In our particular digital video production, we aim to create an interesting promotional video for our school`s PE department which shows all the "good work" that goes on in their department, as well as their continuation of the "Olympic legacy" and showing their ethos.
In this post, I will be covering all of the following:
- Finance
- Time-scale
- Personnel
- Facilities
- Materials
- Contributors
- Locations
- Codes of Practice
Clearly, each of these aspects are completely essential to every media production and, through the duration of this post, I specificly describe how.
Finance:
Clearly, finance is a key element to any good video production. In the industry, simple tasks such as using cameras, visiting locations and hiring equipment require some sort of cost.
In addition, hiring actors and personnel can be an expensive process and is rarely free. Actors must be booked in advance and a price is normally agreed priar to the shooting. Therefore, in the industry, it is important a shooting schedule has been assembled in order to correctly plan the hours of each required actor. Therefore, it is possible to optimise their use to ensure that they are not being payed for wasted time.Similarly, crew members such as directors, cameramen and produces all require a pre-determined salary so similar planning elements are also necessary to cater for their financial needs.
Luckily, in our particular production, we have all the equipment and locations we need which, in addition happen to be free for us to use. This is excellent since we have very little budget to spend. Fortunately, since the majority of our production will be filmed in a documentary style, no actors will need to be hired and myself and Josh will be taking the place of any crew members required. Clearly, myself and Josh will be working for free and, as a result, the cost of personnel appears to be more or less insignificant.
Time Scale:
With almost any project, a suitable time-scale is completely necessary in order to conduct a well managed project.
Unlike the finance category time management is completely relevant to our project since our project has a definitive deadline.
In the industry, time management is important since it allows each person involved in the project to know where they need to be, what they need to be doing and when they need to do it. Similarly, each project within the industry will always have a deadline. As a result, if these deadlines are missed, serious consequences may follow - such as the loss of occupations or maybe the forfeit of the entire project. Although, with effective time management, such as a Gantt chart, deadlines cannot fail to be met assuming that each member of the team is fully informed as to the schedule.
Echoing the above, myself and Josh have created our own Gantt chart, which can be seen in the image on the left. More specifically, a Gantt chart provides users with timings, dates, descriptions and schedules.The key advantage with using a Gantt chart comes into play when managing larger projects. These projects, with potentially hundreds of tasks, are impossible to memorize. Therefore, having a computer manage all of these tasks, no pieces of work can be forgotten and each task can have sufficient time dedicated to it in order for it to be of high quality.
In our project, the three main phases of our project our pre production, production and post production. Clearly, we are in the pre production process at present and are scheduled to finish this phase ready for 14/12/2012. Similarly, the production stage is scheduled to be completed by 25/1/2012 (excluding the Christmas holidays) and post production will be completed by 12/2/2012 according to our Gantt chart
Personnel
Again, no project can be attempted with nobody to participate in it. Especially when looking at TV/Film credits, it becomes more and more apparent just how many personnel are required to create a high quality media product. Just a few of these roles are listed above:
- Director
- Cameraman
- Producer
- Graphics Designer
- Overseer
- Editor
- Sound Co-ordinator
- Special Effects Co-ordinator
- Project manager.
Clearly, in our project, roles such as "special effects co-ordinator" and "producer" are simply not compulsory in a project of this size. However, in a large scale project (such as that seen on the TV), I realise that these roles are more relevant since the deadlines are tighter and the productions are on higher scales with higher budgets.
However, in our project, it is important that we credit the correct people in the credits of our video. Despite having no director, overseer e.t.c, we will still feature contributors and other personnel who must be credited. In the light of this, I have devised a list of individuals who I foresee being listed on the credits:
- Director
-Cameraman
-Interviewees
- Contributors
In our project, we are aiming our project to be a dramatised documentary style video. As a result, we will require volunteers to interview who have knowledge about our PE department. These may involve students or even members of the actual department. Expanding on these ideas, we may include other school members (such as teachers/governors) to gain their input and find what they feel the PE department has achieved from the outside.
