Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Glossary terms for words used in Mock Interview companion piece
Vertical Intergration
Where a company operates each stage of a production, distribution and exhibition line in order to maximise profits. This was common in the Hollywood Studio system back in the 20s to late 40s.
Monolopy
A situation in which a single company or group owns all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service. By definition, monopoly is characterized by an absence of competition - which often results in high prices and inferior products.
Product Placement
The appearance of a product or service in a TV program or film, paid for by the manufacturer to gain exposure for the product or service.
Adminastrative
Work involving numbers for the production as well as lawful obligations like the Codes of Practice, that can allow productiom to go on without any unforeseen problems.
ILM
Visual Effects company Industrial, Light & Magic
Personal Career Development
For a career in the film industry you need to require certain qualifications and experience working in the industry. This works as a checklist of what is needed to be the best you can be if you want a job.
Where a company operates each stage of a production, distribution and exhibition line in order to maximise profits. This was common in the Hollywood Studio system back in the 20s to late 40s.
Monolopy
A situation in which a single company or group owns all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service. By definition, monopoly is characterized by an absence of competition - which often results in high prices and inferior products.
Product Placement
The appearance of a product or service in a TV program or film, paid for by the manufacturer to gain exposure for the product or service.
Adminastrative
Work involving numbers for the production as well as lawful obligations like the Codes of Practice, that can allow productiom to go on without any unforeseen problems.
ILM
Visual Effects company Industrial, Light & Magic
Personal Career Development
For a career in the film industry you need to require certain qualifications and experience working in the industry. This works as a checklist of what is needed to be the best you can be if you want a job.
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Understand contractual, legal and ethical obligations in the television and film industries
To understand the contractual, legal and ethical obligations in the television and film industries, I’ll have to research the some of the contract processes, looking at the codes of practice and at a board of classification to see the legal issues.
Firstly I’m going to start off with the types of contracts there are in the industry there are the confidentiality and the exclusivity contracts, confidentiality is when a deal and/or the project is kept under wraps from the public, examples of this in the film industry include Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace where production of the film was kept secret and no one in the public knew of the films existence until a trailer was shown, a more recent example is J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot, in this case production of the film was known, but it was done on a closed set and the way the characters looked were kept under wraps from the public. There aren’t as many examples from the television industry that apply to the confidentiality ruling, although having said that it goes without saying that production on television shows are kept under wraps and only occasionally are ‘spoilers’ or on-set photos getting out to public knowledge. The other type of contract is exclusivity; this is when for a period of time a production company has the right to produce an idea into a film or television programme, this is most common for an adaptation of a book, which a company buys the rights and has a period of exclusivity in order to produce it, an recent example would be the adaptation of Watchmen that went round all the studios until Warner Bros. finally developed it into a film. Overall the different types of contracts used in the industries determine what can be known about the project as well as who has the right to produce it.
Other aspects of a contract include the employment legislation, which include the sort of terms and conditions of the employee’s rights, some which are paramount for production, others that aren’t as important and a few more that don’t usually apply to the production process. To start it off, health and safety is written into the contracts to make sure the person contracted understands responsibility of action, should accidents or unforeseen consequences occur on set, the studio isn’t liable any injury caused to the crew member.
Another obligation that is considered in the contract is the employee rights. In the contract it can be clearly stated that the employee can’t be discriminated in any shape or form, whether it is age, sex or race when being refused work on those sorts of grounds, it works just the same in the Film and TV industry, where equal rights to work on a project is enforced. There is also a minimum wage as well as equal pay, going back to be discriminated for being different despite doing the same amount of work.
Intellectual Property is a very important aspect for contract as it literally protects a companies name and image, with copyright laws no one else is able to develop an idea that is similar, if not the same, as what the company is already producing or produced over a period of time without permission. A normal copyright law would consist of no one being able to reproduce a project for a period of around 70 years, however whoever holds the copyright for it can sell it on to another company so they can have the right to reproduce it, this is very similar to the exclusivity types of contracts that was mentioned earlier the only difference being that the company who now holds the rights can remake a project for their own workload.
Other obligations that are important in the industry are ethical ones; the codes of practice plays a big part in this obligation as it allows filming to take place with permission, as long as the crew keeps to the code they can work on filming. For example if they were a scene where guns are being used, the local police would have to be informed otherwise they’d be a mix up on set, filming permission would be denied and the crew would be out of work for not following the codes of practice. Certain procedures must also be obeyed in order for crewmembers to not only work but also get paid.
