Annie Fish
BTEC Level 3
Creative Media Production
The
Pre-Production Process
Types of moving
image production (media forms)
In groups, we
produced a short film of 90 seconds or less for the international film
competition DepicT!, which aims to provide “a priceless opportunity for
filmmakers to promote their work and make contact with a broad range of
international industry professionals from distributors and producers to funding
bodies and exhibitors, as well as other filmmakers and, of course, enthusiastic
short film fans.”[1]
The competition is
run online, and gives the chance for any aspiring film maker from anywhere
around the world to enter their work, providing you meet the requirements
detailed on their website. If your film is shortlisted, it will be screened at
the “extremely popular (and consistently sold out) DepicT! showcase, where the
winners are announced in front of an audience.”[2]
The winners are
awarded £2,500, and the opportunity to be screened at other popular international
film festivals, where previous winners have been “picked up by commercial
distributors… and have gone to carve themselves successful careers in the film
industry.”[3]
For our piece, the
only necessary means of distributing our work was to place it on YouTube, and
embed it into a blog post, therefore sharing it to our Google Plus account.
Through YouTube, everybody who wished to watch it could easily find it, and
share their opinions on how well it worked or what we could improve. There are
many other ways which this could be shared to a larger public, such as sharing
it onto our own personal Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, or any other
personal accounts we might own.
If
it were a higher budget production, it could be advertised through public
screens (which includes: digital advertisement boards, screens at film
festivals and cinemas, billboards), streaming online, digipacks, being spread
through fans, DVD’s and Blurays. Alongside being previously advertised widely
on in-home TV screens and public screens, a film of a high budget or just
affective advertisement can create a large revenue from people endorsing in the
creators project.
An example of this
is the 2004 cult classic Napoleon
Dynamite, which, with its $400,000 budget, managed to make a revenue of
over $48,000, meaning it raised over 5,667% return on its original budget.[4]
This happened due
to its praise from the audience, and being spread through public word –
therefore receiving more online advertisement and critique reviews.
Finances and
sources of funding
Due to our piece
being virtually free - we had a camera to film with in our group, money was
only spent on travel to and from our location. Because of this, we were able to
pay for everything ourselves, though a £5 budget was available for us to use.
Many indie films are funded by the people working on them – generally,
production team is small and the budget is quite low due to the realistic and
quirky themes running through indie culture and so money can be donated by each
member of the production team. In this instance, they’d have to work with what
they’ve got. For example, the film might take a “found-footage” route which
benefits the budget majorly as it doesn’t require extremely high quality
footage in order to create realism, tension and drama.
If the film
required a greater budget in order to use more facilities such as CGI and
special effects, then the director could pitch their idea on Kickstarter,
godonateme.com or other sources of crowd funding and ask for donations to reach
a set number, and possibly raise additional amounts.
This not only
gives the film funding but allows for people to become involved with the
production, as most successful pleaders continue to post updates on the
production of their movie once they’ve gained the support from their audience.
The people
involved in donating will probably get a special thank you during the movie,
too, which gives them more reason to get involved.
Likewise,
film-makers can raise money through events, such as cake-stalls, car-boots, asking
close friends and family members and e-begging (asking for donations through
YouTube, blogging or other means of social networking.)
An example of a
film funded solely by Indiegogo and crowd-funding is the 2014 film Lazer Team, by the YouTube company
Rooster Teeth. The crew asked for a total amount of $650,000, but got a
fantastic response and earned $2,480,099 thanks to 2,188 sponsors.[5]
The film is set
for release in 2016, and the poster itself has a small stamp on it which reads
“Funded by Indiegogo.”
Alongside the
funding for independent movies, there’s a great deal of ways for Hollywood
style movies to be financed. Included in this process is selling merchandising
rights to distributors, meaning they can use the logo and characters in order
to advertise your film, whilst they make profit from people buying the merchandise.
In order to fund the actual film
the production team will pitch the initial idea to studio executives, whom will
then have the ability to alter the making of the script alongside the actual
production process.
There are smaller companies which
work to improve the British film industry by funding smaller film makers such
as BFi whom “award Lottery funding to
film production, distribution, education, audience development and market
intelligence and research.”[6]
An example of a successful movie
funded by BFi is Frank, a 2003 movie
directed by Lenny Abrahamson, and starring Michael Fassbender and Maggie
Gyllenhaal.
Many film-makers
who are funded by the BFi follow this same path.
