UNIT 09 BRIEF –
Unit 9 is a unit of which I prepare to present or create ideas for my final project in exhibition. I have not yet thought of an idea to have my shorts revolve around in my exhibition, I have the shorts I am creating as part of my final project but I am needing a major project to have central.
I will start to brain storm ideas of what my decision could lead to in the way of my final project to be exhibited. My aim is to have something in the way of filmmaking but something different to my other short films.
I will also be stating the laws and legislations for british films, including when the laws came into place and what those laws underline in the area of british and global film.
I will also be developing plans for my professional practice, of which I can implement all I am to learn into my practice in the real world. I think that this unit will be challenging but very informative as a whole.
IDEAS AND BRAINSTORMS –
I have sat down and brainstormed some ideas of which I may use for my final project in the exhibition such as :
ANIMATION – I could present an animation for my exhibition at the end of the year as this is different to what I have created in previous shorts. This may be a unique way to end the year and show my growth as a filmmaker. I shall now present a sample for this idea. 
Here, you see examples of stop frame animation, films of that sort that have been a huge success. Films that include; Chicken Run, Nightmare Before Christmas, Morph, Wallis and Gromit etc etc. This technique has been proven to work well.
1930’s SET FILM – I was thinking of doing something completely different, a little longer and set in the 1930’s. This will also include concepts of old cine techniques to give that feel of an old film. This would be unique to my experience and would end my year on a positive. I will now present samples of 1930’s set films.
1930’s Films tend to consist of black and white style films as this is the time of filmmaking where films were black and white, with the exception of ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Although I have already done black and white in a short film, I feel that this style would work well as my final major project.
LONG ACTION / HORROR FILM – I was thinking that a longer action movie would test my filmmaking as I have experimented with emotional films, comedies and that region of work but it would be an experience to create a longer film that consists mainly of action or possibly horror. This is something I have not expanded on very much, certainly not with horror films and would be a good header for my exhibition. I will now present samples of longer action / horror movies.
short horror or action movies tend not to be the more popular of choice in popularity and success as they aren’t feature length but it doesn’t mean that this style wouldn’t work. I believe if I was to put my own spin on my own written film of this genre, it would work as a perfect final major project.
I feel strongly on the action / horror longer film but I shall decide on whether I should decide on horror or action. I feel that both horror and action are very stereotypical for filmmakers of my age but I would put my own style on it to create something unique about the film that is different to the others. This would maybe mean that I mix my use of mix – genre techniques learnt on this course to create a short that has either comedy/horror or comedy/action in it. This is something I can think about and grow my thoughts and ideas on.
Another option I could consider doing is a prequel to my first year project, ‘The Messenger’. This would give me chance to improve on what I didn’t do so well in my first final project and also have the shorts I am making to support it at the end. I feel that this would be a very strong final piece.
Here is my mind map I used for my thoughts on my final project. I feel that this is important to be thinking about way in advance so that I can begin it with plenty of time, ensuring that I can get the best possible result
I have decided to go along with the messenger prequel as it is the one I feel would give the biggest impact, rotate around the first year and would also show a powerful ending to my knowledge of film, creating a full feature length movie with my shorts with different techniques rotating around it. I am very excited to begin this and will begin to write a script to the best of my ability.
British Film Legislation –
Film legislations are in other words, rules for a film to legally be published. This subject can range for a wide amount of rules and laws but I will list and explain the most commonly known legislations for british film.
FILM RATINGS – In order for a film to be publicly presented or released nationally in the UK, a film needs to have an age rating stuck to it, given by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). The BBFC look into your film and decide of which age is appropriate for your film. Ages of the UK range from :
U – suitable for all ages
PG – parental guidance required
12A – Cinema release suitable for 12 years and older
12 – Video release suitable for 12 years and over
15 – Suitable only for 15 years and over
18 – Suitable only for adults.
R18 – Adult works for licensed premises only.
These ages set your film at a stage. For example, ‘Shrek’, a family film would be set around the PG mark as the humour and feel of the film would be suitable for those of many age met under the requirement that an adult is watching to judge also. An example on the other end of the scale would be for example, ‘Alien’ at an 18 as this film would not be suitable for anyone under the adult age, this would be judged on gore levels, foul language, drug misuse and sexual content.
Many things come into film ratings so this definitely goes under the line of British film legislations, in fact globally for that matter.
