City and Islington work: Unit 1 pre-production techniques for the creative media industries

In this essay , there are information about what codes of practice and regulations related to the media industry is and what is the process of filming it is . There is information on the pre production process and time management techniques in filming. I have added points on about the budget and the how the money is used. There is information on what will happen when the deadlines have not met and all the process of pre production in film.
Deadline is the most important part of filming; this is because you would need to have a goal to aim at so the dates of the film deadlines are the aim for the cast and crew. The deadlines are important when you are pitching you film to the company which is going to give you funding to make this film. They need to know when you are planning to start filming, when you will finish filming and all the dates you will be filming and editing. If you do not finish on the deadline, you will go over your budget, because as much time you use the more money you will waste and this is not good news for the company which has given you the funding to finish the project on time. The company may cut some of them money which has been given as the time management is not good.

The director would need to make a Production Schedule before they start filming. Then once that’s done, the director would need to go with the dates on the production schedule. This helps them to know what days they are filming on not filming. This would be the method that helps keep the timing on time. There is the list of crew there are in the film, the cast and the final deadline of the film so that they know when the film needs to be finish. Sometimes the film needs to be rescheduling as if they is a problem with the cast or a problem with the equipment. See the final deadline will remind the director that they do not have time and that the reschedule date needs to be in a short period of time. What is not good about the production schedule is, if there is any rescheduling, there will be no space to write them down or change dates. You will only know what you are doing each day. Sometimes the dates might not be working as one of the scenes might be longer then they though about it. Here’s and example of a production schedule for a student filming project:

Production schedule
Production: homeless life
Start date : Wednesday 26 January 2011		Final deadline : Wednesday 11 May 2011
Crew: Director : Sinem Kent Editor : Neron Turner Power Camera assistants: Ellee Ford, Shanay Sawyers and Rukshana Khatun Location manager: Ellee Ford and Shanay Sawyers Production Admin: Sinem Kent Neron Turner Power Ellee Ford Shanay Sawyers		Cast : Teacher : Tassia kobylinska Mother : Lucy Cavalier Daughter: Rachael
Date	Action		Personnel
Wednesday 26 January	Production meeting : Talking about the production roles, action plan, casting and script/ script locations		Sinem Kent , Neron Turner Power, Ellee Ford, Shanay Sawyers , Rukshana Khatun
Wednesday 2 February	Production meeting, taking about the logo, taking about production schedule, dates of filming.		Sinem Kent , Neron Turner Power, Ellee Ford, Shanay Sawyers , Rukshana Khatun
Wednesday 9 February	Production meeting : Paper work all printed out and put in to the folder. Going to the drama department and putting up posters for actress		Sinem Kent , Neron Turner Power, Ellee Ford, Shanay Sawyers , Rukshana Khatun

Another common method which is Gantt chart. Then, what is a Gantt chart? A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts also show the dependency (i.e., precedence network) relationships between activities. Gantt charts can be used to show current schedule status using percent-complete shadings and a vertical "TODAY" line as shown here.
Here is an example of a Gantt chart:

Gantt charts are useful because you see the week you have got, what has not been done and what needs to be done by that date. Gantt charts are not often used the film but sometimes is used to make things care on what is done and not done or if the film production is longer then 3 months. The Gantt chart is shown to the company who has given the fund so that they know where the film is at and see if more money has been used because of the timescale and not meeting the deadline. What I like about the Gantt chart is that you can see what the steps are to end the film. You can see who you need to work with and in what period of time. It will even help you one your budget as you will know who you need in what weeks and who you will not so you do not over pay people as you might not need them. The bad thing about the Gantt chart is, it does not show you what you need to do each day. No dates on it, only the date of when it’s going to start and when it ends to end so the film and move on to the next thing.

