UCS BA Digital Film Production: Work Experience

One of my reasons for embarking on the MA that fits in excellently with the Professional Development unit is to move into teaching at HE level. I am currently teaching Film/TV and Media a FE college (Suffolk New College) but to teach at HE nearly all colleges want you to have an MA. I obviously have plenty of teaching experience in FE (13 years) but it would be good to get some HE teaching under my belt for my CV too.

To this end I contacted Alexandra Leaney who runs the BA (Hons) in Digital Film Production at UCS and the soon to be up and running BA (Hons) in Screenwriting and Screenwriting with Film Studies. We had a meeting and basically I sounded her out about doing some lecturing on the courses selling my skills and expertise. This was to the end of obtaining some work or failing that some work experience teaching on the BA courses to add to my CV.

The meeting was positive and I already knew Alex a little from bringing my FE students over for taster sessions etc. The paid work was a slight possibility as they were potentially taking on some new lecturers as the courses grew. However fitting this around my busy teaching schedule could be an issue and no promises could be given. However Alex did say that if I was prepared to come in and do some tester sessions as work experience so they could see how I got on that would be a good start. It would also keep me fresh in their mind if any openings did occur. From discussions we looked at possible sessions in the following areas.

• Lighting for film & TV workshop.
• Basic AVID editing skills.
• Colour grading in Premiere Pro.

Alex said to keep in touch and see how we may be able to fit these in and around my schedule and her student's timetables. Also this would keep me in mind if any potential openings or opportunities arise.

Initial Ideas: Brain Tree Films Video Pricing

I am prepared to to not make anything (ideally not though) on my first couple of video pieces as long as the content I am generating will lead to great content and hopefully future work. However I did want to research what I should be pricing for any work that I undertake further down the line to see if it is a commercially viable exercise. First of all I wanted to work out what I felt my costing should be to earn a decent amount out of any work I was to undertake. It is a hypothetical breakdown but would give me a ballpark figure of what I would need to charge to make a decent wage. For this I did a basic outline for a small video production I felt would be typical of a lot of the work I would be undertaking a 5 minute company promo. The breakdown works out like this and is based on me earning £300 a day using my own kit (or borrowing extra kit from my college) and undertaking all of the work myself except on the shoots where I would need assistance from a sound man/second cameraman possibly.

• £300: One days research planning and concept development. Also pre-production scripts etc.
• £300: One day shoot my time.
• £200: Second camera/sound. May use students from college for "work experience" for free.
• £1200: 4 days Post-prod including titles, SFX, grading, music & final cut compressed for web.
• £2000: TOTAL

I then contacted or looked online for what other local production companies were charging or contacted them directly to ask for quotes. here are the responses that I got back or found from my research. Remember these were only ball-park based on what I outlined as my factors for the shoot above and they all have VAT added already.

• £3000:00 Off Shoot Productions
• £3545:00 Ginger Beard Productions.
• £4000:00 Vistech Studios
• £5000:00 Bruizer Creative Video & Film Agency.

From this my costings undercut all of these. It helps that I am a one man band with minimal overheads and can scale up when needed. It may even be worth considering upping my price a little to factor in any contingencies.

Initial Ideas: Brain Tree Films Video Production Promotion

As I have previously mentioned briefly the aim for this idea is to primarily create some strong video content to use to promote myself and my fledgling video production company. I do have some content to show prospective clients but it is all a little dated. I have not been generating all that much output and some of what I have produced could have been stronger over the past few years due to work and family commitments.

So what I really need is some "kick ass" video work to show off my range of skills and aptitudes as well as creativity to sell myself to clients. The content I do have is a feature length documentary that also has good drama recreation and animation elements as well as some strong documentary style talking head and filmed action on screen. Although I want to continue creating documentary and also the video art my current course has enabled me to explore this alone is not going to pay the bills as funding is hard and this is often more a labour of love.

