Production Proceses

Production Processes

Production of a video can usually be divided into three main categories. pre-production, production and post production.

Pre-production

To sum it up, pre-production is all the planing that goes into the making of a film or TV program. he pre production starts of with the development of the initial idea followed by the writing and development of the screenplay. The screenplay is then divided up into scenes and the shot angles sizes and movements are planed out for all of the scenes. The production also includes other planing including equipment required which involves choosing lenses and gear like tracks and steady cams. The location scouts work n this period to find the shooting locations for all the scenes in the film. Casting is also done in pre production along with finding a director, cinematographer and all the other crew involved with the production and post production. One of the most important parts of the pre-production process is the financing side of it. The developed idea and developed screenplay are pitched to the investors and production company’s and then the finance and budget for the film is negotiated and agreed. The last section in the pre-production stage is the planing for the production stage, this involves making call sheets planing all the shoot days and organising crew and equipment for each day. I did pre production my shoot at the national emergency services museum. This involved planing for things like the weather, travel arrangements and shoot locations at the museum. It was really helpful because it meant that I could get the shots I wanted on the shoot day and I know the times i’d be filming, how to get there and if I could shoot outside that day for the external shots.

Production

The production is usually the shortest but the most important stage of the entire production process. Its the most important stage because its where The actual video is shot and this is what the final product will be. The production process includes the organising of the crew and kit on the shoot days and then the director and cinematographers set up and decide on the shots for the scene. The actors then perform. This stage can take place in many locations across the world or can be situated in one single place.

The standard day on a film production can be over 12 hours long, up to 16 hours. The day starts of with the produces, director and other major crew turning up very early, they are then followed by the rest of the crew at there call times, they are briefed about the days schedule. the grip, electric and production design start work first because this stage has to be completed first before the equipment and actors can be brought in. Once completed the rest of the crew move on set to set up the camera equipment and lighting and the grip, electric and production design move onto the next scene so its ready when the filming on the first scene is completed. Whilst the equipment and lighting is being set up the actors will have turned up and be in dressing and makeup. When the actors and crew are ready and set up they practice with the director to get the action how they want it. They will shoot a shot as many times as the director wants to until there happy with it. At the end of the day the call sheets for the next day will be handed out and the director will sit down with other key members of the crew to review the rushes from the days shoot.

When I did the shoot for the national emergency services museum we got call sheets several days before saying when and where to turn up, the weather and my role on the shoot. I turned up at my call time and stayed for a very short production day of about 2 hours. There were no actors or lighting equipment so set up was minimal. We started by scouting out the shoot locations to get an idea of what we were filming then began taking as many shots as we felt necessary. We reviewed the footage the following day.

Post-production

The post production stage can take the a very long time, up to a year on feature films. This stage involves taking the raw media from the production stage and processing it to make the final film. Because of the amount of time required in this process, it can overlap with the production process, this is because the editors can get to work with the first lot of rushes whilst the crew are still working on the rest of the scenes. Post production includes: editing, colour correction and grading, VFX, scoring and other audio processes.

Editing starts with the editor bringing in the rushes, audio and other required media into the bin in there editing platform. They will then review the footage and sort, file and name the shots with the help of the shot list. They will then review the footage and trim down to the rough shots then place them in order into the timeline. The shots are then trimmed down to the final length and the project is transferred to another program where its goes through colour correction and then grading. The audio is then added and the project is sent of to be scored and if applicable the VFX added.

When I edited the vide for the emergency services museum I followed a very similar workflow. Starting of with the import, choosing the shots I wanted and then bringing them into the timeline. The difference is that I didn’t have a narrative to stick too so the shots had no order they had to in. I found this to  be more difficult as theres no structure to follow so one has to be created by grouping similar shots. The video had one song throughout the entire thing so scoring was a simple drag and drop of the song file into the timeline and matching up the vide in time with the music. The was minor colour corrections that had to be done but they were small so I did them in the editing program I used (FCPX).

