Task 5

_{Contact Details}

_{Abubakor Alasow}

_{43 Mitchel Close}

_{Coventry CV5 1DL}

_{Telephone – 02478987765}

_{Mobile - 07899877352}

_{Email – osmanabuakor@hotmail.co.uk}

_Education

_{2004 – 2007 Fredrick Bird Primary School}

_{2007 – 2012 Woodlands Secondary School}

_{2012 – 2014 Sidney Stringer Academy 16+}

Subjects	Date	Grade	Predicted Grade
English (GCSE)	July 2011	C
Maths  (GCSE)	July 2011	B
Science  (GCSE)	July 2011	CC
ICT (BECT Level 2 Diploma)	July 2011	Merit, Merit
Media (BECT Level 3 Subsidiary)	July 2014		Distinction
ICT (BECT Level 3 Diploma)	July 2014		Distinction, Distinction

Relevant Experience

I know how to do lot things with media. I can use a lot of software to help me make my work be better than other people’s work.  I have done a single camera unit where a have learnt how to use a camera and know the basic knowledge of camera’s.  I have used editing software when my group and me made a music video for unit 29. I also have a good understating of how to use Premiere Pro. As well as having an understanding of this software I also know the legal and ethical issues and obligations that we must follow in the TV and Film Industry.

Skills

I know how to use a wide range of software that would help me when editing a video or a documentary. I am well knowledge on how to use Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop, these two will help me making or editing a video because they are useful. I also have some IT skills because I have a wide knowledge of know how to use:

·       Opus

·       Adobe Dreamweaver

·       Adobe Flash

·       Adobe Fireworks

·       Microsoft Office Word

·       Microsoft Office PowerPoint

·       Microsoft Office Excel

·       Cinema 4D

Interests and Hobbies

I have a lot of interest and hobbies, but my favourite hobby is watching the TV. This is what has led me to becoming interested in the film and TV industry. I watch a lot of television, but my favourite channels are the BBC and ITV. I like to watch the news a lot to keep updated. I might seem like a lazy person because I always stay in the house watching TV, but I also like to play football on the weekends, I even play with my school team on Mondays after school.

Work Experience

I have worked for BBC for one month last year and I was working with the editor editing the news footage.

Task 4

Developing Technologies in the Television and Film Industries

In my role as a television and film researcher for Cogent Media, I have been asked to make a report on the issues that are related to technologies that are involved in the making of TV programs and Films. I will explore how the technology has changed the way the films and TV programs are being made. Some of the technology that I will explore include: satellite, cable, analogue, digital, film-based, interactive, internet, high definition, consumer products, streaming content, on-demand viewing, digital recorders, pay per view

Satellite

Satellite television is a way for user of the television to get signals onto their screen so that they can watch programs and films.  This happens by the signal of the television being beamed up to the satellite station where the channels are. When the satellite reaches the station in space it sends a transmission signal back to earth. When the signal comes back to earth it allows users who have a satellite dish to receive the signal and be able to watch the TV channels that the satellite station provides for them.

Examples of satellites that provide signals for users to watch their TV and Films on are: BSKYB, which is the provider for sky, Astro that provides signals Malaysian households, Freesat and Virgin Media.

TalkTalk is a company that provides television services for their customers. TalkTalk was formed in 2003 and it provides their customers with things such as telephone and broadband services. To being with TalkTalk only provided telephone services but now they also provide TV.

Sky is a British broadcasting company that provide their customers with satellite TV channels. Rupert Murdoch owns the satellite TV SKY. When customers chose to go with SKY they get things such as TV and broadband so they can call their friends and go onto the Internet and browse the web.

A way that satellites have developed is that in the past they were is that were not very strong so they would not have been able to show tings with good quality, but now they are much stronger and this means that they can show this to their users in Full HD. This is a benefit because it means that the user would be able to watch their shows and films in full HD.

Cable

Cable TV is one of many ways for viewers to watch the television. When people watch Cable TV they don’t usually need to have signals to watch the television. How the viewers watch the cable TV is that they would use coaxial cables that go underground through to the houses of the customers. Customers that use cable TV have to pay for it and subscribe for it. When customers have cable TV they are able to watch more than 100 different channels that broadcast more than 100 different shows and series.  The main things that cable TV provides for customers is the service of watching television, but they also provide other features such as high speed internet and voice calls.

