I will be producing a one minute short film which will be called The Box. The synopsis is a group of friends find a weird looking box on their travels and take it to one of the friends house. When they get to the house they go up to the attic and look at what is inside of it. (Things such as hair, bones, antique jewelry, etc are in the box.) They find some weird sweets and one by one they eat it. Once they all finish eating the sweets, they all become possessed. I have been given the role as a Production Manager so i will be in charge of funding, sourcing, scheduling, and organizing. For funding, I will have to find ways to raise money for location hire, props, make-up and costume. For scheduling, I will have to find availability for hiring equipment to shoot. Lastly, for organizing, I will make sure everything is prepared before shooting, so when it is time to go and film we will not have to rush to get the last bits of equipment.
Type of Production:
I have been required to produce a short film in the horror genre, it will require a small crew, a script, a storyboard, certain locations, DSLR cameras, and LED lights.
Finance:
For my short film, I have decided on a budget which will be £50. There are many sources to raise money, such as KickStarter, applications to National Lottery, Pitches to investors and bank loans. I have chosen to use KickStarter because it is built around creative projects. They help filmmakers, artists, designers, etc. to make their ideas come to life. Many different people from around the world are able to donate money to people so their projects can be achievable. For my budget requirements, I will use the money for travel, food, equipment (if needed), crew, talent, materials, and facility hire. In a real life situation, for equipment hire, a DSLR camera will cost around £140.00 per day, a tripod will cost £15.00 plus VAT per day and lights will cost £35.00 plus VAT per day. However, because I am a student at a college that does media I will be able to borrow the equipment for free by using a booking sheet which shows proof that I have taken it out. For editing suite hire with final cut pro, for half a day, it will cost £150 and for a full day it will cost £250 for a full day plus VAT. I have a big advantage of using an editing suite for free because again I am a student in college and there are Mac Suites in my college which I can use for free to edit my short film. The agency I would use to get actors would be http://www.peopleperhour.com/freelance/freelance+actors because we can hire people for a small price per hour. However, because many people I know that can act, I can ask them to act in my short film for free.
Time:
There are consequences of missing deadlines, such as if the short film is not uploaded or given in at a certain time, that will result into failure of the course. We will need to spare enough time to book out equipment so we do not have to rush when it is too close to filming time. I will need to create a production schedule, book equipment using the booking sheet, have enough time to edit footage in the Mac Suite, shoot before the given deadline, complete the rough cut before the given deadline and lastly, submit the final submission before the given deadline. Failure to submit any one of these result into a NYA mark. There are many procedures involved such as breaking down the shoot into locations, set-up days and time, breaking down the editing time to hit the final deadline. Production Managers organize what is required by having schedules and deadlines, availability of equipment and availability of personnel. By having schedules and deadlines, it is important as when creating the pre-production report, we are able to move forward on what we will need to do for the Production; without the pre-production report, we will not know about the finance, timescale, crew and personnel, facilities, contributors, locations, etc. In order to book out equipment, I will have to use the booking system in college by going to the media equipment room and booking out equipment such as a camera, tripod, lights, etc. Also, with availability of personnel, I will create a call sheet to plan how to organize my crew and cast, and to also decide which actors deserve what role in the short film. The call sheets have the number of scenes there will be and what the scene names are. It also shows the location of where each scene will be filmed.
Crew and Personnel:
For a one minute short film, crew members will only need to have a few skills that meet the criteria and little experience. For this short film, we will need people that have simple skills and are able to carry out the jobs, however the producers job is to scout for good actors to make the short film a success. In total, there will be four Production roles that is needed, which are;
- Director
- Director of Photography (Camera Operator)