Debrouillard LTD case study

Debrouillard LTD

Debrouillard LTD is a small freelance TV company only employing two people. It was set up in 1996 by Jonathon Young who runs the company. He is the camera man for the company, he got a practical media diploma from Norton College in Sheffield in 1990 and several other qualifications including a Steadicam training course and a city and guilds TV and video competences course. Debrouillard does many arias of TV including sports and event coverage, factual, commercials and corporate but mainly focuses on documentary and international current affairs.

Debrouillard has filmed 135 BBC ‘Panorama’ documentaries, 7 Louis Theroux documentaries, 12 Ross Kemp documentaries and many other programs for companies such as: ABC, NBC, BBC, ITV, SKY and many more, including 30 day coverage for the 2012 Olympics. He was nominated for 6 documentaries and the winner of 2 awards for Ross Kemp documentaries and one for ‘Indian Ocean with Simon Reeve’ (all awards for excellence GTC awards). He has filmed in over 100 countries, from the US to Pakistan to Tanzania.

Debrouillard updates there equipment as the technology advances, they have gone from SD to HD then to full HD and now to 4K resolution with their Sony F5 35mm sensor camera.

One of their competitors is John Waters wildlife and documentary cameraman, A highly regarded freelance cameraman. Another competitor is Rich Peart who has worked for the likes of The BBC, ITV and channel 5.

Audience

What is an audience?

An audience can be an individual or collective group of people who red or consume media text. Examples of these can include

 

Why are audiences important?

Without the audience there will ben no profit so no media will be created. Media is very competitive so it will attract more audiences and be more profitable.

 

Impact of new technology of audiences

More traditional media platforms like TV, print and radio used to have high audience numbers but due to new digital technologies has led to fragmented audiences and now traditional media platforms are becoming out-dated and are working harder to maintain audience numbers.

 

Types of audience

There are two main groups of audience, mass and niche. A mass audience is those who consume mainstream or popular media such as pop TV-X factor Coronation Street and print-the daily mail. A niche audience is much smaller but very influential audience with a unique interest. Because of the small consumer base, the prices of niche media tend to be more expensive than media consumed by the mass.

 

Audience segmentation

Audiences can be divided into segments or categories based on demographic and psychographic profiling. Media produces rely on audience segmentation to have an idea of who they’re typical readers or viewers are. They gather information on their audience by using a range of audience research methods. Many media producers get funding via advertising revenue. Their product needs to appeal to a specific type of audience so that advertisers will pay to promote their product.

 

Democratic & Physiographic profiling

Most media products can define their audience members, often with a demographic and psychographic profile.

Demographic profile: A description of the target audience can be grouped into 5 main groups; age groups, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and geographical location.

 

Demographics;

The socio-economic status of a person can be described using the JICNARS scale:

A-Upper middle class, successful business or professional, or considerable private means

B-Middle class, quite well off but not at the top of there business or profession

C1-‘White Collar’, lower middle class. Small tradespeople, administrative, supervisory, clerical jobs.

C2-‘Blue collar”, skilled working class.

D-semiskilled or unskilled manual workers

E-Casual workers or those dependent on social security schemes. (Also students)

 

Psychographics

Psychographics is classifying people in groups according to their lifestyle, this could include there values, beliefs, opinions and interests. Market research firms and advertising agencies are constantly devising new categories for lifestyle because there is no one standardised lifestyle segmentation model. One example of the lifestyle classification model is the Young & Rubican, which are called ‘Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation’ or 4C’s for short.

The 4C’s categorise people in terms of there personal aspirations;

Mainstreamers-These is the largest group. They are concerned with stability and security, mainly buying well-recognised brands and consuming mainstream texts.

Aspirers-Aspirers are seeking to improve themselves. They tend to define themselves by the high status brand names, which they own and consume, absorbing ideologies of the products as there own and believing that there status is established by this conspicuous consumption.

Succeeders-These are people who feel secure and in control-generally, they are in positions of power, although they may not be. They buy brands, which reinforce their feelings of control and power.

