Technologies in the Film and TV Industries

CV

Job Letter

Flipside Media
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To whom it may concern,

I am writing to inform you of some errors in your job advertisement of 'Digital Media Production Producer' and hopefully educate you and hopefully you correcting these mistakes. In order to do this, I will back up my points using correct information obtained from News Articles and Legislations. I would like to extend onto general contracts in general and how anyone to have this job is subject to Confidentiality Clauses, so no information can be disclosed without prior permission from the consumer/employer, otherwise no information should be disclosed.

First of all, I would like to demonstrate your point of "preferred religious views". Under the Equality Act 2010 Part 2 Chapter 1 (10), the act tells us that whether or not the person(s) in question has a faith or believe, and should not determine if the person is employable or not. The Equality Act protects people in general from discrimination, and thus, any differences in terms of gender reassignment, sexual orientation, race, gender representation and beliefs, should all have equal chances in the world and you should not sought after those of a similar faith. Employee rights also protect those in and looking for jobs by protecting against discrimination, giving fair pay for a fair days work and have the right for sick pay and holiday days. An employer is also eligible to either be or not be within the trade union and despite their opinion it should not be affecting their position within the job.

By introducing a code of conduct or a set of rules, you would be able to discuss with clients and employees the rules and regulations that include;

 - No discrimination of any kind

 - Promotes health and safety and procedures

 - Promotes equality

The video/product you're trying to create should also be inclusive of minorities as well as majorities. The product should not be stereotypical in every scenario since more minorities are coming much more accepted in today's society, so the product should be representative of those who are of minority, including:

 - Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual

 - Cisgendered, transgendered or otherwise.

 - Any ethnicity or race

 - Age

Some minorities such as LGBT+ community, ethnicities and otherwise worry about how they are portrayed in the media and it is important that the product represents them correctly to a degree where the groups are happy to agree with your portrayal.

The OFCOM broadcast code tells us that the advert cannot be harmful to children or young people. The advert must conform to protecting younger audience when viewing or picking a suitable time-slot that doesn't harm young audiences but still gets the message across via them watching or word of mouth. Following the OFCOM code is in due to both of the Communications Act (2003) and the Broadcasting Act (1990). The Communications Act consist of acts that protect the conglomeration of TV in Britain but also protects the general public. The Broadcasting Act consists of, quote (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasting_Act_1990): "The aim of the Act was to reform the entire structure of British broadcasting; British television, in particular, had earlier been described by Margaret Thatcher as "the last bastion of restrictive practices"." The Obscene Publications Act also stops obscene imagery in British media and this legislation protects people from seeing obscene imagery. Depending upon the contents of the product, the BBFC (British Board of Film Certification) would have to rate the product of an older audience. If the product contained nudity, violence and fear the product would be rated higher than intended. Think about alternatives to get the message across. All of the product must be made by yourselves and any copyright media used in the advert would be grounds of suing for copyright infringement, but if someone were to take your advert and claim it as their own, you are able to sue them on grounds of copyright infringement.

The nature of low budget productions such as the one you are putting forward would mean that the popular music you sought after would be difficult if not impossible to acquire. Instead, look for royalty free music where available such as incompetech.com or bensound.com.

Yours Sincerely,



Roisin Phelps

Job Roles in the Film and TV Industries

Ownership and Funding Post

Ownership Concepts:

Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) is the act of broadcasting a channel for public interest rather than profitable interest. Channel 4 and the BBC both operate under this label. Channel 4 was founded by the government but later Channel 4 was to become self-funded. The BBC is funded by the public through a licensing fee and this has been noticed as "the most extensive and best funded Public Service Broadcaster in the world." (Quote from http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/psb/responses/mceihil_annex.pdf PAGE 1 PARAGRAPH 2)

The BBC logo (http://www.bfxfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BBC-Logo.jpg)

Commercial Broadcasting is the idea of showing adverts to the public audience, and the adverts appear in-between TV shows and usually during, too. The BBC does not show adverts since the BBC is funded by the general public and thus don't need commercial broadcasting as an income, however, other TV channels use this method as an income, channels such as ITV, Channel 4 and more.

