital media. BECTU offers a wide
range of services to its 25,000 members, these include:

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.

Trade Associations
A trade association, sometimes called a sector association or industry
trade groups will participate in public relations activities for their specific
industry, such as
Advertising
Political Donations
Education
Lobbying
Publishing
But its main purpose is Standardization, the collaboration between
companies. Other services are offered such as;

 Conferences
Networking
Charitable events
Trade associations are often made up from employers organizations, this
then has an impact on their role in social dialogue. A few examples of
Trade associations other than BACTU are;
BBA(Bankers association)
ATAC(Asbestos testing and consulting association)
ADBA(Aerobic digestion and biogas association)
BESA(Building and Engineering services association)
NFDC(Nation federation of demolition contractors)