Unit 04: Working to a Brief in the Media Industries
Report
Rhys Collins
Contents
Title and Contents
Introduction
Explanation of Brief and Personal Individual Responsibilities in the Group
Individual Role and Impact, Group Research and Negotiation with Client
Extensive Group Planning and Research
Details of Role, Group Schedules, Meetings and Communications
Application Discussion, Monitored Progress, Discussion of Constraints, Liaisons
Feedback, Evaluation of Role, Comparisons with Work, Evaluation of Group
Introduction
This report will highlight the production process of the creation of the River Tees Rediscovered video project by the UFilms production team of Stockton Riverside College.
Our team had previously completed other college related work such as a total of eight short films, four music videos, nine documentaries and several Christmas adverts, and we went into this project to quickly and effectively create a product to give to the organisation.
The River Tees Rediscovered organisation provided a brief outlining their requirements for their video, requesting a short advertising video to highlight who the non-profit organisation were, what they do and how they affect the local community. They host local events such as archaeological digs, guided walks and creative family events at local areas within Teesside, such as Preston Park and natural wildlife areas in an attempt to respark tourist and communal efforts to care for the natural environment in and around the River Tees. We were requested to complete the project and provide is an .avi or .wav file, and to provide footage of as many projects provided by the organisation in the local area, including those mentioned above such as guided walks and the creation of bat boxes by families, and local areas relating to the River Tees such as the Tees Barrage and River Tees Pumping Station. The brief provided a contractual guideline informally to detail the outlines of what was needed, and through negotiations we managed to find out exactly what was desired in doing the required work for the final product in terms of filming a limited number of events without competition or the involvement of anyone else, assuring us that we would be managing the project on our own.
Within the group I was working as a member of the team to help be on site in the recording and be involved on site during filming. In general I was assisting the director and providing direction myself to others. Specifically I directed the Bat Boxes project with two other group members that took place at Preston Park Museum. Prior to this I helped in management of time and was involved in all meetings with the group and several involving the organisation itself to ensure that, should I have a problem, the issues could raised and negotiated without hassle, but also to make sure that I and the other members of the team understood the brief and could take it to complete what was necessary and ensure that it was perfectly fine amongst the group and the project managers at River Tees Rediscovered. I personally also provided insight into the project amongst the people who would be working on the Bat Boxes project alongside me to ensure and pertain that the project was managed in time and that transport for us and our equipment could be arranged on the day to acquire access to the museum early and provide adequate time to set up the equipment, film the project and eventually negotiate among the team members the time to leave the area and finish up. During the post production processes of the project I personally edited the Bat Box footage and involved some title transitions of the logo of the organisation to ensure a professional quality and sleek appearance of the final product pertaining to and revolving around the information provided by the brief from River Tees Rediscovered.
My individual role on the project is to help ensure that everyone within the group has the Bat Boxes film given to them at the end for use in the final product, that the group on the Bat Boxes film complete it to a professional and excellent standard with excellent contributions to the project based on the brief and to potentially provide new skills or multi-skill opportunities amongst the members of the group, identify among ourselves the opportunities for self development and use the brief to recognise the nature and demand of it from the brief provided to us at the beginning, using it to improve our skills and move use this as a learning opportunity to develop future skills between us and creating their desired professional and excellent product regarding the brief to provide to the organisation in the end. I ensure that everybody working on the Bat Boxes at Preston Park are working efficiently, effectively and professionally to complete the product for use in the final project product provided professionally to the River Tees Rediscovered non-profit organisation.
We made sure to research the group before beginning on the product to find out who they were, who worked there and what the provided to the local community of Teesside. We checked their website, Facebook and other social media sites to make sure we knew who we were dealing with in particular, getting their emails and discussing with individuals who they were, what they do for the organisation and how we were able to highlight specific parts of the product in relation to what was asked of us by the working members and management of the River Tees Rediscovered non-profit organisation. The clients were consulted with regarding their organisation, the brief and the work they wanted and were given full discretion with which to discuss with us their thoughts and feelings. Fortunately, due to the simple nature of the project, little to no legal, ethical or regulatory constraints had to be put in place to prevent us from being able to begin the production stage of the project with no trouble in the way, as there are no sensitive or illegal activities portrayed, promoted or discussed during the product. We agreed to work for free as part of our college education by arranging this to be completed as work experience, and therefore didn’t need to set a budget aside from the potential to have to consider public transport, which we factored into our own spending to assure us from spending too much UFilms money on something as simple as going to and from Preston Park. Upon review by the project managers we were able to make amendments to the final product and we fortunately worked extensively with them to create the product to the best of our ability under their desires. The only issue that arose in this aspect of the project was difficulty in contacting one of the managers, but this as able to get amended hastily early in the project.
Throughout the project we were asked to provide group plans to show the limits of the brief with respect to the practices presented as neatly as possible, meeting the requirements outlined in the brief, health and safety concerns and relevant legislation. The information can be found in the River Tees Rediscovered documentation folder provided as part of the assignment, but in relation to these points in particular it is noteworthy that the healthy and safety concerns consisted primarily of the foremost danger of potential prolonged time indoors such as any risk regarding to that of an accidental injury, be it by a loose cable or a broken object, or by that of a fire started that has the potential to cause harm to members of the group; outside considerations also involved potential minor injury related more to pieces of nature such as loose ground, roots and branches, or from injury related to traffic incidents from being injured by a form of automotive transportation. In terms of legislation the legality of the project was not a necessary consideration within the team due to the representation the River Tees Rediscovered non-profit organisation gave and showed throughout their meetings, time and conversations with us at UFilms productions in Stockton Riverside College. The team members got involved in the development and put their names on a majority of the work they helped in the creation of provided and presented in the folder who all dished out some roles for what to do during pre-production, production and post-production. We appointed a person to head the management of the project as a form of organisational structure amongst and within the team to provide an example of a workplace environment for development of future skills in the industry, future potential working situations and use of work experience amongst the members of the group to provide purpose for development in the future based on the brief that outlined.
