Video evaluation

To review the video I can say that I was surprised that it went so well together. We had to deal with a large variety of problems in pre-production, production and Post-production which made me begin to question if we would ever finish. So when I saw the video I was happy with the end result. The locations were well chose. Our actors were great. It is presented very well by Francesca. The interviews were well edited together apart from they cut out too quickly. There were other problems with the sound also. In one of the interviews there was an echo that was very distracting and with the Vox Pops we asked all the actors who were used for the reconstructions apart from the children. This isn’t exactly wrong, but it can make it look like the answered they gave were scripted. The video was entertaining in parts, mainly at the start, but for the whole is not what would usually be shown to our target audience. It is just filled with too many interviews and children/young teens do not usually like to watch that kind of stuff. We should have made more reconstructions and less interviews now that I look back on it.

 

If I could go back and do it again then I would definitely try to organise the script and shoot days better. I would make sure that I vocalised to the group that children wouldn’t want to watch 4 minutes of interviews because they would lose interest. I would make sure that the crew begins to make more of the scripted reconstructions which have the same information in the script as what is said in the interviews. Overall what this video needs is to be more entertaining to the target audience. The script needed a lot more work than what we had but overall if this was targeted to older audiences then it would be near perfection for their type of video.

Working to a brief production blog

Working to a brief is an assignment where we get an external client. We have spoken with Alice Gardner who works at Borough council for making a video on child employment. We have elected Ryan Bartle as our project manager, me as the contact liaison. In this post I will be keeping a production diary for this project.

26th February 2014
Today we held our first production meeting. We discussed what our project will entail and our structure. I was voted the contact liaison and Ryan was voted our project manager. In pre-production research I was given the task of how one would seek help in child employment and what to do if their child or they themselves are mistreated or endangered in their work if they are under the age of 16.

27th February 2014
We officially began our research. I had difficulties through research into seeking help as almost every web page I could find was to help children in other contries. I spent hours searching but by the end of the day I managed to gether about a page and a half of research which provided little help into this area. What I was able to find ou was when a child is employed without an official licence the employer can be fined up to £3,000 per child. They are not allowed to work during school times and can only work 2 hours a day max depending on their age. If they are around the age of 14 or 15 they can work for 4 hours a day. If you are being mistreated in the workplace whn a child then there are people trained to help you on that areas council.

3rd March 2014
We had a successful meeting with our main contact Alice Gardner. A few of us had shown up a few minutes late due to a member of the group was unable to read the map we printed out and we got lost. During the meeting we told Alice our idea and structure by the end of it we had more of a solid idea for what we wanted in this film and how we will present it.

13th March 2014
We filmed the first of our Vox Pops. We made sure to get a range of gender, age and ethnicity and got a lot of material to wirk with because of that.

19th March 2014
Me and Jordan organised the folder. Split the paperwork into sections and made covers for each topic. For example "Research" and "Script(s)."

29th March 2014
Me, Jordan and Isaak went to Preston Park to film the historical reconstruction. However our 2 actors could not make. This was due to our presentor Jack Harrison did not change his work schedual as promised and our young actor Olie had a class on that morning. We agreed to leave because we couldn't film and bagan to arange we return next week.

2nd April 2014
We filmed part of the Modern reconstruction. It was Jordan, Leah and Isaak filming and I was playing Jim. We got most of my parts complete and now just need my final scene when I ride off as the presenter says the conclusion.

5th April 2014
We went back to Preston. This time it was just me and Jordan. Olie again wasn't there, but we improvised with several of the others in the acting class there and were able to film the whol historical reconstruction.

13th May 2014
We had to put the Working to a brief project on hold for several weeks so we could all work on our PMP productions. So today we got our presenter Fracesca in to record all the voiceovers and were able to have that complete and edited into our footage within an hour.

15th May 2014
This was supposed to be the final day, but because one of our actresses only had a limited amount of time to film, the project was not quite finished. Overall we have one sequence left to shoot which we will be able to complete come Monday. There was problem with equipment as we had taken the wrong camera which was broken. This held the production up by roughly a half hour.