The equipment is the main thing on the filming list. The budget gets in here, because to rent the camera and lighting you will need to pay. When you do the production schedule, you will add the days you will be filming and for those days you will need to rent all the equipment or get it all ready to go. If you do not get the equipment ready for the filming day, the filming will be cancelled and all the money will be pointless as all the crew and cast would be ready. The camera is the main thing because without the camera there is not film. As the cameras are really expensive, the director would need to rent them. Once you get the camera you will be charged for the camera. Lighting is something you will need with the camera. No light no filming. The lighting equipment is heavy as well so moving it a lot around will be difficult. You will again rent the lighting equipment as well. The pay will start to charge as soon as you have got the lighting equipment. Costumes is something which needs to be done before the dates for filming is organized because if you do not have the right costumes then the story you are telling is pointless. Costumes are something the costume manager will need to organize. Find the places they can get the costumes or the fabric to make them. If some costume needs to be made, it will need to be make in the pre production time, once the film company gave the fund to start the filming. Yet again if the costume is not ready on time, the whole filming dates will claps. The timing and dates are important because all of the equipment used in filming do cost and if you are not organized with the dates and times you may waste a lot of money and this will not make the funder happy.

Transport is the main cost in the whole filming industry. On the film there will be locations where you would need to film. The researches will found places which looks the same in storyboard. Once that’s done you would need to rent a tour bus so you can take all of your crew and cast to the location. The tour bus is money as well; they might not be available as well. So the researches need to found a tour bus company which is available on the date you will be travelling and the date you will be heading back. This will take about 1 day to found the available tour bus. Once that’s done, when the day comes the whole crew and cast will go to the location of the scene.

The crew and cast. All of these people get paid as well. On the production schedule you will write down the people you need and for what days. The Gantt chart is the same. To get all the filming done you would need to get all the paper work done, so researches are needed in this point. Research, script writers and director/ producers are needed to get all of the pre production finished. They all cost. So looking at the production schedule you will call the people you need, once you get them to work you will start paying for them. If you do not need them you will not call them and with that you will not pay them as you have no us of them any more. This is why the production schedule is useful as it show who you need for each day. As when there is re scheduling happening, the big problem is to get all the crew and cast together. As for some of the crew, they might have different things to do and not be available. If one of the crew is free to shoot the film, others might not so re scheduling is a really hard and important thing to do. So if you do not want to waste time on thinking about doing theses, you would need to stick to the production schedule and make sure everything is on time.

When using a music or and video from another film, you would need to fill in a me Copyright Clearance Forms so that once the film is out in the industry, you would start paying for the music/ video you are using in the film. The copyright clearance forms needs to be filmed before the video is out to its audience. Copyright clearance forms are called Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society. So what is Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society? The Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) are an organisation who pays royalties to composers, songwriters and music publishers when the song they have created has been manufactured into any format. This includes copies of the music alone such as CDs and downloads, and also products which use the music as a part of their soundtrack, such as films and computer games. MCPS are the sponsors of the Gold Badge Awards and have been for 22 years. So as the film meets the audiences, you would start paying Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society because you are using a music that belongs to a different company.

Codes of practice

Clearances
Mechanical copyright protection society – performing right society alliance( MCPS-PRS)
The Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) are an organisation who pay royalties to composers, songwriters and music publishers when the song they have created has been manufactured into any format. This includes copies of the music alone such as CDs and downloads, and also products which use the music as a part of their soundtrack, such as films and computer games. The MCPS has 17,000 members and was founded in 1911. MCPS are the sponsors of the Gold Badge Awards and have been for 22 years. MCPS entered into an operational alliance with PRS (the Performing Right Society) in 1997, called the MCPS-PRS Alliance.

Model releases

Get permission to use photos. A model release, known in similar contexts as a liability waiver, is a legal release typically signed by the subject of a photograph granting permission to publish the photograph in one form or another. The legal rights of the signatories in reference to the material is thereafter subject to the allowances and restrictions stated in the release, and also possibly in exchange for compensation paid to the photographed.Publishing an identifiable photo of a person without a model release signed by that person can result in civil liability for whoever publishes the photograph

Adult Release: This is the form most commonly referred to as a "model release". The language of this release is intended for use by models over the age of 18 (the age of majority)
Minor Release: This variant of the model release contains language referring to the model (who is a minor) in the third-person, and required signature by a parent or other legal guardian of the model. A release which is not signed by a parent or guardian affords no legal protection to the publisher.
Group Release: This is a modified version of the Adult Release which includes additional signature lines to accommodate use by multiple models or subjects in a single image.

Location permissions
Location permission is a thing where you get permission from the owner to film in that location. With out that you will not be able to film in that location.