What the budget is
spent on depends on the director and genre of the film, though there are some
stand-alone things which people need in order to create a film in the first
place.
The first is
equipment; a camera, an appropriate set (this might not need to be paid for –
i.e. it’s private property owned by someone on crew, have permission – but
generally, most film sets require some funding put towards the place of
filming), tripods/dolly’s (this is not necessary for lower budget films, but
generally dramatically improves the final outcome of most movies), an editing
computer with editing software, lighting rigs and microphones and booms.
Secondly, you’d
have to fund the people who work behind the equipment – the crew. For instance,
a screenwriter selling his script to a director would have to use some of the
funds on said director. There would need to be a director of photography,
handling a lot of the camera work (a higher budget film might have more than
one of these – depending on the amount of cameras), a boom operator, an editor;
and you’d need actors, make-up artists, runners, a producer, a set designer, a
script supervisor, a gaffer, a special effects supervisor, a key grip, props
masters/builders and possibly assistant directors too.
If the film were a
lower budget, people working behind the camera might take it upon themselves to
act too – the film would be shot in a free location, or one which didn't
require travel to and from. Make-up artists might be directors of photography,
boom operators might be props masters/builders etc.
For instance, the Christopher
Nolan film Following had an extremely
small budget of $6,000[7],
and was filmed in homes and locations which belonged to friends of the
director, and used natural lighting instead of rigs.
In some instances,
the director and screen writer are two different people, and in this case, the
director would have to buy the rights to make the script into a movie, unless
the screen writer was willing to give them it for free.
We got all of our
equipment from the College, loaned by Dave the Equipment Manager, and used a
camera which Ellis owns so we didn't have to pay for anything. Because of the
fact we done all of our filming on private grounds, we didn't need to pay for
anything but travel which came up to £5 each, and we paid for that ourselves.
Personnel
The makeup of a
production team, alongside the talent on camera, can change depending on which
type of media product is being produced.
A very small, low-budget film, such as the
short Boy from earlier this year,
which runs for just under 15 minutes, and had a crew of 25 people, all working
on different details behind the camera[8].
The cast was small, too, and it was set in a normal family home which very
likely belonged to someone working on the film itself.
The make-up of
this particular cast consisted of the mere essentials a good quality film would
need: directors, editors and actors, alongside some additional members working
on the sound and script.
A thing about any
film is that the crew tends to stay consistent throughout the whole production
process. This does not apply to television series, where different writers
might be used for various episodes/seasons, and popular film directors might do
a one-off episode for a programme to up its status.
Whilst television
series like to be consistent and follow similar filming styles throughout in
order to keep continuity and not become confusing or dull, having episodes be
written by other people or directed by someone else can increase the awareness
of the show and bump up its popularity.
An example of this
is when Quentin Tarantino, renowned director of over 9 feature-lengths and
guest director of Sin City (2005),
wrote and directed 2 episodes in the CSI:
Crime Scene Investigation series which were premiered back in 2005[9].
Whilst some TV
shows do maintain a regular script writer, director and director of photography
for the whole duration of production, smaller roles such as make-up artists,
set designers and even runners will be switched out all the time due to the
long stretch of time producing a long-running TV series takes, and how much
funding they have at any given time.
The same may apply
for a Hollywood feature length movie, where some crew gets changed through
planning beforehand or during the creation. Many films have had actors drop out
last minute – or have crew change due to having to push back their production
schedule for one of many reasons.
The crew for a
feature length is much, much wider in the spectrum than the other types of
media production stated before. They require many assistant directors, editors,
set designers, make-up artists, producers, screen writers, story boarders,
distributors etc. and can practically change their entire crew if they’re
heading overseas to produce in various areas of the world.
Some movies offer
a collaboration of directors, even, such as the 2012 feature length The Owner, which totalled 25 directors
from all types of cultural backgrounds.[10]
The need for so
many members of crew takes a much larger time to plan and organise, and
produces a much higher budget – (but, therefore, generally higher grossing) –
product.
The film Ghandi (1982) featured 200,000 extras in
one scene, of whom 94,560 were paid under a small contract and the rest
volunteered for the role. Additional to this, there was 11 sets of different
crew who ended up producing over 20,000 feet of film, which was then cut down
to just over 125 seconds for the final edit.[11]
Unlike a low-budget short where
roles would likely be shared, in a high-budget Hollywood movie the roles would
be specialised and everybody would be experienced and talented at what they’re
doing.
