Work Experience

Little sprouts project
Contact - Debbie Fixter
Company - Little sprouts
Type of business - CIC
22nd of November
10am - 2pm, Hartington road 4 hours
For this project we were required to film a short promotional video in order for a local company to enter in a bid for more investment from the national lottery fund. We spent an hour on the morning having a short meeting with our client to understand exactly what they wished to be included with there promotional video. We then arrived on location at 11am and filmed through till 2pm making sure that we captured everything that was needed.
I was personally involved in interviewing a number of people who were all related to the project, taking on more of a director role looking at the background and framing for each interview.
In regards to health and safety before we began work we located our closest fire exits and extinguishers and ensured that we did not cause any blockages in corridors and near exits.





River Tees rediscovered
Contacts - Jenny, Christine
Company - Stockton borough council
Type of business - Public sector
Brief - Create a promotional video for the organisation River Tees Rediscovered to raise awareness, increase interaction, encourage visitors to take part in activities and to be featured on their website to showcase the range of projects.


28th September
1pm - 4pm, at college 3 hours 
On this date we were given our brief to create a short promotional video between 2 and 3 minutes long. We discussed our ideas together and arranged a meeting with our contact Jenny to find out exactly what she wanted and started to plan which groups would be going to each shoot in.


5th October
1pm - 4pm, at college 3 hours
Continued to plan for the project by researching each of the different locations that we would be filming at, then discussed the best way for the members of each filming crew to travel to those locations and assigned groups to each shoot accordingly.

6th October
30 minute meeting at college
We had a meeting with our contact Jenny where we asked her to explain exactly what she wanted from the final product so that we could discuss some of the ideas that we had already thought of with her. She gave us contact details for the people in charge of each project so that we could communicate with them and organise dates and times.



12th October
1pm - 4pm, at college 3 hours 
We focused more on what we will film for the promotional video, we looked at the different projects and contacted all of the people involved to see if we could find times and dates that we were able to go and film so that we could gather the necessary footage. 
I also printed out daily production reports for all specified locations and partially completed them by filling in all dates, times and locations as well as a brief description.

We made a calendar/schedule for the upcoming weeks to write events on so that everyone has access to see and participate in a filming event.

19th October
1pm - 4pm, at college 3 hours 
It was decided that me, Jess and Matthew would go and film at the Tees Barrage on Friday the 21st of October so we used this time to prepare. We created a shot list of everything that we thought we would need to get but decided that the filmmaking will be mostly reactive. We printed off release forms and decided on questions if we choose to interview a contributor. We had already been given a risk assessment so we also took some time to look at that.




21st October
Filming: 10am - 1pm at Tees Barrage 3 hour


Today we filmed at the Tees Barrage, we got some great footage of all the different activities that you are able to take part in there, hopefully our footage will advertise and entice people to get involved with all of the possible activities the barrage offers. As we were not sure what type of things would be available to film on the day the shot list was only a basis and we filmed a lot more than we originally planned for. I was mostly responsible for all the camera work with the other members of the team helping to direct me and also taking a few shots of there own. We only piece of equipment other than the camera that we used the shoulder mount because it would have been a waste of time to set up a tripod for every shot, this meant that we could not film any interviews with the volunteers that were involved with the project however we did not think that this was an issue as we thought an interview would have impacted the pace of the video far to much and so were reluctant to shoot something that we didn't want to include. Some shots will be not be completely steady, to correct this we can use the warp stabilise tool in premier pro. The filming process was very successful as we managed to gather everything that we needed in one shoot day. Health and safety was very visible as it was made clear to us that we were not allowed to climb over any railings without first asking for a life vest, this was to unsure that no one fell into the river and drown.

Editing


2nd November



1pm - 4pm 2 hour 


9th November
1pm - 4pm 3 hours 


16th November
1pm - 4pm 3 hours 


Induction show Editing


8th November
1pm - 3pm at college 2 hours 


15th November
1pm - 3pm at college 2 hours 


22nd November
1pm - 3pm at college 2 hours 


24th November
10am - 11am at college 1 hour


30th November
11am - 12pm at college 1 hour
Finish off editing 



29th November
11am - 2pm at college 3 hours
Rendering  



30th November 
1pm - 4pm at college 3 hours 
Exporting 

Documentary - Filming day one

Friday 25th of November
This was our first day of filming and it went very well. 4 people attended this shoot so we split up into 2 teams. One team went outside and collected a number of cutaways and establishing shots (Taylor and Rhys), whilst the other team remained in side to gather as many cutaways of the inside office space as possible (Me and Matty), The more cutaways the better. 