A way that cable TV has developed is that in the past when people used to use satellite TV, their connection was unstable but now with cable TV it is always stable. This means that even when it is heavy raining and snowing it can still withstand the pressure and do its job. It is also immune to black outs so whenever a customer that other services for their house and there is a blackout, at the house where they use cable it would not affect them. When customers of cable TV use it they are allowed to choose what type of channels they want. For example there are packages and on each package it gives them options for example sports package would give them a lot of sports channels.

A benefit of using cable TV is that the customer would be able to afford the prices for the subscription where as their rivals, satellite TV, is very expensive theirs is very cheap and can be used by most people.

Some examples of channels that are cable channels are HBO and CBS. HBO stands for Home BOX Office and is an American cable television network and it provides services such as showing films and programs and movie theatres for their customers. HBO also provides with their customers with many original television programs include shows such as The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, True Blood and Big Love. The owner of HBO is Time Warner.

CBS stands for Columbia Broadcasting System and is an American television network that is run along with other channels such as ABC, NBC and FOX. HBO is one of the countries four major television networks. HBO started as a radio network that turned into a television channel that shows TV programs. HBO is also known as the Eye Network because the shape of their logo at the begging is an eye with CBS next to it.

Film-Based

There are many different types of technologies that have been devolved since the making of films has started. A lot of films are remade because there are new technologies that could help the film look better. An example of a film that was remade to make it look better is Superman. The Superman film was made on 1978, 2005 and 2013. This is because since the first one was made there have been better technologies made available and they have used these technologies to make the film become better. Some technologies that have been made available include the green screen and better editing tools to make the green screen look better. The editors would use these new technologies to make the film better.

The first Superman was made in 1978 so there were not very good editing software’s for editors to use to make the film good. Although at the time the technologies that they were using looked good they were nowhere near as good as the other two that were made in 2005 and 2013.

There have been other emerging technologies that have been developed to make the films better, for example 3D. 3D was made so that it seemed like the viewer was literally in the film as things would be flying out at them. 3D is also a developing technology in medicine because in medicine the doctor’s cam use a 3D X-ray that they can use to see the full body X-ray of patients.

  

A film that has used a lot of the new technologies such as better editing software’s and green screens is Avengers. On the Avengers they is a lot of green screen and a lot of special effects that they use to make the film look better. An example of this is explosions, with the explosions they use editing tools that they did not have when the first Superman was made and make these explosions that look really nice. 

Interactive

Other developing technologies include the television being interactive for the viewer, for example on Freeview the view has the option to press the red button that comes up at the top right on their television screen and when they do they can do things such as watch extra footage, play games and read things such as the news. This shows that the new software’s that are made available to them has made it seem like the power has turned to the viewers and this shows that they are in control.

The new technology that has been given to film makers affects the audience because it means that the viewers can be more interactive with the program that they are watching. This allows the producer of the film and program to expand what the viewer’s want on their program. An example of where the TV program is interactive with the user is Strictly Come Dancing. Strictly Come Dancing is an interactive program because whilst the viewers is watching the episodes they have the option to press the red button that is on the top right of the screen and if they do they will have the option to have commentary on the dancers that are dancing and what is happening.

Internet

The internet is also another thing that has developed in the recent years; this is because the internet can be used for a lot of things when it comes to films and TV programs. The internet to being with was not used by people to promote their films and other things because they did not have the resources to do this but now they have the internet because the internet has been developed by people such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to make it what it is now.

How the internet has developed to help people who make films is that they usually use the internet for things such as promoting their films on websites such as the cinema channels, YouTube or the websites of producers of the film. What the film makers can use YouTube to do is that they can put adverts at the begging before the viewer’s watches their videos.

High Definition

High Definition is another thing that has developed a lot over the past couple of years, this is because a couple of years ago viewers of the TV and films were watching their TV shows and their films in a lower quality that was not in HD. This would have affected them because what they were not seeing was not in very good quality. This has developed well because now there is just HD and Full HD which allows the viewers to see their shows and films in full HD. There is a very big difference when it comes to showing their users their programs in HD and SD, which stands for Standard definition.