Film Censorship – Film censorship is often carried out by different countries depending on scenario, sometimes as a result of situations like relentless bothering by other organisations or individuals of which cause the film to be banned in a particular country over a certain amount of time or even permanently.
A great example of this is from the film, ‘The Interview’ starring Seth Rogen and James Franco about two interviewers that have been assigned to assassinate president Kim Jon Un, the president of North Korea. Kim does not seem to have much of a sense of humour toward his own fame so once seeing this film, he threatened the United States and had the film banned from being screened in North Korea as he did not want citizens to look at him in the way that the film presented him.
This is an extreme example as Kim was infuriated by the film which almost lead to North Korea attacking the film industry of the United States but it is a great example that films can be banned in certain countries depending on whether the film goes against the country’s law, belief or leader. 
This film lead North Korea to hack Sony’s company, a response that isn’t always as extreme but an example that people in other countries may not appreciate your work.
Cinematography Act of 1909 –
The legislation of film first came around in 1909 when movies were becoming an ever growing industry. This began by introducing the licensing of cinemas around the country, safety requirements for each cinema and classifications as I listed above. The act came into place as cinema was a new and massively growing industry and cinemas were being grown not only nationally but globally, this was decided that to keep everything in order, an act of legislation was in order.
The updated act in 1952 listed that there would be no way for a child under the age restriction would be able to enter the film as it would now be fully illegal. Local cinemas that would normally be able to present and take profits from a film without a certificate would no longer be able to do so with this new act in place, the cinema box was to act as an age bar, meaning no children would be allowed in if legally not suited, the certificate would now have to be presented at the start of any screening before the film begins and nobody would be allowed to pirate this film through anybody.
Since 1952, these laws have been in place as even now when you watch a movie, the film certificate is presented to the audience as conformation of age and legal proof.
I learnt all of this from the BBFC official website, giving me the knowledge to provide such facts, here is my evidence to back up my statements.
CASE STUDY – REAL LIFE LEGISLATION EFFECTS
Here I have found a real life example of the risks of legislations, especially in the area of music. Music is commonly copyrighted, meaning that people have used music that isn’t owned by them. I am guilty of such a thing but my scenario is different due to the fact that my work is for college and others do such things in full films to make a huge earning.
As you can see, Ennio Morricone, the writer of hit film scores such as Clint Eastwood’s film, ‘The Good the Bad and The Ugly’ which was released in 1966 loses a bid to reclaim his rights to film scores that are his.
This is a pure example of real life situations of which the film laws and legislations come into play. People who aim to use somebody else music to make an earning is an example of piracy which goes against the film laws and legislations which is illegal. I have found this case study on google and it is a recent issue, showing that in modern day, things like this can happen even in Hollywood. When Hollywood movies are making millions, you can then understand why using somebody else work can be quite a bad thing.
Those who use other peoples music tend to get acceptance to do so and the music composer will get a slice of the cake for his work. But when it is illegally copyrighted, this scenario becomes very serious.
Ennio has experienced the issues and dangers of music and in particular, film scores. This area of film in the film industry can be very difficult to keep a step ahead of but one way of reducing this risk could be to copyright all of your work whether it be footage, music or photography, as long as your work is owned by you with a signature, you shall be safe with your work. Maybe this is a mistake that Ennio Morricone did not keep on top of and this may had lead to this issue but this is just a price example of the issues that come with such a difficult industry.
RELATING THE FILM LEGISLATION TO MY WORK –
As I am now fully aware of the laws and legislations toward film and the industry, I am able to present a risks and solution page for any work I would wish to do in the forseable future. I will now present a scenario of which I would need to be educated in the film legislations law and requirements.
Here I have created scenarios of which the laws and legislations for UK and global movies may come into play. These scenarios are very common in particularly modern day times and I feel I have stated the scenario, law and solution perfectly. I have learnt a lot in the way of law and legislations in movies and I will be able to take it on board in future projects of my own.
As I currently create shorts and do not put my films into the cinemas for national viewing, these laws and legislations do not particularly apply to me as of now but it is great to know the laws and legislations for future purpose in my workplaces to come in the film industry.
HEALTH AND SAFETY –
In any planning, it is always best to have a health and safety check and as my short films consist of the same things, I am to use the health and safety sheet I previously created. Doing this will be a reminder to me and my crew on how to act whilst filming on location.