Once each team had captured all the footage that was required we gathered together in the main spiritualist related building in order for us to conduct a number of interviews.
For the first interview I was responsible for working the stationary camera and asking the interview question. I also used headphones to ensure that the audio was recording and that we could clearly hear the answers the contributor was giving.
During the second and third interview I was just responsible for asking the questions and making sure that the answers that were given were elaborate enough to explain and give information to the audience.     

Critical approaches task 1

Quantitative research
Quantitative research uses numbers in order to gather information about certain topics. Things such at graphs and statistics are classed as quantitative research. In a political campaign quantitative research is very important and is used to identify audience demographics such as age and yearly income so that each candidate knows exactly which type of person they are attracting and how they can do a better job both with ensuring they keep that demographic on board whilst also attracting other demographics if possible.
For example in the 2016 presidential election Donald Trumps main age demographic target was middle aged. So he catered to ensure that he would not lose there vote by promising to change things that would effect them the most. For example he promised that he would stop jobs from leaving America and encourage companies to come back to the states to do business. Many areas that support Trump used to be primarily industrial areas but in recent years much industry has closed down to set up shop else where meaning people lose there jobs. By promising to bring Jobs back he is securing the middle aged vote as they and there children are the ones who have been mostly effected by this issue.

Qualitative research
Qualitative research is used in order to gain more knowledge on specific topics of interest. Examples of qualitative research would be things such as focus groups, questionnaires and any other form of primary research that offers extra detail. In a political campaign qualitative research is very important in order to understand exactly what the people whos votes you are trying to gain want from you. Using qualitative research helps candidates to determine exactly what policies they wish to include and what things they wish to change if they get into power.
For example before running for president Hillary Clinton will have conducted many surveys and focus groups in order to find out what type of things the people that she wishes to target want to change. From there she would have been able to mould a stronger campaign with clear points of change highlighted by her selected audience. Hillary's main target audience is women and one of Hillarys policies that suggest she has taken feed back from that group is her policies on gun control. Most of the female population of America believe that there needs to be stricter gun laws in place and feel uncomfortable with guns in the house, this clearly shows that Hillary has listened to her audience and made changes accordingly.

Audience classifications
Audience classifications are used to categories different groups of people into more manageable segments. Things such as demographics and psychographics are all taken into account when creating audience classifications. Within elections audience classifications are vital in order to make clear exactly who each party is trying to attract.

Critical approaches Task 2

Ideology is a “system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy”. - Wikipedia

Ideology of Donald Trump

During the 2016 presidential election ideology was a key focus for both of the political candidates. The candidates both focused on each of their target audiences ideologies, in order to sway them into voting for their campaign and not their opponents. Both candidates took a hugely different approach to which ideologies they would focus on and therefore both had a very different idea about who they would target primarily.

Donald Trump's campaign took on a much riskier style of promotion by using scare mongering tactics to convince the population of America that voting for him was the safest option. Every thing from his speeches to his campaign video were used purely to instill fear into anyone who viewed it. A great example of this is a video his campaign posted on the republican website towards the end of the election. This Particular video focused on what a dangerous place America had become for its citizens. It included footage from a range of terrorist attacks, both in America and from other countries, including the Orlando night club shooting and the attack on the airport in Brussels, Germany. This video was clearly used as a way to make the American people afraid of the danger america is in and highlight one of the main issue that scares people the most, Islamic and “homegrown terrorism”. In recent times terrorism has been a huge issue globally and a lot of people do not think that the governments of the world are doing enough to stop this from reoccurring. Trump took this and focused on this a lot more than his opponent did. This gave him an edge and the support of a large percentage of the American people who have been affected by, know someone who has been affected an act of terrorism or are just terrified that it could happen to them. this also reaches out to his main demographic the white middle aged man, who may think that more should be done to protect America and increase homeland security.

Hillary’s campaign video on the other hand ,that was released at a similar time and featured on the Democrat website, focused on how great America was and how if everyone works together they can make America an even better place to be. While this was a very lovely message it made it seem as though Hillary was ignoring recent events and therefore not reassuring the general public that she is able to prevent these things from happening. Hillary did not use her source of media efficiently enough and did not give the american people any amount of confidence in her ability to protect them. Due to the serious nature of the subject Hillary should have referenced the subject more so that people could clearly see she was prepared to tackle the issue effectively.