19th May 2014
We have finally finished shooting our Child Employment Film. All that we needed to shoot was the concluding presented sequence, in which our actress Francesca Firman concluded the points made throughout the film. We shot the sequence in front of a green screen and intend on superimposing a background in post production. The scene went well; I operated the camera, Shemar Chawla recorded sound and Ryan Bartle directed.

Post Production
To ensure the project remained a team effort, we shared the pre-production between three crew members, who each edited individual segments of the film. I edited the vox pops and interviews, as well as the final presented sequence, Isaak Hest edited the modern reconstruction and Dale Whyte edited the historical reconstruction. Once completed, I took each of these segments and laid them on a new timeline in Adobe Premier Pro CS6. I exported them and gave a copy to Isaak Hest, who burned the files on disk using Adobe Encore.

Understanding and Interpreting a Brief

Any and all productions are built around a brief. The brief helps keep people on track with their work and keeps the production team on track with the client (Person who gave the brief).

There are multiple types of briefs in the media industry. The client who gives the brief would like you to interpret and produce a production based on a given brief. The brief can also be given to a production team in means of a competition and can be found online.


Structure of a Brief

Contractual
A contractual brief is a type of brief or contract where a media company is employed by the client in order to complete a project within the brief which is set to specific guidelines which the media company must follow. It is very important for the media company to follow these guidelines and do what the client states within the brief, if they fail to do so this can result in a breech of contract and the company could face legal actions. Having a contractual brief will be good for the media company involved as they will know exactly what the project is and what they are being asked to do as the brief will be very detailed and go into specifics that are not to be negotiated. The disadvantage if this type of contract would be that if the media company think that there are issues within the brief and they produce the product to their own standards this would not be producing the product to the standards set by the client and they could decide to take legal action and this could result in your company having a bad reputation for not completing projects to a set brief.

Negotiated
This type of brief is for when both parties have different ideas for the production. To ensure that both parties are happy with their arrangement a compromise is made in the brief. This involves a lot of back and forth between production team and client.
Taken from:
(http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_negotiated_brief)

This type of brief will be brought up if the co-operative brief given to the two or more media companies that are competing the project have any issues between them selves about the brief or anything they would like to clear up with the client. Through the negotiations the brief can then be changed in order to suite every party taking part in the production. This could be anything from changing the appearance of the product to changing the products content as well as keeping it to the guidelines set in the brief. Negotiating the brief can sometimes waste time and unnecessary issues are brought up that the client believes do not need to be tackled and this can delay the production time of the product.

Formal
This type of brief is much more professional than the previous as the client will have very clear ideas and will most likely invite the group working on the brief to a formal meeting to keep up to date with progress and suggest any improvements or alternative ideas/solutions to problems met by the group.
Taken from (http://techofediting.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/unit-5-working-to-brief-in-media.html)

This is where a media company is given a brief by the client which outlines the product which they are wanting to be made. This brief is very open and only gives enough information to be able to produce the product, any issues or information that the media company would like to go over can be discussed during the negotiations with the client. The layout of the formal brief would be very relaxed and easy to read, it would allow the client to understand and create a product more easily and quickly.

To learn how to construct a formal brief click the link. http://www.ehow.com/how_8624969_conduct-formal-briefing.html

Informal
An informal brief is not documented and is usually of the verbal kind. It is where the client and the company which they have employed simply discuss the requirements for the product they will be making and ultimately agree upon the project. The advantages to this type of brief is that there is more verbal communication between the client and the company they are employing which could mean that the media company will understand fully exactly what the client is asking of them and they should be able to complete the project to the client’s standards easily.The fact that there is no written documentation or contract to prove the employment of the company could mean that at the end of the project the client could easily fail to pay their employees. Also this could mean that certain things like deadlines are not completely clear and this can cause confusion for both parties.
Taken from (http://creativemediaatjt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/informal-brief.html)

This type of brief is done face to face through a meeting, all aspects of the brief must appeal to all members from the client list, the advantages of doing an informal brief is that it can create a relaxed environment and therefore be created a lot quicker, the disadvantages of an informal brief is that it can be seen as unprofessional and unclear. This is when the client doesn't necessarily write down the details of the brief, instead a verbal brief can be given. This is an effective method for the speed of the project, but as details of the brief aren't written down some misunderstanding can take place, meaning all the criteria of the brief may not be covered.