Corporate and Private Ownership are two different kinds of ownerships where one is owned by a larger company and the other is owned by a single person or entity. Looking at a list of UK TV broadcasting channels, we can see that the BBC is publicly owned, SKY is corporately owned by 21st Century Fox and The Guardian is independently owned the Guardian Media Group which is owned by Scott Trust Limited.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_stations_in_the_United_Kingdom
http://www.itvplc.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_(United_Kingdom)

Global Companies are companies that operate across the globe. The BBC is one of these companies, but another example is Disney. Both the BBC and Disney operate in most/all countries in many different languages. 

Vertical Integration (owning stuff in different sectors) is when one company controls the multiple sectors of, in this case, production. One example of this was Hollywood Studio System, where Hollywood owned the studios, distribution, and production. 

Horizontal Integration / monopolisation is when a company owns a lot of things under it's name across many different platforms. Disney, for example, own resorts like Disneyland Paris and Florida, Marvel and their studios, Lucasfilms Ltd., TV channels and their own clothing/merchandise. 

Funding Types:

The Licence Fee is a type of tax that, for this example, the British public pays for. This fee then goes towards a funding pot for the BBC which then they can use that money to create content in order to please the general public. A license fee costs £145 per year, per household for a colour TV. This is split among a monthly payment and includes all forms of media from the BBC, including TV, Radio and Online. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/insidethebbc/whoweare/licencefee)

Subscription is a monthly basis payment where the customer pays a certain amount each month to keep using the service. Netflix is one of the most popular subscription services. Their standard plan costs £5.99 per month which allows unlimited HD video streaming, although the other plans allow for some perks like more than 1 screen at a time and much higher quality streaming. (https://uk.newonnetflix.info/stepbystep)

Netflix and Crunchyroll logos. Both are subscription based services.

http://www.intechtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/netflix-logo-white.png

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhspT0FS1x3kcjwpkN_xoCFys2tJs7gU0RvCAGaBWuKfKe5WYziUJVVa-xSasyVVOz8iUmhSndgN-pzH-Zo8FeR4Zc3Hb-uUDV93s1ayEjGoYNacuqhhqjxFU4jK-ASg9PUHFou2bcyAj6B/s1600/OYX_6HYT.png

One-off payment to own product can come in the form of online or instore products. This means that when the consumer purchases the product, the product is theirs indefinitely and they can rewatch it as much as the consumer likes. iTunes, HMV and GAME are perfect examples of one-off payments to use the product.

Pay per View is a service where the consumer has to pay a fee to watch a certain episode or programme. For certain cable/digital customers, they are able to purchase an episode from WWE or Boxing for a price and then the consumer are able to watch it only once, after that, the product expires until another fee is paid to rewatch. £14.95 is a price for one event of WWE (https://my.sky.com/orderboxoffice/).

Sponsorship is an act where a company of a product goes to a TV programme production company and asks to be part of a sponsor. This is particularly popular with programmes such as Coronation Street or Emmerdale. Comparethemarket.com sponsors Coronation Street, which means their product gets the lime-light just before the programme starts, during the break and then after the programme ends.

Advertising

Product Placement is a lot like sponsorship, but instead of having the product advertised before and after the programme, the product is usually placed into the TV programme. Like sponsorship, this can be another source of income to go towards production budget. In the UK, OFCOM regulations tell production companies to display the Product Placement P in the title card of the programme.

The Product Placement P (http://www.advanced-television.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Product_placement.jpg)

Private Capital is a private person or company separate from the government who can fund productions independently. One example of this would be Megan Ellison. She funds films for the smaller production companies so that they can create what they want to create. 

Crowd-funding is the act of going to the general public, pitching your idea and then have people donate or pledge towards the production fund. A few examples of this is Kickstarter, indiegogo and Patreon. Kickstarter and indiegogo operate on a similar basis where there is a set goal and amount of time but Patreon differs. Patreon offers a 'pledge per month' or a 'pledge per project'. Patreon is for more of the intermediate companies who already have a huge and trustworthy past which helps when people are looking to pledge money, but with the per project pledge system, the creators don't get their money until they create their product.

