Locations, Regulation & Union

Locations - identification; recces; limitations and risks

 

Locations plays a big part in a film production especially if the scenes are mainly shot outside. You will need to identify the risks within that specific location and time. The recces and risk assessments will allow to show the crew the things that can go wrong within the production and what can be done if anything were to go not to plan.  The recces will often involve the weather, the risks in that specific location, what can prevent it and the back-up plan if needed. However, you will need to keep in mind the limitation within that location. For an example, some of the scenes in Fast & Furious 7 that were shot in Dubai there are alcohol and some nudity involved but because it was internal scenes they had the permission to shot it. However, if they were shoot outside in the public that will be a different situation as they wouldn’t be able to shoot as it’s a religious country. So you will always need to keep in the mind the access that the production will have, but also the distance of the location and how that will affect the whole filmmaking.

 

Regulation – BBFC.

The British Board of Film Classification, known as BBFC, is a non-governmental company that was set up in 1912 that classifies cinema films. A classification is a way to adding an age group into a film to protect the audience. For an example, if you have a horror based genre movie and it didn’t have a classification then any age can watch it and assess it. So, by adding a classification it allows to add limitation to who can watch it. It is good, because some content shouldn’t be watched by a specific age group. For an example, American Pie “contains strong language and frequent moderate sex references” so it shouldn’t be watched or seen by kids under 15. BBFC will have to watch the film or the video all the way through, while using the Classification Guidelines to reach an age rating.

 

Union – PACT and BECTU.

The Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television, known as PACT, is a UK based trade association that represent independent television, feature films and new media. The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematography and Theatre Union, known as BECTU, is also a UK based trade union with around 26,000 members that work in film, theatre, broadcasting, entertainment and interactive media.

Logistics & Personnel

Logistics – What time factors would you need to bear in mind?

 In filmmaking deadline are very important as it allows everything to run smoothly in pre-production, production and post-production. By encouraging the crew to meet their internal individually and as a group it would allow the whole production team to be effectively and strong. However, it would also make you seem more reliable and responsible person, but also keeping everything to the deadline it will give you time for mistakes and changes. This is important, because the idea you thought at first might not work so by keeping the deadline you’re allowing and giving yourself and the team to create something better and strong for the audience. You must also keep in mind the availability to equipment as you don’t want to be stuck without any equipment’s if you need to re-film a scene. It is important to know when you need to give back some of the equipment’s used in the production of the filmmaking. The availability of personnel is also something to keep in mind when producing a film. You will need to know the full team involved and where anyone is placed at specific times for an effectively= production.  The timescales for clearances simple means that when wrapped up the production your will need to get everything cleared in which some cases involves the police, the council or even the government.

 

Personnel – Who would you need to work with?

Personnel is basically the people that are involved in the production and the roles that are given to them. As an example for this Fast & Furious 7 had more than 150 individuals working on the production as it was a really big project, but also it was a sequence so the movie had to been bigger and better from the rest of the Fast & Furious films. The crew involves director, writers, the casts, producers, editor, and cinematographers, set decorator costume design, and many more. The skills and experience that a director will need is to think strategically, which require the ability to stand back from the practical details and take a longer-term decide. The skills and experience that a set designer will take on is studying the script and then discuss the ideas with the director, but also communicate their ideas to costume, make-up, props and lighting designer. However, the main object is in their role is to build and photograph scale models and oversee set building and decoration. Also in personnel you will need to have someone or a group of people actually finding the talent, which is the actors and actress for the production. In Fast & Furious 7 the casting which done by Anne McCarthy and Kellie Roy. Within the casting they will need to find out the actors availability time as it might affect the production schedules and deadlines.

Finance & Requirements

Finance – Where might you find the money to make a film?

Finance in filmmaking all depend on the organisation, which changes for each company. For an example, a low profited company can find money for their film by other organisation and company that they promote, whereas a higher profited film company will often find money from their pervious profit making. The British Film Institute is one of many ‘charitable’ organisations that allows to promote and maintain filmmaking and television in the UK.  One way that the BFI earns its money for film makers is by creating different type of membership for the audience to have more insight within the films that are design and create. For an example, you have the BFI Member which is a simply £40 a year that includes priority booking, discounts, free ticket to an exclusive events and many more. You then have the BFI Champion up to 15% discount, extra priority booking, free new release BFI DVD, and this cost £240 a year. Finally, you have the BFI Patron for £1200 a year that includes the highest access of BFI Southbank, BFI London Film Festival and BFI National Archive while providing vital support to their charitable work. An example of the BFI organisation making a film is A Bigger Splash, which was directed by Luca Guadagnino and all funded by the BFI. However, companies can receives money from major Hollywood studios, but also from Chinese and Russian invests.

Requirements – What would you need to spend the money on?

What would you need to spend the money on when producing a film? Well everything seen on the scene, behind the scene and everyone who is involved. This includes camera, light and set equipment’s, transport for the crews and more specific things as well. For an example, in the production stage you will not only need to organise a transport for the actors and actress to the set, but also spend money on what food and drink that they will eat. Also in the production stage if a set is needed and built you will need to hire a professional team to design and create it. One another major requirement that is needed in film is the costume designers as costume plays a big part in movies. As an example, The Fast and The Furious 7 was shoot in Dubai as one of their main scene so the requirement was to book tickets for each of actors and actress, but also organising where they will stay for the time being there.