Technology (Blog)

By Adam Joseph Reed

I am writing this blog as a research document for NCTV to use as a reference.

Over the course of 2004 to 2012 the analogue switch-off/digital switchover took place. This was where all analogue television broadcasting was replaced by digital satellite broadcasting. A benefit of this is digital offers more channels, so there is a wider choice of what media to watch. A disadvantage is often there is too much choice, which leaves people flicking through channels trying to find something to watch.

CGI has affected the film industry heavily by just about replacing all practical effects in movies and TV shows. The film that is responsible for the massive CGI boom is 1993’s Jurassic Park. Originally the dinosaurs that featured in wide shots were going to be brought to life by Phil Tippett using stop motion animation. Late into production on the film the director Steven Spielberg received a call from Dennis Muren, who claimed he could create realistic animals solely on a computer. Spielberg looked at several tests of a herd of running dinosaurs and thought it looked so good that it could replace stop motion techniques. Several pieces of test footage still exist of the stop motion armature dinosaurs. CGI also managed to wow audiences 2 years earlier in the film Terminator 2 Judgement Day with the liquid metal T-1000.

Another massive leap modern cinema has taken is Real 3D. The film that is responsible for this is James Cameron’s Avatar. The director claimed that 3D would immerse you in the world of the movie. Although Cameron’s hit film kicked it off 3D is starting to die out, when 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Kung Fu Panda 2 both bombed on the 3D market. In my opinion the film that best used 3D was 2012’s Dredd which had several scenes of extreme slow-motion. The 3D really stood out as the 3D images were really slow and gave the viewer a chance to marvel at it rather than normal main stream blockbusters that usually use 3D to show fast action sequences.

  

For the production of ‘Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones’ in 2002, George Lucas really wanted to shoot his movie on a digital camera. So he teamed up with Sony and eventually they produced the Sony HDW-F900. Even with all of Sony’s efforts they were unable to match the picture quality of analogue film. It wasn’t until 2007 that a digital camera that was equal in quality to regular film was released in the form of the Red One. Many films since the Red Ones release have been filmed using digital cameras only. These include ‘Chronicle’, ‘Dredd’, and ‘Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith’.

Contracts, Legal and Ethical (Blog)

By Adam Joseph Reed

I am writing this blog to explain and describe the use of contracts in the media industry to NCTV and advice upon the use of them in their productions. A contract in business terms is an agreement that is signed by someone to show they agree with the statement. The statement is enforceable by law if the signer goes back on his terms.

There are many different types of contracts. Some of agreements listed on a contract will refer to confidentially. Something being confidential means when you sign the contract you are not allowed to refer to certain parts of the production outside of your working hours. An example of this is on the BBC One TV show Doctor Who. 2013 posed the 50^th year anniversary of the British sci-fi series. As part of the large campaign to advertise and promote the 50^th anniversary a 7 minute long webisode (an online exclusive episode) starring Paul McGann as the 8^th Doctor set to be aired online on Friday 15^th of November. The episode, only featuring a small number of cast members and sets was filmed in secrecy, with all the people who knew about it bound to keep their mouth shut by their contract, to not spoil the surprise of McGann’s return. Unfortunately someone did not keep to their signed agreement, as a few pictures of the set and new costume were spewed online, detailing the fact that such a mini episode existed and hosted the return of a past Doctor. This development forced the BBC’s hand to release the episode online a day earlier than scheduled, on Thursday 14^th of November. In an interview with Paul he stated “keeping it a secret was the hard thing and what was quite disappointing was particularly the last few days seeing it getting leaked, gradually leaked onto the internet in stills and photographs.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUq1L1Q4Pfg. The person who posted the photos was fired from the BBC for violating the terms of his agreement. NCTV should take note of this as it shows that it is important for its members to sign for confidentiality agreement if a production is to be kept secretive, without spoilers leaking into Newspapers and articles online.     

An Exclusivity contract is where the rights are owned by a certain company and no one else. For example the rights to the Halo game series are in the hands of Microsoft alone. Meaning the games featuring Halo universe are only released for the Microsoft gaming console, the Xbox. Exclusive contracts ensure that only one company owns the rights to a franchise or even a person. I found an article dated from 2008 that states the TV Chef Jamie Oliver signed a contract that “will tie him exclusively to” Channel 4 “for the next two years.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/3242731/Jamie-Oliver-signs-2-million-Channel-4-deal.html. This means the UK broadcaster Channel 4 offered him “£2 million” so that he will only cameo/present shows made and shown on their TV channel.