Legal
Copyright
Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by the law of a jurisdiction to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. Exceptions and limitations to these rights strive to balance the public interest in the wide distribution of the material produced and to encourage creativity. Exceptions include fair dealing and fair use, and such use does not require the permission of the copyright owner. All other uses require permission and copyright owners can license or permanently transfer or assign their exclusive rights to others. Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression or fixation. In most jurisdictions, copyright arises upon fixation and does not need to be registered. Copyright protection applies for a specific period of time, after which the work is said to enter the public domain.

Dictionary definition: the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc.: works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of the author or creator and for a period of 50 years after his or her death.

Health and safety

Occupational health and safety is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. The goal of all occupational health and safety programs is to foster a safe work environment. As a secondary effect, it may also protect co-workers, family members, employers, customers, suppliers, nearby communities, and other members of the public who are impacted by the workplace environment. It may involve interactions among many subject areas, including occupational medicine, occupational (or industrial) hygiene, public health, safety engineering, chemistry, health physics.

Legal - Occupational requirements may be reinforced in civil law and/or criminal law; it is accepted that without the extra "encouragement" of potential regulatory action or litigation, many organisations would not act upon their implied moral obligations.

Insurance
Public liability
Public liability is part of the law of tort which focuses on civil wrongs. An applicant (the injured party) usually sues the respondent (the owner or occupier) under common law based on negligence and/or damages. Claims are usually successful when it can be shown that the owner/occupier was responsible for an injury, therefore they breached their duty of care. The duty of care is very complex, but in basic terms it is the standard by which one would expect to be treated whilst one is in the care of another. Once a breach of duty of care has been established, an action brought in a common law court would most likely be successful. Based on the injuries and the losses of the applicant the court would award a financial compensation package.

Completion insurance

A completion guarantee (sometimes referred to as a completion bond) is a form of insurance offered by a completion guarantor company (in return for a percentage fee based on the budget) that is often used in independently financed films to guarantee that the producer will complete and deliver the film (based on an agreed script, cast and budget) to the distributor(s) thereby triggering the payment of minimum distribution guarantees to the producer (but received by the bank/investor who has cash flowed the guarantee (at a discount) to the producer to trigger production).The producer will agree to deliver a film (based on an agreed script/cast/budget) to a distributor in respect of certain territories in consideration (inter alia) for payment of a "minimum distribution guarantee" payable at the point in time when the producer has delivered the completed film. The producer obviously requires such funds upfront to finance the film so the producer takes signed the distribution contract to a bank/financier and will effectively use it as collateral against a production loan - it is at this stage that the bank will require a completion bond to be involved to provide them with the required level of security against the risk non-delivery by the producer. The parties to the completion bond agreement are typically the producer, the financier(s), the completion guarantor company and the distributor(s).

Regulatory bodies
Ofcom
Ofcom is the United Kingdom's regulatory body for telecommunications. This means they are responsible for making sure that the law is followed by television and radio broadcasters.

Press complaints commission ( PCC)
The PCC is an independent self-regulatory body which deals with complaints about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines (and their websites). We keep industry standards high by training journalists and editors, and work pro-actively behind the scenes to prevent harassment and media intrusion. We can also provide
pre-publication advice to journalists and the public.

Advertising standards authority ( ASA)
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media, including TV, internet, sales promotions and direct marketing. There role is to ensure ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful by applying the Advertising Codes.The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the self-regulatory organisation (SRO) of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice ^[1] broadly reflects legislation in many instances. The ASA is not funded by the British Government, but by a levy on the advertising industry.

Pan European game information ( PEGI)

Pan European Game Information (PEGI) is a European video game content rating system established to help European parents make informed decisions on buying computer games with logos on games boxes. It was developed by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) and came into use in April 2003; it replaced many national age rating systems with a single European system. The PEGI system is now used in more than thirty countries and is based on a code of conduct, a set of rules to which every publisher using the PEGI system is contractually committed. PEGI self-regulation is composed by five age categories and eight content descriptors that advise the suitability and content of a game for a certain age range based on the games content. The age rating does not indicate the difficulty of the game or the skill required to play it.

Entertainment software rating board ( ESRB)

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games and other entertainment software in Canada and the United States. The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (formerly Interactive Digital Software Association). By late 2009, it had assigned nearly 19,130 ratings to titles submitted by more than 350 publishers.