Reformers-These people are idealist who actively consume eco-friendly products and buy brands, which are environmentally supportive and healthy. They buy products, which establish this ‘caring and responsible’ ideology.

The individual-The individual is an addition to these four basic groups-The individual is highly media-literate, expects high-production advertising and buys product image, not product, requiring high-profile, sophisticated.

 

The Selby & Cowdery (1995)

Trendies-Those who crave the attention of there peers and follow trends in fashion, technology etc.

Innovators-Those who whish to make there mark and aspire to being successful.

Rebels-Those who are non-conformists, unconventional and don’t want to follow rules.

Drop-outs- Those who shun responsibility

Traditionalists-Those who want things to stay as they are, don’t embrace change easily and avoid adopting new ideas.

Utopians-Those who want the world to be a better place.

Cowboys- Those who want to earn easy money.

 

 

Virgin trains advert demographic profile;

Advert 1-Female, British, young (20’s), C1-E on the JICNRS scale.

• The age group for this advert is 18-30yo because of; texting, love, boyfriend, make up, fashion, heart on window, says ‘snog on a sofa’ at the train station which is something a young person would say, the music is young, cant be younger than 18 because it features alcohol.
• The gender is definitely female because of; the colours (pink), heart, flirtation with the men, make up, fashion, the music is very romantic girly music, a romantic narrative, heart tunnel, it features a female main character and a female attendant to reassure women that women work on the train too and its safe for them to travel alone.
• The geographical location is England because; its spoken in English, its set in England, the song is English, the company is English, the green fields are English, it featured Manchester city in the advert, it had a sign for Stoke-on-Trent which was changed to ‘snog-on-sofa’.
• The socio-economic status is E because the main character is a student based on her clothing and age. The adverts socio-economic status can go up to C1 because any higher and they would get first class or other forms of transport.

 

Advert 2-Male, British, middle aged, B-C1 on the JICNRS scale.

• The age group for this advert is 30-50 because of The age of the main character (about 32) the age of the other people (ranging from 30-50), his job is a businessman so the age of that would be 30+, the music isn’t young and modern, the main character is using modern technology, he has brown source which young people don’t tend to have.
• The gender is definitely male, this is because; the main character is male, the other characters are male, it’s about a businessman, which is a male dominated businessman, the music is confident and empowering and very male.
• The socio-economic status is C1 but could possibly be B on the JICNARS scale. This is because; he’s a business man so he’s high up on the scale but he’s not the boss because he got a phone call from his boss so he’s not A, he’s in first class, he dresses smart.
• The geographical location is England because Virgin trains is an British company, it’s set in England, the ticket says he’s traveling from London to Glasgow, there speaking English, the song is English, he’s eating an English breakfast.

 

How have I targeted my audience in my production?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation of research techniques that I chose

I conducted research into the types of people that would visit the National Emergency Services Museum. The point of conduction the research is to find out the type of people and the age range of people that would visit the museum so that I can tailor the promotional video to the target market of the museum, making the video more appealing to those people. The research is also used for other bits of information that will help in the production of the video. I used three different research methods, first a voxpop then I published an internet questionnaire and finally I did secondary research from the internet. From my research I found that the target market for the museum is parents taking young children. The most useful research method for finding out the target market for the museum was the on-line questionnaire. I think this because I could reach a wider range of people and it takes a lot less time to do. The voxpop didn’t go very well, this is because I conducted it in collage so I didn’t reach a wide range of people and the range of people I did interview (16-21) were the wrong age range for going to the museum, all I found out from it was that 16-21 year old aren’t interested in the museum. The questionnaire did go well, I got responses from a wide range of people and found out that people will go to take there children to the museum. What didn’t go well with the questionnaire is that allot of people skipped questions and not as many people took the questionnaire as I’d hoped meaning I didn’t get answers from the range of people I’d hoped. The third research method (secondary internet research) was very successful, I found out lots of information that will help with the production of the promotional video, information like travel arrangements, weather and information about the museum itself like a floor plan map. The secondary research was also useful for finding out the target market of the museum, the museums website had pictures of children at the museum and arrangements for parties and school visits.