Trump also disagrees with a whole range of different policies that Hillary endorses. One example of a policy that Trump disagrees with Hillary on is gun control. Hillary is a huge supporter of far stricter laws regarding gun control believing that there should be a number of guidelines and rules that people must meet before they can own a gun. This correlates with Hillary’s main demographic being women as women are the largest group of people who feel uncomfortable with guns and would prefer to see them restricted. Trump However believes that there should not be any regulation regarding guns and fully supports the second Amendment that “All Americans have the right the bear arms”. This once again increased his number of supporters and focuses on his primary demographic the white middle aged male as white males make up 61% of gun owners. Expressing his opposition to gun control also encouraged another one of Trump's demographics to vote for him, The polls clearly stated that the southern states were strongly supportive of Trump this was probably due to his views on gun control as the southern states of America are all extremely pro gun with 50% of all households in the south owning a gun.   

Another Ideology that Trump uses to increase his number of supporters is the relations that America has with other countries. With the rising tensions between America and Russian, Trump has made it clear that he wishes to create bridges between the 2 nations and calm everyone's nerves. The world is closer than ever to an all out nuclear war and with Trump in power that would be a lot less likely to happen as he believes that America should stay away from any kind of world affairs regarding military action in other countries. This has made him extremely popular with veterans who may have been injured in wars and families of veterans who have been killed in action. There has been many times in the past where the American Military have invaded other countries causing many fatalities of American soldiers. Most of these wars have been strongly opposed by the American people and so Trump stating that he wants to increase homeland security and not send troops to other countries is a huge selling point for him. This also links to his main demographic as 78.9% of American war veterans are white.        

The media's role in the campaigns

No matter what campaign is involved the media always has an effect on the outcome. However during the 2016 presidential campaign the media took on a particularly slanderous role. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were met with an onslaught of bad press and controversy regarding there pasts and personal lives. It seemed like every week an new video or Federal investigation was being announced to the world, if either of these candidates had anyone else running against them they would have very clearly been beaten but because they were both as bad as each other the polls remained extremely close all the way through campaigning.

It is of course the media's job to inform its audience about anything of interest, especially when it comes to choosing who is going to run one of the most powerful countries in the world. But how far is too far.

During the political campaign Hillary Clinton was caught on camera stumbling and almost fainting whilst attending a public event. It was later revealed that Hillary had been recovering from pneumonia but she did not want to miss the event so went anyway. The press and TV news had a field day with the footage that was taken and plastered it all over the TV and news papers questioning her health and whether it was up to scratch and able to handle the stressful role of being President. Some people could argue that it showed just how determined Hillary was to put everything she has into running the country even after being quite ill but instead it was used against her to question her capability. 

Donald Trumps past was also dragged back up after a video of him making inappropriate comments about women was posted on the internet. The remarks that he made were certainly not appropriate but the video was taken years before he even considered running for president. So should be people base there decision about who they want to run the country on someone being ill and a video that was many years old ?

In conclusion I think that much of what the media was relaying to the public throughout campaigning was not completely relevant to the time and confused the public meaning that they did not take time to look at each of the candidates policies so that they could make the correct decision for themselves. Without the slanderous media involvement I believe that a lot of the people who didn't vote at all would have as they would have been better equipped with information about each parties policies rather than pointless scandals

Interviews for documentary

Closed questions - Can be answered with a single word or short phrase.
examples:
How old are you ?
Where do you live ?
Are you happy ?
using closed questions can; give you facts, are very easy to answer, are quick and easy to answer, allow to the questioner to keep control of the conversation.
Usage of closed questions
act as an ice breaker to open a conversation.
For testing and understanding. e.g. so you want a car ?
To set up a desired positive or negative frame of mind in them. e.g. Are you happy with your current supplier ?
For seeking yes to the big questions ?
you can turn any opinion into a closed question that forces a yes or no answer.


Open questions - An open question is used when you wish to receive a long answer.
Although closed questions can be given long answers open questions are designed to have this effect
They as the respondents to think and reflect.
They will give you opinions and feelings.
They hand control of the conversations to the respondent.
Actively listen to the answer
usage of open questions.
develop conversation.
Find out more about a person. What do they do ? Need ? Think ?
Getting people to realise there problems.

