Active Audiences

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Developing a business: Start up proposal

Small Business ideas

Skills

When starting up a small business i am going to need to think about the different skills i have. This is because if i want to make the business successful, then i'll have to use the skills i am best at. My skills include Filming, photography, editing and colour grading. Because i have these skills it means that its best to make a film company that could either do something like advertising videos, or make films/TV shows. Other skills like good communication could help me deal with clients which will help get the company more work . My full list of skills include:

• Filmmaking
• Sound design
• Editing
• Colour Grading
• Photography 
• Communication

The filmmaing skill is useful if i want to get into media as when you learn how to make films, you also learn other things like how to edit your video together and how to get good quality sound from the footage you have. As well as filmmaking i'm also good at photography, this will be useful if a client ever wanted some photos taking. Also being a photographer gets me used to changing the different setting on the camera, having lots of practice at this will make me more advanced when using cameras.

Business Ideas

• Advertisement business which makes short films for different companies to promote them.
• Photography company that do portraits of people
• Wedding/Event photography
• Wedding/Event Filmmaking

Im going to go with the advertisements business idea. This is because my skill set leans more towards filmmaking. I would make my profit from making films for different companies, these companies can be any  

Business plans

To make a media company successful i will need to supply customers
Skills to start a business:

Cinematography
Editing
Filming
colour grading
finance management

Film production company

Critical Aproches - Mise en scene

The starting of 'Indiana jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark' features the Paramount logo which then fades into the opening sequence. The mountain that is normally displayed on the Paramount logo fades into the mountain that sets the scene for the movie. The image of the mountain also sets the scene as its very faded and mysterious

Production management

Single camera

Single camera techniques

Single camera productions use only one camera, each shot is changed for better lighting and camera angles. This also gives the director the opportunity to have more control over each shot even if it is more time consuming than multi camera productions, but in the end you will have a more cinematic shot. Because there is only one camera there will be lots of editing and cuts involved to make the final process, but as it is not live TV they can spend lots of time on it. 

Serial

A serial program has a continuous plot that eventually appears as the episodes go on. The plot can take a very long time to fully appear in serial episodes, but this is done to keep viewers watching as if the plot was all shown straight away then this could bore some viewers. So they rely on this tactic to keep views and viewers entertained. An example of this would be The Walking Dead as the plot takes its time to appear more in each episode, and just before each episode starts there is a flash back to the previous episode so that the audience remembers what has happened.

Single Drama

A single drama is a show that is only broadcasted once. They are normally made about current world situations to either inform or entertain the audience on whatever subject it is based on. Five Minutes of Heaven is a single drama that was played on BBC 2 in 2009, it tells the story about reconciliation in Northern Ireland which is based on real events, this is an example of a film that was broadcasted only once.

Soap-Opera
There are loads of soap operas being made, and they normally continue being made for a long period of time. With soaps the narrative is normally multi stranded meaning that there are a few different narratives that link together at the end, this method makes the audience want to find out the outcome of the action but at the same time want to find out how each strand fits together. For example Eastenders has a multi strand narrative as all of the narratives are normally somehow linked. The pictures below are screenshots from an Eastenders episode, the boy on the first picture has been beaten up by someone, and in that scene they talk about the incident. But then in the second screenshot it has changed to his mums point of view also talking about the incident showing that both the narratives are linked.

Narrative structures

Realism

Realism dramas are normally attempts to portray normal everyday lives. Realist dramas contain everything that could happen in real life making them more life like than other dramas and films. For example this Persil advert contains kids that are having fun, but at the same time there clothes are getting dirty, this isn't and unrealistic situation therefor could happen with kids in a real scenario. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEo-7B22xHw

Non realism

Non realism is a narrative which has an unrealistic atmosphere. you wouldn't be able to relate to this as much as you would with a realistic narrative. This can be a good thing as sometimes viewers want to be able to see something that they are not used to seeing, for example The Walking Dead has a very unrealistic narrative too it, but viewers wouldn't be as entertained if it contained more real world scenarios.

Linear

A linear narrative is structured in chronological order, so they present the story from one point in time to the next without using flashbacks or flash forwards, and then coming back to the present. So this means that they will always have a beginning, middle and an end. The linear narrative follows the three act structure and the hero's journey 

The hero's journey is a pattern of narrative used in some films as a way to show the story of the main character and how they progress through the story. In the beginning of the film you see the set up of your hero and the audience gets to see the back story. The character will face something like conflict that will push him/ her on a journey facing various obstacles. An example of a film that uses the hero's journey would be Star Wars. In the start of Star Wars we see that luke is living with his uncle and lives on a farm, this introduces the main character so that the audience gets to know him. Then once Luke meets Ben Kenobi he realizes about his true self. Then throughout the film he faces some obstacles that he will need to over come. 