The Voxpop interviews are the most reliable source of information because your doing a face to face interview and its harder to lie to someone’s face, especially about things like age which really matter in some types of research. Questionnaires and secondary internet research aren’t as reliable as a source for information, this is because its done on the internet so there’s nothing to stop someone making up fake answers or publishing fake information.

I found the most useful research technique was the secondary internet research. I found this to be the most useful because I could find out the target market of the museum from the museums website and lost of other information like travel arrangements and weather from other websites and I could find it all out very quickly and easily.

Methods of communication to convey meaning

This is an evaluation of the soap, The Big Bang Theory.

On the first episode of a new series the introduction of the show is a brief look back at the following on story lines. This is so that the viewers will remember what happened and will understand the storyline in the new episode. The opening credits and the theme tune are fairly short but this s required as the episodes are only between 20.5 minutes and 22.5 minutes so the introduction is only 23 seconds long. The theme song is upbeat which is used because the show is a comedy and the upbeat music will make the viewer happy and ready for the show. In the theme song the lyrics are about science and this fits well because the show is about a group of nerdy scientists. The setting is pretty much the same in all episodes. They use the living room as the main setting for most of the episodes. They d occasionally use other settings but there regular every day to day settings like friend’s apartments, a car, bedrooms or workplaces. The cast is very small and started of with only 5 main characters but has grown to 7 main characters and several other commonly occurring characters. There is a variety of characters with different backgrounds and ethnicities, one Indian, a Jewish man (Howard) person, a Catholic woman (Bernadette) and several white atheists. One of the characters (penny) is a lower working class to the others who are highly regarded scientists, but one of them (Raj) is from a very rich family. Tis gives a good contrast in classes, a majority middle class with minority upper and lower class. The lighting is fairly neutral and not meant to be very cinematic, the use for the lighting is to draw attention to locations, characters and props in a scene. This makes it representative of real life. The main shot types used are wide shots for group conversation, medium shots for a closer viewing of someone and occasionally shot/reverse shot for conversations with characters sat opposite each other. These shots are used because the show isn’t meant to be cinematic or dramatic its just meant to show the characters play out the comedy which it does well. The editing mainly uses simple cuts but in a sad ending it sometimes fades to black and in a jump between locations a flip transition is used to make it clear the location has changed. The editing is used to build up comedic tension for example a characters face wont be revealed so its unclear who another character is speaking too but when they’re revealed its usually someone unexpected. The episodes towards the end of a season always end on a cliffhanger. This is so that viewers will watch the program the following week of even when the new season comes back the following year.

This is an analysis of the news program ‘news at 10’ by the BBC.

The program does not show what happened in the previous episode at the beginning of the program, instead a news reader and a short compilation of clips about the news that’s coming up later in the program. This is so viewers will stay watching the program to see the bit the wanted to. The opening credits use dramatic music which fits well because often the news read is dramatic and important. The video for the opening credits is clips of the BBC news office and cg abstract images of the earth and words of capital city names which are all interlinked by lines. This shows that they read news from all over the world. the setting is the same in every episode. Its the news reader(s) in the news room which is a bright modernist circular room with backlit red and white glass walls and floors and a desk in the centre. The cast is usually only 1,2 or sometimes 3 newsreaders and then other newsreaders who go to do interviews with people away from the studio. The newsreader are always smart and look there best, this shows formality and almost always upper middle and upper class. The lighting doesn’t change during the program, its well lit and not meant to be cinematic, its meant to look formal and uniform. The main shot types used in the program are long shots for establishing shots, these are usually of the studio or for interviewing several people and the other shot type is medium close up, this is the most used shot in the news, usually a newsreader sitting at a desk.

 

 

representation

According to Bennett “we often analyse representation in the media according to categories such as: age, disability, gender, socio-economic grouping, race, nationality and sexuality” (2005, p8)

According to Bennett “Stereotypes are usually defined by there role and this will not usually be developed in any depth” (2005, p8)

According to Bennett “Stereotypes also usually represent an entire social group join a single character” (2005, p9)

Women in film – According to Bennett “as female audiences continue to grow and the way that films are consumed changes, new genre of film are developing, such as the chick flick and teen movies which are clearly aimed at women not men” (p147)

Does the target audience affect the representation of the characters?

