P1 Pre-production materials for a planned original print media product

For my Print Based Media Product I decided I wanted to do an advert campaign for my short film "An Angel In Tramps Clothing" which was released mid-november online. I completed the following pre-production planning in order to fully understand what the print based product would be. This film will be launched on 30th January 2017.

Production Schedule

Production Schedule Grid Updates:

This shoot will be conducted at 9 school lane, boughton under blean, faversham in kent. This is the same location as the film shoot for the movie and we plan on shooting both this and the filming of the movie simultaneously.

We will be launching our print based product in late January of 2017, as no date was originally set this was not be included in the production schedule however since then the launch date has been decided as 3oth January 2017.

Props and Equipment Grid

SET DESIGNS

I also drew up a rough floor plan of the rooms I would be taking the pictures in, this is shown below:

P2 (a) Outcome of recce(s)

Meaning and Purpose

A recce is an analysis of the environment you plan to use for your project, for instance understanding if cars will be common on the road you indeed to film across or whether the lighting is certain areas can lead to trip sand accidents. This is very important as it enables the producers and crew to know the worst case scenario to come from something, and then plan accordingly to prevent it from happening.

When I conducted my recce I visited both sites where I planned to shoot and I analysed the risks associated with the areas. I first placed this into a hazards and locations grid sheet.

With my home this was very easy as I knew the area very well and could picture the areas of shooting perfectly without needing to analyse into too much detail, below is an image of my home from the front.

Also with school this process was very easy, there were no points of hazard in the vicinity in which I was shooting and no legal considerations to be made as the land I planned to film on was the school and since my project was educational this would be a perfectly legal location to film on.

Both of the locations were not only safe and easy to use and gain access to but they also fulfilled my creative vision for the project very well and gave the right feeling for the film.



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Update:

It was decided due to issues wit script that I would no longer film at school but would instead only film with my actors in the first location, my home.,

P2 (b) Potential hazards/risks

Meaning and Purpose
A risk assessment is a guide to the hazards on a set and the action taken to reduce the risk of this happening, it is very commonly also used to safe production companies from 'accident at work' lawsuits, providing a safe environment for the crew involved.On a photoshoot set it is always a possibility that something may go wrong, to avoid coming into contact with danger and risk when things might go wrong I conducted a risk assessment for the location I was going to be shooting in, this was with me on set along with a plan of action in case of emergency.

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Most of the risk and hazards were very unlikely to happen however I tackled the possibility and came up with plans to prevent the hazards. As all were rare-Unlikely likelihood and Minor-Moderate consequences this places all of my hazards in the Moderate rating in the below hazard key for risk assessing.

Action Plan

My action plan to deal with all of these hazards is included in my solution section of my risk assessment, I decided that I would tell my actors the dangers in advance and have it included in the contract that this was told to them.

Update:

On set no damage was sustained by actors, crew, equipment or set, no disease was spread and no wildlife or weather conditions interrupted filming. Thanks in part to my prior planning.

P2 (c) Solutions of any hazard/risk in line with health and safety procedures

Meaning and Purpose

It is important to resolve the issues found in risk assessments, these solutions are laid out below to give an 'instruction manual' of sorts for myself and any crew to follow to ensure accidents do not happen. It is important in the film industry to do this not just for the safety of individuals but also for insurance purposes as the film production company will not be liable for damages if the equipment was treated carefully with a full risk assessment done.

Action Plan

To calm any consequence of certain hazards during my project I attempted to cover all of the risks within my risk assessment and find ways in which to make the hazards either far less likely or the consequences far less severe. These hazards had to be controlled for 3 smaller shooting locations that were around the are in which we were shooting, these areas being my shed, my back garden and my kitchen.

The first location I focussed on was the shed, shown above, this included a large amount of the hazards i had listed in my risk assessment; tripping, dropping equipment, bad weather and wildlife as we were stationed outside. To tackled the issue of tripping I placed a small piece of wood on the outside of the shed acting as a ramp for people to enter through, I also warned them about the possibility of tripping when exiting and entering the shed. To tackle the issue of dropping equipment I had tables stationed outside and inside of the shed for me to place lenses, lens caps as well as the camera and props, this meant I was at no point holding more than one item, I also borrowed a camera strap for the Canon 7d which allowed ti to stay around my neck, stopping the possibility of it dropping, I also used tripods commonly which made dropping near impossible. I tackled the issue of bad weather by stationing the actors inside and providing them with an umbrella to move between the house and the shed. Wildlife was never an issue as my house is surround by high walls and fences however in the event of wildlife coming on set I had a plan of action in how to avoid the animal (which I briefed the actors on) and a contact put in place for each actor in case of emergency.

