A1 Logistics Materials

A1 Logistics

•        Time
•        Facilities
•       Locations
•        Personnel
•       Materials

Materials

Materials are any physical or digital artefacts used in filming. This includes what you have generated yourself including archive footage and library materials such as sound, files and video footage. There are many types of materials these are; original materials, archive and library materials, photo library materials, sound library materials, internet, assets, audio, script, animatic, graphics, interviews, costume, properties, recorded music.

Original materials refer to ‘in house’ which means your own production team has generated them. The advantages of making props ‘in house’ are that they can be as specific as you want them to be; they are made to fit a particular space in your film and can look however, you want them to.

Archives can be published and unpublished; they can be in any format such as letters, manuscripts or photograph and the digital equivalent to these.

Internet opens so many doorways for film production. It allows us to do mass research in efficient timing. The internet allows us to gain access to materials to see how they look and how we can get hold of them or someone who can make them. Internet also allows low budget films to get hold of copyright free recordings and use them for their own films.

Interviews can be vital throughout production; the first interviews you may conduct is finding the right people to fit the roles in your team. Interviews will also allow you to gather a testimony before your production. If you don’t conduct your interviews properly or at all then you won’t know the people you hire, what’s going on during production and what to expect in the future of your entire film.

In your film production, you will want to hire the best property master or prop(S) master. They are responsible for all of the factors that go into acquiring or even creating the props that you want in your film. If you do not hire someone who is experienced then this can cause a lot of trouble for the look of your film. An experienced prop master will do there research into how the scenes should look so they can allocate the correct props in them. For example if your scenes are set in the 1800’s then they will carry out a large amount of historical research to make sure everything looks as realistic as possible.

Costume is also a very important part of this. A large amount of time will go into the costume design. Various people to make sure everything is perfect because it is as important as the props and they may even have to match will oversee it. The same would happen if you don’t hire an experienced costume designer, they might not provide the costumes you wanted in the right time you need them. They might also not do there research and the costumes will be unrealistic to the setting that your scene is.

A1 Logistics Locations

A1 Logistics

•         Time
•          Facilities
•          Locations
•          Personnel
•          Materials

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Locations

A recce is essential, they scout for contributors and scout for locations that are suitable to use in your film. It is a good idea to have a large amount of recces hired at one time because they will split of and find different locations and other factors of you film; this will give you a broader range of information for you to plan your filming schedule and script.  

Once your recce has found a location you are happy with you will have to run a risk assessment, which is a document saying the locations are safe to film. Risk assessments are a key part of pre-production because without them you will not be able to fil a certain scene in the location you want because it is unsafe.

For the best health and safety, you must be able to control the risks while filming to prevent danger. The people you have to make sure aren’t harmed is everyone, this includes the public.  A hazard that could be a problem is access to the scene, if it’s a busy road you will need to get a permit to block the road while you’re filming to prevent someone getting into a car accident and keep the public away if it is a dangerous scene. Another hazard could be the weather, if there is a storm and someone is in danger of being injured then you might have to either change the date of filming or try to prevent him or her from being harmed somehow. A limitation that will need to be considered is distance. It will be a struggle if a location is further away than you wanted because you will need to transport everything and everyone to the location.

Copyright - Intellectual Property

Copyright – intellectual property & the law

The basic principles of copyright law in the United Kingdom state that:

Proprietors have the right to protect and preserve their intellectual property and control and control how it is used and distributed. In many cases the proprietor bears the right to be identified as the author of the work.

What is intellectual property?

•          The names of your products or brands
•          Your inventions
•          The design or look of your products
•           Things you write, make or produce

The consequence is substantial for copyright infringement, the penalty is decided by the magistrates’ courts and can either be a fine leading up to £50,000, 6 months in prison or both.