If NCTV wanted to secure a certain talent or franchise to only appear on their productions they would have to offer a sum of money and an exclusivity contract.

When hiring workers you have to take responsibility for any accidents they may have whilst working for your company. Health and Safety is where certain precautions to make sure people feel safe in the work environment. It is the employer’s duty to ensure that the welfare of its employees is taken into account. It is important for any company to invest in liability insurance so that if a worker did injure themselves it can be shown in a court of law that you did take precautions against what happened, and that the accident is in no way the company’s fault. I would advise that NCTV looks into getting liability insurance as, if it can be proved it was the company’s fault for an employee’s injury in the workplace then they can be sued by the victim and loose a considerable amount of money.

As well as looking after the wellbeing of the employees, you must also make sure they are not being discriminated against by other employees. Discrimination is the act of bullying someone because of their characteristics alone (for example sex, race, age, or religion). In 2006 on the 1^st of October the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 was passed in the UK to prohibit “employers unreasonably discriminating against employees on grounds of age” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Equality_(Age)_Regulations_2006 by making the act of discrimination illegal in the work place. 

If NCTV would be interested in using an already established show/character in one of their productions they would have to look into purchasing the rights to it. Copyright is a legal ownership of the rights to use/distribute something. These rights are mostly in the hands of the original creator of the piece, for example “the photographer of a photograph or the author of a book”   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright.Thi s legal concept is in place to make sure properties that the creator owns are not used by anyone else without the authorization of the owner.  

Something very similar to copyright is a trademark, as it is legally owned by a party. A trademark is a logo or symbol that is legally registered by a corporation to represent them. All logos that are classed as a trademark have a small font size R in a circle or TM next to the logo. The R means registered trademark. The small symbols are there to show that the logo has a corporate owner so cannot be used by anyone else without permission.

When working on a factual production about a person or group of people it is very important to paint portray them in a fair light. What this means is, say if NCTV was producing a show detailing peoples religious beliefs. Even if the crew working on the production do not believe in the same beliefs as the subject of the documentary they must not deny the religion or disrespect it. You must represent them well. To make sure you are not portraying them in a completely bad light. An example of this is the 30 minute BBC Panorama special ‘North Korea Undercover’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01s1mfw/Panorama_North_Korea_Undercover/. The special features a group of people going into North Korea under cover to film the state of the country. Despite the fact of going to a country with false identification being illegal, the BBC were allowed to get away with it as at the time North Korea was in the public interest and a social concern, as there was a looming threat of a nuclear war breaking out. Even if you agree that North Korea is a horrible place, you must admit the documentary does misrepresent it. A case of this is the creepy atmospheric soundtrack that underlies most of the production. This soundtrack immediately gives the impression that North Korea is bad. Whilst it may be true that North Korea is a scary place, it is not ethically sound to add a spooky score to glaze the 30 minute factual piece.  

     

The BBC when making shows follows the Code of Practice. According to the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/how-we-work/business-requirements/code-of-practice.shtml the code “sets out the principles which are to be applied when the BBC is, for a purpose connected with the provision of Public Television services, agreeing terms for the commissioning of independent productions.”. The Code is on place to make sure serious topics are handled in a professional and respectful manner. It prohibits “the use of profanity, the negative portrayal of family life, irreverence for God and religion, illicit sex, drunkenness and addiction, presentation of cruelty, detailed techniques of crime, the use of horror for its own sake, and the negative portrayal of law enforcement officials” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Practices_for_Television_Broadcasters.

We must make sure that NCTV stays within the law. For this we must abide by the legislations put into motion. Such as the Race Relations Act of 1976. This was created to stop the discrimination of employees because of their race. Obscene Publications Act of 1959 was put into motion to ban the showing of certain actions or imagery judged as being obscene, on TV and film. An example of this act in motion is the video nasty list of early 80’s. This motion, led by Mary Whitehouse, prosecuted films that were deemed by them to be influencing people to commit murder and other crimes, making such films as ‘Evilspeak’ and ‘The Driller Killer’ banned in the UK. Most of the films put on trial involved scenes of violence with house hold objects. Sam Rami’s ‘The Evil Dead’ was put on trial for a scene of a pencil being inserted into someone’s ankle. Sam Rami went to court and defended the film, claiming it is fictitious due to the production hosting evil spirits, rather than using psychotic humans. This argument managed to sway the court, meaning it wasn’t put on the banned list.  Instead the film was released in 1990 with “approximately 2 mins cut” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_nasty.  