To generate income the corporate video market working with clients to promote their goods and services is where a lot of the money is and this I see as being my bread and butter. However I need to create some of this content to prove to prospective clients what I am capable of as this is currently lacking from my showreel. I have spent a bit of time seeing the type of content that other video production companies in my area are making to get a feel for the work that is out there. I have outlined the type of work that other production companies are currently creating for clients below. I looked at a whole host of video production companies such as Bruizer, Offshoot Films, Summer Isle Films, Livid Films, Grade A Productions, Vistech Studios, Village Green Pictures and Ginger Beard Productions.

• Animations for company overview, stats and training.
• Wedding videography.
• Company/corporate promos. Companies and also councils or organisations.
• Promotional adverts.
• Viral on-line adverts.
• Music videos for clients.
• How to videos for companies.
• Covering of conventions & seminars.
• Filming and covering of events for archive and publicity.
• Funded educational work with children. Youth clubs etc.
• Own initiated children's video clubs, workshops or courses.
• Team building video exercises.
• Individual facilities houses. Crew for hire, post production facilities etc.
• Specialised video services. Time lapse, 360 degree video etc.

I would be able to offer most of these services but I need to consider what I really want to have on my site to initially start to gather interest and best show off and promote what I can do. I aim to try and create 4-5 pieces of video content

• Animation: Creative demonstration of company or process.
• Corporate promo 1: Traditional promo for a company and their goods/services.
• Corporate promo 2: Creative promo/advert a company and their goods/services.
• Viral marketing example.
• Music Video (possibly)

On top of this I have the following elements I can screen from my most current piece which is the documentary on the cinema projectionist. This with some of the pieces above will mean that I will have at least hopefully 10+ pieces of content to use on my website and on my showreel to promote myself.

• Trailer: For cinema projectionists doco.
• Animation: How projectors work.
• Drama: Re-enactments for cinema projectionist doco.
• Documentary: Sequence of talking heads with GV's and stills.
• Process Documentary: For one of the stages of putting on a film.
• Documentary: Fly on wall footage of projectionists and projector demonstrating and chatting.

Initial Ideas: Greenpeace and Video Activism

Following on from my initial ideas one area I wanted to pursue was to develop was working with Greenpeace. I am a fully paid up member of the organisation and advocate for their good work and rather than simply donate thought they may be able to utilise my skill-set.

To this end I contacted my close friend Ben Stewart who is Head of Media and Special Projects at Greenpeace. He said he would see what he could do but warned that there are often lots of hoops to jump through as it is such a big organisation and how he was not too sure how many of the right doors he could open. So I left that with him.

With Ben we discussed possible areas within the field of video I may be able to work in that Greenpeace have used in the past.

• Direct action campaigning.
• Promo corporate style videos for causes/campaigns.
• Videographer for events.
• Videographer for direct action.
• Viral campaigns.
• Video updates on where Greenpeace money went.
• Video and video installations at Greenpeace events.

From this list I had to be very careful about any direct action as I cannot afford to be locked up due my job and commitments for any covert direct action campaigns. We kicked around some possible ideas from within this and I decided to look into the potential of some of these while Ben spoke to the powers that be at Greenpeace. The areas that interested me most are below. Timescales, budgets and working relationships pending.

• Direct action campaigning. This would be skirting the law and campaigning through video projections about issues and campaigns that Greenpeace are working on. I will need to investigate the logistics and technology for this as well as liaise with Greenpeace about current political and environmental hot potatoes to use as inspiration of the work.

• Video and video installations at Greenpeace events. Greenpeace sponsor or are affiliated with  a great many events such as Glastonbury of events of their own doing. I now have some experience in video installations which they exhibit at these events and also some galleries. I am already looking into global warming and developing thematic ideas and concepts for this as potential new pieces for my MA anyway. Again I will need to investigate the logistics and technology for this as well as liaise with Greenpeace about current political and environmental hot potatoes to use as inspiration of the work.

• I have also made it known to Ben that I am available for any other promo shoots. This is sometimes celebrity hook ups to promote causes, covering events they organise and even little promo or viral shoots.

I will tentatively keep exploring these ideas and see if they bare any fruit long term. However Ben said these relationships can take a huge amount of time to get going and to build the trust and working relationships. So it may be a long term project and this may simply be a case of sowing the seeds for this at the moment.