We switched out editing a lot, with
the only person having experience with the editing software being Connor, and
helped out each other with how to arrange and change our piece whilst we worked.
We done a page of storyboard detailing each, filled out separate required
forms, helped out with the filming and wrote the script together, inputting
separate ideas to build on the initial piece we had in mind. This worked well,
particularly as a starting assignment as we didn't quite know where we’d fit in
better during the production, and so trying everything gave us an idea of our
strengths alongside things we had to work on.
Cast/other contributors
Other than people directly behind the camera, there are a large amount of people working of films at any one time.
The pre-production process for large, feature-length movies are long and vigorous and generally require a large crew in order to complete the process on time.
There must be concept artists, storyboarders, set-designers, illustrators, people involved in casting the talent which will appear, alongside them a casting director, assistant directors, sound designers, unit production managers, location managers, costume designers, choreographers - the list goes on. More than likely in a huge, Hollywood film, a lot of these roles will be filled by more than one person - and they will have assistants themselves, whom will keep contacts and organisation set out stably for them throughout the process.
Time
We had the course of 8 lessons to
plan, 8 lessons to film, and 8 lessons to edit for our short.
This time was used well, and we
spent virtually every moment working on the product so we ensured we fixed
anything which needed to be looked at and changed.
For the first 8 lessons, we agreed
on a basic idea and began to write rough scripts to make the story work better.
We had to change some details, such as the young girl in the bed not actually
being there, as we were unable to get a young girl to act in our piece in time,
but mostly everything else remained the same as the original idea was quite
easy due to it only taking place in one setting, and only having a few actors.
We also agreed on locations and
actors, and drew out storyboards during this time.
The filming was all done in one
day, as we had to film in a location far out of the way for most of the group.
It was plenty enough time, however, and we got extra time to edit which was
spent placing the clips onto a timeline, moving them around and recording
audio.
In order to make the most of our
time, we edited until the last moment where we had to upload it to youtube, and
in doing so slightly changed some fades in the audio and lengths of tracks
playing in the background.
There was plenty of time, and we
spent a lot of it experimenting with the various aspects of PremierPro, such as
the video editor where you could achieve a more darkened look to make the clip
look as though it was shot at nighttime, like our original idea insisted.
However, this didn't look as
effective as we’d imagined, and the curtains closed from daylight offered a
symbol of kooked-up madness on part of the father.
Luckily, we met all of our
deadlines, and it might have been due to the fact we had a very small crew and
short piece to create. If this were a larger piece, there would a be a higher
stress on meeting the deadlines set from a whole variety of people, such as the
owners of locations, distributors, actors and any part of the crew that isn't
solely devoted to this one product.
Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street had many rumours of having to push back
it’s release date, with tension heightened from the 2013 Oscars looming around
the corner.[12]
The reason for it’s delay was the extremely long initial run-time of over 3
hours, and detailed explicit content which had caused it to receive an NC-17
rating[13] - the film was
pushed back just over a month, being released initially on the 17th
of December, just in time to be included in the 85th Annual Oscar
Awards Ceremony, and was nominated for 5 awards, yet not winning a single one.
However, the movie still gained immense critical acclaim for it’s acting, editing
and soundtrack and won many other awards from Ceremony’s held across the globe.
Despite vigourous planning, many
feature-lengths miss deadlines due to a whole riddle of reasons, and can subsequently
miss out on the voting process for Award Ceremony’s where they may have been
nominated or highlighted, such as the 2011 film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The film was only ready by
December 2nd, pushed back months for difficulties during production,
and therefore missed out on the voting for NYFCC and NBR, two celebrated
American Award Ceremonies. It did, however, go on to collect two Oscar
nominations for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Max Von Sydow).[14]
This is only one issue that missing
deadlines can cause. Some difficulties push back production months, sometimes
even years, causing the team to lose certain members whom are only available for
a limited time.
There might need to be location
changes, if the initial location cannot be booked for a later date, more crew
hired, different actors needed, scheduling changed, accommodation and travel
sorted out – all of which are things which can dramatically change the outcome
of a film.