Each of these are examples of what could happen while shooting on location. It is key to acknowledge these risks to ensure safety whilst creating. Risk assessments are very important. With each being very detailed, the risk of these issues happening have now automatically dropped as I and the crew are now aware of such possible events.
UNIT 09 PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE QUESTIONS –
I will now answer questions related to this unit and what I am covering in this particular unit.
- What legislation effects your practice? (from below) explain in detail.
copyright laws; protecting intellectual property; designs and patents. Find a relevant case study to support your argument, and upload to your blog.
Not all legislations affect my work in the aspect of cinema screening, third party piracy and classification although there are aspects of which may affect me work such as copyright laws. Copyright is a big thing with my work as I love to use music that is originally in my head from the start of the idea.
With my work being uploaded online onto YouTube, I have found myself getting copyright claims to the musicians work found on my pieces. I have counteract this by using royalty free music on my work meaning that there is no copyright on the music.
A way to also avoid this is to get in touch with the copyright owners and see whether they can allow you to use the music in your project. I have done this with one song in my previous year project, ‘The Messenger’.
2. What health and safety requirements do you observe for your practice?
health and safety legislation affecting studios and workshops;
Health and safety requirements I observe for my particular work are all related to filming on location and what risks come along with that. I will observe:
TRAFFIC : Will traffic be an issue for my filming due to noise and physical risks? 
DANGEROUS LOCATION : Is my location safe to enter with my team?
EQUIPMENT DAMAGE : Am I at risk of breaking any of colleges equipment I have borrowed?
There are many examples of risks I have to take into consideration which I will list below but I make sure to always successfully assess each issue in order to safely create a short film when nobody are safe.
If working in a studio of which I may do on this unit, it is important to be sure that nothing gets damaged in the surrounding area. With a studio being more cramped than filming on location, everything is closer meaning that more damage is likely. It is about being fully aware of your surroundings to reduce chances of risks ocourring.
3. What environmental issues surround your practice if any?
There are many environmental issues that surround my practice in short films as all of my films are outside in different locations. This may take into consideration things like traffic, public disruption or wildlife damage. Many things go into this category, not all of which may affect me, all depending on location of shooting but those listed above are the main common issues surrounding my potential filming.
Professional Practice Risk Assessment –
I have written a risk assessment sheet taking into consideration any issues that may crop up in the scenario of something related to me, filming on location. Here will show the risks, risk level and solutions to such events. I feel that doing this process will show proof to safety in my filmmaking and will make myself and my team more aware of the risks that are to come ahead of us in worst case scenarios.
I am very happy with the result of this risk assessment sheet and I believe it has worked perfectly to how I wanted it to. I shall now take this process into consideration into future projects to ensure safety to all involved.
DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION ACT (DDA) –
The Disability Discrimination Act of which was set in place in the year of 1995 was created to increase chances and opportunities for the disabled compared to the people of which do not have disabilities. This comes from job opportunities to transportation purposes. Depending on your disability, the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 will enable you easier access or less charges. This law can get very complicated depending on the scenario but it overall allows those who find things harder than others do do more.
Examples of such could include –
Public Transport – this ranges from trains to buses to even planes. Some services account for cheaper fairs whereas all services provide easy access, making the process much smoother than it would be if not given help to those who need it.
Public / Private – Access to both public and private areas are made easier to those who find it difficult to be in such places both mentally and physically. Doing this enables the right for those who are disabled, to have equal rights to those who have no disability and find access to everything much easier.
FINAL PRODUCTION DECISION –
I have come to the decision of for my final piece, to create the prequel to my feature length movie ‘The Messenger’. I have decided to do this as there was many questions unanswered in The Messenger and for a prequel release of ‘The Messenger’, I feel that this would be the perfect ending to the second year with all my shorts revolving around the final major project.
This will also support the ideas and concepts of my evolution as a filmmaker, learning techniques of filmmaking in short films and having those rotate around my final major project, ‘Unnamed prequel’ to finalise my work. It does mean that the team will have to keep going with filming this feature length but I feel doing a prequel to their favourite movie will inspire them enough to keep going.