Unit 27: Factual Programme Production Techniques for Television - Task 1

Accuracy and balance
Accuracy and balance are a very important part of the documentary film making process. Documentaries must be kept accurate and supply there audiences with accurate and précises information if they wish to present it as factual. If they do not do this then my may experience legal issues during the film making process. One way that film makers are able to get around this is by portraying information, that may be still up for debate, as opinion so that they are still able to influence an audience in which ever way they decide.
A documentary also however should try to stay balanced by presenting both sides of the argument. This is particularly important in regards to investigative documentaries which are exploring sensitive subject areas. For example Louis Theroux's latest documentary on Jimmy Savile attempted to offer a small amount of balance by interviewing people that didn't believe that he had done what people had accused him of. Another contributor said that she only ever saw the good in him and so could not judge him on what she had not seen. Although the documentary its self is no longer on a subject that is up for debate it still went to some effort to create a sense of balance.
Accuracy and balance can sometimes interfere with each other as creating an accurate documentary may mean that it is naturally supporting one side over the other removing total balance from the final product. This is what I believe has happened with Louis Theroux's 2nd documentary on Jimmy Savile.

Impartiality
Impartiality in documentary film making means that the production team should not support either side of the argument/subject matter. This is also very important in investigatory film making as any opinion that the production team hold could end up reflecting within the final product effecting the balance and potentially creating a bias piece of film that benefits one side more than the other. Doing this could offend people related to the subject matter and cause a whole sea of issues on the legal side of things.

Objectivity & Subjectivity

Objectivity in documentary film making is making a judgement based on what is presented to you in ways of footage or evidence during the production process. To create an objective documentary the message of your final product should not include any of your own emotions or personal opinions as by doing this you may present what you believe as a fact which could cause a huge amount of legal issues because of how powerful a piece of media can be at influencing its audience.

Subjectivity in film making is making a judgement based on you're own personal opinions and emotions and not on any outside influences. In film making this can change the entire tone of a piece due to the emotions that are being presented to the audience.

Opinion

Documentaries can very easily make their audiences form strong opinions of the topic they are covering. The opinion that is shown through a documentary is altered by everyone of the other key issues discussed. The media is a very powerful tool in which to influence peoples ways of thinking, this is why documentaries one touchy subject areas must stay as unbiased, accurate and object as possible. An example of when a documentary has strongly influenced its audiences opinion would be with the film Black fish which was about how killer whales were stolen from the wild and taken to Sea World. Due to this documentary Sea Worlds profits dropped dramatically and they were forced to close down there killer whale breeding programme and stop all killer whale shows to the public. 

Bias
A bias in factual film making is showing a topic or person/group of people in a certain way purposefully due to the production teams inclinations or prejudices. An example of when this has happened is with Louis Theroux's: My scientology movie. In the documentary scientologists are conveyed as crazy violent brainwashed individuals who worship a mentally unstable leader. The film did not dwell on whether the scientology church had done anything good with the power that it has. This was most probably to do with the fact that Louis mostly worked with Ex members of the church who share all of the awful experiences that they have had in the past. These stories make  for a much more interesting documentary but do however create a strong bias of opinion which in turn will affected how the audience view the group.

Representation
Representation in factual film making can be influenced/changed by a number of different things. For example subjectivity can vastly change how a topic is depicted in a documentary due to the emotions that could possibly change things such as the tone and balance of the piece. Another area to consider for representation is how easy it is to manipulate what a contributor is saying to make it sound like they are saying something completely different. Although this is highly unethical it is most likely used quite often to change the representation or tone of the documentary.

Privacy
Privacy is a very large issue within factual film making as any contributor who is giving information must have there privacy protected at all times. There is certain questions that an interviewer or production team should not ask so that they are completely respectful towards each subject. For example in the documentary lift there was a scene were a participant talks about how his bi-polar and how mother and father both died in a short period of time when he was very young. He revealed in an interview that he first learnt about this information whilst talking to the man off camera and asked him is it would be okay to film him talking about it in the lift. This obviously made that moment slightly fabricated due to the fact that it was presented as if it was the first time he had ever heard this information. However this was completely necessary in order to maintain a respectful level of privacy and ensure that he was completely okay with saying those things on camera. 

My Documentary
With my documentary I am going to try and create the most accurate and object piece possible. I will speak to a range of people with different opinions in order to keep a sense of balance in the final product which will also help me to remain as unbiased as I can. I understand that I must be cautious about how the people or groups are represented in my documentary as if I portray anyone in a bad light this will cause ethical and even legal issues with my film. I will not manipulate any of the footage to make them look a certain way.
In regards to privacy I will first have a discussion with all contributors and discuss with them everything that I plan on filming and make sure that they are okay with it.