We provided extensive research towards the project in terms of outlining the desired pre-production paperwork provided in the folder, such as location recces, risk assessments, storyboards and shot lists. All of these can be found in the folder that is provided as part of the project amongst all members of our group, to provide extensive details on the research and preplanning carried out by members of the group.
The first thing the group did for the project was to create a large mind-map to outline details of the project so that we were aware of what to create and produce during the developmental stages of the product within which we were able to advance throughout the brainstorming stages to identify the possible solutions of creation of the product in the future. No scripts had to be made due to the format of what the project required, and so completion of the treatment was the only necessary information for the development of the project throughout the development of design formats to meet the requirements of the brief and evaluate them against the aforementioned requirements and constraints. Once all of the researching and planning was completed we selected the best course of action to film by choosing a selection of River Tees Rediscovered projects to use for the overall project which could be discussed with the client, making sure that the entire planning and production of the entirety of the project was done within provided parameters and within the relevant codes of practice of ensuring that nobody is getting a bad deal out of the situation and everybody is benefiting from the project in the end. I personally helped plan the Bat Boxes project in the group and provided assistance when necessary in research and risk assessments of the area and for that aspect of the project.
Before we could utilise this pre-production management and paperwork into the field of shooting our actual filming assignment for the final product, we had to schedule our work according to the brief, making sure we had it done by the deadline in late November, we completed it to their standards mentioned previously and that we were to all aim to involve ourselves in the filming and make sure that there were no availability issues.
We arranged several group meetings each Wednesday to discuss progress, arrange meetings and plan the project, and would communicate regularly with the clients. All the information of which can be found in the production folder provided with the assignment.
The Pre-Production phase of the project consisted of planning, meetings and creation of ideas, management of time and scheduling, conversing and communicating with the client and allocating jobs for the project itself.
The Production phase consisted of filming each required project in small working groups by going to location and filming what was required.
The Post-Production phase consisted of editing the project, showing it to the client and working on feedback to further edit it, as well as finishing off any outstanding or leftover paperwork not completed during paperwork (such as release forms that would have been signed on the day during the production phase).
The production stages were all reviewed as we went along and can be found on my work experience blog post here: http://tbbfmb.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/work-experience-documentation-of-work.html
And in the production folder, as well as on other class members blogs:
http://kanesmith98.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/work-experience.html
http://jessbramfitt.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/year-2-work-experience.html
http://filmandtelevisionblogmatthewt.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/work-experience-log.html
(to access, simply type the addresses into the address bar on your chosen browser)
In terms of changes individually made it is worth noting that, on the day the Bat Boxes were intended to be filmed, an email mix-up resulted in the group going out on the wrong day and ending up having to return the day after, which caused some small issues in having to swap out a team member who was unable to arrive the next day, but this was dealt with quickly and efficiently by asking other group members who would be willing to assist us with the Bat Box filming.
Fortunately for us, the client didn’t make any difficulties beyond the questions we had with the initial brief lacking some minor information and assuring us that the length of the video was intended to be not too long so as to advertise them effectively, allowing us to be aware that not all of their events and projects had to be visited allowing us a much better time in planning the project and getting ready to film effectively. Beyond this, the aforementioned issue of contacting somebody was the only issue the client presented, but this was also solved quickly due to liaising with the client, dealing with the difficulties and revising the brief/plan quickly.
Once everything was filmed, edited and shown to the people of River Tees Rediscovered, they approached us to view the product and provide feedback. Overall the feedback was positive, only requesting minor changes such as the information present on screen lasting too brief and a short cutaway that they weren’t too fond of. The rest of the project was viewed as generally being a successful product, however, and we were able to work on this feedback. The group discussed any other changes they believed needed making, which amounted to be very little, and began working on the feedback from the client/audience that came to view it. We also had a member of staff present at the time of presenting it who shared similar beliefs that the video was very suitable to industry standards and that each member of the group had contributed excellently to the workplace and its goals in creating the product.
Personally for me, I believe my role in directing and editing the Bat Boxes section of the video went exceptionally well, as it was used as the opening to the entirety of the final product due to the “high quality” of the edit, and the very opening with a transition from the logo into the piece was viewed exceptionally well by the client and peers, who believed that the skills present and represented were to an excellent and higher standard in general, perceived as having achieved the agreed outcomes, having worked well within the timescales and being recommendable towards editing of future tasks. Overall my team members agreed that I worked effectively in the production of the video on the filming days, and that my editing, as everybody inside the group believed the editing I performed was to an excellent standard.
In my opinion, however, I feel like I could have done much better in the directing and editing departments, but based on the feedback from peers and clients I believe that I did well enough for me to be satisfied with my own skills and time management over my roles within the project. I feel like the editing was far better than my previous work on Short Films, music video and adverts and my directing was superior to that of the Short Film I had created previously, as I was far better aware of what I was doing.
In terms of group members, I would only be able to comment on the roles of other members of my team for Bat Boxes - Adam McLean and Matthew Taylor. Adam worked as the camera operator for this part of the project and did an excellent job with the shots he managed to get, with several high quality pans of the children, boxes and working area, while Matthew worked as the production coordinator, getting the on-site paperwork sorted out and ensuring that everyone was allowed to be shown on camera, which also was done excellently well as it allowed us to work more efficiently and get all the required footage to make the final product.
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