James Cameron is known for
perfectionism and delaying the release of his films. One of his most renowned
classics, Titanic, was originally set
for a Summer release of 1997, but was pushed months back to December in order
to reach Cameron’s high standards set for the movie. The same applies for his
3D film Avatar from 2009.[15]
Overall, meeting deadlines is
extremely important for people funding the film too. If they don’t believe
certain aspects will be done by the time they agree on, they can back out of
the funding as it would cost them extra money to continue paying for everything
the movie needs, including crew’s pay.
Rental companies will require
producers to have their equipment back at set dates, and therefore going over
it will either cost the film more money or require they do without, which can be
a fatal aspect of disorganised planning/unexpected circumstances.
Equiptment/facilities
In order to make a film, you’d need
some mandatory pieces of equipment which can be obtained in a variety of ways.
The first and foremost is to buy the pieces from funding you've acquired
yourself, or by other means. This can be helpful for future prospects in
film-making but is, obviously, extremely expensive if you’re looking at higher
end equipment ranges.
Plus, in order to make a film look
high quality, you’d require much more than just a basic camera.
Equipment for high-budget feature lengths
goes on lists and lists, but includes: many cameras, including still cameras
for planning the settings for a piece and for any still shots that might be
used in the movie; lighting rigs,and all of the other equipment used to
assemble it (some lighting rips come without light-bulbs); software for
editing, creating concept art and researching on, alongside the actual computer
to perform these things; microphones and
recording software; hard drives to store footage on; mounts for cameras,
including dollys, cranes and tripods to angle camera and get affective shots.
For professional productions, all
of this can be supplied by rental companies which provide high-end products for
feature-length movies, or smaller companies for a lower-budget film.
Media Facillity houses are
scattered all over the world, and provide practically everything a film-maker
could need for a price. A large one is placed in London, and provides
equipment for the BBC to use very regularly alongside some other large
production companies such as ClearFocus.[16]
They have recently worked on a
Panorama for BBC One, regarding the topic of War in Afghanistan. They provided
the filming equipment, the audio equipment and the distributing equipment to
people on the piece, and helped in the production themselves.[17]
For such a large company, the
prices are set high for anyone wishing to work with them. So high, that you
have to email them to ask for their prices as they do not detail them on their
website “Services” page.
Closer to home, there’s the shop Hughes, which
offers media equipment for cheaper prices to buy and keep for yourself. To
rent things, there’s continue
For our project, we were allowed to
rent equipment from the college, observed by the Media Equipment Manager who
scans Student ID cards and keeps track of where equipment is going and when it
will be back to ensure there’s no damage done to it.
Ellis owned the camera, however, and
so all we needed to borrow was a tripod and a microphone.
We filmed our piece at my own home,
which required we sign a release form completed with a signature from an
agreeing owner that footage shot at this location could be used in our final
piece.
A location release is a form filled
out by owners of plots of lands which film-makers wish to use for filming. It
agrees that the crew can set up and get footage at this place for a certain
amount of time, without them being interrupted or legally kicked off-site for
no valid reason.
In order to decide which locations
certain scenes should be shot in, during the pre-production process people will
analyse certain places, dependent on their appearance, availability, electrical
outputs and ease of access to determine which location is the best fit for
their film.
We only had a small collection of
places we could film. College was out of the question for the large majority of
our clip, as it was all placed in a bedroom. We could have attempted editing
this through the green screen room, but it wasn't necessary as my own bedroom
was available for the filming period and suited the design of the film much
better, in terms of colours, lighting and décor.
There was a potential boiler room
at College which would have worked well for the final hostage scene, but this
was made unavailable due to the health and safety risks it proposed.
Despite the long
travel time for the members of our group, we came together on a Friday and
filmed the whole thing in one day, re-arranging some shots as the chosen
location didn’t allow us to achieve certain shots from the story-boards as we’d
so thought. 
Due to the harsh
schedule of planning, we were limited with the time of day we could film at
too, and so the original idea of the piece being set at night was scrapped and
we placed it during the day, which does have an impact on the overall outcome
of the short. Other than that, everything else went smoothly as we planned and
we managed to get all of the footage we needed quicker than originally
expected, uploading it instantly to a hard-drive on Connor’s computer to back
it up in case it was lost for some reason.
The garage we filmed the last shot
in was so dark it required we used a candle to light Ellis’ face. This provided
an unaccounted for risk in the production, but was detained by keeping it away
from flammable equipment and sat on a stone floor.
The lighting in that shot turned
out quite affective regarding the mood we were trying to create, despite us having
to change around some things.
Materials
Moving image text’s require a whole
variety of material to obtain a particular genre/feel to the overall product.
