(improvements in bold.)
Time.
A shooting schedule is a plan of the day's shooting for a project, usually made by the assistant director it organised where scenes will be filmed and what equipment will be used. They're important because you need to know what equipment you're using and if you can use it, make sure someone else isn't already using it and so that everyone is organised and knows were they're filming.
It can take up to 10 days to get music or clips cleared, it depends on how quickly people respond to your phone calls and if you can afford the fees.
Personnel.
Full list of the crew who worked on The Imposter
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Mike Cooper who worked on the documentary as a sound recordist had previously worked on; Diana: A Tribute to The Peoples' Princess, The Tonto Woman and Sarah Brightman: Harem - A Desert Fantasy. He worked for 17 years as a freelance music recording engineer and made his way up by working on lots of different projects.
Agueda Balogh worked as the first assistant camera man and it was his job to make sure everything in the shot stayed in focus and was responsible for the look of anything on screen. He previously worked with the camera on Professor Brofman. He worked from 1997 as a camera trainee up to where he is now, taking on roles such as a camera assistant and the clapper loader.
Will Stanbridge was the researcher for the documentary and had also been the researcher on other documentaries, such as; Sex: How It Works, Banged Up Abroad (14 episodes) and Breakout (8 episodes).
Andrew Hulme worked on the editing of the documentary, for him to fulfil the role of an editor he will have needed to have past experience and possibly a degree in media, television or film studies.
Bart Layton was the director and had previously worked on Banged Up Abroad, 16 For A Day and more. To be a director you need to be a creative person and again have past experience on other projects, not necessarily another directing job. To get this higher ranking, aspiring directors have to work their way up starting at being a runner or assistant and build up a portfolio. Some directors have bachelor degrees in film from university which helps with showing past work.
It's important to get the right crew because you may have a certain vision for how you want your documentary to look like/be and to put that into practise you'll need to hire the right people - for example if you're doing an in depth documentary that's full of facts, a good researcher is necessary or if you want it to look very professional and precise, you'd need to hire a camera man with lots of experience and is credited for his work.
Finance.
The money used to make a documentary can come from fund raising, bank loans, your own money if you're independent or a studio you work for might give you a budget. We watched the 2012 documentary, "The Imposter" and it was funded by the BFI Film Fund and produced by A&E Films.
There are more funding companies such as The Documentary Company who will help to finance your project by putting money towards it but the topic of it has to fall under these categories; Human Interest, Politics, Music, or Nature and the Environment. Also there are companies such as Sponsume, iFeatures and the British Film Institute. - More here
Thinking about the funding of your documentary is important because you will have a budget to stick to and the money is essentially what will put your plans in to practise. You'll need to research into different companies and you will want to chose a trusted company that has good reviews with other filmmakers.
The studios usually charge on a per clip or per cut, per minute basis. For Premium products this is usually at around 5p per song, multiplied by the number of units manufactured with a minimum fee of £200 per song.
£275 (+VAT) per production: A brand new tariff for music used in corporate, promo videos or audio-visual productions
- All media, including online
- All territories
- Unlimited copies
Basic rate: £40 per 30 second unit (so 31-60 seconds of a track would cost £70, 61-90 seconds of a track would cost £120)
All-you-can-use flat rate: £275 (+VAT) per production Taken from this website.
Locations.
The Imposter was filmed in Texas (interviews) and re-enactments were filmed in Phoenix - Arizona, Madrid - Spain and San Antonio - Texas.
They had to get permission off the local council where they were filming by getting a filming permit, or getting permission of land owners if they were filming in a specific place.
To get permission to film in the San Antonio area of Texas, this website would be your starting point as it tells you which locations do/don't require permits, for those that do it gives you telephone numbers and names. Also to film in this area of Texas you could also contact Drew Mayer-Oakes who is the Director of the San Antonio Film Commission on 210-207-6730 or email him at drew@filmsanantonio.com.
You have to get permission because if you're in a public place, there are a lot of things that you have to take into account, especially if your location includes iconic, religious or government buildings.
There are many different national agencies you can contact depending on where you want to film they are; National Trust, Royal Parks, English Heritage, Ministry of Defence, Forestry Commission and British Waterways. This website goes into more detail about each one
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In some cases if you don't get permission you can get into trouble for breaching copyright protection and you can even be sued.
Facilities.