I think that the target audience sometimes affects the representation of the characters depending on the type of film and time the film was made. In action movies (traditionally aimed at men) a main male character is still the norm but in recent years a strong female role in the genre has become more common, this may be because of the change in target audience as more women are watching action movies. Still to this day rom-coms are still seen to be aimed at women and this does affect the representation of the female characters. The main female character(s) in rom-coms are still usually an idealistic view of women (thin and beautiful) which is probably because the target audience is women.

 Male and females in music

Females in the media are viewed as more sexually than men. They are seen to have to always look there best to be the best because thats what all other women in music do. Whereas men in music are more focused on the music than there appearance.

Traditional gender stereotypes

Feminine;

• not agressive
• dependent
• easily influenced
• submissive
• passive
• home-orientated
• easily hurt emotionally
• indecisive
• talkative
• gentle
• sensitive to others feelings
• very desirous of security
• cries a lot
• emotional
• verbal
• kind
• tactful
• nurturing

 

Masculine;

• Aggressive
• independent
• not easily influenced
• dominent
• active
• worldly
• not easily hurt emotionally
• decisive
• not at all talkative
• though
• less sensitive to other’s feelings
• not very desirous of security
• rarely cries
• logical
• analytical
• cruel
• blunt
• not nurturing

 

Does the media represent women in a realistic way which reflects equally in society?

I think that the media generally represents women in a realistic way. They used to be represented as a very sensitive and dependent on men who usually played a house wife and this was a true representation of women in the 50s, 60s and 70s but in recent years the role of women and the view of them have changed. They are now more independent who have jobs of there own and aren’t dependent on women and this has been reflected in the media with the introduction of strong female roles in film genres such as action, horror and drama.

What are the key characteristics of a stereotypical woman in the media?

The key characteristics of a stereotypical woman in the media have changed over the recent decades. Traditionally they would be dependent on men, usually play a house wife, passive, un intelligent and emotional, but nowadays the female characters are usually strong and independent who can kill people and be involved in action scenes.

what are the key characteristics of an unconventional character.

The key characteristics of an unconventional character would be a strong independent woman because traditionally in films the female character would be a housewife rather than the main character in an action film.

emergency services museum post-production

First I made a new library called emergency services with a new project called emergency services in the editing program called Final Cut Pro X . I imported the rushes and the audio files into the library and watched all of them and selected the parts of the clips that I wanted to use and clicked the F key which favourites the clip, this helps later on when bringing the clips into the timeline. Next I had to find the music to go over the top of the video, this had to be licence free as the client had requested this as they didn’t have the funding to pay for a licence for the music in the video. I chose a track called ‘felling good’ as I felt that it fit with the upbeat theme of the video that I was attempting to create. Once I had the track I began drawing and dropping the favourite clips into the timeline to get a rough idea of how the video was going to look like. I then trimmed the clips to the correct length to make the video fit with the beat of the music. I tried to cut shots at the end of a bar for a more natural and flowing video, I also tried to keep shots to 2 or 3 bars long .I then added key frames to the decibel level in the music and then lowered the volume in the section with the interviews. I spent some time rearranging and re-trimming the clips to make them fit better with he music and group shots with similar contents together. Once I was happy with the order and timings of the clips I worked on the end titles. I first took the graphic of the emergency services logo and imported it into Adobe Photoshop CC and used the lasso tool to select the words and images, I then deleted the white back ground from the image and exported the image with an alpha background. I then imported the new image with an alpha background into FCPX and overlayed it onto the final shot of the emergency services museum building and resized and repositioned it over the sky. To finish the edit of I faded the graphic and video to black and cut the music at an appropriate beat. This was the initial edit complete.