Genres are created through many things other than just storyline and setting,
and can be completely turned dependant on the continuity of material used
throughout the film.
Every media text
requires props, which can move the narrative along through setting the scene,
or becoming visual stand-points for the characters on-screen to discuss, (for
example, the unknown contents of the briefcase throughout the duration of
1994’s Pulp Fiction); music, which
creates an atmosphere – this can contrast with the visual of the film, creating
a quirky individualistic approach to film-making. A lot of modern movies set in
older times use remixed DJ songs to contrast with the time period presented
on-screen. One of the most recent, high-budget feature length was The Great Gatsby by Bahz Luhmann. This
featured tracks from Fergie, Lana Del Ray and Jay Z amongst others[18], contrasting
completely with the 1920’s visuals on-screen to present to it’s audience a time
of partying, luxury and wealth. Tarantino has become somewhat of a standpoint
for his cleverly constructed soundtracks which add depth to the happenings on-screen
a large amount more than you might expect a song/score to do.
For a lower-budget short like our
own, we were asked to gain royalty free sounds, from websites such as
freesounds.org and freesfx.com which offer a collection of sound effects and
music clips placed in category’s allowing them to be used by anyone who might
need them.
In order to use popular songs which
have copyright laws against them, they’d have to be bought by a section of the
funding, or orchestras/artists are payed in person to create music fit for the
film.
Costumes set the time,
create a character’s personality, and can drive narrative along through using
stereotypical methods to portray people. They can develop a narrative, too, by
changing what the character wears dramatically you can symbolise change in the
character’s life, or perception of what’s surrounding them. For example, in
Nick Burger’s 2011 movie Limitless,
there is an obvious change in how the protagonist, Eddie Morra (played by
Bradley Cooper), originally a failed, depressed alcoholic who still mourns a
divorce from his wife, represented in large, knitted cardigans, a messy, dirty
head of hair and baggy pants with slip-on shoes; turns into a successful,
risk-taking drug addict who is only scene in fitted suits with gelled, styled
hair and a shaven face. It presents a change through his discovery of the
little blue pill, and presents an ironic twist on the story into how someone’s
vulnerability can become their reason for prosperity.
Costumes can be problematic for
film-makers as branded clothes would require companies to sell products to the
film crew, otherwise, the owners of brands of clothes which appear in movies
without contracts signed beforehand can lawfully sue the production team. The
same applies for music, scores, and props which might feature a particular logo
or mimic it in an obvious, spoof-like way.
The final piece of material
required is documentation, signed by the necessary people to agree to certain
things being featured in the media text, alongside documentation kept by the
production crew to assist with the creation process: things such as sketched
storyboards which remind director of photography of shot angles and
transitions for editors and filming schedules which are held by every member of
the crew behind the camera and before it.
Legal considerations
Whilst producing a film, there are
various legal matters to take into considerations. Most of them are covered by
copyright. Copyright is a law which covers a media product from legally being
used in other products that haven’t payed to do so.
The most common form is music,
which is covered on copyrighting grounds to not be used in any media product
whatsoever – this includes youtube videos, outside spaces (on the radio in a
public store), advertisements, TV shows, low-budget films and, even high-budget
films if they haven’t payed the required funds to allow them to do so.
There’s a risk involved in gaining
the required documents to use copyrighted items in a media text, too. If the
documents aren’t signed adequately, or are fake contracts, then the production
team can still be sued for not following the proper procedure during the
pre-production of the piece.
Logos and trademarks can be legally
filed against, even symbols of iconic celebrities. The 2011 sequel The Hangover Part 2 got a copyright
infringement claim against it due to one of the characters – Stu – waking up during
the movie with a replica of Mike Tyson’s tattoo on his own face.[19]
The tattoo was featured in the
promotional posters, despite the lawsuit almost affecting the release of the
film, and the possibility that, if the two concerned parties could not agree,
the tattoo would have to be digitally removed from the home release version.[20]
In case of characters or talent
appearing in a certain media text when it is contracted to another, talent
forms would have to be reviewed and contracts analysed. If it turns out that
people appeared in one thing when they were obliged to only feature in a media
text produced by a certain company, the person themselves can be fined and
their contract can be discounted for further activities.