Commission

This is when the client knows you are a reliable group and likes the way you make your productions, this may also be because you have a good reputation. The client will know that you can produce what is needed and will offer a commission (pay) for your efforts. This is an advantage to the client as they will get exactly what they want with little input from the client.
Taken from (http://techofediting.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/unit-5-working-to-brief-in-media.html)

Having this type of brief means that the larger company does not have to do all of the hard work, so to speak. They can sub-contract the work that is set in the brief out to another company  and each company will both receive money for the work they have contributed to the making of the product. This type of brief could mean that because there are two different companies working on the same product there could be some conflicts, but because the brief is not negotiated with the client, the product made may not be to the client’s standards.

This brief is where a  large media company will employ an other independent media company to create and produce the product for them, and after the product has been made the larger company may go on to be use the product for an external client who will pay the independent media company for making the product and they could even get a cut of the royalties too. The brief is not negotiated between the company and the client, however is negotiated between the two media companies.

Tender

A tender brief is a far less formal brief. It is essentially you pitching your ideas to a group who would also be pitching ideas. (Web definition)

This is where a client will advertise their brief and a production company will bring together a proposal that they will pitch to the client, there could be multiple pitches to the client from many different companies, so the client will then get the chance to choose the proposal that they think best suits their brief and offer the job to that production company. 

The advantages of this brief is that the client will be able to look at many different ideas for their product from different companies perspectives and in effect will be able to produce their product to a very high standard if one of the pitched ideas stands out above all of the others. The disadvantage of this type of brief is that if a company’s pitch is turned down by the client this can set them back in business as it is very hard to gain work in this day and age. The business may have been very optimistic in thinking that the client would have accepted their proposal and could have gone as far as to decline any work that they were offered in the time that they would have been working on this project. 

Co-operative brief

A co-operative brief is one where 2 or more parties are involved in a production. This allows the production to be completed quicker and possible at a higher standard than if it were just one company making the production.

 For example, say I'm a client and the production I wish to make includes an elaborate soundtrack and is highly built on special effects then the most likely option I would take is hiring two separate companies to tackle these areas separately. Theoretically I would hire Legendary pictures to tackle the effects because they handled the effects in films such as Pacific Rim, Man of Steel, Godzilla (2014) and several others. For soundtrack I would hire Constantin Film Produktion who developed the soundtracks for Resident Evil, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Mortal Instruments and again several others.

Competition

A client can put the brief online for the public (in this case the production companies) to see. It can sometimes been seen as a free competition as each production company will complete the brief and the client can then judge which company has the best project and as an award they have it published.     The advantage is that the client only has to pay the one winning production company, but sometimes will not have to pay them at all. Also the fact that they have multiple companies producing a product means that they have a large choice of products and can choose the one that they believe will be the most successful. A disadvantage of this is the same as the disadvantage of a tender brief; the companies that are turned down by the client may become disheartened as they have missed out on potential work and money.

Reading a brief

Once you have received the brief you need to make sure you understand exactly what the client wants. You should make sure that you can do what is required and that you have the budget for it. Ensure you know who your target audience is so that you do not create something irrelevant to what the client wants. Also find out everything about the target audience such as age, location, where they work and whether they are male or female. The most important factor is timescale. You should know when the client expects the finished product. If it is a contractual brief and you do not meet the deadline, worst case scenario, you could find yourself being sued in court.

Once you have read over the brief and understand what needs to be done the first thing to do is to brainstorm as many ideas as possible. One way could be to use post-it notes and decide which ones are good ideas and which ones are bad ideas, then take all the good ideas and develop them further. It is a good idea to create mind maps, mood boards, a production schedule and an asset list as it will make production much easier. Once planning is complete your team should begin working on the project. There should be clear communication across the team to make sure the project is completed correctly and to the client's expectations. Once the project is complete it should be presented professionally to the client and if the client is happy with it you will be paid.

You would need to have a production meeting to discuss what benefits you would get from the brief. From there you need to know that you have the resources, knowledge and skill to produce the production while sticking to the briefs requirements. When in the pre-production stage do not give yourself too much of a work load at once. You would most likely have a full pre-production team so the workload would be spread out evenly between everyone. Try to organise it so certain parts of the work fits people’s strengths also. For example, in pre-production you need to design your characters in several ways. Personality, look, attitude. For developing their personality and attitude that should be left with the writers and/or Director. The look mostly would involve the costume depart and the hair make up department. Always refer back to the client in regards to script, costume and any other changes or additions you and your team will be making. From there you will need to work on your actual production and then post production. Create a rough edit to send to your client and they can then get back to you with their opinion and any changes they wish made to it.