Finally, as mentioned above, we require no other personnel other than ourselves to conduct the actual production of the video since we already have the necessary skills required to produce the video. Namely, we already have the skills to direct, edit and co-ordinate the project without needing to hire additional external personnel.
Finally, I will detail some of the key roles and what they entail:
- The Director:
The director will oversee the entire project. It is the director`s job to manage the budget, hire additional personel, design the shooting schedule and oversee the key processes of the project. Similar to a producer, the director will manage the majority of the tasks. However, the producer will manage the sub-tasks and ensure that everything runs smoothly through the production process.
- The Cameraman
The cameraman will take instructions from the director or producer and control the camera. In the modern world, cameras are rather complicated and need to be managed at all times since they are now much much more than simply focus and zoom; cameras have the addition of shutter speed, white balance, storage, quality, resolution of aspect ratio.
- Editor
The editor`s key role is to edit and render low quality previews of the edited project and sit with the director to refine their work. After many months of tweaking and changing, the editor will then render and export a high quality final version of the production ready for broadcast on to DVD`s, cinema, television or internet.
Facilities:
In our own production, we are incredibly fortunate in the fact that we are filming the vast majority of our video within the school premises. Therefore, scouting and booking filming locations will be an incredibly simple task since we are only a few minutes walk from any place in the school. However, if our client requires us to visit football matches/sporting events, then suitable planning for this will be required so that we can place such events onto our Gantt chart.
In addition, our school has all the necessary editing software computers for us to use. As a result, gaining access to such facilities requires little more than a simple request to our course tutors.
However, in the industry, accommodation locations, editing suites and auditoriums must all be pre-booked and paid for in order to secure a place there. In addition, certain locations must be checked in terms of confidentiality - such as a personnel`s home.
As you can see above, I have listed any equipment/facilities that I can imagine we will use. Aside from the obvious choices such as football pitches and cameras, I have also included items such as stock audio and lighting since permissions and bookings are required in order to use such assets in the project.
Materials:
In our project, as I have touched on, we require the use of stock audio and stock footage. In terms of stock footage, we can acquire this from our client - since he will have filmed/acquired this footage himself. However, when selecting stock audio, it is important that copy rite is considered.
When we select our music/sound effects, we must ensure that each clip is royalty free. This means that once we have either payed for or downloaded the clip for free, we can use it was we wish without having to pay "royalties" every time we use the clip. This is a major caution since our video will end up on the internet. Therefore, if our music was not royalty free, we would have to pay a set amount of money for each view the clip received. Clearly, with potentially hundreds of views, this could be catastrophic for a low budget production.
For any other pieces of media, sufficient permissions must be obtained to ensure the formalities are strictly above board and legal.
However, in the industry, the rules and regulations for stock footage and audio are much tighter. Therefore, each piece of media must be credited and sourced in order to leave no loose ends. However, professional, high budget productions need not worry about "royalties" and, as a result, their restrictions are far less apparent since they have the budget to buy permissions to use certain pieces of music/ sound effect/ clip.
Content can be sourced from two main sources:
- Filmed or recorded by your own production team
- Filmed or recorded by another production team
Content can be sourced from two main sources:
- Filmed or recorded by your own production team
- Filmed or recorded by another production team
Both of these sources are effective but content can be more personal to your own project if you source it from your own production team. However, providing copy rite is accounted for, footage or audio can be sourced from external production teams which have higher budget for more detailed or impressive shots. It is also far cheaper to source your own material since royalties cannot apply to footage you have created yourself.
For the purposes of this particular project, we plan to source 90% of our footage through our own means (e.g filming and recording our own clips) However, our client does require us to use some pre-recorded content. We will have to asses such content to ensure that copy rite allows us to make use of the clips provided, and providing this is the case, we will use the clips and, of course, give credit where it is due.
