Lingfield College B-Tec Media

LUKE
NOVELL

UNIT 4
PRE-
PRODUCTION
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PORTFOLI
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CONTENTS
PAGE
1 Finance.
2 Sources of finance: private, public, joint financing.
3 Requirements of finance: for equipment, crew, transport, materials,
clearances, talent, facility hire.
4 Logistics.
5 Time: deadlines, availability of equipment, availability of personnel,
timescales.
6 Facilities: production equipment, post-production equipment,
facility houses, prop houses, sourcing and costs of facilities.
7 Locations: identification; recces; limitations and risks, e.g. distance,
access, cost, weather.
8 Personnel: technical crew, actors, extras, contributors, e.g. experts,
specialists.
9 Materials: type, e.g. original materials, archive and library
materials, photo-library materials, sound library materials, internet,
assets, audio, script, animatics, graphics, interviews, costumes,
properties, recorded music, sources; costs; clearances.

10 Adherence to codes of practice and regulation.

11 Clearances, e.g. Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS).

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12 Legal, e.g. copyright, health and safety.

13 Regulations, e.g. Ofcom, Independent Press Standards

Organization (IPSO),
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
14 Trade unions and professional bodies, e.g. Producers Alliance for
Cinema and Television (Pact), National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Finance
Finance In Film

Film finance is an aspect of film production that occurs during the development stage
prior to pre-production, finance is crucial as it is to do with the potential value the film
could possibly make, nearly all film producers draw up a
budget prior to anything else taking place, this is so they
can plan where to spend the money and how much to
spend into each area, without clear budgeting methods,
film producers can soon find themselves in a bit of
trouble due to either spending too little or especially too
much. Budgeting is also crucial as many films take
months yet years to make, over this period, wages have
to be paid and many other factors such as props and
advertisement.

An example of a film that used budgeting is Pirates of the

Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, this film had a enormous
budget of $378.5 million which holds the record for the
biggest budget in the world, this film was released on
May 11th 2011, this shows how serious budgeting is and
to how big of a scale it can mount up to.

Finance In Television

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Budgeting for television costs a lot less than movies as they do not require as many
people to make the show, there are far less jobs and it takes a lot less time to
complete unlike movies, although budgeting is still just as important as it is the most
important thing during the pre production stage.

Finance In Audio

Music is a large market, and also an expensive one with lots of artists and audio
producers making a lot of revenue. So planning is crucial in the pre-production stage
of making a piece of audio media, many mistakes can be made when making an
audio piece so it is important to eliminate as many as these as possible. As audio is
so large many dancers and artists must be paid to make the audio product. So
planning this previously is very helpful as it makes everything run smoother and has
a higher chance of success.

Finance In Digital Publishing

Digital publishing is becoming more apparent as technologie keeps growing, and big
media companies are taken advantage of this and manipulating it to fit their needs
and their wants, for example, when Avengers: Age Of Ultron was about to be
released, the company used synergy with other companies to help spread
awareness about their film, companies also do this as it can save time as it is a lot
quicker to reach their target audience through social media.

Finance In Digital Games

Digital Games are forever expanding due to advances in technologies and easy
access, what this means is now days you can buy digital games online which is at a
cheaper price and saves you making the trip to go and buy the game in a store.
Nowadays you are able to play online with friends which makes the demand for
digital games forever at an increase. An example of a digital game is Skyrim it took
3.5 years to make and had a budget of 85 million dollars, it employed 90 game
developers and 83 actors for characters voices. Finance is crucial as in this scenario
they have to decide who gets paid what amount and how much to spend in different
areas of producing the game.

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Requirements Of Finance
Finance In Film
For a film you would have to decide how much money to spend on equipment, rent or fully
purchase, this may be through purchasing the items or it may be just to rent them part time, the
crew's wages would have to be paid and the transportation of props and equipment must be paid
for, for the location they would have to make sure they rent out the location for the correct amount
of time, they would also need to come up with a way to make sure the correct members of staff
have the correct clearance codes for the correct areas on site.

Finance In Television
For television, for example if it was a tv show they would most likely film in their own property and
would design the set itself their as it would save money, most props would probably be permanently
paid for as they may need to use them every episode so it would save their money rather than
constantly renting them out, the cast are normally a lot less than a film which means it is easy to
coordinate everyone, the cast would have a contract for certain numbers of episodes. They would
also have to employ people to permit clearances for all the crew and personnel, the tv show must
also make sure all of their work is legit and legal and no copyright has occurred.