The second location was the garden outside the home in which I had to shoot the character of Michael walking from the home to the shed, this was exceptionally easy and realistically required no major planning to eliminate risk, however just to be sure I did plan for incidents of bad weather and wildlife. In the case of bad weather I had told the actors that the may have to come back for another really short day of shooting to get the shot of Michael walking to the shed, which required no rain, however as I had checked the forecast (which had told me the weather would be clear) and we shoot that scene early, we didnt come into contact with bad weather during the shooting of that scene. My previously mentioned wildlife plan was the same I used for this location.

The third and final location was the kitchen which involved the highest consequence due to the hard flooring and access to breakable. To stop the risk of tripping inside the kitchen I ensured the actors knew to be careful and not trip, I also warned that objects may rest towards the edge of the counters and asked that they be careful to look out for things such as glasses on the counter when navigating through the kitchen. Dropping equipment in the kitchen would have been a big worry as the camera as well as my microphone would most likely break if they were to fall on the hard floor, as such I shot all of the shots within the kitchen on a tripod, this also assisted me in framing my shots and kept the footage steady throughout filming.

P3 Legal or ethical issues identified and resolved

Copyright

Meaning and Purpose

Copyright is defined as “the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material.” This being taken from Google's Definition.

Copyright law’s main rule is that you can not use any copyrighted material without permission or without a form of royalty payment. Companies and individual can copywritten lyrics of songs, video or audio footage or written works to protect their creations and stop them being used without fair credit or payments. The structure of copyright law is the very reason that the film, music and creative industry in general can make money and sustain itself due to them then having the right to sell their creations and works without illegal usage or viewings (this is becoming much more difficult to control as the online usage of illegal video and music streaming is increasing vastly each year).

Intellectual Property Rights

Meaning and Purpose

Intellectual property rights in the UK are automatic when referring to commercial projects, for instance if someone were selling song lyrics as their own when they were in fact written or sung by someone else. The automatic copyright laws of the UK would dictate that the song lyrics were invalid due to intellectual property theft.

Filming Permissions (Contracts for talent and property release)

Signed copy

Royalties

Royalties are payments made after a project such as a film or photographic work that are paid to individuals whose work was used in the project without any form of written permission, it is important for film and photo shoots that all actors have given permission for their face to be used in the project as well as any music or images that were taken from other's work. As I did not take any graphics I will need to pay royalties although in photographic work royalties can sometimes be claimed by people for use of location without permission as well as franchises and brands whose icons appear in the frame accidently. I avoided any known brands in the shoot and as I shot at my own home this meant I didn't have to pay royalties for use of location.

Violence

As my film has elements of suggested harm to the main character of Michael, when he was burnt by the kettle towards the end of the film, it is important that the violence be avoided as I did not want to risk having to heighten my film's age rating, as it stand with the mere suggestion of violence at a PG level. As showing a burn would boost this to a 15 rating. I was careful to avoid any injuries or violence in my accompanied print based media as well to match this. I decided to go for a more dark and brooding feel that suggest there was any violence in the film, in keeping with the expectation a PG rating gives the film.

Public Interest

As the shoot and filming was on private residence in an unpopular area it was easy to avoid people, as I had placed signs towards the front of the private house to indicate to actors that we were shooting there it was obvious to see that it had drawn some attention from passing members of the public, however there were no incidents of public interest in the project and in the timeframe we had no delays due to this kind of interruption.

P4 Production materials & techniques for an original print media product

SETTING UP EQUIPMENT

Meaning and Purpose
It is very important to have a photo shoot run smoothly, as a lot of my equipment was the same equipment used to film the project this print based media is based on below I have shown the equipment's use and a corresponding image from either my shoot or the film the shoot was for to give an idea of its usage.

Canon 7D

I used a Canon 7D Mark 1 to shoot the whole of my film, I have experience with this camera and was able to use its versatility to capture every planned shot as well as inserts and the unplanned opening shots in my film. The camera also performs well in low-light conditions such as my dialogue scene in the shed which I was able to shoot due to the camera's ISO abilities.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm Lens

My 18-55mm lens featured heavily in the film being the most versatile lens I had it gave me a good wide angle when needed which was useful for my opening scene-establishing shots. Being a Canon made lens I found it also paired well with my Canon 7D Camera Body and was very functional. The idea of having a kit lens that can act as a wide angle lens as well as a zoom lens is very useful, it gives a good range of angles and allowed me to get closer to my actors while keeping the correct frame, the only trouble with this lense is pulling focus, with this lens focus pulling is very clunky and makes a slight mechanical sound when being done, I would highly suggest never using the auto focus feature on this lense for that reason as the sound will affect the film's audio too much to be worth it. All-in-all however this lens was very useful and as I said I used it throughout the film due to its functionality and versatility in terms of the angles it provides.