Non linear

A Non linear narrative is the opposite of a linear structure and is not in chronological order. They can do this by cutting back and forward in time. A good example of a non linear film would be Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino, this film is structured non linear to prevent audiences from seeing everyone's story at once. Half way through the film you see Vincent Vegas death, which would actually be the last scene as through the rest of the film he is still alive. 

Technical requirements

Lighting

Lighting is a big part of filming as this can change the way your film looks and feels. When filming outside you can use natural light from the sun or street lighting as this can look quite good, but if your filming inside a building you will want 3 point lighting, as this makes your scenes look more professional. For example the scene in 'Skyfall' where James Bond goes to Scotland is as critics described the scene "like a watercolour painting". When filming you can adjust the colour of the lights to either be warm or cold. You would use warm lighting to symbolize things like happiness, warmth or achievements whilst you can use cold lighting to symbolize things like cold weather, loneliness or any sad emotion, using this makes the audience connect with the characters emotionally or even simply just describes how hot or cold the location is. For example the film 'The Revenant' uses very cold colours to emphasis the cold weather and the sad narrative.

Sound

Sound is an important part of filmmaking as even the smallest sound effects can make a huge difference to the atmosphere. The opening scene to the film 'Drive' uses a lot of exaggerated audio to make the audience aware of the surrounding and what is happening, for example when he's sat in the car you can hear the clicking of him setting a timer on his watch, but this needs to be made clear so that the audience can understand that he's setting the timer. Also as the radio plays a big part in the opening sequence,  which is shown by how loudly it was being played over other noises.

Editing

The editing style of a film can change the look of how the film itself is perceived, for example an action film will have lots of cuts and be really faced paced, but a romance film wont have many quick cuts as they want to audience to focus on the narrative more. Even if films have a different way of being edited like in a non linear way, they still have to make sure the narrative is understandable by the viewers. Over all this is a very important process as this part of the production is what will eventually get released so it has to be perfect. For an example the film 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows' has a scene where they're running through the woods trying to get to a train but there are people behind them shooting at them. Because this is a very action packed scene, there are lots of fast cuts used once the shooting starts which makes the audience feel more griped.

Directors

The directors have a lot to do with how the end result of a film, for example a Michael Bay film will normally contain a lot of action and fast paced scenes. But then other directors will use different methods of story telling, for example Quentin Taratino uses Non linear methods to make multiple stories for the audience. This is just down the the directors personal preference as every director has there own way of getting a story across, some like too make the narrative clear for the audience to see whilst others (like Quentin Taratino) want the audience to figure the narrative out for them selves so that they are more engaged.

Photography Safety

Multi-Camera

Multi-Camera Productions

A multi-camera production is a setup of several cameras that record and broadcast scenes at the same time. The main type of productions that this technique is used for are live music events, TV news, sports coverage, game shows and studio based sitcoms. They use multiple cameras so that they can get lots of different angles, this makes the whole footage look more professional and is a lot easier to film. The majority of multi camera productions are shown in day time, these productions include things like talk shows and sporting events which are mainly shown in the day rather than at night.

Live sports

Sky Sports 

Sky sports have 24 different cameras filming matches to catch footage from every angle. The cameras them selves are positioned all around the stadium some of them filming the actual game whilst others filming the crowds reaction. The picture below shows the camera positioning of the 2010 world cup in South Africa. There are 32 cameras setup to film at the same time meaning that you can get footage from every angle needed. There are also cameras needed to film the reporters, you need a number of them for things like wide shots of everyone to close ups of each reporter.

The Olympics 

Panasonic released a statement saying that they provided 'At least 100 full HD cameras' for the Rio 2016 Olympics, but on top of that there are now drones covering certain events as well. The Olympics will need a lot of cameras as there are sports on all the time, some are in different locations like swimming pools whilst others at the main stadium filming the multiple events happening at the same time.