A1 Logistics Personnel

A1 Logistics

•                    Time

•                    Facilities

•                    Locations

•                    Personnel
             Materials 

Personnel

•                     Technical crew

Technical crew involves Stage Manager, Production Manager, Rigging, Lighting, Sound, and Technical Directors. The crew could also involve other important roles that aren’t mentioned. In all of their areas of expertise and responsibility they make sure that everything is running smoothly.

•                     Actors

On either big or medium budget films a casting director is usually hired to find the talent and the best parts of the actors. However, sometimes a script is written for specific actors or with particular actors in mind on the A list of talent. Directors usually want a certain actor for the protagonist role, this actor then becomes involved in that project of the production.

•                     Extras

A background actor or extra usually has a non-speaking role in a film, television programme or even stage musical, for example, in the street or in an audience. War or action films often hire a large amount of extras in their films because there will be a large background that they have to fill the space with. On a film or TV set extras are also known as “junior artist”, “atmosphere” and “background talent”

•                     Contributors

The different types of contributors are; specialists, experts, talents and public.

-          Specialists are people with advanced skillsets in particular areas. They are often hired to oversee high technical operations. They also train people when specialised skills need to be learned in a short period of time. They also undertake key production roles.

-          During the development stages of a project the producer will hire experts to make sure that the representations of things such as individuals, types, groups, places and activities are constructed so they are authentic and accurate.

-          A talent on a film are the specialist performers such as singers, dancers and actors. The word talents are often referred to A list celebrities and those performers who have been cast in principle roles.

-          Public contributors are public bodies and also random people from the public who are contacted to play a role in the film. A city may let production proceed by allowing and supporting the filming company within certain limits. They will also sometimes collect a group of the public to gather up to fill space In the scene making sure it’s more realistic.

A1 Logistics Facilities

A1 Logistics

•          Time
•          Facilities
•          Locations
•          Personnel
•          Materials

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Facilities

•          Production equipment- This refers to all of the equipment required to shoot everything on a film set. This includes equipment such as lights, light stands, generator, gels, filters, diffusion, grip stands, reflectors, and grip accessories. For your cameras you may need stock for media, filters, lenses, tripods, and lenses. To move your cameras you’ll need a dolly, track, and accessories such as wedges. The equipment you need to shoot the sound for your film includes a sound recording unit, headphones, microphones, mic holders, cables, a boom, and a wind shield.
•          Post-production equipment- This covers the various technical phases after the production to bring all of the separate factors of your film together. These phases include picture edit, sound edit, visual effects, grading, and titling. To edit your picture, you’ll need an AVID media composer, apple final cut pro, and Adobe premier. The facilities you need to edit your sound include Steinburg nuendo, AVID pro tools, and audacity. A higher end of facilities will give you much better effects to your film.
•          Facility houses- These are companies that hire out a variety of equipment for film, television, and video production.
•          Props houses- These are companies that hire out a variety of props for video production (sometimes for theatre and film interchangeably).
•          Sourcing- A variety of essential items need to be sourced from camera related facilities to props and vehicles.
•          Cost of facilities- This is your budget you have to spend on all of the above. The more money you have for your budget than the better quality you’ll get for your film.

A1 Logistics Time

A1 Logistics

·        time

·        facilities

·        locations

·        personnel

·        materials

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Time

Deadlines – A deadline is the time or date that you want to have a finalised product for.

For a film, whether it’s a short or feature film, this involves:

·         writing your budget – Breaking down the script can link to the budget as you can translate the breakdowns into rough idea on the budget line items. Budgets will usually be checked over and over so it won’t be completed straight away.

·         creating a crew – For your crew you need to find the perfect workers if you want a successful outcome, this crew will have to stay on set for many hours in a day and will have to put their best work into it all. These great crew members take time to find so don’t settle with the first person you find because you might find someone better later on.

·         finding locations and booking them – For locations you’re not just taking notes on the scenes in the film you need to take notes on the surrounding areas as well making sure that everything is suitable for your shooting days, you need to check accessibility, electricity supply and certain facilities such as toilets.