For any type of filming you'll need basic kit - a decent video camera, tripod, and a shotgun microphone with a boom pole. The Imposter uses a lot of interviews so they will have needed to use lights to set up 3 point lighting to illuminate the person talking and light filters to control them. Also they may have used a variety of different lenses so that they can take something simple and turn it onto something more interesting just by the way it's been filmed such as in interview scenes where you have a mid shot and it goes to a close up, they'd need a macro lens so it stays in focus.
In the re enactment scenes, I think they used a tripod dolly because you often see the subject being followed by the camera from behind and it looks very smooth. Also for the end shot when the camera pans up they used a jib crane to tilt the camera and make it pan upwards, and when we see Frederic's character on the run, the camera would've been mounted onto a dolly and pushed along on rails to keep up with the action.
To make my documentary I'll need a video camera, tripod, suitable microphone and boom pole, lights for any indoor scenes, filters, XLR cable, field recorder.
In the filmmaking industry it depends which kind of project you're putting into practice to know what the standard kit is that you need. A HD video camera along with a good lens is an essential because you need a good picture for whatever you're making to look professional. You'll also need a microphone that works for you - usually a directional one like a shotgun mic along with the XLR cable. Depending on the kit you need the rate for hiring is different this website shows different packages you can get for a day. It can cost from £2000 per day of filming for basic equipment and crew on a small project. Having the right kit is important because you might want your documentary to look a certain and way, and similar with the crew, you need to something/someone that's able to achieve that for you. For your documentary to look professional you need to have the basic kit that's right so you're not forgetting anything, for example some independent film makers forget about the whole prospect of sound and that you'll need equipment to enhance the quality of it so it matches the video.
The equipment you will need will be the same for the majority of projects and certain types will require more specialist kit, for example, Frozen Planet. Because of the remote location and tricky setting they had to adapt normal kit to suit them - special tripods so they'd grip to the ice, underwater cameras to film small fish/underwater animals and a time lapse kit.
For specialist kit like this, and the basics a lot of filmmakers will rent it out rather than buy it to save money. In pre production you can only organise to rent it out when you've finalised your shooting schedule, it's important to stick to your schedule because you will only have access to that kit for a certain amount of time and other people will want it after you and in most cases you can't just extend the time you want it for because there's a queue of people waiting.
Materials/Copyrights.
In The Imposter, a lot of home videos were used and news reports from the time. Along with voice recordings from the police and pictures of fingerprints. To get permission to use these, the makers of the documentary would've had to contact the family and ask if it was okay to use certain clips, then go to the studio where the news programme was filmed and ask if they can use a section of the broadcast. They would need to get clearance from the FBI and also the police from both Spain and America for permission to show the fingerprints and play telephone recordings from that night.
By getting a clearance on music or clip, it means that you have permission to use it off whoever made it.
Similar to copyright which is where you get permission off whoever made it/their management to include it in your work as long as you give credit and don't claim it was your own. To get clearance on music for example, you would have to go to that artists label and talk to their management and you'd pay that label. For video you would contact the studio where it was produced and pay them to use it.
For example channel 4 made a documentary about One Direction and for that they had to get different clips of concerts recorded by fans and they put most of the bands' songs throughout it to make it more interesting and show concert footage. To play their music without getting into legal trouble they would have to have contacted their management team and the copyright owner. They're managed and represented by Modest Management which is a company within Syco Music - their label and you could either contact Richard Griffiths, Harry Magee or Will Bloomfield to start off about getting clearance.
PRS in music is a UK copyright compant who will allow people the rights to a song on behalf of the songwriter or publishers. You pay this company and a fraction of that money goes to the artist and their management, this can be an easier way of being allowed to use a song if you can't get anything back from the artists' label. Ideally you want to use music which is "royalty free" this is music that you are free to use and you aren't subject to any fees or hidden costs.
Materials/Contributors.
In the documentary they used a lot of interviews, they intervie
wed;
Frédéric Bourdin who was the imposter
Carey Gibson, Nicholas' older sister
Beverly Dollarhide, Nicholas and Carey's mother
Charlie Parker, PI on the case
Nancy Fisher, FBI Special Agent
Bryan Gibson, Carey Gibson's husband - Nicholas' uncle
Codey Gibson, Carey and Bryans son - Nicholas' nephew
Bruce Perry, child psychiatrist
Phillip French, US Consul at the American Embassy in Madrid
Researchers will have needed to talk to some specialist advisors so that they can put true facts into the documentary. For example, they can't just assume that the man who assumed Nicholas' identity has a mental problem or no conscience because of the way he acted, they would have to go to a specialist to confirm what it means to have that condition because they can't put false accusations into it.
I certify that this is my work.
