Type of Production
The type of production I will be looking to produce will be a one minute short film. The genre of the film will be Horror and the name of the film I will be making is called ‘Charlie.'. It's about two boys hanging out together on a random Saturday night. They are casually scrolling through their Twitter until they see a trend for a new scary game challenge. As they don't think it's real, one suggested they should play this little "game" which then gets out of hand. They end up being stalked and taunted by an unknown presence named 'Charlie'. This short film will require me to have small crew, a script, a storyboard, certain location, props, SLR cameras and LED lights etc.
Finance
In order to shoot and edit my one minute horror short film, I will need a video camera, lights, microphones, editing suite, actors, a crew etc. I will also need other things such as extra money for props, makeup, transportation, food, drinks etc. Luckily, I wouldn't have to pay for all of this because most of this equipment will be provided by College. I would still have to pay for props, makeup, transportation, food and drink which is no problem as I will be using my personal savings for this.
Transportation won't be a problem for me as my crew and I have free bus passes which allow us to travel around London for free but if we were travelling by train, it would cost about £1.40 each. From my personal saving, I will add £25 to the props and makeup, £10 for transportation (in case if we are travelling by train) and £15 for food and drink from 'Poundland' and '99p store' which will keep us from getting hungry for the 1-2 weeks of filming. If we are travelling by bus only, I will take £10 from transportation and split it into two and add it to 'props and makeup' and 'food and drink'.
If I were to shoot and edit a short film in the real world and pay to hire production and post-production equipment I need for a week, I will have to pay about £2,000 in able to shoot a successful short film which is a lot of money;
- Camera: £640 per week.
- Lights: £84 per week.
- Tripod: £75 per week.
- Microphone: £92 per week.
- Editing suite: £800 per week.
- Others: £100+
In order for me to get the money I need to pay for all this equipment, I will use Kickstarter to help me to finance my short film. Kickstarter are known for helping people bringing their ideas to reality by giving them a starter to invest on. It's easy and quick to use to earn money for yourself to make short films, I would have to go on Kickstarter and click 'Start a project'.
As I am be able to borrow production equipment from the College's media department, this means I don't have to buy a camera and the equipment along with it. I also will not need to pay to hire an editing suite too because there is a Mac editing suite in college which I am allowed to use anytime during my free lessons and I also have an editing software at home I can use which is similar to 'Final Cut Pro X'. This editing software is known as 'Sony Vegas 12'.
Time
Me and my crew will have two week production time to finish before the deadline. Deadlines are very important for us so we have to be prepared and organised. I will make sure my short film is produced before the deadline given to us so if my audience is not satisfied with the outcome, we have more time to re-edit to their satisfaction. If I don't meet my deadline, my work will be marked as NYA. As I will be using the equipment given from college to shoot the short film, this will save time and money for me to buy one and wait for delivery. I will also have to do research on the location to know how long it will take us to get there on time and arrive back on time or if there will be any traffic.
Before I start editing my short film, I will need to follow this procedure; I will need to put each footage I got from recording into specific bins. It is important to put footage in each bin, which should each have a name, as it would be a whole lot easier for me to find the footage I want and to know if I have got all the footage in each bin. After I have sorted out the footage in the right bin, I should add comments to each footage, so this way I will know if it is a good or bad shot to use for the short film and then know what shot to use when I start editing and dragging footage into the timeline. Following this procedure will save time and money because I'm reducing time in the editing suite and more likely to meet the deadline.
Crew and Personnel
In order to film I will need a small crew including Actors, Director, Director of Photography, Lighting technician, Producer, Camera operator, Risk assessor etc.
I will need a director to make sure everything goes to plan and be in charge of the script as they have creative control over the project. Secondly, I will need a producer who is very organised, they would be in charge of the shooting schedule, prepare budget, booking form, permission and clearance etc. Thirdly, I will need a cameraman to record and shoot the production, they would be in charge of how the film is lit and shot with their storyboard and shot list. Fourthly, we also will need an editor to cut the film and make it thrilling by adding colour correction, sound effects, tracks etc. We will also need a Lighting Technician to be in charge of the Location Recce and Risk Assessment. Last but not least, I will need actors to be the in the film. I will need good actors only because one bad actor in a film can really let down the audience. I could cast actors in the Drama department, workshop, youth group or local theatre who could act and make our film better and professional.
As there is four people in my crew including me, there will only be four production roles known as below:
- Director
- Director of Photography (Camera Operator)
- Production Manager
- Production Assistant
Facilities
We will need production equipment such as a video camera, a tripod, LED lights etc. I obviously will need this equipment because it will be entirely impossible to shoot a film with no video camera and I will need a tripod to keep the camera still otherwise it can let down the film. As we're students, we don't have that sort of money to go and buy good production equipment, so our college provides it for us, this means we can book and borrow production equipment for free from college (Christ the King: St Mary's).
We will also need post-production equipment such as computers with software that allow us to edit and cut useless footage and add sound effects where needed etc. We will need this in order to edit and finish the short film by cutting out useless footage and adding stuff like sound effects to make it realistic and entertaining so the outcome of the film will be excellent. Our college will also provide that as well, there are editing suites in the college that contain Apple Mac Computers with good editing software known as 'Final Cut Pro X'. As they are free to use in college from 8am to 5pm on Monday to Friday, I will be using the editing suites in college to edit my 1 minute short film. I can also edit at home as I have this software that I know inside out which is very similar to 'Final Cut Pro X', it's called 'Sony Vegas Pro'. I used to edit a lot with this software before so I know how to edit, add sound effects, add transitions, add colour correction etc.
Materials
Copyright is an automatic right that protects a piece of written and recorded work from being copied, stolen or used by anyone else without the copyright owner's permission.
The only material I will need for my one minute short film is sound. Not having any soundtrack in my short film could let down the film as I don't have anything to build suspense for the audience to be put on the edge of their seat, the film wouldn't be scary with no soundtracks as it should be. I will need a of couple soundtracks in order to make my horror film actually horror and scary.
If I'm going include soundtracks from YouTube, I will have be aware of copyright, the owners can choose to grant permission for others to use their work. Usually we will have to make a payment for the right to use the material after we write to the copyright holder and ask for permission. I can use Royalty Free Music as they allow us to pay for the music license once and I can use it as long I want to for my short film, usually a minimum of £20.
Contributors
As I will need actors in my film, I will need to get permission from them and I should get them to sign a release and consent agreement form so that I have documentary evidence of their permission to be featured. It's important to get them to sign a release form because If I fail to get release forms, this means that the actor could decide later that they don’t want to let me use their image and this could damage the production, for example, scenes would have to be re-shot, faces would need to be blurred or key scenes might have to be removed. This will add more time to the production and more chance of us not reaching toward the deadline and lead our work to be marked as NYA.
Locations
To be able to shoot in different locations, you will need to ask for a permit from the Council as it's their property to shoot in the location you choose to shoot. It's very important that I will need a location release form to be signed otherwise the owners of the location I choose to film in could decide that they don't want me to use images of their location. I will need it in order to prevent this from seriously damaging the production as I will have to remove or re-shoot the scenes in a different location. This will add more time to the production and more chance of us not reaching toward the deadline.
I will need a location reconnaissance to visit and do a research on the potential location we'll be filming in, for example, how to get there, how long it will take us to get there on time and return back on time. We will also need to know if there will be any traffic or if it is going to rain so there won't be any electrical damage while we're shooting our film. They are important as they provide information from the recce to inform us about the distance, access, power supply, potential problems over weather, health and safety issues and any costs associated with using the potential location we are shooting in.
Codes of practice and regulation