Another example of the censoring of shows and movies is the British Board of Film or BBFC for short. This is a group of people who watch a film and review what audience the film is suited for. They then put a rating on the film. The ratings they dish out are…

U: This rating means the film is suitable for all ages to watch.

PG: A Parental guidance movie may include none specific/implied sexual dialogue, or violence that is lacking in blood.

12a/12: These two ratings both mean the film is ok for 12 year olds and over to watch. Anyone under 12 isn’t allowed to see the movie at the cinema or purchase on DVD.

15: A 15 may include violence, occasional use of bad language, nudity and sex is allowed, although not in graphic detail. A 15 rated is only available for people who are aged 15 and over the watch.  

18: Where due to the excessive violence, language, and or sex. Then the film will be deemed unsuitable for anyone under the age of 18 to view it.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

Job Roles in TV and Film (Blog)

By Adam Joseph Reed

There are many job roles situated in the media industry. First you will need to look at management jobs. These are the roles that involve people directing what is happening when shooting or organising things like sets, talent, and equipment. An example of this is a Production Manager; they are someone who oversees the planning process, draws up the production schedule, and is in charge of organising people such as the production crew and the talent, and the sets and props. Using the media job website http://www.filmandtvpro.com/uk/jobs.php I found there is a job opening in Birmingham. The pay is £34,064 per annum and the duration is 37 hours per week. http://www.filmandtvpro.com/uk/job_view.php?uid=207691&p=2&keyword=

Secondly you need to hire people to handle the creative side of the production. These are the people that create the look of the production, for example the set or costume design. This job also detains the look of the talent. Therefore a makeup artist is needed to do their hair and makeup so that no hair/skin continuity errors take place. I found a Make-up/Hair assistant job at http://www.filmandtvpro.com/uk/job_view.php?uid=207254&p=2&keyword= situated in Lincolnshire. The job lasts one day and the pay is £100. 

Thirdly there has to be someone performing an editorial job role. This is someone who pieces everything together; a perfect example of this is the editor. This is someone who takes the separate pieces of footage and splices them together into a flowing sequence of events. As well as sorting the visual sequence of the film it is also their job to make sure the audio and soundtrack match with the picture. Looking on http://www.filmandtvpro.com/uk/job_view.php?uid=207585&p=&keyword= I found a part time editing job for the pay of £15 per hour.

When shooting a film it is important to have people in Technical roles such as technical operators and supervisors. An operator is the person who actually gets their hands on and uses the equipment on set. Their job can range from handling, the camera, the talk bike, microphones, or even a lighting rig. A technical supervisor’s job is to make sure the equipment is working so that when it comes to the shoot day everything is ready for the shoot to take place. Using Film and TV Pro I discovered a job in technical operating and Lighting available in Chiswick, West London http://www.filmandtvpro.com/uk/job_view.php?uid=208172&p=&keyword=. Using the same site I found a job for lighting and technical supervisor also available from Chiswick http://www.filmandtvpro.com/uk/job_view.php?uid=208173&p=&keyword=. I presume these jobs are for working on the same production. Unfortunately the page does not specify the amount of pay or the duration. I would need to register for an account on the site to view all of the job details.

It is critical to hire at least one researcher on a production. Their job could involve anything from verifying factual information, too finding securing film locations for a shoot day. A researchers job is very wide/open, it depends on the type of production they are working on. Say if you wanted to use a piece of archive footage in your film. It would be their job to check the copyright and acquire the permission to use it. There hours are irregular, meaning they are not regular 5-9 working hours. Instead they can be anything from working weekends or weekdays at midnight to 7 in the morning. There pay, according to https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/mediaresearcher.aspx states that a junior researcher “may earn around £415 a week.” But a more experienced person could “earn around £650 a week”.

There are types of working patterns in the industry. For example Shift work is where a company, to make use of the full 24 hour day, recruits two or more people to do the same job but at different times, on different shifts. This means someone is working on a specific job every hour of the day.

A fixed term employment is where you are employed by a company for a certain amount of time until the task you were hired to do is completed. When your job is done your contract with them expires.

Some people work freelance jobs. This means they are not tied down to just one company on a full time job, but are instead hired for a small amount of time. Advantages of being a freelancer are, they are much better paid as they can negotiate their own rate of hiring, and they aren’t tied down to normal office hours (9-5) as they can often work from home. However there is a large disadvantage to this as you may have a job for a few weeks and not have another one for months later. This means you will not know the next time you are getting paid.

Irregular hours are where a job does not have regular work hours. This means the person performing a piece of work can choose to work from home and at any hour that suits them, as long as they get their work done for a set deadline.