Documentary research plan

For my documentary I am planning to research lots of different aspects of the spiritualism subject. I feel like the most important part that for me to research is the origins of spiritualism. This will give me extra information and give me a clearer view of the sort of questions that I should be asking any contributors of the documentary.
I am also going to research famous spiritualism events and see what kind of weird things have happened in the past and whether that other spiritualist believe that those events are true.
Another area that is necessary for researching is about famous spiritualists who will most definitely be referenced through out the documentary. Julie is a well known spiritualist who draws a huge amount of appointments for people who wish to speak to there dead loved ones and to her spiritualism events.

Documentary Idea Pitch

Yesterday I pitched an idea for our college documentary to the rest of the class and our tutor.
The idea was about a group of spiritualists and the experiences that they have had during there time in that industry. I would make the documentary as subjective as I possibly could including the opinions of people who do believe in the supernatural and from people who do not. I would love to be able to film a first hand experience by going to an organised event and filming exactly what happened and possibly interviewing the people who have the experience of talking to there dead relatives. I would of course need to get permission for all of this to happen by asking if I would be able to film during a show but I already have permission to interview most of the spiritualists. I think that the actual pitch its self went very well.

Lift

Synopsis
A man stands in a lift with a camera to engage in social interactions with the residents of a housing block in order to gain an insight into there daily lives and invoke thought within them.



Review
A very entertaining film that made you more aware of the differences in peoples lives compared to your own. The interview style questions that made people engage with him had a clear effect on them by making them think more carefully about there lives. people who's stories would never have been told had a chance to show the world who they were.


The documentary is a mixture of a reflective and interactive style due to the fact that the film maker is interested in what the outcome of his research is, when filming the documentary he will not have known what the outcome will have been. How ever it is also partly Interactive due to the film maker asking people that the documentary focuses on questions to spur along the story.





I think that due to the location and proximity that was forced upon people during filming the narrative was naturally formed due to the fact that people felt as though they needed to talk to avoid the situation becoming increasingly awkward. This slowly led to people becoming more comfortable with talking to the camera and slowly opening and revealing things that they otherwise wouldn't.



If the documentary had of included a higher level of planning and included footage of people outside of the lift I do not think that it would of been as good because part of the character of the documentary is that what happened was completely random. I also think having footage from outside the lift would have taken away from the intimacy that was created due to the confined space

Contracts

There are 2 different types of contracts that can be used within the film and TV production industry, the first is the confidentiality contract and the second is the exclusivity contract.
Confidentiality contracts are used for very secretive projects, when the production companies do not want any kind of information or spoilers leaking to the public.  An example of when this type of contract will have been used recently is with the production of the new Star Wars film. During filming no photography of any kind was allowed on set. This was in order to make sure that the public did not receive any information that they were not meant to. Any photographs that were taken and placed onto social media would have been checked by senior members of production to ensure that everything that was include was okay.
Exclusivity is where a production company secures the rights to create a film or a TV show based on a story or already existing concept/idea. This type of contract also means that they are the only people with the rights to do so for as long as the contract states. The most common exclusivity contracts are used production companies whointented to produce a film or TV adaptation from a book. An example of where this was used is with Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones was orignally a very popular book entitled "A song of Ice and Fire" until HBO decided to use its story line to create their hit TV show.

Flowchart/ Job roles and working patterns

As a group we were assigned to making a flow chart organising management jobs within the film and TV industry. However we got a little bit carried away and did a flowchart that included all of the jobs. Through further research however I have realised that the flowchart is not entirely correct and there is in fact some mistakes within the art department of the diagram. Here is the correct list of jobs in the correct order of importance using average salary.
  Art Department:

Production designer

Supervising art director

Senior art director

Art director

Standby art director

Assistant art director

Production buyer 

Senior draughtsperson/set designer

Art department coordinator

Draughtsperson/set designer

Set decorator

Assistant set decorator

Junior draughtsperson/set designer

Art Department assistant/runner

Job roles in the media industry can be split into 6 categories.