- Production Manager
- Production Assistant
1. They will need to think strategically
2. Creativity and imagination
3. Good communication and people skills
4. Take ability to lead and motivate others
5. Excellent organisational and planning skills
6. Initiative and problem-solving ability
7.Decision making ability
8. Good time management and budget awareness.
The skills of director of photography:
1. Need to be creative
2. Have good technical knowledge of the camera
3. Know all about the camera equipment
4. Be able to take decisions quickly
5. Know about photography, painting and the moving image
6. Have artistic vision
7. Be creative
8. Pay precise attention to detail.
The skills of the producer:
1. A good knowledge of the production process
2. Excellent communication and people skills
3. Creativity and vision
4. Good presentation and negotiation skills.
5. Leadership and management ability
6. Good planning and organisational skills
7. Financial skills and the ability to work on a budget
8. Confidence and motivation.
The skills of a production manager:
1. Be able to provide support and help when needed.
2. Good computer skills
3. Confidence, assertiveness and decisiveness
4. The ability to work well under pressure and to tight deadlines
5. The ability to manage people and delegate tasks
6. A willingness to work long or flexible hours when needed
7. A knowledge of first aid and health and safety
8. Excellent financial and business skills.
I have been put in a group with 4 creative minded people, and we all have different responsibilities. I was in charge of choosing the roles for my crew and specially gave them out according to their individual specialty.
Jordan: Director
Skills: Jordan has great communication skills and has an artistic perspective.
The job description of a Director:
The role varies tremendously from project-project, but, in general terms, a director has creative control over the project from when they come on board until the project is completed.
Rate Cards Price:
48hours per week: £1200-1345.
Calvin: Director of Photography
Skills: Calvin is very good at photography and has a good knowledge of the camera and how it works. This role is for him because he has an artistic vision.
The job description of a Director of photography:
The DOP is responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image, and is in technical charge of how the film is lit and shot.
Rate Cards Price:
10 hour day £380-426.
Facilities:
We will need shooting equipment, and a editing suite. I will need shooting equipment such as a camera, tripod, lights to use to shoot my short film. Without any equipment, there will be no short film. I will need an editing suite which has Final Cut X to put my short film footage together in order to hand it in before the deadline. The procedures, costs, and activity involved is that I will have to go to a media technician to book out the editing suite and to book out the equipment. The media technician will also do an equipment safety check to make sure none of the media materials are broken. An advantage of this is that it will not cost to book out any equipment because they are college resources. I will need kit list cams, lights, gels, reflectors, lenses tripods, dolly stabilizers, etc.
Materials:
Copyright free music, also known as Royalty Free Music, allows the purchaser (us) to pay for the music license only once and to use the music for as long as we want to. I will also use stock footage if I am not able to shoot in a certain location. I would use Shutterstock to get my stock footage. All clips range in prices; If I was to get a SD quality video, it would cost me £54, for SD quality £34, and for web it would be £14.
Paying for clearances is a good thing because it allows us to use and pay for footage, actors, radio stations (that are heard in backgrounds). It ranges from £50 upwards, so it will not cost much to use in the short film.
Contributors:
In order to book extras (if I need them), I would search online for them. I would pick a few extras I like, then fill out the casting brief where I will have to provide all information and also how much I would pay them, as we are free to choose how much we would pay. For talent, I will look for them myself as I know many people that are good at acting. In a worse case scenario, if I had no actors, I would have to go to an agency to get one or two actors. RKA Talent would be a good website to scout for actors because as I was searching through the website, I found a few actors that were on TV.
Locations:
The location I have chosen for my short film will be shot in an attic, as it is suitable for my genre, which is a horror genre. It will be easy to access, because it will be shot in my house. I will need the attic for when the group of friends open the weird looking box, and become possessed. This is because it will give the audience a feeling of suspense. The procedures I will have to take in organizing this is that I will have to take a risk assessment in order to make sure everything runs smoothly in order to make my short film a success. For recces, I will have to take pictures of the attic so I am able to justify and prove that I have a location to shoot. There are no costs and agencies involved because it will be filmed in my house.
Codes of Practice and Regulation:
For regulation, we will need to have specific documents in order for the short film to be prosperous. We need documents such as talent release forms, permissions for shooting on location, risk assessments. In order for us to shoot on our desired site, the producer has to contact the local council and ask for permission. In order for my film to be regulated, I will have to send my short film to the BBFC to make sure it will meet their requirements. My short film will be distributed onto two platforms, which will be YouTube and Film Festivals. However, YouTube do not have the authority to certify films.