Kit:

Tripod

My old tripod was used frequently due to my hands not being the most steady. The tripod gave me far more use than simple steadiness however, it also allowed me to Dutch Tilt which is featured in one of my ending shots in the kitchen as well as panning which is seen in the shot connected to the image of the tripod. I really like getting slider shots on the tripod as I think the steady image is very professional and allows me to express a sense of movement, for example in my film all of the opening slider shots were from left to right, the correct linear movement - showing and foreshadowing that my film was going to be linear, which is was. This was changed however when I used the title card, the frame went from right to left to show the confusion and mystery of the story and the entrance into the unexpected.

Props and Costume

For this shoot I used a few props that were also largely used in the film, these can be seen below:

USE OF PRE-PRODUCTION MATERIALS

SAFE-WORKING PRACTICES

PRODUCTION PROCESSES

Meaning & Purpose

In order to complete and fulfill my creative vision there were a number of things I needed to do to keep the quality of the pictures high while hinting the theme of the story well. This included colour, shadows, all of which directly connected to lighting. As such, lighting was incredibly important in the process of shooting my film. This included relevant photography techniques which are important to follow as they can ensure not only a better looking image, but an image with meaning and purpose behind it. The pre-production materials I gathered previous to the shoot helped me greatly in the coordination and execution of the final products, by giving me a clear schedule as well .

Assessment of Risk

To ensure I followed the safest working practices possible I had my risk assessment form on me at all times during the shoot, this was then checked regularly. This was relevant when we began shooting within the shed where I had to notify the actors of the dangerous conditions within. This form can be seen below:



Placement of Shadows & Aperture

One of the techniques I used was the placement of shadows, in my shoot I tried to get a dark sense of the characters where the shadows were surrounding them, I did this by having the majority of my shots show a smaller lightening in the middle of the frame which was then vignetted by the surrounding sections of the picture. This can be seen below in one of the pictures taken of 'the man in the shed'. To ensure I had these shadows correctly exposed I ensured my camera was in the best setting possible, using an automatic shutter speed I set the f.stop value (aperture) to the lowest highest setting on that lens which was f/4 this allowed me to blur the background which assisted with the dark shadows, I also angled my actor to face the open door which was providing the main light source into the shot, this lit his face much more than the background which made it possible to get the shot below.

Set Design

For the shoot I also planned out my angles and actors positions through drawing the layout of the rooms I would be shooting in, this made the shoot more efficient and allowed me to plan the exact shots I would be taking. During this phase I became more aware of certain risks that we prevalent such as the lawnmower inside the shed, which acted as a potential trip hazard for the actors or myself. I overcame this potentially risky situation by bringing the lawnmower out of the shed when shooting. This layout design made it easier for me to navigate the space when it came time to shoot the photographs. This can be seen below:



Catching Movement

During the shot in the shed I wanted the shots to look very natural, as such I simply took the pictures alongside the filming of the actual scenes, I had the actors run their lines while I took pictures and then recorded them for the full on scene, this not only gave them time to rehearse the scenes but also myself to ensure framing was correct as well as the shutter speed. As I had placed the shutter speed on automatic it adjusted itself during different pictures and as such I cannot give a final speed I picked for the shed shoot. However I felt no need to change the shutter speed as due to the wide open aperture the camera automatically countered the effect of harsh light by increasing the shutter speed, this meant that while my actors were still running line I could take pictures with ease and very little motion blur. This is shown in the picture above of the man in the shed.

Camera Angles

I choose angles in this shoot that mimicked the film's aesthetic, this to show the audience and those looking at the print based media the style in which the film is shot as well as the the power dynamics between the boy and the man, in one of my planned edits I will be putting a view of both the boy and the man in the frame and the angle from which both are viewed hints towards their dynamic in the actual storyline of the film.

Mise-En-Scene

The style of mise-en-scene for these pictures was meant to be very minimalist and show with vagueness the storyline, this involved images of the shoe polished used in the film, the shed, kettle as well as the actors. This was meant to focus the audience's view to the objecti in the focus of each picture and create a sense of mystery that the audience member will want to satisfy by watching the film.

Realising The Product

When I had taken the pictures I then, after selecting the ones I wanted to use, moved them into photoshop to edit them, this included changing brightness and contrasts of the image as well as cropping and shadow placement. To change the brightness and contrast of pictures I went to the Image menu and found Adjustments > Brightness and Contrast. from there I could adjust the levels to suit the image style I wanted.