• Technical
• Creative
• Editorial
• Managerial
• Sales and Marketing
• Financial

Technical jobs require the use of equipment and technology within the production of the media. The role requires excellent listening and concentration skills to ensure that you complete given tasks correctly and time management skills due to strict deadlines. Some jobs included in the Technical branch are ; Gaffer, Camera operator and Technical producer.
Creative jobs require you to be imaginative and able to expand on the ideas of others or yourself. It also requires a good level of team work for when it is necessary to work in groups. Some jobs included in the Creative branch are; Script writer, Set designer and Cinematographer.
Editorial jobs are mostly based in the print industry. The jobs require you to be able to check through work and ensure that there is not mistakes and also have good communication skills in order to communicate with the rest of your team to ensure you create the best product. Some jobs that are included in the editorial branch are; TV/Film editor and Newspaper editor.
Managerial jobs require you to oversee members of staff and there work. You must also be to take control of situations and communicate with the other people in your team. Some jobs that are included in the Managerial branch are; Director, Production manager and Floor manager.
Sales and Marketing jobs require excellent levels if communication with potential customers or businesses in order to promote the product. You must have people and communication skills as the sales market is highly competitive. Jobs in this category include; Marketing executive, publicist and film promoter.
Financial jobs require you to be able to handle a budget successfully and know how to channel money into new projects. Some jobs included in the Financial branch are; Producer and production accountant.
Contracts in the media industry are very different to the kind of contracts you would find within regular jobs. They are usually much more flexible than traditional jobs.

The most common types of contracts that are found in the media industry are;

• Full-time
• Part-time
• Fixed-term and freelance
• Shift work
• Office hours
• Irregular and anti-social hours pay
• Salaried
• On completion

Full time contracts mean that you work the hours of a regular member of staff, usually 39 hours a week. With a permanent contract you are also entitled to company benefits including pensions, sick pay etc.

Part time contracts mean you work lesson than full time still must work a specific amount of hours a week. This type of contract also entitles you to company benefits but on a smaller scale due to fewer working hours.

Fixed term or Freelance contracts are temporary contracts that only last for a limited period of time. With these contracts you are required to fulfil all criteria stated in your contract. Fixed term contracts can still entitle you to company benefits if specified in the contract but a freelance worker will have to sort out there own benefits such as pension and sick pay.

Shift work contracts mean that you receive certain set hours that you must work. e.g. 8am - 6pm. Shifts can include late hours or night shifts and are most commonly used for companies that must be active 24 hours a day like radio stations or TV stations

Office hour contracts are the most regular kind of contracts. They usually give times of 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday and are common in office based administrative jobs.

Irregular and anti-social hours are a bit like over time. This is for when an employee works for longer that there usual hours and are paid extra for it or for when the hours that are being worked are too early or too late and are deemed unsocial. This is very common in the media industry as not everything goes to plan and can involve working very early mornings and late nights. These extra payments are meant to make people want to work anti-social hours and for longer than their contract requires.

Salaried contracts are set annual wages that is broken down into a monthly wage. A salaried wage will be advertised as the wage per year but then will be paid out in 12 monthly instalments.

On completion contracts mean that you will only receive payment once you have completed the work set out in the contract fully. These are quite common in the media industry.

Film Timeline

Stoboscope

Early to Mid-1830’s Moving images were first made on drums and disks by Simon von Stampfer (Stroboscope) in Austria, Joseph Plateau (Phenakistoscope) in Belgium and William Horner (zoetrope) in Britain.

1839 William H. Fox Talbot made paper sensitive to light by putting it in a solution of salt and silver nitrate.

1867 The first machine that showed animated pictures was a device called the “wheel of life” or “zoopraxiscope” created by William Lincoln from America.

Zoopraxiscope

1878 Eadweard Muybridge takes the first successful photographs of motion, showing how people and animals move.

1885 George Eastman creates film made with paper base instead of glass, rendering glass plates useless.

1889 Thomas Edison and W.K. Dickson develop the Kinetoscope, a device in which film is moved past a light.

1891 The Edison company successfully demonstrated the Kinetoscope, enabling one person at a time to view moving pictures.

Kinetoscope

1894 The first commercial exhibition of film took place on April 14, 1894 at the first Kinetoscope parlor ever built.

1895 Louis and August Lumiere patent a movie camera and projector, able to project an image that can be seen by many people. They presented the first commercial exhibition of motion pictures. The Lumiere brothers were the first to present projected, moving, pictures to a paying audience of more than one person.

Mercury Lamp

1905 Cooper Hewitt’s mercury lamps make it possible to shoot indoors without sunlight.

1906 The first animated cartoon is produced.

1910 actors in films receive screen credit, the creation of film stars begun.