This image shows the difference between a standard definition and a High definition screen. The viewer can see that the HD one is sharper and it is the viewer would not be sing any pixels. 

On the TV there are a lot of channels that are in HD, for example BBC, ITV, most Sky channels and more.  For viewers to view things in HD they need to have certain amount of pixels on their TV screen so that they can watch their programs and films in either 720p or 1080p. High Definition has developed so much that viewer do not only have the choice to have a HD TV they can have other HD things such as HD DVD player or a Blu-Ray.

Streaming Content

Streaming content is when a user of the internet streams content such as videos and TV shows on the internet for other users of the internet to look at. The person that is doing this is normally doing this continuously. An example of someone who streams content continuously is BBC iPlayer. This is because on BBC iPlayer they broadcast shows that have been on the TV over the last couple of weeks. BBC iPlayer has a very large memory system; this means that they can stream a lot of programs in HD without any lags or problems for the viewer to watch. Another example of a website that streams content for viewers to watch is channel 4OD.

This has developed a lot because in the past the viewer was not able to watch the show once they missed when it was first aired. Now with this streaming content made available for them by their companies, the viewers are able to watch all of the shows that they have missed when it was first aired on the TV.

On-Demand Viewing

Video on demand is an interactive TV technology for companies that broadcast TV shows and programs. Video on demand allows the user to view programming in real-time, this means that the user can watch these programs while they are being shown on TV. Video on demand also allows the user to download the program and watch it some other time. Video on demand system at the consumer level means the user would be able to only get standard TV receiver with a set-top box. There are other ways that customers could get their services for video on demand and those are things such as the Internet. On the Internet the user would be able to go to websites such as ITV player and BBC iPlayer and watch shows being stream live on the website.

Other examples of where users would be able to go to the Internet and find a website where they would be able to watch shows is 4OD.  4OD is a video on demand service from channel 4, it was launched in November 2006 and it offers a wide range of programmes to their viewers. Although they offer a lot of programmes to viewers, there are some programs that they don’t offer because it means they are breaking laws if they do.

 Video on demand has developed a lot in the past couple of years because before 2006 and six it did not even exist, this meant that any show that was on the TV and someone missed that meant that they could not watch it again. But now because there are a lot of Video on demand channels such as ITV, BBC, Sky, Channel 4 and more it means that it is really unlikely that if someone misses a show they wont be able to see it again because of all of these video on demand channels.

Digital Recorders

Digital recorder is way for users of the TV to watch any show that they have missed without the need of the Internet. This is a very impotent upgrade to the way people watch things because it means that the users of the TV do not have to use the Internet. A company that provides this type of service is Sky. The customers of Sky have the option to purchase Sky+. Sky+ allows all customers of Sky who have Sky+ to do things such as record, rewind, fast forward, Pause, play and skip shows.

This is an upgrade from other types of video on demand because if a customer of Sky has this then they would be able to do things such as record a show for example The Wire, which comes on at 12:10 am, can be recorded by the user. When the users does this it would mean that the Sky+ box would be able to remember this and then they would record the whole series until the series has finished. This is called a series link by Sky+ and the user can cancel this if they want. Once a user has recorded this it means that they would be able to watch the show anytime they feel like it and it will stay there until they delete it.

Pay Per View

Pay per views is another form of funding for companies that make things such as films and programs. This is another form of funding because what this means is that they can get money for each time one of their customers watches a show. This can be calculated by each time a customer watches one of their shows. Sky’s version of Pay Per View is their Sky Box office, which works out how much they have gained form each view of their TV Show. Another way sky do the Pay Per View is that their customers have the option to buy extra channels, this is usually because when the customer bought the sky box they did not agree to get the sports package so now they have to pay extra to get it.

This has developed a lot in the past because most companies did not have this and that meant that they were not getting any money form this, but now companies are.

Analogue

Analogue signal is a signal that is continuous. There is a difference between analogue signal and digital signal and that is a small part of the digital signals are meaningful. With analogue people usually think it is only an electrical context, but there are other signals that use analogue on their systems. When the analogue is getting a signal they use the property of the medium to deliver the signals information. 