British board of film classification ( BBFC)

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom. It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games under the Video Recordings Act 2010

Trade unions

Producers’ alliance for cinema and television ( PACT)
Pact is the UK trade association that represents and promotes the commercial interests of independent content producers from feature film, television, children's & animation and interactive media companies. Headquartered in London, Pact has regional representation throughout the UK, in order to support its members. Pact's Diversity Pledge is a voluntary pledge, which all Pact members are invited to sign. In doing so, they express their commitment to diversity in the production sector to their peers, broadcasters and key stakeholders. To help Pact members deliver on the commitments in the pledge quickly and efficiently, we have put together a Pact Diversity Toolkit. Each section of the guide relates to one of the commitments in the pledge, and it includes all the contacts, guidance and sample forms needed to fulfil the pledge. The guide is focused on providing practical information, for example how to link up with local schools in a strategic way, or what to do if you are considering interviewing a person with a disability. The Pledge is backed by broadcasters including Channel 4, Five and ITV, as well as key stakeholders, who see it as a way for Pact members to show their commitment to diversity, both in front of and behind the camera.

National union of journalists ( NUJ)

The NUJ has welcomed an official report that urges improvements in police treatment of journalists. ‘Responding to G20’, compiled and published by the Metropolitan Police Authority Civil Liberties Panel, is based on consultations with media workers and protestors.The Panel recommends that The Met must: “review its approach to news management to facilitate transparent and fair reporting by the media and “citizen journalists.If containment is used, officers should be required to record when they prevent journalists from crossing containment cordons and the reasons for doing so”. “improve awareness of the Press Card”. On the question of the Press Card, the report says “there is a training need to ensure that all officers are aware of its implications”. NUJ Freelance Organiser John Toner said: “The NUJ assisted the Panel in organising its session with media workers, and we are pleased to see that our concerns have been acknowledged and endorsed. “Members often report that they encounter police officers who have neither seen nor heard of the Press Card, and we look forward to hearing how the MPS will implement this particular recommendation. “We also hope that this is not a report that will be forgotten about. We look to the Panel to monitor how their recommendations are implemented and to evaluate the impact of their report in a year’s time.”

Broadcasting entertainment, cinematography and theatre union ( BECTU)

The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU) is a trade union in the United Kingdom. It has around 26,500^[2] members who work in broadcasting, film, theatre, entertainment, leisure and interactive media.BECTU was founded in 1991 with the merger of the Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians (ACTT) and the Broadcasting and Entertainment Trades Alliance (BETA), the history of which can be traced back to 1890.The union is financed entirely by individual subscriptions from members. BECTU's affiliations include the Trades Union Congress, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, Union Network International, the General Federation of Trade Unions, the Federation of Entertainment Unions and the Labour Party.

Trade associations

The independent games developers’ association ( TIGA)
TIGA (The Independent Game Developers’ Association) is the national trade association representing the business and commercial interests of video and computer game developers in the UK and Europe. Its counterpart representing software publishers in the UK is ELSPA.
TIGA was launched in 2001 by DTI Minister Patricia Hewitt MP, initially focussed on representing the 300 or so independent studios in the UK, but has since evolved to represent all developers - both Publisher owned studios and independents.

Entertainment and leisure software publishers’ association ( ELSPA)
The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) is an organization set up in 1989 by British software publishers. It was known as The European Leisure Software Publishers Association until 2002.

British interactive media association ( BIMA)

The British Interactive Media Association or 'BIMA' is an industry body representing the digital industry in the United Kingdom.Formed in 1985, BIMA is a membership organisation primarily made up of digital agencies. The organisation is run by an elected Executive Committee of 13 Members who are voted in at the AGM.

On the conclusion, the information found out about pre production is that the important part is the timing. Everything else is connected to the timing as if you do not meet the deadlines you will need to pay money to the crew or cast. There are many different types of codes of practice that films should conceder about, I did not know this until I have done the codes and practice research. When you us someone else’s work, you would need to pay the company who owns it, this was something’s which mostly films, documentaries and news reports do as they might use footage or music in the video. I have found out two different types of methods used to keep time management. One is production schedule, which is the most common in film. As film projects are shorter then web designing or game designing, production schedule is useful because it lay outs all the dates and what will be done on those days. Gantt chart is a different type of method, which is used in longer projects. I am guessing Avatar would have used this type of method as it shows the week you have, who you will need from the crew and what is being on time. So at the end of this essay I have found out that the timing is the main thing directors should conceder.

City and Islington work

Thursday 8 March 2012

Unit 1 pre-production techniques for the creative media industries

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