For the purposes of this particular project, we plan to source 90% of our footage through our own means (e.g filming and recording our own clips) However, our client does require us to use some pre-recorded content. We will have to asses such content to ensure that copy rite allows us to make use of the clips provided, and providing this is the case, we will use the clips and, of course, give credit where it is due.
Contributors:
I have already covered the majority of this section, but in recap, our external contributors will include volunteers to interview who have knowledge about our PE department. These may involve students or even members of the actual department. Expanding on these ideas, we may include other school members (such as teachers/governors) to gain their input and find what they feel the PE department has achieved from the outside.
We will also require the permissions of any other personnel who appear in the video to ensure that we are allowed to upload the video onto the web once the project has concluded.
Locations:
In film productions, it is important to consider locations. This is because the choice of location directly effects the aesthetics of the respective video. In order to optimise the use of locations, it is important to go on a reconnaissance in order to recognise effective locations and which will be suitable and which ones are not.
In addition to this, it is important that we scout each location for a risk assesment to ensure the safety of all of those involved with the project. This includes the following.
- Protection of equipment against the elements.
- Possible hazards for team members
If safety was not assessed prior to the shooting, then serious harm may befall crew members which may even lead to the termination of the project. Therefore, by taking specific steps to avoid such risks - such as avoiding or removing the hazards in some way, can save time and stress when undertaking the filming process.
In addition, it is important to consider particular characteristics of a location. For example, the colours that are visible to the camera, the background audio which will be recorded, the "peak" times of the location (when it is busy/when it is quiet) and the customisability of the area for the shoot. Since we are shooting for a real life situation, we will need to capture the imagery/audio as it appears. However, we can still consider what colours are in shot and where to place the camera from location to location to create an exciting digital video.
In addition, privacy must be respected when choosing a location; filming near someone's personal property could cause problems later down the line. In order to ensure that this is not a problem, it is necessaries to either seek permission to shoot there or to find a more suitable location where such limitations do not exist. However, for our project, this should not be such a problem; once we have the school`s permission, we can film in almost every location available in the school premises.
In the industry, insurance and licenses are necessary to cover any injuries or mishaps. However, since we are in a school environment, all insurances are already in place and licenses do not apply.
Codes of Practice and Regulations:
As with most things, rules and regulations often apply when creating media content. In order to find these rules, there are a series of websites which specialise in each aspect of regulations. For example, regulatory bodies exist for Advertising standards, Press complaints, Software Publishers, Game developers but most importantly: World Wide web consortium, Ofcom and British Board of Film Classification.
World Wide Web Consortium
The world wide web consortium is an organisation who advise content creators on what they should or shouldn't put on the internet. Their website quotes: "The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community that develops open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web. "
However, it must be remembered that there are no "set" rules for the internet since it is owned by nobody. The internet is built around the fact that computers around the world are able to link with each other to form the world wide web. In short, ANYTHING can be placed on the internet - and with no regulation. However, the standards set by W3C (World Wide Web consortium) are merely a guidance as to what is acceptable. Therefore, when we create our videos, it is worth looking at what their guidelines are simply to ensure that our work is acceptable and will be well received by the public.
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) are the people responsible for the ratings you will see on films and TV programs. For example, 15, U and 12 ratings are all set by the BBFC so that viewers can have an insight as to the suitability of the film. However, only films of the highest amount of malevolence are banned completely for viewing. For the most part, disturbing films are normally rated 15 or 18.
However, since we are not making a film, the BBFC has little relevance to our project other than the fact that we could refer to their guidelines if we were aiming to make our digital video match the "U" rating - since our video will be aimed at all age groups.
Office of Communications (OfCom)
On visiting the OfCom website, I gather that they specialise in ensuring the quality of digital communication among the residents of the UK. In addition to regulating quality of signals and airwaves, they also specialise in ensuring residents are protected from scams or any other unpleasantness generated by the internet or elsewhere.
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