TASK 1 - Understand Requirements for a Specific Media Production

Types Of Production

Production (in this context) is the creation of an entertainment venue with many branches- auditory as in radio/audio, visual as in movie/television or even intractable as in computer software. There are many types of productions, two that easily stand out are movies and videogames, they are extremely prominent examples seen at large when discussing the entertainment media, while they share many similarities they also have varying differences in their production.

Movies require a large budget due to their production as they are in constant need of expensive equipment and documents, they require famous and talented actors to star as their characters to make sure the production flows correctly and pleasantly, they also require places to film, these can be indoor sets (which require people to physically construct them) outdoor scenery (which requires licences and contracts) or 3D animated locations (which require modeling and green screens).

Video games on the other hand require a talented staff composed of programmers, artists and developers. Since Video games are interactable a more broad approach can be taken in both the story and gameplay giving the player more control over the narrative. An example of this can be seen in the video game "Cave Story". This game tasks you with exploring and discovering the secrets of a one floating island, it gives the player many instances of both story and gameplay that resonate with charm and style.

3D's advancements have had a great effect on media production, things like special effects and 3D printing have influenced the way movies and scenes play out and are built. The 3D printer's ability to print out designs and props that would have taken people weeks of hard work to build has definitely reduced the amount of time movie production has paused so props can be made, this can be seen in the Iron Man movies, while most of the scenes were completely 3d animation there were scenes that the team needed an actual Iron Man costume for, by using a 3D printer they were able to easily film these scenes without any problem.

On the other hand SFX has the ability to edit a scene by adjusting the video, this means little tweaks like blur or colour adjustment all the way to full on explosions can be added in post process, SFX allows for a more thoughtless approach since it takes place after the filming, it means any forgotten/desired elements can be edited in, this can be seen with the "Who shot first?" Star Wars dilemma and how a scene can change its desired effect with slight tweaking. The utter customizability of this offers movies the chance to alter scenes after production, adding things like background detail, weapons, explosions and completely impossible things like destroyed cities and car crashes.

Finance
Finance is arguably one of the most complicated and (infuriatingly) most vital part of production and/or development, making sure the right funds are put in and taken out of a project can leave a lesser person scratching their head. The expenses of entertainment are many, Grand Theft Auto V had a development cost of over 130 million dollars, this money went into the software and hardware, many members of staff and huge library of materials along with many other such that all came together into the singular game.

A project can have many sources of revenue, if we take a franchise like Sonic The Hedgehog we can see all the different ways the IP earns money, first we have all the video games- they are the backbone, providing a large amount of money with every release. The Archie Sonic comics have been in circulation from 1992 and are still ongoing, they have a large number of fans behind them who have built up a huge collection and serve to attract new customers. Lastly we have the toys and plush, these trinkets serve as a slow and steady stream of cash for sega, giving them an extra support if they are slow on releasing the next sonic game.

Time
Deadlines are an extremely important part of any project, by pushing or missing deadlines a once hyped for and praised project could be forgotten by the masses and left to rot. This can be seen with the release of the Dreamcast, while the hardware was praised for its ingenuity and grande, it still ended up failing due to a lack of development tools making it hard for 3rd parties to make games for it, this meant a wave of deadline pushing or straight up cancelling that led the console to its doom. the consoles failure was the nail in the coffin for sega's console era and they became a 3rd party publisher after that.

Development hell is an expression that is placed upon projects that have had long years of development without much significant progress towards a release, these projects could be stuck like this over many reasons, it could be that the production company has not got the required documents to actually publish the game or it could be simply slow development. Resident Evil 4 was stuck being developed for over a decade with almost 5 different versions of the game being created until the team was able to decide on the final version and finish the game later releasing it January 2005 for Japan and the USA, March 2005 for Europe and Australia.

Personnel
Celebrities are a great asset to any work, not only are they iconic, able to attract a larger audience but (with some exceptions) they are talented individuals, able to bring their own life into a project with style and flair. The attraction a celebrity has over their fans is a great asset worth any cost, this can be seen with the game Yooka-Laylee, the music in that game was composed by a god among men, the harmonic genius Grant Kirkhope. This man was responsible for the songs seen in the game Banjo Kazooie so who better than him to bring on the team? A man as well respected as him brought on many sales for the game and was one of the leading selling points by both the producers and the fans.