·         creating meeting and talks – Meetings should be held very regularly to keep everyone up to date on the changes, if there is any, and seeing if anyone can add to a contingency plan if you need them because taking other people’s opinions may help as they might know people specialised in certain areas. 

·         creating a script breakdown – The script breakdown involves documenting how many characters there are in the scenes, where the scenes are, and how many scenes there are in total.

All of the objectives listed above need to have deadlines to give you a smooth operation however most of these could be dealt with by your production manager(s). To help with all these deadlines you can create a calendar, which makes everything much easier to look at so you don’t miss or forget about anything, it also makes you able to be a lot more efficient with your time.

Availibility of personnel

Availability of personnel

A skeleton crew uses the smallest amount of personnel needed to use all the equipment and simple operating requirements, during filming at the same time keeping all the functions operating smoothly.

There is no definite amount of people in a skeleton crew but some definitions say there should be around five people; these are the director of photography, make-up/hair stylist, production assistant, location audio recordist, and gaffer/grip. Two positions that are not considered are the production designer and the script advisor.

-A director for photography is needed because they can control the lighting and set-ups so you do not have to, this means you have more time to focus on more important things such as directing your actors. Directing you own work can work against you as you could end up burning time trying to deal with characters.

-A make-up artist is needed because they are specialised inn what they do and you may not be, even if you were then this would be a waste of time because you should be directing other work otherwise you’ll have too much to do yourself. A hair stylist is also needed, as they too are much specialised in what they do.

-A production assistant keeps everything moving very quick and smoothly, there are times in a day when you do not have time to do something so you can get your PA to do this for you making sure you focus on one thing rather than worrying about everything else and not putting your best effort into it.

-It is said that sound is fifty percent of your film so you need a location audio recordist to make sure that all the sounds are correct when you are filming. Most people wouldn’t know how to get the best out of the equipment you have, you might have all the gear but do you know how to use it successfully.

-a gaffer /grip will save you a large amount of time, they can set up all the lights and equipment whilst someone else controls your camera making sure you get the best shots. You don’t want someone who can do this simultaneously because they will be focused on too many different things.

Time and Deadlines

Time and deadlines within logistics

Deadlines – A deadline is the time or date that you want to have a finalised product for.For a film, whether it’s a short or feature film, this involves:

·         writing your budget – Breaking down the script can link to the budget as you can translate the breakdowns into rough idea on the budget line items. Budgets will usually be checked over and over so it won’t be completed straight away.

·         creating a crew – For your crew you need to find the perfect workers if you want a successful outcome, this crew will have to stay on set for many hours in a day and will have to put their best work into it all. These great crew members take time to find so don’t settle with the first person you find because you might find someone better later on.

·         finding locations and booking them – For locations you’re not just taking notes on the scenes in the film you need to take notes on the surrounding areas as well making sure that everything is suitable for your shooting days, you need to check accessibility, electricity supply and certain facilities such as toilets.

·         creating meeting and talks – Meetings should be held very regularly to keep everyone up to date on the changes, if there is any, and seeing if anyone can add to a contingency plan if you need them because taking other people’s opinions may help as they might know people specialised in certain areas. 

·         creating a script breakdown – The script breakdown involves documenting how many characters there are in the scenes, where the scenes are, and how many scenes there are in total.

All of the objectives listed above need to have deadlines to give you a smooth operation however most of these could be dealt with by your production manager(s). To help with all these deadlines you can create a calendar, which makes everything much easier to look at so you don’t miss or forget about anything, it also makes you able to be a lot more efficient with your time.

Sources of Finance

A1 Finance: sources of finance

Public sector – the segment of a (national) economy owned by the government which engaged in the activities of providing government goods and services to the to the general public. The public sector focused on the general purpose and providing services for their citizens. Politics can have a huge impact on the public sector because the public sector is accountable to the public they produce a lot of paperwork to justify their actions. It can take some time but goods and services from the public sector are quite safe.