1912 Carl Laemmle forms Universal Pictures, which will become the first major film studio.

1915 The Bell & Howell 2709 movie camera allows directors to make close-ups without physically moving the camera.

1923 Warner Bros. is established.

1925 Western Electric and Warner Bros. agree to develop a system for movies with sound.

1928 Paramount becomes the first studio to announce that it will only produce “talkies”.

1930 The motion picture industries adopts the Production Code, a set of guidelines that describes what is acceptable in movies.

1934 The first drive-in movie theater opens in New Jersey, USA.

1937 Walt Disney’s first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is released.

1940’s Disney create more animated films like Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942) following the success of snow white and the 7 dwarfs.

1960’s The studio system in Hollywood began to be used less and less do to many films  being made on location in other countries, or using studio facilities abroad, such as Pinewood in the UK and Cinecittà in Rome.

VHS Tape

1980’s Viewers began increasingly watching films on VCRs. In the early part of that decade, the film studios tried legal action to get VCRs banned claiming that they were a violation of copyright, which was unsuccessful. Eventually, the sale and rental of films VCR became a huge “second venue” for the exhibition of films, and an additional source of income for the film industries as they decided to create their own VCRs and sell them to the public.

1990’s Independent cinema became a huge success in the United States.  Whilst increasingly being dominated by special-effects films such as Terminator 2 (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Titanic (1997), independent films like Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) had huge success at the cinema and with home sales.

Major American film companies began to create their own independent production companies to produce smaller films. In 1994 Disney purchased Miramax after seeing the success of reservoir dogs. The year after the purchase Pulp fiction was released. The year 1994 was also the beginning of online film and video distribution.

1995 Pixar animations produce the first computer generated animation, Toy Story. Computer animation began to rapidly grow and allowed other companies such as DreamWorks to compete with Disney and produce their own animated films.

Late 1990’s DVD’s become the new standard way to distribute films to consumers for home use. They replace VHS tapes.

2002 Films started to be released for IMAX cinema

2009 The 3D film Avatar became the highest grossing movie of all time.

2010 3D films become more and more popular with the most successful films being released in 3D.

Evaluation of short film

Overall I think that the production process went very well and I am pleased with how my short film has turned out, over all of the shoot days that I attended I took on the roles of director and D.O.P which I believe I completed pretty successfully with some small mistakes. One thing that I would do next time is be more careful when checking the framing of shots to make sure that there is nothing that could possibly compromise the shot and make it look unprofessional. On many occasions during the editing process I noticed things that I had not noticed during the set up of the shots. For example on a couple of occasions a camera bag can be seen in the back of some shots, during the interrogation scene and restaurant scene are examples of when this had happened. Another thing that went wrong during the production was small issues with the continuity. During one of the shoot days one of our actors forgot to bring the correct shoes that they had worn on a previous shoot day. This meant that during one of the shots it was very clear that the character was wearing different shoes. I had told all of the actors to ensure that they wore the same costume but things like this happen sometimes and we had to continue with the shoot as scheduled. Although that this was out of my control it is still a little bit annoying. During one of our shoot days we had to film in a darkened room with limited light only coming from 1 set light. In this room there was a window and due to the dark conditions when looking through the view finder/screen of the camera you were unable to see any kind of reflections. Me and my D.O.P both checked this to ensure that we would not be seen, however during the editing process whilst reviewing the clips you could see clearly both myself the D.O.P and the camera within the refection of the window. Next time when filming scenes that require low lighting I will set up the camera whilst the room is lit fully and check all of the reflections then, just incase the brightness is slightly different when we come to review our footage on a computer during editing. Another thing to check during filming is framing in regards to the actors and making sure that they are fully in shot  without their heads being cut off at all. During my time as D.O.P there was a couple of shots were this happened due to the actors moving around and me not re-adjusting so next time I will ensure that the actors do not leave the frame at all.

Tutorial youtube video

On set pictures

Unit 1: Task 1- part 2, Future learn

We have been participating in an online course that teaches us all about the film and TV production process and each individual aspect. The course last 3 weeks and each week had different topics that we had to learn about in order to pass the course.
The first week was very much about introducing us to the course and the world of film TV. It taught us all about the different roles and what each person did to benefit the production it also gave us a quick run down of the production process teaching us each stage of production.
The second week went into more detail about crew members and the roles/tasks that they had to complete. It focused mainly on the different departments which roles are contained within them and also the key roles that the production must have in order to be successful. It also gave some information on the paperwork that needed to be completed for each day.
The third and final week the course taught us in more detail about the job of a runner and the different types of runner that you can find working in a production. It also taught us how to be the best runner possible and stand out from everyone else.  