This image was taken from http://www.sketchpad.net/photoshop-levels-1a.htm

P5 Be able to edit materials to produce a final print media product

Meaning & Purpose

The process of editing photographs is incredibly important in today's media market. It is incredibly rare to see any photo that has not been treated in a certain way in the editing process, some companies such as Vogue, ELLE, and other fashion magazines use the editing process to affect wild changes in the body, hair, and makeup of their models as well as add titles, effects or additional props into the scene that were not there during filming. This is commonly called 'photoshopping' due to it mostly being done on the Adobe editing software 'Photoshop'. During the process, I had of editing I used this software to add titles, change the nature of the images and combine images together. It was important in the editing process to ensure everything helped the final creative vision of the film and gave the film's posters, banners and handouts a similar style to the film it is promoting.

Editing

My editing process was incredibly easy and simply for the pictures I had taken. After I had planned, shot and digitally formatted my pictures through transferring the files to a specified folder, I then proceeded to edit them into the print based mediums of promotion I required, as I was going to do web banners and posters I first found out the dimensions required for those images and then made multiple copies of photoshop files with those dimensions acting as the canvas size. This can be done when selecting a new project in photoshop (As shown below).

When in the new file I simply added my shots into the canvas by selecting Place... and then selecting the file I wanted to move into photoshop.

After moving the correct images into photoshop I faded the background of the new different images I had taken of both the young boy and the older man to make it look as if they were in the same shot. below is one of the images being blurred on the edges before I changed the background to black to made him appear faded into the darkness.

After doing this with the eraser tool on a low hardness, I then decided the pictures were too moody as the lighting when I took them was not good enough, I decided to change the brightness and contrast of the images in photoshop. This change can be seen below.

After doing that I simply added in titles by using the Text Tool in photoshop and changed the fonts to how I wanted them to look, this gave me easy and professional looking film posters at the end of the experience. This then resulted in a range of professional looking promotional print based media advertisements for the short film "Angel in Tramps Clothing". I entered catch phrases into the poster to act as a slogan, things such as "He Needs Help" using the text tool, I chose these font styles as well as the phrasing of these slogans as I felt they fit the product I was advertising, it helped feed into the enigmatic persona I was trying to create for the film which I believe mirrored the mystery element of the film well. These slogans fit my film well as they added intrigue and gave the film a sense of enigma. Below is a screenshot of the interface in which you can choose the font style, boldness as well as the size of the font you are writing in. I started on myriad pro for the font as this was the default position from my previous photoshop font choices. This, however, was far too stale and boring for my pictures, I moved through font styles until I found one that gave me the professional look I wanted while still helping give the text an appealing look, I settled on Big Caslon which was a preset font inside photoshop. I then adjusted the size to fit the frames I was placing it into. For my stand-up poster, I changed this as I felt the text needed to be more impactful and less subtle, to do this I simply adjusted the font style and size until I was happy with it. I believe the font style I used also helped with the tone of the text I was writing, helping provide a dark and gritty atmosphere to the images.

After creating these titles I then had to place them using the free transform tool in photoshop, shown below. This was a simple and yet highly effective way of moving and reshaping layers in each of my projects. this fine tuning with the free transform tool was the final step in my relatively simple and yet highly effective process of editing within photoshop.

The above screenshot was not taken by me and is found here: https://af-design.com/2008/04/30/creating-a-perspective-screenshot/

Final Products and Editing to Style

It is also important for photo-editing not only to get the image looking good but also remember the style in which the image will be shown and ensure things such as text and framing is kept in mind when formatting the final product, below are a few examples of the differences between the styles we commonly see in the promotion of films.

Web Banners

I decided that as online promotion is one of the most effective ways to raise awareness of products that a web banner would be useful. Much like banners at the top of IMDb pages (shown above) I decided to make banners that would appear at the top of webpages for the release of my film these appeared with two main slogans, "Who is He?" and "He Needs Help", shown below. 

Posters

Posters have always been important in releasing a film, whether it is placed in a cinema or online (the above shows three posters used as thumbnails for movie trailers on the popular film site IMDb). I decided I would use a tactic similar to this as it is one of the most important things to produce for film's distribution. Below is my poster design as well as an envisionment of its placement.

Handouts / Leaflets

I decided that for the film's premiere in the Boughton Town Hall I would release a small A4 handout that I could send around to drum up interest in the film and also raise funds for my following projects, I displayed a ticket price, time of the release and the place, along with a small amount of information about the film, including the actors involved, the name and a shot from my shoot which helped show it was a mystery film.