Turning ‘The Ghost Hunter’ into a film:

The Ghost Hunter is one of my favourite ghost books, and ever since I read the book I imagined what it would be like to see it as a movie. The book gave a lot of details and you could easily picture the scenes in your head, so I feel that a film would be amazing!

Before you turn a book into a film you MUST get permission from the author. You then also need to find a production company that will be interested in making the chosen book into a film. You may need to do a pitch that you will present in front of the production company you are addressing. The Ghost Hunter is written by Neil Spring. If the film is agreed to make, you must credit the book author in the beginning of the film and at the end so the audience knows they were the one’s who created the storyline.

To make the work your own, you would need to add your own original ideas into the storyline. But you could also create things such as parody films, remakes, or adaptations.

If I was hoping to be recognised in the media industry, I would want to be known as creative, unique, spooky, entertaining, and unusual.

Discrimination

Research compiled from figures taken from the main UK broadcasters found that just 18% of presenters over 50 are women. BBC television and radio, Sky, ITN and Channel 5 combined have just 26 women over 50 working as regular on-air presenters out of a total of 481 presenters.

Overall, women over 50 make up just 5% of on-screen presenters of all ages and both sexes and 7% of the workforce, both on and off screen.

Senior executives at the BBC, ITV, ITN, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky are to meet members of the Older Women’s Commission  on Thursday  to discuss what can be done to end such discrimination.

Harriet Harman, Labour’s deputy  and the shadow culture secretary, accused the TV industry of ageism and sexism. “It really is a black hole … Broadcasters behave as though the viewing public have to be protected from the sight of an older woman and that’s just rude. There is nothing wrong with being an older woman.

“We’ve got to fight back against this sense that older women are less valuable, whereas men accumulate wisdom, authority and experience as they age.”

Harman launched the commission last year to consider the experience of older women with a focus on three main areas: women in the workplace, carers and women in public life.

This latter group is chaired by Miriam O’Reilly, former presenter of the BBC’s Countryfile, who won a landmark ageism case against the BBC two years ago.

She told the Guardian: “There is still ageism in TV. We need to get to a position where women are not being shown the door simply because of their age and it is just as unacceptable to drop someone because of age as it is for their ethnicity.”

There are 188 women working as regular presenters overall, or 39% of the total, but the vast majority of these are under 50. “The figures provided by broadcasters show clearly that once female presenters hit 50, their days on screen are numbered,” said Harman.

“There is a combination of ageism and sexism that hits women on TV that doesn’t apply to men in the same way.”

…

1) What reasons do you have for having all-men panel shows?

2) There is a statement saying “Women are less valuable, whereas men accumulate wisdom, authority and experience as they age.”, do you feel that this statement is true, or do you feel that women and men are equal?

3) Why is there discrimination about women over 50? Aren’t they as good as younger female presenters?

4) Do you agree that there is discrimination about females presenting certain TV programmes?

5)  What is your honest opinion and thoughts on why women over 50 are being discrimated?

Contracts

1) What’s the purpose of a contract?
The purpose of a contract is to specify rights, obligations and conditions of the employment. All conditions included in a contract should clearly state the intentions and obligations of each party. Provisions should be written in plain English, using terms which relate to the workplace and are easily understood.

2) Why should these factors be considered when signing a contract?
Contracts are big, and enlist a lot of things. You need to make sure that the job role is included, and also the other factors as you need to know what is expected of you.

3) Does what we listed on the board fit into any of these 7 sections?
The ‘Term of the Deal’ is included, and also the hours of employment section and expectations of the job.

4) Does any part of this contract surprise you? Why/Why not?
No, because a contract should include as many things as possible to notify the future employee.

Hierarchy

What is a ‘hierarchy’?
“A system in which members of an organization or society are ranked according to relative status or authority.”
“A hierarchy is typically visualized as a pyramid, where the height of the ranking or person depicts their power status and the width of that level represents how many people or business divisions are at that level relative to the whole—the highest-ranking people are at the apex, and there are very few of them; the base may include thousands of people who have no subordinates.”
Hierachy databases put job roles into order of importance.
For example, in the Film & Television industry, a scripting role would be put into 6 different levels.
The scriptwriter would be stage 1, the scriptreader would be stage 2, and the script editor would be stage 3. We then go onto the commisioning editor, which is stage 4, and the head of drama which is stage 5. The highest importance in scripting is the channel controller, which is stage 6.

How might it apply in the workplace?
Hierarchies in the workplace is based on what job role is more important that the rest. Going back to the first question, it depends on what stage you are in your career.

What would be your ideal job title (media industry related) ? What might be your ‘starting position’?
My ideal job would probably be a camera-person, or an editor. The starting possition would most likely be a trainee camera/light operator, or being a runner for the production.

How might you get to ‘the top of the hierarchy’?
You can get to the top of a hierarchy by going through all the nessesary stages of being the highest in what you’re working in.

The Differences between Shift Work, Fixed Term, and Freelance

Shift Work:

Shift work is when you have are fixed to a schedule, and you have a certain amount of hours in which you can work.

Fixed Term:

A fixed term is work hours that are with a contract.

Freelance:

Freelance work is when you work for yourself (but may join other companies) but you work your own hours.