For my short film, Followed, we decided to shoot at Southmere Lake in Thamesmead /Abbey Wood. For us to get this location, the producer had to email the council for permission.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, as my crew is small I have taken it upon myself that only one member from the crew should be in charge of getting equipment before the shooting date because for example, if a certain camera we want has been booked out by another student in the media class, we may have to change the day of when we shoot to a later date. By doing this, this gives us more time to get everything done before our deadline.
Bibliography:
http://www.rkatalent.com/
http://compasspartnership.co.uk/knowledge/leadership/5-skills-for-effective-directors/
http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/759_director_of_photography
http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/3068_production_manager
http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/3084_producers_assistant
https://www.kickstarter.com/about
https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-3450053-stock-footage-thunderstorms-energy-series-fact-very-similar-series-version-from-to-p.html?src=search/IK_AO26ltkNnWClB_o_Zhg:1:0/3p
https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/tvorfilmdirector.aspx
http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/759_director_of_photography
https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/tvorfilmproducer.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographer
http://www.sohobroadcast.com/hire.aspx
http://www.fact.co.uk/services-venue-hire/editing-suite-hire.aspx
Contributors:
In order to book extras (if I need them), I would search online for them. I would pick a few extras I like, then fill out the casting brief where I will have to provide all information and also how much I would pay them, as we are free to choose how much we would pay. For talent, I will look for them myself as I know many people that are good at acting. In a worse case scenario, if I had no actors, I would have to go to an agency to get one or two actors. RKA Talent would be a good website to scout for actors because as I was searching through the website, I found a few actors that were on TV.
Locations:
The location I have chosen for my short film will be shot in an attic, as it is suitable for my genre, which is a horror genre. It will be easy to access, because it will be shot in my house. I will need the attic for when the group of friends open the weird looking box, and become possessed. This is because it will give the audience a feeling of suspense. The procedures I will have to take in organizing this is that I will have to take a risk assessment in order to make sure everything runs smoothly in order to make my short film a success. For recces, I will have to take pictures of the attic so I am able to justify and prove that I have a location to shoot. There are no costs and agencies involved because it will be filmed in my house.
Codes of Practice and Regulation:
For regulation, we will need to have specific documents in order for the short film to be prosperous. We need documents such as talent release forms, permissions for shooting on location, risk assessments. In order for us to shoot on our desired site, the producer has to contact the local council and ask for permission. In order for my film to be regulated, I will have to send my short film to the BBFC to make sure it will meet their requirements. My short film will be distributed onto two platforms, which will be YouTube and Film Festivals. However, YouTube do not have the authority to certify films.
For my short film, Followed, we decided to shoot at Southmere Lake in Thamesmead /Abbey Wood. For us to get this location, the producer had to email the council for permission.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, as my crew is small I have taken it upon myself that only one member from the crew should be in charge of getting equipment before the shooting date because for example, if a certain camera we want has been booked out by another student in the media class, we may have to change the day of when we shoot to a later date. By doing this, this gives us more time to get everything done before our deadline.
Bibliography:
http://www.rkatalent.com/
http://compasspartnership.co.uk/knowledge/leadership/5-skills-for-effective-directors/
http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/759_director_of_photography
http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/3068_production_manager
http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/3084_producers_assistant
https://www.kickstarter.com/about
https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-3450053-stock-footage-thunderstorms-energy-series-fact-very-similar-series-version-from-to-p.html?src=search/IK_AO26ltkNnWClB_o_Zhg:1:0/3p
https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/tvorfilmdirector.aspx
http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/759_director_of_photography
https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/tvorfilmproducer.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographer
http://www.sohobroadcast.com/hire.aspx
http://www.fact.co.uk/services-venue-hire/editing-suite-hire.aspx
Unit 1 M1
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