THE MESSENGER GENESIS –
As I have decided to take on another feature film of my own writing and directing, I have been hard at work producing the script. As the film is a prequel to the original, meaning that the film is set before the original, I have to clearly show the audience that it’s set before the original film. I have accomplished this challenge by importing my film, ‘The Messenger’ into a Premiere Pro new edit and reversed the speed, slowing the speed down on each good note to present a name for the film, a huge montage of the film goes backwards symbolising that we’re heading back in time before the original. Hence why the name is ‘The Messenger Genesis’. I feel that this is an excellent way to present the feeling of ‘before the original’ and it will be clear to the audience that this is what’s been done.
I am confident that this will succeed in presenting the transition of ‘before present day’. This is a final piece I will be working on throughout the year and I believe it will be a very strong piece. More short films are to come also in the coming units. This final piece is nowhere near completion and there is more to come.
SHORT FILM FOR UNIT 09
I will now present my short film that I have created, using all I have learnt in this unit, taking into account the health and safety risks, environmental risks and film legislations. This is a short I have written called ‘Crushed’. Crushed is about a man who receives a message off of his ‘crush’ saying to meet him in a certain location. Overly happy, he dances around town on his way to the location to find he has been set up.
This will allow me to test my knowledge of what I have learnt within this unit, taking everything into consideration. This short film is also different to the previous shorts I have created and I can add this to rotate around my final project.
I have finally edited together my short for Unit 09. This short, ‘Crushed’ is classed as a comedy genre. I decided to do a silly genre style with my shorts to widen my range as recently it has been more emotional genre shorts with the exception of ‘Interviewed’. My goal is to keep learning as I go along and widen my experience of film.
This short film was shortly filmed inside our local town of Halifax which meant that access to filming locations was easily done. I took on everything I have learnt with the health and safety aspects of ‘on location’ filming and it was a huge success.
I will now show screen grabs of the result of my short. I used the rule of thirds again in my short film in a creative way to develop my creative eye and I feel that it worked perfectly. I also used effects in Premiere Pro that I had not used beforehand like the ‘zoom’ effect that when dragged onto the selected video, it is a form of transitioning from one shot to another. I used this effect to test the waters of being different with my editing.
As you can see in the first screen grab, you will see that I tried to get an extreme close up not only to show emotion of the character but also to get a very interesting ‘bokeh’ effect that I learnt in my first year of college. The second screen grab shows a rule of thirds use and on the third screen grab, I decided to try using reflections, showing the track of the railway on both sides of the screen, ready for the main character to appear centre stage.
Although subtle, this short comedy has been a great way to test interesting and new shots.
Here is the link to my short film – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhnVm1yXkVA&t=31s
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE – Work Experience
For my professional practice, I am going to take part in an event of which a workshop stall will be set up in our local stadium and present the equipment that the film and photography course has to offer for potential students.
This will include me and a fellow student to set up equipment, prepare the green screen for live feeds of footage and also showcase my work on a laptop. I will also use this opportunity to present my youtube channel for the films we do to gain a larger audience.
I have successfully completed my professional practice, providing a green screen and various other college film equipment to present to potential future learners of Calderdale college. Setting up the green screen proved to be a challenge. The green screen was set up pretty easily but I had one monitor that showed the year 11’s the result of the green screen and on the other side of this, I had a laptop of which was connected to the presenting monitor, showing the editing side of the green screen setup. This equipment itself really impressed a few people and was a huge success, bringing more interested students interested in our course.
I and another pupil of my course answered questions about the course and what the course entails which challenged an area I usually struggle with, public speaking. I feel that the event was a huge success and a great way to gain experience in the film course marketing sector of professional practice.
I successfully logged in about 7 hours from 9am till 12pm learning how to set up what you see above from 1pm till 5:30pm presenting to the potential learners our equipment. I feel that it was most successful due to how quickly I learnt to set up an effective green screen. I later added scuba diving videos (secondary source).
UNIT 09 EVALUATION –
Overall, I have learnt a lot in this unit as I have learnt the creation of the film law and legislation acts and what that entails. I have also learnt all I need to in the way to set up a green screen that works in a pressured environment (a date to have completed it) and I have also shown progress in my final project choice. I have learnt a lot that I will take into my future career both legally and practically.
I also learned how to be more aware of my surroundings on location in filing, of which I showed my new knowledge of in my short film for this unit. I also produced a risk assessment sheet to present my understanding and development of the awareness of such a situation. I feel that I have progressed through film a lot through this unit, mainly in the legalisation aspects of film and the film industry, all information of which I will be able to take on to with my career in the future.
Bywater Photography 