Understanding the requirements of pre production

Understanding the requirements of pre-production?

Type of production –

Documentaries – this is a type of media production created to educate and entertain their audience, they are often on controversial subjects such as the documentary we viewed in class by Nick Broomfield called “Aileen – selling of a serial killer” although other documentaries may not be as controversial such as the interesting documentary called “Lift” by director Marc Isaacs in which Marc simply observes the behaviour of people in a block of flats lift in London which eventually leads to the audience learning more about these complex characters and perhaps helps them empathise with these people. But a quality all documentaries share is that they capture reality and show it to their audience.

News programme – this type of media is one that is used to inform their audience on local, national or global news, perhaps the largest news company in England is the BBC with it being the most viewed all the news programmes. The news follows certain news values created by Gatlung and Ruge which means that the biggest stories are ones of disaster and global relevance and the smallest being ones of little relevance to the world, probably small local news stories usually with a feel good attitude which is why they are displayed at the end of news shows.

Factual programme – A factual program is simply and programme that presents fact, so a documentary can be classed as a factual program. However factual programs can also be films like “Kidulthood” which is meant to give an insight to the audience into the lives of young people growing up in south London and the problems they have to face with gang culture, violence and drug use.

Mocumentary – A mocumentary contains fictitious events presented on documentary form and is usually a parody of a certain subject such as the case of the mocumentary “The Magician” which is an Australian film that follows a hitman in Melbourne.

Finance

Equipment
Camera’s - £300 daily

Transport
8 seater minibus - £300 daily

Talent
Any talent we would use would not need to be paid because they are making the documentary for the pursuit of truth and the fun of making the documentary because the talent would be only members of our team

Crew http://www.tallboy.co.uk/prices/camera-crews.php
Cameraman, assistant, kit and soundman (full lighting kit, full sound kit) - £1250 daily

Materials
Any materials we would need would only be small props used to gain a better affect such as candles - £15 (maximum)

Facility hire
Editing suite - £660 daily

Clearances
We would need permission to film on college campus and in Rotherfield basement from the college officials

Time

Our final deadline is 07/02/2012, equipment is important to help us reach this deadline, without the correct equipment we would not be able to film or edit before our deadline. Personnel need to be readily available at all times so that if one person isn’t available someone else can be so that our filming schedule would not be negatively affected and we would not be pushed back for time. Timescale for clearance is the time given by an authority for a clearance, for example the police may give my group permission to film at a certain site, but only give the clearance for a week so we would have to get our filming done in that time space.

Personnel

An average production team consists of three people, a camera man, an assistant and a kit and sound man. The cost of these would be - http://www.tallboy.co.uk/prices/camera-crews.php

Cameraman, assistant, kit and soundman (full lighting kit, full sound kit) - £1250 daily

Contributors

For my documentary we would need specialists on “the supernatural” who we can interview about certain types of supernatural beings. We would also need talent, a central presenter to host the show and finally members of the public to interview about their personal experiences to make the show reach its target audience more, because it has people they can relate too.

Locations

My documentary would need to be filmed in several locations in order to show the audience local haunted areas, therefore we would need clearance to film on the Henley college grounds which is free but we need permission, and also around Henley such as the graveyard and church which we do not need clearance for. There are risks of filming outside especially this time of year, it is extremely cold outside and that could present a risk to those filming with cold related illness. Luckily our filming will be based in Henley so we will not have to travel far from the college grounds and it is all very accessible and would not cost anything as we would travel by foot because we do not have to go far.

Codes of practise and regulation

It is very important to get clearance to film in certain places, if film crews do not get clearance to film they could potentially trespass in areas and also put themselves in danger, for example it would be very important to gain clearance to film on a building site at night, if a film crew does not, they could potentially hurt themselves and because of no clearance they would not be able to get insured or they might even be sued. Ofcom or the Office of Communications is a government approved authority for broadcasting and telecommunications, it’s function is to represent the interests of the public which means that it makes sure things on television are suitable for certain audiences so they can protect the public from what may be considered unsuitable.