Finance In Audio
For a piece of audio media, they would need to rent out or purchase a studio in order to broadcast
from, this would take a large proportion of their budget, for radio they would need next to none
props and would only need to spend minimum on staff and clearances, as their are not to many crew
compared to film and tv this results in less money being spent overall, so they have more money to
spend on key areas such as a studio and the limited members of the crew.

Finance In Digital Publishing

Digital publishing requires high skilled workers to complete as it is crucial in a piece of media text as
advertising can determine the success, instead of props it is more software and hardware that is
needed as everything is done digitally, the crew tend to be less workers but better skilled at the job
they do. In digital publishing it is crucial that none of their advertisment work is copyright, otherwise
they can receive severe consequences

Finance In Digital Games

For digital games most of the finance will go on salaries and the place where they will create the
game, most games require high levels of technical skills to create which means salaries are
reasonably high, this takes up a large proportion of the budget up, instead of props it is more
computer hardware and software which is needed, clearances are very important as their is a lot of
money spent on computers and technology, it has to be kept clear who and for how long different
people are allowed to use it for, the game industry is very competitive and producers need to make
sure they do not copyright any other companies work.

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Logistics
The logistics of media piece is very
unique. There are many values
which have to be accounted for,
these include getting the correct
people to the right place on time,
the media production will also need
a contingency plan in case anything
goes wrong to do this they will have
to make sure the have made a list
in the pre-production stage of all errors that may occur and a way to resolve
them.

In the logistics there are many lists and jobs which need to be completed a few
examples of lists that have to be completed are location and shot lists, for the
location lists, the producer would need to make a list of all the locations they
want to film at, they also need back up locations in case these locations are not
possible to film in for factors such as weather or availability. What also has to
be accounted for is the money, the money has to be allocated in development
of the pre-production and in areas which need things to be done such as
renting out equipment for a specific location, the logistics in pre-production
needs a high level of organization as you need to make sure every piece of
equipment is at the right place for filming at the right time.

Logistics also covers how every act is

going to be executed, these involve how
everything is going to be layd out and in
what order the logistics can be done on
computer or by hand, what logistics
gives us is a better understanding of
how tasks are going to be executed in
the most efficient way. This is crucial in
pre-production as it saves time and money and shows all the crew and
personnel what and how and when they should be doing it, this keeps
everyone in check and the whole production in sync.

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Time
Time in pre-production is the secret ingredient
to success, every type of media always has a
deadline which needs to be completed by, if
these deadlines are not met this can result in
the whole project deteriorating. Not only does
the actual piece of media need to be
completed by, but the pre-production phase
also needs to be timed properly. As you need
to organise how long to rent different types of
equipment out for as time is money, it will be a waste if you rent equipment
out for longer than necessary as it will waste money. When planning in pre-
production you need to make sure all the crew and personnel are available all
at the same time if they are required. The cast must also be aware at what
times they are needed to it is up to one of the production team to make sure
this is accounted for.

Deadlines are when things need to be

completed by, there are other types of
deadlines, these include deadline to
return equipment and deadlines for the
crew and personnel to get in by, there is
a lot more to deadlines then just
complete something by a specific date.
Time is also a crucial element in
producing the actual work, for example,
some films take years to make, in all that
period there are deadlines and timings that people are due in.

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Facilities
Facilities are very important
when it comes to pre-
production, this is because it
takes a long time in advance to
plan what facilities are the best
and if they are exactly what you
are looking for, the facility that
you wish to produce your
media in has to be correct for
whatever type of media you are creating, for example if you are creating a film,
you need to rent or purchase the facility you want to film in, most media
companies tend to rent out places as they are only required for a short amount
of time, some TV shows though tend to purchase one facility and create
multiple sets in that facility, this saves renting out different locations and
manages to keep all cast and personnel in one location instead of multiple.

When media companies want to rent out facilities, in the pre-production stage
they have to discuss how long to rent each location out for, the reason for this
is to make sure they do not rent out facilities for too long or too little, if they
were to rent a facility out for not enough time, they may not be able to
complete all of the work they set out to do,
this can cause major setback which can cost
large amounts of money to fix, on the other
hand if the company was to rent out the
location for too long, they may finish all of
their work and have no further use for the
facility, this is money wasted, which shows
ow crucial it is in the pre-production stage to
make sure the length of time each facility is
rented out for is correct.