One final obligation is legal ones. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) acts as a regulator for the public, classifying film projects to see how suitable it is for certain audiences, they organise the films suitability through: language, sex, violence and other themes that may be unsuitable for certain audiences, then categorise the films into different age groups based upon what the film contains. If the distribution company wants a specific age rating in order to maximise the profits, they sent the film off to a company like the BBFC to get it classified, if it comes back with the rating they didn’t want they’d re-edit it until they get the desired classification. An example of this is the latest Die Hard film, where the company 20th Century Fox wanted have the film a 12A, PG-13 in America, to make its audience wider and therefore make it more profitable, to do this they` re-cut the film removing some of the profanity and violence so it can fit into the lower category Without a rating a film can’t legally be released and therefore no money can be made, so it is paramount for a film to be sent to the BBFC and other companies like it, making it one of the most of obligations in the film and television industry.
In conclusion looking at the contractual obligations we can see why confidentiality and exclusivity is important for companies to control how much can be known to the public and what can be produce, for employees it protects their well-being in the workplace. Ethical and legal obligations also make sure that a production crew is working to the right conditions and a project isn’t too unsuitable for its desired target audience.
Firstly I’m going to start off with the types of contracts there are in the industry there are the confidentiality and the exclusivity contracts, confidentiality is when a deal and/or the project is kept under wraps from the public, examples of this in the film industry include Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace where production of the film was kept secret and no one in the public knew of the films existence until a trailer was shown, a more recent example is J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot, in this case production of the film was known, but it was done on a closed set and the way the characters looked were kept under wraps from the public. There aren’t as many examples from the television industry that apply to the confidentiality ruling, although having said that it goes without saying that production on television shows are kept under wraps and only occasionally are ‘spoilers’ or on-set photos getting out to public knowledge. The other type of contract is exclusivity; this is when for a period of time a production company has the right to produce an idea into a film or television programme, this is most common for an adaptation of a book, which a company buys the rights and has a period of exclusivity in order to produce it, an recent example would be the adaptation of Watchmen that went round all the studios until Warner Bros. finally developed it into a film. Overall the different types of contracts used in the industries determine what can be known about the project as well as who has the right to produce it.
Other aspects of a contract include the employment legislation, which include the sort of terms and conditions of the employee’s rights, some which are paramount for production, others that aren’t as important and a few more that don’t usually apply to the production process. To start it off, health and safety is written into the contracts to make sure the person contracted understands responsibility of action, should accidents or unforeseen consequences occur on set, the studio isn’t liable any injury caused to the crew member.
Another obligation that is considered in the contract is the employee rights. In the contract it can be clearly stated that the employee can’t be discriminated in any shape or form, whether it is age, sex or race when being refused work on those sorts of grounds, it works just the same in the Film and TV industry, where equal rights to work on a project is enforced. There is also a minimum wage as well as equal pay, going back to be discriminated for being different despite doing the same amount of work.
Intellectual Property is a very important aspect for contract as it literally protects a companies name and image, with copyright laws no one else is able to develop an idea that is similar, if not the same, as what the company is already producing or produced over a period of time without permission. A normal copyright law would consist of no one being able to reproduce a project for a period of around 70 years, however whoever holds the copyright for it can sell it on to another company so they can have the right to reproduce it, this is very similar to the exclusivity types of contracts that was mentioned earlier the only difference being that the company who now holds the rights can remake a project for their own workload.
Other obligations that are important in the industry are ethical ones; the codes of practice plays a big part in this obligation as it allows filming to take place with permission, as long as the crew keeps to the code they can work on filming. For example if they were a scene where guns are being used, the local police would have to be informed otherwise they’d be a mix up on set, filming permission would be denied and the crew would be out of work for not following the codes of practice. Certain procedures must also be obeyed in order for crewmembers to not only work but also get paid.
One final obligation is legal ones. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) acts as a regulator for the public, classifying film projects to see how suitable it is for certain audiences, they organise the films suitability through: language, sex, violence and other themes that may be unsuitable for certain audiences, then categorise the films into different age groups based upon what the film contains. If the distribution company wants a specific age rating in order to maximise the profits, they sent the film off to a company like the BBFC to get it classified, if it comes back with the rating they didn’t want they’d re-edit it until they get the desired classification. An example of this is the latest Die Hard film, where the company 20th Century Fox wanted have the film a 12A, PG-13 in America, to make its audience wider and therefore make it more profitable, to do this they` re-cut the film removing some of the profanity and violence so it can fit into the lower category Without a rating a film can’t legally be released and therefore no money can be made, so it is paramount for a film to be sent to the BBFC and other companies like it, making it one of the most of obligations in the film and television industry.