TV Studio Sitcom

Friends

Friends was a sitcom which was aired from 1994 to 2004 about a group of friends in New York. Pretty much all of the show was filmed in a studio with a live audience in the background so they didn't have to use pre recorded laughter. In the studio they will have multiple cameras focusing on different parts of the set, for example one camera could be filming a wide shot whilst another camera could be filming a close up on a character. Here are some examples of multiple camera shots in a scene of Friends

Camera 1: This first scene is shot of Joey talking to the manager from the right.

Camera 2: A shot looking at Joey from the Left of the stage 

Camera 3: Another close up of Joey and the manager but this time looking at them from the middle

Camera 4: A close up of the manager from the right. Although this could also be camera 1 again but changed from looking at Joey to the manager.

Camera 5: This shot is a close up of Joey but from the far left.

Camera 6: This last shot is a wide shot of the main characters.

Altogether in that scene there were 6 different camera angles, some of them could just be the same camera in a different position.

Similarities and differences 

Even though both live sports and Tv sitcoms are multi camera productions there are some differences between the two. Sitcoms are normally filmed in studios, so this means the cameras don't have to move location, this makes things like lighting easier as you always have each camera set up for the perfect looking shot. This is something you can not do with live sports, as it is broadcasted straight away, this means they can't edit the footage or get a cinematic look. Another differance between Sitcoms and Live sports is the amount of cameras they use, Sitcoms normally have around 6 cameras for different angles, but because they normally film in studios there isn't much need for any more cameras, whereas Live sports need loads of cameras. This is because of the amount of things you need to film, for example with the Olympics there are multiple events happening at the same time, so that means there are going to multiple cameras for each event, and on top of that there are cameras filming the crowds reactions. The main similarity is that they both use multiple cameras to record their production, but there are some others. The positioning of the cameras in each production is still the same, for example on soccer Saturday they have a panel of reporters, as shown by the pictures below, one camera is filming the with a wide shot, but at the same time other cameras are filming each reporter with a close up.

This is the exact same as what would happen in a Tv sitcom. They botch use the exact same screw, for example each will have there own camera men, audio recorders and set designers (for live sports its only for the reporters). The equipment they use will be the same for things like lavalier microphone and shotgun microphones, Soccer Saturday will use lavalier microphones more that Friends would because a Lavalier is able to clip onto each subject meaning you can pick up everyones audio at the same time, an alternative to this is just use quite a few shot gun microphones but this is a more complicated option. Friends is more likely to use shotgun microphones as because its not live and able to do cuts, there is no need to pick up all the audio at once. The one difference between the cameras they use is that the cameras used for live Tv are specialized for broadcasting straight to our Tv's wheres as with sitcoms its all edited before it hits our screens.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Multi camera production is a great way to get footage quickly, this is due to the fact there are so many cameras recording at the same time. Sitcoms normally come out every week, this means that they are going to need to get footage fast and this is why all them cameras help. By shooting from all the different angles you get to see things that you would miss if there was only one camera, this especially goes for live sports as there as so many different angles to make the footage more interesting for the viewer. If there is a panel of reporters like there is on Soccer Saturday, then you want to have as many cameras as possible to capture everyone's reaction, this is the best method of filming something like this. Also for live Tv you dont need to give it a film look as you normally would with single camera techniques, so that means you dont have to spend time editing and colour grading which you wouldn't have time to do anyway. If your filming a sitcom then you wont have to take as much retakes if you have multiple cameras filming at the same time, this gives you more opportunity with your filming, also it can make your actors speech flow better as you can film a whole scene with multiple angles without stopping and moving any camera equipment.



Cons
There are a few cons with multi camera production like the fact its likely to be way more expensive than single camera filming, this is because you have to buy all the cameras and depending on what your filming you could need a lot of them. Then you are going to need to pay crew to run everything which could be another pricey part. The difficult part about filming a sitcom would be the lighting, this is because if you use single camera techniques you can just look through the camera and adjust the camera to see what looks best, but having multiple cameras means that you need the lighting to be good in all of the cameras, however many are on set. Another thing is that the footage that is produced (for sitcoms) is not going to look film standard, this is due to many reasons like the fact they have to plan, film, edit and release a whole episode every week. This makes it impossible to really focus on the quality of the picture itself when you have that kind of dead line.

Passive and Active audience

Bulmer and Katz

Jay Blumler, Denis Mcquale and Josheph Brown were joined by Elihu Katz in 1973/ 1974 in their media research. They were theorists that began research  to indicate how people saw the mass media.
Blumler and Katz made the users and gratification theory and its an approach to understand why people seek out specific media to satisfy peoples specific needs. For example social media is a way to enjoy media to for fill someones needs, it is more of an active audience because the audience is interacting with the media rather than accepting it if you were a passive audience.