Emergency services shoot day 1&2

Emergency services shoot day 1

I was exited about the prospect of having a day dedicated to making a finished film, and how everyone would help and contribute, ensuring more shots could be taken. The planing in place to effectively complete the shoot was mostly secondary research with some primary research. The primary research was questionnaires and vox pops into finding out what people go to the museum, I would that the target audience of the museum is 30-45 year olds taking children under the age of 10. This information was useful because I could tailor the video to appeal to children by showing exciting exhibits like the fireman pole and I could make it look informative and educational so the parents will take the children. The secondary research was the most useful because it included useful information key to the shoot day like meeting times and meeting place, also the route to and from the shoot location. The weather report was also very useful secondary research because i could plan for doing shots of the building from the outside which were weather dependent. My group was tasked to capture shots from the fireman bedroom, the model train set, the bin fire recreation, the motorbike and the hall of firefighting. I contributed allot of the ideas for shot angles and sizes along with some of the focus pull shots.

The shots that I got were;

• one of the shots of the fireman in the firemans bedroom
• some of the focus pulls on the model railway
• focus pull of the fireman at the bin fire
• a shot of tom on the motorbike

The lighting problem

The main problem we encountered was the low levels of light snd as we were shooting on cameras with APS-C sized sensors they weren’t very good for filming in low light without having to raise the ISO above 6400 which looks to noisy to use in a video for a client. We overcame this problem by using a 50mm prime lens which had a wider aperture of f1.8 which let in about 2 stops more light than the f3.5-5.6 18-55mm kit lens at 18mm. Another problem we encountered was the fact that some of the exhibits were fairly boring to look at on camera so we overcame this by finding more interesting angles and using the shallow depth of field to make for a more cinematic look.

My favourite shots were the focus pull shots of the model railway, I liked them because they were properly exposed without being too noisy and because it was a macro shot there was allot of bokeh due to the shallow depth of field and I pulled into focus properly and smoothly.

Narrative 1.3

Narrative structure

Single strand narrative– one main storyline, ,ay have smaller storylines but ultimately they’re all linked to the main one. The most common type.

Parallel narrative– where two completely separate storylines running at the same time. Not very common.

Multi-string narrative– always used in soaps, where several storylines are told at once.

Linear narrative- A story told in chronological order, very common, gives a sense of natural order.

Non-linear narrative– where flashbacks are used to tell a story. Not very common but sometimes used in film.

Todorov’s theory

Todorov’s theory is the most common narrative structure, its used in books, films and TV programmes. It consists of three stages. First is the equilibrium- this is where the scene is set and the problem is established. The second stage is the disequilibrium- this is where the problem occurs and the quest to resolve the problem begins. The third and final stage is the resolution- in this stage the cause of the problem is dealt with and the new equilibrium is reached.

The narrative structure of The Truman Show

The truman follows Todorov’s theory with he initial equilibrium then the disequilibrium and finally the resolution. In The Truman Show, Truman Burbank (the main character and main focus of the film) Starts of living his life happily but then about 20 minutes into the film things start going wrong, a stage light falls from the sky and his radio accidentally tunes into the production radio frequency but he docent really suspect anything. This stage of the film is the equilibrium. The second stage of the film (the disequilibrium) starts when he he son the bridge with his friend and he’s explaining to him how he thinks he’s part of something and how he wants to go to Fiji. The final stage of the film is the resolution and it starts when the producers are watching truman sleeping in the basement at night but realise he has run away. This stage and the film ends with truman finding out everything and him leaving the building his entire life been set in.

The importance of narrative structure

The narrative structure is finally formed in the editing and post production stage as this is where the rushes and the storyline are stitched together. The narrative structure is important in planing and production because you want to make sure the final cut will make sense and the audience will be able to follow it, or if you don’t want it to make complete sense then you’ll have to plan it out in a way which works.

 

My comercial video is a singe stand narrative but dosen’t follow Todorov’s theory completely. It starts of with an equilibrium with the establishing of the scene but there isn’t the disequilibrium as its a promotional video so it breaks Todorov’s theory.