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.