Actors are extremely important to movies, despite this they are only human, they can get sick and even pass on. What happens if an actor is unavailable of a role? With modern technology this large problem isnt actually that big of a deal, its obvious technology has greatly increased these past years, it has become so incredibly advanced that movies have been able to digitally resurrect actors who have passed on for small scenes in the movie, this can be seen in Rouge One with Peter Cushing, an actor who died in 1994 shows up in a movie released in 2016 through the power of computer animation and CGI.

Facilities
Equipment is a vital part of development, without it a person (no matter how talented) cannot do any of their work, it is vital to provide a team with the needed software and hardware, this problem can be seen with Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric, while the team behind the game was a collection of talented individuals they just lacked the hardware they needed to produce a good game, since they had plans on working with more powerful hardware, porting the game over to the Nintendo WiiU completely destroyed the project and any chance it had at being a good game.

Outsourcing is the action of paying an outside studio to do part of the work for you, most companies do this for mindless work such as background elements or small segments that are not integral to the main storyline, an extreme example of this can be seen in the game Forza Horizon, this game has most of not all of their models outsourced leaving the company to focus on the driving controls and realistic physics, with such a negative view of outsourcing its incredible to see it in a positive light.

Materials
A production is nothing without the proper building blocks to build it up from, these can take many forms but can all be put together into a project to give it life and style, audio- while a small and sometimes unnoticeable part of development can have a great impact on a game, it has the ability to shift a game's mood in subtle ways that subconsciously alter the feelings of the player. An example of this can be seen in the Legend Of Zelda games, the triumphant and heart pumping music fill the player with a sense of adventure, the sound effect made as Link collects an item is a payoff for all the hard work it took to get there. The game gives off an overall feel of "Adventure" that none other have beat.

Graphics and the overall artstyle of a game can shift its mood, a good example of this can be seen in the game Journey, this game was made with a very stylistic approach that gave it a soul most others lack. The flow and colours combine so well with the controls and levels that its hypnotic. A great thing about games with this much charm is that by taking out a piece of graphic or a 3d model and trying to use it in another game it would not feel right not matter how much you try to incorporate it, this shows the clear skill its creator had to be able to create such a strong link a while also repelling it from anything else.

Contributors
Specialists are people  who have a certain gift with a particular skill/line of work. They are looked up to and held as a type of benevolent entity that can do no wrong, people like Hideo Kojima, the creator of Solid Snake and Silent Hill, a specialist when it comes to game and story design, a man who was seen many years of hard and extensive work with the toughest of tough challenges is a great example of a specialist. He is now working on Death Standing as the lead developer, an open world game about the ties humans build together and the way they push away from each other.

Public funding is a brand new and unexplored wonder, completely rewriting how the gaming scene works. Instead of a game being funded by faceless people in suits who have never touched a video game in their life, public funding allows for the target audience to fund the things they like to see. The are many websites you can find that do public funding but IndieGoGo and Kickstarter are two of the largest and most popular. This switch in how things are done has allowed for a number of great games to have been created when such things would never have passed normally. Games like Shovel Knight, a side scrolling action game with elements of fantasy and Duck Tales that took the world by storm on June 2014.

Locations
A location can be an important puzzle piece to a project, a stunning scene can easily make or break a project and sometimes its required to leave the studio, transport and filming can have an array of problems accompanying them however, from unexpected injuries to broken equipment, these need to be kept in check to insure safety and fluidity of work. A Recce report is a handy document that gives a summary of the location's hazardous points while also listing positives as to why the locale works for the production. Its important to keep an eye out for risks, the document covers legal and ethical issues like licences that need to be acquired to film in a location, problems that could arise when transporting fragile equipment like storms or scalding weather or even keeping the staff safe and healthy by supplying them with proper food and drink.

Codes of Practice
PEGI (standing for Pan European Game Information) is a rating system that allows the audience to see the recommended age of a game along with the reasons for that warning, an example of this is Portal 2, the game has been given a 12 meaning anyone below 12 should not be allowed to play the game, the reasoning behind this is that the game can be played online, it has depictions of violence and it has bad language. These warnings are great for people who know little about the game and want to be careful with what they show their children.

Copyright is the legal right a person holds over a creation that means anyone without their permission cannot use that creation without the permission of that person. Copyright of music, artistry, code and any others lasts the life of the creator plus 70 years (different countries have different laws).Copyright can be confusing as it throws most people for a loop, it's extremely unclear as different countries have different copyright laws meaning that in some countries you are allowed renew a copyright early while others do not. You can assign your content to a company and after 35 years you can take the contract back if you please. Reproduction is a violation of copyright law, for example a reviewer using a picture from a game but fair use says in certain instances a person can use a small portion of the work for purposes of criticism, education or parody.

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