Q: Have you had experience of any of those?

A: Yes, I do Freelance photography, and I also do flexy shift work for my cleaning job.

Q: What are the advantages of working as a freelancer?

A: The advantages of working as a freelancer are that you are your own boss, you can set your own days and hours and it becomes easier to find work when freelancing as being employed by someone is quite hard nowadays. Also, as a freelancer you get motivation to ‘get up and go’. You also can keep an eye on your income being freelance.

The difference between Managerial, Creative, and Technical in the Media Industry

Managerial:

Managerial roles are normally in charge of people; they ensure that people are on track in any production. Managerial people will normally be Directors, Producers, or Production Managers. They will also be managing time schedules.

Creative:

Creative people are normally more ‘hands on’ in pre-productions. They have to use a lot of imagination and inspiration from everything and everyone around them. They’re normally the people in productions who write the scripts and draw the storyboards.

Technical:

Technical people in the industry of media need a wide knowledge of the equipment being used. They will also need to be able to use the editing softwares provided and know how get the best out of them.

Q: When have you performed in these different roles?

A: I have done these roles in the production of our film Taylor’s Daydream.

Managerial: I had to edit a script slightly, I had to produce a storyboard, I had to write out safety reports to check the dangers whilst filming, and I had to prepare the equipment.

Creative: I had to film the production with fellow students, and we had to book rooms to film in.

Technical: After we filmed, I had to edit the film to make all the clips fit together. I also had to write an evaluation/summary that over looked the whole production.

Over all: I would be happy to any of those roles, but maybe the creative side to the media industry would suit me.

 

7% of British Films Make a Profit

1.  Why do you think the profit improves if the film has a larger budget?
   A bigger budget can mean more promotions and sales in Boxoffice. With more money you can afford better casting and special effects too. The preferable price for a really good film is between £10m-£20m.
2.  Apart from commercial success that is hoped for, what other factors are considered successful?
   There will be success for actors, cultural importance, skills and training.
3. How has the industry developed since the 80s?
   We have bigger budgets now, and better technology that provides more possibilities.
4. Why was it unusual for the film Filth to do so well?
   Because they had a very low budget and it was an independant film. Very small amount of money was spent on advertising.
5. How can video on demand technology help with the popularity and success of smaller films?
   It removes the ‘branding’. The distributor and studio become less important.

Potential Threats to the TV Industry

1. Faster than anticipated growth of mobile broadband in the UK, as well as mobile media being massively successful.
   a) 4G is the fourth generation of mobile phone technology standards. It is a successor to the third generation (3G) standards. A 4G system provides mobile ultra-broadband Internet access, for example to laptops with USB wireless modems, to smartphones, and to other mobile devices.
   b)
2. Globalisation of the TV and video market and illegal downloading.
   a) Vince Gilligan said: “It led to a lot of people watching the series who otherwise would not have. The downside is a lot of folks who worked on the show would have made more money, myself included, if all those downloads had been legal.”
   b) According to Torrentfreak.com, the final episode of Breaking Bad was illegally downloaded more than half a million times.
   c) Gareth Neame, Downtown Abbey‘s executive producer, said: “The three month delay between the UK broadcast, we air in September and we’re not on in America until January, it is completely unrealistic in this day and age that there is such a long timeline.”

   People don’t like waiting and are not patient anymore, so they go online to try and view programmes sooner. Three months is a very long time to wait, if the programmes aired sooner, people wouldn’t illegally download these things.
   If they made people pay to watch things, industries would make a lot of money and people would pay because they want to watch these things.

3. ‘Content is King’ – audiences seek programmes and content, rather than channels and schedules.
   a) Traditional TV business models are challenged by audience fragmentation.
   b) Technology is upgrading increasingly fast. If you miss a programme you can watch catch-up episodes/series on iPlayers/4oD etc… I think this catch-up service is aimed at younger/newer generations as older people may not want this new technology.

Presentation Technique Assignment

So far I have completed tasks 1-4 which I am happy with, but I think I could have made improvements on tasks 3 when I had to create a survey and produce graphs to demonstrate what information I had collected.

I should have done more surveys and did more detailed graphs to demonstrate what I was showing on them. I also could have asked more relevant questions to get more information about what people like to watch when they are being taught.

Debate Summary

FOR:
I agree with the service because it guarantee’s being Informed, Educated, and Entertained. If we didn’t have PSB, how are we to be sure that our families/friends will be educated outside of school times? And how will we be informed about local/global news? As most people work, it is important to know what is happening.
Even though we pay approximately £12 a month for PSB, other countries monthly fees range from a similar price and only a little bit higher. In Germany, they pay €17.98 a month.

AGAINST:
I am against the Public Service Broadcasting because the cost is too high. You may only watch the news or only certain programmes but nothing else and you pay just under £150 a year for programmes and other things on the PSB.

OVERALL:
Overall, I am FOR the Public Service Broadcasting because even though we pay just under £150, we like to be entertained, educated and informed. And also, even though we pay that amount of money, if we didn’t, they wouldn’t make the programmes and documentaries that they do now with the budgets and funds they get. If we stopped the PSB fee, we wouldn’t have the entertainment we want, we wouldn’t have more education options and we wouldn’t be informed about what is happening around the world.