Digital

Digital signals can be either 0 or 1. When a digital signal is 0 it means that it is off and when it is 1 it means that it is on. This is because the waves are very close together and this is how TV Box-Sets get so many channels. This is an upgrade because it means that the user would be able to have more channels than they would if they had used an analogue signal TV. This means that they have more of a variety of channels for them to watch.

Task 3

Task 3: Understand contractual, legal and ethical obligations in the television and film industries

When companies want to employ staff for whatever project that they are working on there are a lot of things that they have to consider. For example the company have to consider the contracts that they would be offering to their staff, the employment legislation, ethical and legal obligations.  There are many reasons why they have consider these things, some of these things are things that the law says they must do and the others are just ethical things such as religious issues.

Contracts

A contract is way for someone to prove that they have been hired by someone else to help them with a project that they are doing. A contract is usually written but at times it can be a verbal agreement. On the contract it usually says what the employee has to do in the job, their responsibilities for example the cameraman is responsible for what happens to camera equipment, work patterns and salary.

There are two types of contract types. One of these types of contract types is a permanent contract. A permanent contract is a contract that an employer offers to the employee and what it is, is that it’s a contract that has no time limit. This means that the employee does not only stay for certain time, they stay until they finish the job.

The other type of contact is a fixed term type. This is sometimes known as a temporary and on the contract it says how long the employee would stay with the company. Most of the time when a company is making a film they use fixed term contracts because they usually have a time span of how long it would take for them to make the movie. On the contract it would tell the employee how long they have to stay with the company and when the contracts starts and ends.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is important in any company because an employee should trust his employers enough to give them personal information and trust them enough not to do anything that would harm them to the information. The information that the employee gives to their employers is usually kept within the company, this means that the information is not shared with other companies. The information that the employers have from their employees is usually things such as their salary, personal information, jobs roles and other things.  All of these things should be cleared up when it comes to the contract talks.

Employment Legislation

Employment legislation is a set of rules that was made by the government for employers and employees to follow when they decide to work in the film industry. This is very important because it set of rules that they have to follow and if they don’t then they could be in trouble.  The types of employment legislation are things such as health and safety, equal opportunities, employment equality (age) regulations 2006, employer’s liability, employee rights and copyright

Health and safety

Health and safety is a very important when it comes to employment legislation in the film industry. This is because with health and safety the employer can check that the work place is a safe place work employees to work. This is because if there are hazards in the workplace then the employer can get into trouble because the employee can sue their employer if they get hurt.

Equal Opportunities

It is important that everyone that apply for a job in a company has to have equal opportunities because if the employer discriminates anyone in a certain way then it would mean that they would not be giving their potential employees equal opportunities. If this does happen where the employer is being racists or sexist then they could get into trouble. It is a law that employers must give their employees equal opportunities and not to judge the people by their race, gender or background. 

Employment Regulations 2006

The Employment Regulations 2006 act is a secondary legislation law in the United Kingdom that says employers cannot discriminate against their potential employees depending on what their age is. With this act if someone gets rejected from a job application because they are not old enough, they can get some compensation from the company that they have applied to work. If some is under the age limit that they need to be to work this act does not apply to them.

Employee Rights

Everyone who works has rights and with these rights they can do certain tings. For example an employee has the right not to be dismissed unfairly. They have to be given a written and formal letter, which says that they are no longer needed to be working at the company. If a company does fire someone verbally and now follow up with a written letter or proof that they fired them, then the company could get into trouble. The employee that has been fired can do things such as sue the company and get compensation form them.

Copyright

People copyright their products or ideas because the copyright law prevents other people form stealing what this person has came up with. For example companies copyright their products because they don’t want people copying their product. Film companies don’t usually copyright their films because sometimes other people make spoofs of that film copying some parts of the film. An example of this I the film ‘300 ‘and ‘Meet the Spartans’.