Private sector – the segment of a (national) economy that is owned, controlled and managed by private individuals or enterprises. The private sector is focused on making profit, it consists of multiple components like shops, offices etc. in the private sector there can be a lot of competition which can influence the prices and quality of the products.

public sector	Private sector
Taxes for funding	Revenue for funding
General purpose (citizens)	Profit
Mainly monopoly	Mainly competition
Accountable to public	Market forces
Exclusive market	Free market

Similarities:

·         Both deliver goods and services.

·         Both have to operate within framework of the law.

·         Both employ citizens.

·         Both are customer service orientated.

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Example:

*private sector starts losing money* = keep it going?! Cuts bankruptcy

*public sector starts losing money*   = keep it going!   Cuts raising taxes other funds

Not every (important) service or good is profitable/interesting for the market.

Weaker parts of society have to be protected.

Politics can cause illogical choices/actions and a shift of course every election.

Some critical services and processes have to be kept in public hands.

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·       -Charitable non-profit organisations

The welcome trust

Creative Europe desk UK

The UK charity for cinema

·       -Publicly owned/publicly funded companies

British film institutes

·       -Publicly owned/commercially funded companies

Channel 4

·      -Organisations that provide funding for feature films

BBC Films

Northern island screen

·      -Specialised in crowd funding

Indiegogo

Kickstarter

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Pre-Production initial paragraph

Pre-production initial paragraph

Pre-production is a vital part of making a film. It involves lead actors, supporting actors and background actors, which are used as extras. Another important part of this pre-production is the crew like artists, technicians and craftsman such as a cinematographer to oversee the camera department along with assistant director to make sure you are staying on schedule and on budget. To complete the pre-production you also need to establish the look of the film such as colour scheme, lighting, unique props and costumes, and where it all takes place. Actors may also need to get a dialect coach during their rehearsals of the film if their character that they are playing has an accent, they also might need a stunt coordinator to make sure every stunt performed by them is safe enough, the owner of the film will provide both of these roles. A breakdown of the script (screenplay) is also an important part of pre-production, the director or line producer can do this. Given out to every cast and crew member is a call sheet, this is a document to prepare with, it includes weather forecasts, locations of everything, and telephone numbers of other crew and cast members. Another factor is a financial list of the costs of actors, props, location, permits, and vehicles. The final piece to the pre-production is the shooting schedule, this decides what scenes are shot at what time, with who, and where making sure everything is organised correctly to utilise the time you have. 

Differences between Short and Feature Films

Differences between short and feature films

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Short films	Feature films
Short films cost less to produce so they have a much smaller budget as they do not need as many scenes, characters or pre-production.	Feature films cost a lot more to produce as it has longer scripts, more permits and more characters.
Short films usually have fewer characters.	Feature films have many characters including main and extras.
Short films do not earn a lot of profit because they have fewer views however, they also cost less to make.	Feature films earn millions as more people watch it but do take a lot of money to produce.
Short films are not usually shown in cinemas but do sometimes become viral and shown at film festivals.	Feature films are mostly always shown in cinemas for a period of time and are sold as DVD’s etc.
Short films last up to around 40 minutes including credits.	Feature films last around 75 to 210 minutes including credits.
Short films are not advertised on TV, billboards or in cinemas very often.	Feature films are advertised nearly everywhere, and have more of a social media craze.
Short films do not take as long to produce.	Feature films take a long time to produce, averaging on 2 to 3 years.

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Short film - a short film is a motion picture film usually 40 minutes or less including all the credits.

Feature film – a feature film is considered 75 to 210 minutes, this can include theatrical films.

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Overall, short films have a smaller pre-production as they have less human resources, scripts, permits, Etc. whereas feature films can cost millions more in pre-production value as it has a larger and longer base of planning.

Short films do not get the same amount of publicity compared to a feature film either as it has less advertising or views than a feature film. Feature films will be advertised everywhere such as on sides of buses, television, social media.

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