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Locations
In media productions, locations have many factors which need to be accounted for, an
example is distance, in many media productions many people from all around the world
have to travel to a destination to
do their work, these may
include British actors traveling
to America to film a film for
example, in this scenario, all the
actors and actresses and crew
and personnel need to be aware
of what destination they need to
go to and at what time.
This is where the pre-production
is key, as it allows plenty of time
in advance for everyone to know where the location is and how they make plans of getting
their, another important factor of location is risk assessment, there may be potential risks
which may arise from different locations, an example of this is a high street, in a high street
there are many cars, so if for example you were filming in a high street, you need to make
sure that the area you are filming in is cordoned off and is safe, another risk assessment is
the weather as the weather can turn very quickly and in certain areas this can be very
dangerous, for example if you
were filming in the top of the Alpes
and there was a snow storm not
only would this ruin the filming it
may also be dangerous.

Many locations you need access as

they may be private property, you
also need to get permission to film
in certain locations, as there can
be large penalties if you film in a location with no permission, also with locations media
productions also have to think about the cost of the location they want to film at, and they
have to decide on a price in which they are willing to pay to rent out to film in certain
locations, especially in mass media productions as more people will be able to view it, so
they have to make sure they pay to film in locations that are private property.

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Materials
For materials, there are many materials needed to make
all of the things you will need In production, materials are
very important as without them, production may not be
very good, in the pre-production stage, someone has to
make sure that all materials are accounted for and are in
the correct location at the correct time, costumers are
very important and require different materials to make, in
a film for example many cast members have different
costumes in different scenes, so it is someone’s job to make sure that these ae in the right place at
the right time, props are also linked to films and for different
scenes there are also different props, depending on what you
are trying to shoot there can be difficulty in trying to gain every
desired prop, so most the time the production team has to
create and design their own props, some are rented and some
are purchased. Equipment is major when it comes to materials,
as depending on what type of media you are creating, you will
most likely need a computer and certain software on it which
will be used for your media production, makeup and scripts
and shot lists are other types of materials which need to be completed in the pre-production stage
to increase the chance of success in the actual production stage. There are two types of materials,
one of which is original materials, these are the one which you create yourself, an example is music,
instead of choosing a piece of existing music, you create your own, the other type of material is
archive materials, this is material that has already been produced, the only thing is you need to get
permission and clearances to use these type materials as you do not own them yourself.

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Adherence, Clearances, Legal

and Regulations
Clearances and Legal

In media many precautions need to be made to make sure all work is legit and someone has not
made or used what you are trying to use. A non-profitable origination
called The Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS). Which
provides licenses to those who create new ideas, this is known as the
mechanical right, which gives the copyright owner control of five
restricted acts in relation to their his/her copyright. The MCPS consists
of two of these rights; the right to copy the work and the right to issue
copies of the work to the public. Everything always has to be legal, in
pre-production especially, as there are lots of people working together
on different jobs, there are many health and safety laws which need to
be accounted for in order to make sure everyone is safe within the production team. As mentioned
preciously, there are many laws which have to be followed within media due to copyright

Adherence and Regulations

There are many rules and regulations that need to be followed to make sure everything runs as
planned, it is up to the producer to decide who follows different rules and it is law that sets the
regulations, examples of rules in pre-production for a film
may be attitude or turning up at the correct time, these are
examples of rules which are set by the producer, an example
of a regulation is copyright, it is illegal to copyright any other
persons work without
permission, this is the law
therefore a regulation in
which the company must follow. Within the media industry there are
many companies which help other companies to stay legal whilst
creating their media production, an example of this is Ofcom. When
making their production they must consider where they are going to
release their media and how, for example if a media firm wanted to
release a movie they would have to get it checked and age rated to
make sure it is able to be viewed by an age appropriate audience.

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Trade Unions and

Professional Bodies

Trade unions benefit people in a variety of ways, an

example of a trade union is NUJ which is the National
union of Journalists, they strive to improve the pay and
conditions of their members and protect and promote
media freedom, they are an inclusive union and
represents a broad range of media professionals and are
represented in towns and cities all over the UK, Ireland
and parts of Europe. In NUJ it consist of a variety of
skilled workers such as journalists, photographers,
creative artists, newspaper artists, magazines, books, public relations and information and electronic
media, Trade unions like these are important as they make sure workers get fair wages and are
treated well, that’s why in the pre-production stage of creating any media, a fair wage must be given
to the workers
depending on how
much and how hard the
work is, health and
safety is also crucial as
all workers should be
guaranteed safety when
working for them, for
example, a stunts man
must have the appropriate safety gear on to make sure they are kept in safe condition throughout
the production. Another example of a trade union is Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television
(Pact), they are a UK trade association for independent content producers in feature film, television,
animation, children’s and digital media.

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