Blulmer and Katz developed a model to identify four needs that could be fulfilled by viewing TV.



Gratifications theory

Battlefield 1's main purpose is to entertain the viewers, this can be aimed towards both men and women but mainly to men. The game has a sense of social interaction as people who play the game will often talk about it with their friends, and this can lead to further discussions about the game. People can play battlefield as a way to escape reality and especially a good way to play with friends online if you have had a hard

Film Posters

Pen profile




Hi my name is David Gill, i'm a graphic designer from Norwich and my hobbies include drawing, gaming and watching movies. My favorite films include Saving Private Ryan, Friday the 13th and The Shawshank Redemption, although i'm not a fan of romantic films. In the future i would like to be a design director as that is a step up from being a normal graphic designer.

Legal and financial aspects

Legal status of your business

The legal status of your business can depend on the type and size that your business is going to be, you will also need to think about tax as the size will effect this.


Sole trader

Being a sole trader means that you can start trading quickly without having to spend to much money, plus you have complete control over your company and business so you can decide exactly what you want to do. There are some advantages to sole trade like the fact you can spend as much money as you want on the company whether that's a lot or a little. Another good thing about being a sole trader is that all of the money from the business goes towards you. The amount you pay towards national insurance is payable as a percentage of profits archived. There are some downsides to being a sole trader, like the fact that as the business grows it will become harder to access finance. Also the business has unlimited liability towards debts that occur, which could mean you can't afford to pay them off.

Partnership

Partnerships involve two or more people that run a business. They share everything from the profits they make, to the risks they take. With partnerships, the business is more likely to survive if one of them leaves, whereas with a business run by one person, the business would crash. When there is multiple people running a business the responsibilities get shared which can make everything a lot easier, especially if these people have different skill sets. But again just like the sole trader, the business will get unlimited liability for debts that are occurred. And if you and your partner have disagreements about something that could put the business at risk.

http://hwchamber.co.uk/support/advice/starting-a-business/legal-status-of-your-business

Legal aspects of a small business

Law

When setting up a small business there are a few laws that you will have to sort out. These laws include employment, consumer law and licences, health and safety, and insurance.

Health and safety

Every business that is out there will need to have health and safety regulations. They have to have risk assessments as employers have a legal duty to ensure that their employees work in a safe environment.

Tax

Tax and national insurance contributions vary on the legal status of your business, as mentioned before the rate of tax is different depending on if your a sole trader of in a partnership.

Tax liabilities 

Corporation tax is a tax on limited companies taxable income or profit. To find out how much they have to pay they will have to calculate their own tax liabilities, and once they have calculated how much profit they have made, they have to pay the calculated tax to the Inland Revenue.

National insurance is taken away from your earnings. The money goes towards things like the NHS, the state pension and other welfare related schemes.

VAT stands for value added tax. You see this a lot when buying certain goods that there is VAT added on top. Businesses should register for VAT if the predicted value of the products 1 year later is more than the current annual VAT threshold which is £83,000.

http://www.bytestart.co.uk/main-business-taxes.html

Source of finance

There are many different types of ways to get funding for a small business, but sometimes you have to fit into certain category to get theses types of funding's or loans. Getting a bank loan means that you have a longer term kind of finance if you are just starting, as the bank will stating the time over which the loan will be provided, this can be anywhere from 5 years but its really up to the bank. The easiest way of getting funding would be to borrow from family and friends, the only problem is that you might feel morally wrong taking money of people close to you, especially if you wont be able to pay it back. There are quite a grants you can have that will give you some funding towards starting your business, usually there is requirements for different grants.

http://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/sources-of-finance-for-a-startup-or-small-business

Financial systems 

Having a small business means that you will have to have a way of managing money, if you dont manage and budget your money you will most likely go bankrupt. There are a few ways in which you can manage your money and one is to hire an accountant. They will be able to manage your money for you, although hiring someone would be quite costly and for a small business you might not be able to do that, the second option is to get software that lets you keep track on the spending you are doing. This would be an easy way to budget and spend.

Credit control 

Credit control is the method of making your costumers be able to pay on time rather than leaving them in debt, not doing this could result in late payments which is just more hassle that the company doesn't need, things like this can effect the cash flow. A credit control team can will be able to ensure that the business has up to dat terms and conditions.