Codes of practice

There are many codes of practices that companies must follow when it comes to doing things. The codes of practice was made by the national association of broadcasters for television and they are a set of rules and ethical standards made for film and TV companies to follow. Some of the things that the codes of practice say companies must do is that they must not use profanity, not showing negative family life, they must not disrespect God and religious beliefs. If companies do not abide these laws then they could get into trouble with the law.

Policies and Procedures

Policies and procedures are used by companies to make effective decisions because they are a set of rules. These set of rules are like guidelines for companies to use and what they do is they tell people what they can do and what they cannot do.  These policies and procedures are important because they have a big affect on the production because the policies and procedures say what can happen when they are making the production.

An example a company that has a lot of policies and procedures is the BBC. On the BBC they have a range of policies and procedures that they must follow. These policies and procedures must benefit the viewers and the company. Other policies and procedures that the BBC has is the equal rights policy. This means that every can apply for any positions, but they have to be realistic.

Emerging social Concerns

There are a lot of emerging concerns that companies have to face all the time. Some of these emerging concerns include things such as how disabled people get treated by their employers. A TV channel that try’s to deal with a lot of these emerging concerns is channel 4. On channel 4 they try to show their views these things and make them aware of what happens with these concerns.

An example of a TV show that is on channel 4 and tries to show the emerging concerns is the Paralympics. When the 2012 Paralympics was on channel 4 was broadcasting it and while doing this they were also showing what people do when they are not competing. They also talk about how difficult life was for them.

Representation

When companies are making TV programs there are a lot of things they have to consider, for example the representation of social groups when they come to make the show. On channel 4 when they were broadcasting the show my big fat Gypsy wedding, they came under fire because of the way the representing the Gypsy community.  This show damaged the reputation that channel 4 had because once this was aired, the channel was being accused of racism and the negative representation of a certain social group. 

Race Relations Act 1976

The race relation’s act was made by the parliament of the United Kingdom to stop people being discriminated because of their skin colour. It is not only a person skin colour that this law prevents from being discriminated, it is also other things such as nationality and ethnic origin in the employment. An example of this law being broken is if a student was not allowed to study a certain subject because of their skin colour, race or religion.

Broadcasting Act 1990

The Broadcasting Act 1990 is another law that was made by the British Parliament and what it was meant to do was change the whole structure of the way the British broadcasting channels broadcasted things.

Obscene Publications 1959

The obscene publication act is also a part of the Broadcasting Act of 1990. What it is that it was made to prevent people from showing obscene things onto the TV for viewers to watch.  It was an offence against the government for someone to put obscene things onto the television.

British Board of Film Classifications

The British Board of Film Classifications is an independent organization, which splits apart film age groups into different ages. It is also known as the BBFC, which stands for British Board of Film Classifications. What the BFFC believe is that they are trying to protect the public form things that could potentially be harmful to them. A law that BBFC made with the help of OFCOM is that Nudity is not allowed to be shown before 9 O’clock.

For people to know what age group a certain film is for they usually look at the coloured triangle or circle that is on the bottom left side of the cover of the film. The different age restrictions are U, PG, 12, 12A, 15 and 18.

Task 2

Task 2: Know about job roles in the television and film industries.

Job Roles:

Management Jobs

The management job roles in the film industry cover wide range different jobs. These jobs include things such as overseeing a crew that are working with together to finish the film. When they are doing this they would be doing this such as making sure the film would be finished on time for the trailer to come out and also making sure that they don’t over spend on the budget that is provided for them to use.

A managerial job in the film Industry is the producer. What the producer does is that they co-ordinate, supervise and control matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors. The producer is involved throughout all phases of the filmmaking process from development to completion of a project. They are normally to be seen as the group leader. The producer also writes the script for the film and gives it to the actors so that they know what they are saying. The producer does not do this on his own they have an assistant that helps them with producing these tasks. That is another management job and what they do is help the producer with whatever they need help with during post and pre-production.

Creative Jobs

The creative jobs in the film industry are very different from management jobs because with management skills you have to do things like hiring the crew whereas with the creative jobs what you have to do is things like design the costumes and other things. The main important one is the director who does the most important jobs when it comes to the creative side of the jobs in the film industry.