In conclusion looking at the contractual obligations we can see why confidentiality and exclusivity is important for companies to control how much can be known to the public and what can be produce, for employees it protects their well-being in the workplace. Ethical and legal obligations also make sure that a production crew is working to the right conditions and a project isn’t too unsuitable for its desired target audience.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Preperation for Career Development Material
To understand how much preparation goes into Personal Career Development Material for the media industry, I’ll have to research into how someone finds out what is available in the industry and what education and training is required to be accepted at that level of work in the industry.
One of the first items that are important for Personal Career Development is to find out what education and/or training is required, in order to be considered for a job in the media industry. There are many different qualifications that can lead on to a job, a few are undergraduate degrees which can lead into the media industry, which themselves require at least 2 A-Levels and a BTEC National Diploma. A Film Production degree at university level allows for both the qualification and the necessary experience for working in film, whether its screenwriting, director, cinematographer etc these can be worked on for a student to specialise in for their perspective job in the media industry.
Having the right skills is also important for applying for a job in the media industry; certain positions require the right skills in order to be considered for employment. This works with some courses at University ask for you to specialise in one area of the film crew, going for this one area works for the person’s advantage for when applying to work. Some of these skills can consist of personal skills i.e. working in team, this doesn’t necessarily mean production work but it does help, generally working in team can build respect and a good working relationship, having these sorts of skills will make working on production easier by having that respect if you were director for example. Technological skills like being able to work with cameras, lights and even editing software are paramount if you want to have a job in the film industry, most of this would have to come from experience but it initially can be taught how to use the equipment/software. This is probably one of the biggest requirements for applying for work in the industry and having some knowledge and experience, whether a employment opportunity comes along, would make you stand out among the other applicants for the highly contested job.
In order to know what is available in the media industry, there are sources of information that help with this, examples of this include ‘Runners’ Network’, a website set up for people looking for work experience on production for this particular site its running work. Being a runner gives you first hand experience what happens on a professional level, knowledge can be picked up from seeing what happens or speaking to people on what they do. Another source of information, which can help for finding the right course for the qualification you need, is Skillset; it’s a Sector Skills Council that allows people to search what they are looking to do and finds the right course they should apply for, with appropriate links and qualification requirements for the course.
In conclusion there are many different ways to advance your Personal Career Development Material from finding a course that would give the right qualifications, experience with working with certain equipment and in a team which will give you an advantage over other hopefuls and having actual work experience in a professional production. All these factors are important for having the right material for your career development.
One of the first items that are important for Personal Career Development is to find out what education and/or training is required, in order to be considered for a job in the media industry. There are many different qualifications that can lead on to a job, a few are undergraduate degrees which can lead into the media industry, which themselves require at least 2 A-Levels and a BTEC National Diploma. A Film Production degree at university level allows for both the qualification and the necessary experience for working in film, whether its screenwriting, director, cinematographer etc these can be worked on for a student to specialise in for their perspective job in the media industry.
Having the right skills is also important for applying for a job in the media industry; certain positions require the right skills in order to be considered for employment. This works with some courses at University ask for you to specialise in one area of the film crew, going for this one area works for the person’s advantage for when applying to work. Some of these skills can consist of personal skills i.e. working in team, this doesn’t necessarily mean production work but it does help, generally working in team can build respect and a good working relationship, having these sorts of skills will make working on production easier by having that respect if you were director for example. Technological skills like being able to work with cameras, lights and even editing software are paramount if you want to have a job in the film industry, most of this would have to come from experience but it initially can be taught how to use the equipment/software. This is probably one of the biggest requirements for applying for work in the industry and having some knowledge and experience, whether a employment opportunity comes along, would make you stand out among the other applicants for the highly contested job.
In order to know what is available in the media industry, there are sources of information that help with this, examples of this include ‘Runners’ Network’, a website set up for people looking for work experience on production for this particular site its running work. Being a runner gives you first hand experience what happens on a professional level, knowledge can be picked up from seeing what happens or speaking to people on what they do. Another source of information, which can help for finding the right course for the qualification you need, is Skillset; it’s a Sector Skills Council that allows people to search what they are looking to do and finds the right course they should apply for, with appropriate links and qualification requirements for the course.
In conclusion there are many different ways to advance your Personal Career Development Material from finding a course that would give the right qualifications, experience with working with certain equipment and in a team which will give you an advantage over other hopefuls and having actual work experience in a professional production. All these factors are important for having the right material for your career development.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
More information about the short films
My website which I've also made during my time at Totton College as part of one of the units, one of pages on the website has a list of all the films I've made along with seperate pages going into detail on on how it was made: the different techniques used, problems we had during production and what was leanred overall.
Here's the link to the filmography page on the website: http://totton.org/harry/5th.html
Here's the link to the filmography page on the website: http://totton.org/harry/5th.html
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