There are certain methods used for
ensuring a film is able to be distributed to the public. The act of getting
releases for all brands, logos, products and trademarks in a media text is a
clearance, and involves ensuring all of said things are “cleared” in the media
product.[21]
“Cleared” is just another term for agreeing to use in terms of the manufacturers
or businesses that own what is the point of interest.
Some releases will be
filled out during pre-production, and one’s that are required to be filled out
during production should be done before filming of that paticular brand or
trademark begins. This means that if you're unable to acquire the paperwork to
use the brand or logo, then you can find or create a substitute which may work
out cheaper and just as affective. 
Branded products can
be iffy during filming. A large majority of the time, if a logo can be
recognised in the background of a shot but is not distinguishable, it would not
require legal documents to feature in that scene – however, this is not always
the case.
For these reasons, spoof movies,
such as Waynes World, which mock the
use of product placements in films for comedic value, spend a lot of their
budget on buying the rights to feature products in their films. The total
estimated budget for Waynes World,
directed by Penelope Spheeris and written by and starring Mike Myers, was
$20,000,000[22],
and a large majority of this was spent carrying out clearances for the many
scenes with deliberate products in shot.
Legally, movies in production are
required to pay Public Liability Insurance, which covers the possibility that a
member of the public might be harmed during the process of production.
Paticularly, in this case, the
matter of people’s public property being harmed or damaged in the name of
cinema. A crew of people who had inflicted harm on a member of the public and
did not have PLI could be sued individually, or as a company.
There’s also a chance that the
production will be delayed/pushed back so far that filming and editing becomes
an impossible process, and in many cases films have had to be scrapped
mid-production.
There are many reasons why this
might happen, an example of which being the unfortunate death of Paul Walker
during the filming of Fast and Furious 7. This sparked rumours that the film
would be restarted completely, another actor recast in Walker’s place.[23]
Due to the fact funding might have
to be increased over time for a product the director could very well scrap
whenever he pleases, Completion Guarantee Insurance is set in place to ensure
people do not get conned for money, or otherwise lose money through an
uncompleted film.
Regulation
A regulatory body is a set of
people who analyse the suitability of a media text and ensure that it meets a
certain set of points on a “check-list.” This includes preventing scams and
sharp practices from reaching the public, and allowing competition to thrive.[24]
There are certain sets of
regulators which focus on paticular aspects of the media. Ofcom is a
communication regulator set in the UK, and focuses it’s work on TV, Radio,
fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which
wireless devices operate.[25]
Ofcom provide the regulation which
ensures that the content delivered to the public through said media texts above
do not contain offensive or explicit material, alongside providing a wider
range of themes and genres on television and radio, which attracts a wider
audience of audience of people to endorse in the products.
The BBC is regulated by Ofcom, but
only to a certain degree. Because the BBC provides services all around the
world, Ofcom merely regulate the UK sector of it’s buisness. The larger scale
of it is grant-in-aid funded.
Ofcom still focuse on the areas
they do for everything else, but are more limited to the company as they cannot
control the regulation of content being sent out worldwide.
Whilst Ofcome regulates
communications, BBFC regulates film classifications. They review movies
distributed in Britain and award it a rating, from U to 18.[26]
They can determine whether a film
should be allowed to be distributed or not. Many films in the past have been
deemed too explicit to be sold in stores and made available to the public.
An example is The Bunny Games which was deemed too innapropriate for audiences
due to extreme levels of violence, and had been cited as being potentially
highly harmful to it’s watchers under the Video Recordings Act 1984[27], as regulated
by the BBFC.
It is required by law for each
media product that the public can buy to have an age rating on it in a clear position
in order to inform people of the content of the text.
A more detailed outlook on what
creates the age rating can be found on the back of a case, and it is illegal to
cover these symbols up in second-hand stores, with stickers and promotional
symbols.
Content which is distributed via
the internet requires the same diligint regulation. BBFC have connections with
many ‘OnDemand’ services avaible online, where they give an age rating
alongside the product according to the guidelines of each rating.[28]
It is illegal to distribute
unclassified items either online or in-store, and companies can be sued and
shut-down because of this.
Of couse, online streaming on illegal
websites – even where the film has the age classification label printed next to
it – is illegal no matter the circumstance. If the viewer does not have to pay
to watch, it is not permitted by law unless the film is from an indie company
distributing their own content.
Ofcom follows a similar set of
rules. The content released through communicative media does not require it
have an age rating, although the content must be specific to a certain brand
and meet pre-watershed requirements if that is when it’s aired, either on
television or radio.