Some people working in the media industry are hired to perform piece work. This is where their pay is not dictated by an hourly rate but instead to the amount and quality of the work produced. 

Starting a Media Company

By Adam Joseph Reed

There are many different types of ownership when it comes to media production. The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is a public service. This means they don’t show any advertisements between their shows (except for short ads for their own productions). The BBC is also funded through the British people buying TV Licences. ITV are sponsored by outside companies so that they will show and advertise their products in-between programs.

In the film industry you also have companies that own and distribute movies. There are independents; these are small companies that work outside the major studios and often produce very none mainstream movies. Film 4 is a good example of this is with their 2012 film ‘Sightseers’ which features moments of very dark comedy (known as black comedy), 2 unlikeable protagonists, and a very anti-Hollywood ending.

On the other end of the scale you have corporate film companies such as Working Title. They are much larger companies that often have a lot more money to spend on their productions. Due to the increased budget on their films they need to make as much money back as possible, leading to the films being more formulaic and mainstream, so they will appeal to as wide, and as many audiences as possible to earn their budget back and make a large profit.    

  

When making a film or TV production you will need a source of funding. There are many places of which to find this. One example is you could launch a kick starter campaign. Kickstarter is a website where you can post your project idea online and an amount of money that you need to raise to get the production off the ground for people to view and if they are interested back your production and donate money towards getting it made. However, there is a major flaw in using the site to fund a project as “Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing”, (What is Kickstarter Page, http://www.kickstarter.com/hello, point 3) meaning if your project has backing and has received some donations but doesn’t reach its goal then all of the money donated will transfer back to the backers and you will have made no profit what so ever.

Another form of funding is product placement. This is where a company pays you to feature a product of theirs in your production so that they can use your film as an advertisement for their brand.  Often this method is quite subtle, like having the main character of the piece drink/consume the product in a scene. A large disadvantage is, if overused or being shown too frequent then it distracts the viewer from the plot and borders on being intrusive. Film director Quentin Tarantino believes that when it is too obvious “it becomes ridiculously obvious and then it can break the reality.”

An example of product placement becoming distracting is in the 2013 film ‘Man of Steel’ which features a fight between the protagonist and the villain’s henchmen. The scene takes place in a small town and in most of the shots you have the characters standing in front of a giant ‘Sears’ logo that takes up half of the screen. In fact as the fight progresses they end up battling it out inside of an ‘Ihop’ which they again show us the logo of several times and bares nothing to the plot.

Whereas product placement has an advertisement during or inside the movie, a company can sponsor your production. In this case they will still help fund your movie but their adverts will take place before or after your film. The benefit of this is of course you still get the money and you don’t have to cram a company’s brand into the project itself. Also this means the company has less chance of affecting your production to force their product in the film and to make sure it is represented in a good light. For example a company would prefer the protagonist to advertise the product because most of the time he is represented as being good. Often they will demand that the protagonist and not the villain use their item so that the audience will be more pressed to buy it. Having a sponsor will ensure that you have complete control over your production without any company trying to change any parts of it.

An example of a company sponsoring a production is at the beginning and end of every advert break of ITV 1’s ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me out of Here!’ there is a short 10 second advert for Iceland.

I performed a survey online with ServeyMonkey.com (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DTC3DR5) to find out what 16-24 year olds favour watching on TV and at the Cinema. I managed to ask 14 people in total. The first question queries what gender the participant is. 11 were males and only 3 were females. When asked what their favourite genre of film is out of the options horror, comedy, Sci-fi, romantic comedy, thriller, and action. Thriller came in at the highest with 7 people choosing it. 6 people voted for comedy, horror, action and sci-fi all got 5 votes (My survey was multiple choice, so is the reason the votes don’t add up to 14). Of TV show genres, 8 chose comedy, 6 chose drama, 2 picked cartoons, and 1 picked reality TV. Ten of people who answered my survey fit into the 16-18 age range, 2 are in the 19-21 range, 1 is 22-24, and the final person fits into other.  

Using the research I have performed, I propose we, at Newcastle College should make thriller comedy hybrid movie. The target audience should be the 16-22 age as my survey proves that they would be the most interested in viewing it. It is easy to build a small cheap set and with large places on campus like the TV Studio to store/film them in. For the talent, it would be easy to ask the Acting department situated in the same building if we could borrow anyone who would be willing to take part. It would give them more experience to put on their CV or Show-reel. 

I believe the film should be put onto the website https://vimeo.com/ because it will be free to view, therefore more people will be inclined to watch it, and a lot of professional filmmakers use the site to host their work and comment on other people's work, tips to make their productions better.