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

______________________________________________________________________________

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.