A job role that is a part of the creative jobs is the director, this is very important because what the director does is that they say what happens, how it happens, who does it and when it happens. This is because they would want the scene to look like how they would want it to look; they also say what things like the background would be on the set because those things are the creative aspects and the producer would be able to do this.

Another creative job in the film industry is the costume designer, what they do is that they design the costumes for the actors to wear. This is usually when there is something wrong with the body or the face of the actors and they would have to draw and put make up on to them. They also pick out what kind of clothes the actors would have to wear to match the characters description. The costume designers need specific skills in order to get the job; this is because the producer does not want to hire any random person who says they can design costumes.

Editorial Jobs

The editorial jobs in the film industry are things like the editor. What the editor does is that they edit film footage that has been recorded by the cameraman and make it into a sequence that shows the film. This is the main thing that an editor has to do. It is the editor’s job to make sure that the film comes out looking like it should. This is because what the editor does is that they edit the film and if the film is bad because of how it was edited then they would get the blame for it. They have to make sure that the story the director and producer is trying to tell flows swiftly.

  

Technical Jobs

The technical jobs in the film industry are all hands on work that the person doing has to physically do. The most popular type of technical jobs is a thing such as the cameraman. What they cameraman does is that they see where is the best angle to record from and where to put the camera.

The camera man is an important job because if there was no cameraman they then the film might come out looking a bit wired because the angle of the camera would not be in the right place and the footage would look wrong.  The cameraman supports the director of photography with placing the camera where it should be. The main purpose of the cameraman is to show the audience what the director is seeing with their eyes. The cameraman is responsible for things such as preparing and checking the camera equipment during the shooting of the scene, after the scene and before the scene.

Research Jobs

The researchers in the film industry have an important job when it comes to things such as facts on the films, when the film is about history and other things such as educational. This job is important because with this job the person doing the research has to make sure the facts that they give to their crew is correct so that if it is an educational one then they don’t want to be giving their audience wrong information because that could lose them some audiences and it would be down to them.

Financial Jobs

Financial jobs have no hands on work at all, they are mainly someone sitting at a desk and just entering information of things such as how much money spent on things and budget costs. All of the financial jobs are done by the executive producer and their role is to supervise the people and look at how much money they are spending on what and if they are spending too much on a certain thing and if they could get something for cheaper than they did.

Working Patterns:

There are many different work patterns in the film and TV industry. Depending on the role the person has would also depending on the type if work pattern they have.

Shift Work

Shift work is when someone has to do certain shifts at certain times. When someone does shift work it means that they have a schedule that they must follow. In the hours they are allocated each day they have to come in at that time and do their job. For example the cameraman, the costume designers, the producers and actors would all have to come in at a certain time to make the film. The people that do shift work get paid by the hour because they don’t work the same amount of hours everyday. They get paid for how long they work for. This is called hourly rates and they would be given to the employee when they are hired. An example of an hourly rate is £10 an hour.

Fixed Term

Fixed term work is when someone is hired to do some work for a certain amount of time. In this certain time they would have to do a certain job. For example the cameraman would be hired for how long it would take the film to be made. When they are being hired they would get a contract and on that contract it would say for how long they are being employed for and how much they would get each week that they are employed. Also on the contract it would say the work hours as well, for example an employee would have to work from 9 AM until 5 PM with three one hour breaks. These are called the office hours

Freelance

Employees who are free lancers are ones who are employed from a company and come into help for a short amount of time. If someone is a freelancer it means that they do not have a stable job and they need to rely on finding jobs regular to get their money. The people that are freelancers are usually film crew on the set. There are advantages of being a freelancer and one of those advantages is that they would have a variety of jobs available for them and they don’t have any fixed dates that they have to work for. There are also some disadvantages and they are things like jobs not being available enough times for the person so make enough money to live on. 

Irregular Patterns

Irregular work patterns are when office hours become inconvenient and the person has to work at irregular times such as early mornings. Irregular work patterns is also when the cameraman is filming something from 7 am but there is not fixed time for them to finish so they would carry on until it is 7 PM.  This is an irregular work pattern because it would mean that they would be working for longer than they should and it would also affect people who were hired for a certain time because they would not be allowed to just leave because they would be getting paid for it.