Filming progress blog

This week I have attended 4 filming sessions for 3 separate films. The first session that I attended was for the film "A Stolen Mind" which is being directed by Chloe Handley. The shoot took place on Monday the 7th of march and my role was director of photography. During the shoot I was responsible for the framing lighting and all general camera work. I also kept an eye on continuity and made sure that none of the crew or equipment were caught in any reflections in shot. The shoot went very smoothly and we managed to film all of the required scenes very quickly.
The second film session that took place on the 8th of march, was for the same film and once again I had the same role fulfilling all of the same tasks. This shoot was also very successful.
The third shoot took place on the 9th of march and was for the Film "Exposure" which I was responsible for directing. As director I was responsible for keeping everything organised and giving the actors instructions so that they knew exactly what they were doing and could create the scene that I wanted. I think I did a good job as director as I knew exactly what I wanted to happen although I did find it much more difficult than I was expecting probably due to the fact that there was 8 actors on set that we were using as well as the crew. I wanted to film a total of 3 scenes but we only managed to film the first to and most of the third as we still have a few shots that we had to miss out due to time restraints and the fact that we also had a limited time to film scenes for "No good deed done".
The fourth shoot also took place on the 9th and was for the film "No good deed done" that was directed by Matthew Dickens. I retook the role of director of photography and for fulfilled all of the necessary. This shoot also went well however we did not get everything that we need filmed due to time and makeup taking longer than expected.

For the second week of filming I attended 3 filming sessions once again for 3 separate films. The first session that I attended was for the film "A Stolen Mind" where I reclaimed the role of D.O.P. The shoot took place on Tuesday the 15th of march. The first half of the shoot took place at college and went very smoothly. There were no real problems and everything went down without a hitch. For the second part of the shoot we had to go on location to one of our crew members houses in Billingham. During the shoot I was responsible for all of the usual things. The main issue that we had with filming was how to get the lighting to the level that we wanted it. The scene was supposed to be taking place on a night time but of course we were only able to film during the day, so tried to make the room darker by closing the curtains to the room. However this caused the quality of our footage to become significantly less. You could see that the footage was a lot grainier and so we used my phones flash light to give the room some more light. We managed to film all of the scenes that we needed to during the filming session which meant that "A Stolen Mind" was wrapped and filming had completely finished.
The second shoot of the week, which took place on Wednesday the 16th of march, was for the film "No Good Deed Done" Where I also took on the role of D.O.P. We filmed in a restaurant in Yarm called Lucias from 3 onwards however we had to stop a little earlier than we expected due to the change in lights and audio. This means that we will have to return to the restaurant during the pick up week to film the scenes that we couldn't get done. Other than that small issue the shoot went very well and everything that we did manage to get was of good quality.
The Last shoot of the week was for my film "Exposure" It took place on Thursday the 17th of march at Pizza Express in Teesside park. I conducted the role of Director for this shoot. The shoot went very well and we managed to film everything I needed. However one of the actors was unable to attend the shoot and so his scenes will have to be moved into the pick up week. I was very pleases with the footage that was captured and thought that the whole shoot was very successful. I feel that the second shoot went a lot smoother than the first one and that I was able to complete my role as director much easier. I believe that this was because of the fact that I had a little bit more experience and so was more prepared and also due to the fact that I was working with fewer people which meant that there would be a lot less interference. With that shoot day completed I only needed one day within the pick up week to complete the filming process and collect everything that I need.

During the pick up week I attended  2 filming session. One for my film "Exposure" and one for Matty's film "No Good Deed Done".
The first film session that took place was for my film, it took place on Tuesday the 22nd of march and was filmed within college. The shoot took place so that we could capture the footage that we missed from the first film and session and the footage that we were unable to film due to a member of the cast being unavailable. The shoot went very smoothly and everything was shot as fast as possible. We finished filming faster than I had estimated and that meant that all filming for exposure was completed.
The second shoot that took place was for "No Good Deed Done". This took place on Wednesday the 23rd of march when we returned to the restaurant Lucias to capture the few scenes that we missed due to the changes in lighting and sound that halted the original shoot. This once again was completed very quickly and also meant that "No Good Deed Done" could be wrapped up with all that is left to do is editing.

Finished advert - unit 30: Advertisement production for television