Negotiating a brief
When negotiating a brief it is always best to consult with your client. This can be done through Emails, Phone calls or a face to face meeting. When you meet your client you will be able to discuss the brief with them, this is a good opportunity for you to be able to raise any issues that you have noticed with the project and also offer any ideas that you will have to add to the project. It is best to consult with your client because if you make any drastic changes to the brief and they are left uninformed they quite possibly could fire you and work with a different company. And/or more likely not hire you for another project.

When reading through the brief you may need a degree of discretion. This means that if the brief is missing certain information like the films run time, or the characters, then it is up to the producer to decide these areas. Just note that these are examples and a lot more areas could be left out of a brief that are a lot more likely to over look which this person will have to now decide. Sometimes a brief is vague so it is up to the filmmakers to decide the look and feel of the film. They would have to consult with the client whenever they begin to add things or make changes, but in the long run it would be their decision of how the film looks, its run time, and the characters if they are left out of the brief.

You will need to discuss the constraints of the production. The constraints revolve around the legal, ethical and regulatory rights of others. The brief itself would have nothing that would break any of these rights, however when it comes to production there is a lot to consider. For example if a production were to use children then they would need an official form signed by a parent or Guardian. Take the Harry Potter franchise for example. The cast is mostly built up of children including extras. Because of this a child's contract is given to their Guardian to sign and thus allow the production to use them in the film.

(From BBC Film network.
Any child under the age of 16 needs a licence from their local authority to perform in any film. The application for this licence will include, amongst other things, a medical certificate and detailed statement on the likely performing hours.
It is the Producer of the film who will need to apply for the licence from the child's local authority and the parent of the child will have to supply the producer documents such as the child's birth certificate and a school letter authorising absence. The licence granted needs to be kept on set at all times. There are restrictions on how child actors can be used e.g. maximum time on set. Any child holding a licence is required to have a chaperone.
If a UK child is performing abroad then a licence needs to be obtained from either their local Magistrates Court or Bow Street Magistrates Court. If a non UK child is performing in the UK then they will still need a licence and all the rules of restrictions on engaging child actors will apply to them in the same way as they would a UK child. The child is often licensed by the local authority in whose area the child is performing or living during his or her stays but a licence can also be obtained from the local authority whose area the producer has his or her main residence, or where the producer's head office is based. It is essential that you follow carefully the restrictions on using child actors in your films. These are governed by licensing regulations and are likely to be followed carefully by local authorities who are under a duty to protect children.)



Opportunities
There are a lot of opportunies in self-development. You learn to tackle new tasks you had not encountered before and thus learn new skills. You get out of your comfort zone and can possibly find something you really enjoy by doing so. For example some people think that when making a film editing is the hard and boring part. But when they try it they usually find that they love to edit. If your production team is small then you would have to multi-task with the areas of Production. For example you could write the script and Direct. This requires two skills which involve your writing techniques and communication skills. When you are in a small group it would be easier for you to communicate and thus you would increase your skills in doing so and be able to make more productions like this and after a while you will work with bigger production teams.


My contributions
For our Working to a Brief project we had an external client, Alice Gardner from the Stockton council, come and ask us to make a video about child employment. Everyone contributes individual research and we were assigned our own individual tasks afterwords. I was given the job of client consultent and organised all interviewed whilst keeping our client informed of what we were doing and where we were in terms of production. When filming we had a shortage of actors and as I have a brief history in acting I took the role of Jim. A boy who is being exploited through work and ultimately gets hit by a car because of it. I also operated the sound when I was off camera and communed with the actors. I learned more than I expected by doing these tasks. I learned that that there is no hotline to call if a child is being exploited when there are several in other countries like America, Germany and even Ireland. I learned that I had was definately not the best pick to commune with clients and now know for sure that my favourite thing to do in a production is to edit, even though I could do none in this. I am happy with the end result and think everyone pulled their weight in the production.