The mood of our Depict! Piece is
quite sinister and dark, with a sadistic underlaying theme of murder and
supposed rape of a minor. However, the lack of visual portayal of this,
alongside no apparant other explicit content like swearing, violence, or sex
means that our piece does not qulify for a BBFC rating of anything above a 12.
Trade Unions and Trade
Associations:
A trade union provides assistance
to people employed by companies. This can involve dictating whether certain
companies have an inherent pattern of being sexist, racist, homophobic, ageist
etc. against people that they hire, ensuring that people are getting paid the
right amount for the set of skills and talents they possess, have job safety,
given the correct amount of working hours and are not subject to abuse from
their employer among many other things which provides a safer working environment
for everyone involved.[29]
In media, there
have been many accounts for assault, illegal activities, unjust treatment and prejudice
to name a few, some issued by high-class celebrities.
In 2013, Cory
Feldmen (actor which has starred in films such as The Lost Boys, The Goonies) released a ‘Coreyography’
– a memoir which detailed his
accounts of sexual assault as a young male in the film industry. It told of his
and Corey Haim’s (co-star The
Lost Boys) stories
of the countless number of times they had been misled into committing sexual acts
with much older men who paid them, hired them and abused them.[30]
Due to the constant public following
celebrities receive, their home-lives become stories told by people around a
dinner table, and are almost immune to sympathy from people on-looking as their
characterised façade begins to possess their real-life.
A trade union works to defect abusers like the
ones who sodomised Feldmen and Haim countless times throughout their careers.
PACT is the trade association that represents the commercial interests of UK
independent television, film, digital, children’s and animation media
companies.
PACT is
socially responsible and seeks to influence the wider industry to commit to
diversity on and off the screen. They
work closely with broadcasters and producing groups to create training
opportunities and promote fair access for all.[31]
BECTU is the UK's media and entertainment trade union;
sectors covered include broadcasting, film, independent production, theatre and
the arts, leisure and digital media.[32]
[1] http://www.depict.org/about/
[2]
http://www.depict.org/about/
[3] http://www.depict.ord/about/
[4] http://www.businesspundit.com/10-most-profitable-low-budget-movies-of-all-time/
[5] http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2014/09/50149-crowdfunding-best-top-10-successfully-funded-kickstarter-indiegogo-films/
[6] http://www.bfi.org.uk/about-bfi
[7] https://www.raindance.org/site/index.php?aid=3790
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwV7ENOTeek
[9] http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233/#director
[10] http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/4000/most-directors-of-a-film
[11] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083987/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv
[12] http://variety.com/2013/film/awards/will-martin-scorsese-and-david-o-russell-films-meet-new-york-film-critics-deadline-1200731511/
[13] http://screenrant.com/wolf-wall-street-movie-release-date-jack-ryan-2014/
[14] http://variety.com/2013/film/awards/will-martin-scorsese-and-david-o-russell-films-meet-new-york-film-critics-deadline-1200731511/
[15] http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-delayed-films-of-2013-why-these-films-were-pushed-back-and-what-will-you-be-seeing-20130123
[16] http://www.the-hall.co.uk/testimonials.html
[17] http://www.the-hall.co.uk/recent_work.html
[18] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby:_Music_from_Baz_Luhrmann's_Film
[19] http://mentalfloss.com/article/53331/8-famous-movies-and-lawsuits-plagued-them
[20] http://mentalfloss.com/article/53331/8-famous-movies-and-lawsuits-plagued-them
[21] http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/before-you-start/content-clearances
[22] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105793/
[23] http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Fast-Furious-7-May-Scrap-Production-Restart-Following-Paul-Walker-Death-40548.html
[24] http://www.ofcom.org.uk/about/what-is-ofcom/
[25] http://www.ofcom.org.uk/about/what-is-ofcom/
[26] http://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-bbfc
[27] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_banned_in_the_United_Kingdom
[28] http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/digital-age-ratings
[29] http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/introduction-to-trade-unions
[30] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/21/corey-feldman-sexual-abuse_n_4136524.html
Hi Annie,
ReplyDeleteGreat piece of work with some well researched examples backed up with excellent points.
-Something needs to be altered on the formatting on your blog. (pictures, paragraphs)
-A lot of pictures are not appearing. Is this because you copy and pasted directly from word?
-Extend areas that are lacking a bit more detail i.e. trade associations.