The BFI (British Film Institute) Film Fund is “the largest public film fund in the UK”. Every year, BFI invest over £26m of Lottery funds to support film development and production. According to their back project search page, Over 1600 projects have been backed by the BFI, including £92,500 given to the upcoming Glasgow Film Festival in 2016. The BFI allows newcomers and professionals to create films by funding their projects, large or small.

The nature and purposes of research in the creative media industries

Primary Research is research conducted by the first party like the production team or directors/producers. Primary research usually consists of surveying the public and conducting interviews. In my research, I used surveys to conduct my primary research and from that I was able to collect data. Using some of the feedback [like the feedback about covering certain areas] I was able to cover some of the things mentioned like focusing on opinions. 

Secondary Research is research that was conducted by a third party (one that didn't involve the first party) but is still useful in it's data. My secondary research consisted of Steam game ratings since the ratings were of a third party, I was able to collect their overall ratings and compare them with each other. Some places where secondary research can also be performed are within books, websites, Internet, CDs/DVDs, basically where any data can be found without the first party being involved.

Quantitative research is a term used for a large scale data collection. One example I used was Steam where there is an Overall Rating based on reviews from each individual who had purchased and played that game. This overall rating can be classed as Quantitative since there are no specific in-depth answers or rating from the community. Other places that Quantitative research is performed is the performance of a product (like a film's Box Office) or the figures (i.e. 773.8 million iPhones sold since it's release http://ipod.about.com/od/glossary/f/how-many-iphones-sold.htm). The Quantitative research covers an overall rating or review but lacks the intimate details.

Qualitative research is almost like the opposite of Quantitative. Qualitative research is usually based around one or possibly two people at any one time. With the Steam ratings, people leave comments and an overall analysis of their enjoyment/displeasure with the game. The individual reviews show what people liked and disliked about a game. Websites that do exclusive interviews are also part of the Qualitative research since only one person conducts the review and writes their own opinion, giving intimate details and verdicts as the review progresses.

FTL's ratings on Steam, Quantitative on the left with the 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating while on the right a thumbs up or down and a reason why by each individual person. (click image to enlarge)

BARB (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) is a data collector agency where they collect analytics and data on the TV programs and their viewer rate over a day, week, month and year. BARB then compiles these results into helpful data where anyone can view and look at the most popular channels on TV. IMDb works in a similar way where IMDb and the community have built a database of movies, games and TV shows and showcases the full cast and crew as well as production figures and user reviews. 

Audience and Market research is important when coming to producing a product or piece of media. The components of the research consist of geodemographics/demographics (which are things to do with the audience and their geographical location), audience retention and much more. This is to find out more about the kind of market and audience are responding to your research, but also the type of audience you want to aim your product at. For my documentary, I decided to run a survey and had people to respond to it. This way, I was able to reach out to people and ask them these questions and they were able to respond to them to help me gather data. I found that mostly young adults answered the questionnaire, and most of them male. I also found that about half of the respondents didn't know much about the subject and were interested in learning about indie games. 

Production research is the type of research someone needs to carry out before starting actual production. This research can consist of budgeting, viability, locations, equipment and personnel. For my production, I didn't need a budget so I didn't need to consider purchasing anything nor budgeting for the entire production. I was able to lease some equipment from the college Audio Visual room and I was also able to use locations in and around college as well as another extra room outside of college.

Documentary- My Own Idea and Final Idea

MY IDEA:

My idea is to go to the local Mancroft Advice Project and interview some of the volunteers/staff there and talk about mental health, sex/relationships, homelessness and more. I want to make a documentary to hopefully tell people about the hard work the staff at MAP get up to in helping young adults in their struggles in the community or elsewhere.

TASHA'S IDEA (FINAL IDEA):

Tasha's idea was to create a documentary about Indie Games, focusing on the differences between both AAA games and indie games and why people prefer one over the other. 

I decided to go with Tasha's idea since I thought it was a much more viable option.