Unit 3: Professional Practice

History of the industry

The early start of cinema can be traced back to 1891, when
the Edison company produced the first successful
kinetoscope, a device allowing an individual to view moving
pictures. The kinetoscope was a massive success globally
within public parlours. The film industry however didn’t start
getting momentum until around 1914. By this point many
large film industries were established in Europe, Russia and
Scandinavia, however it wasn’t until after the war that
America gained relevance within the industry. Today
however the industry has changed a lot. America is now the
top disrupter of films with their country also contributing
most to the global box office. When it comes to more
modern-day filmmaking contemporary films are films created
in the 21st century and is the study of modern society
through films. It is film created by today's artists and aims to
be a commentary on societal issues relevant to the world
today. Popular examples of contemporary films would be
trainspotting and fight club. It is no surprise that these types
of films are popular as filmmakers have always used film to
discuss important topics throughout history as far back as
something like 1939s “Mr Smith goes to Washington” or as
recent as Spike Lees “Black Kkklansman”.
 In terms of the future of the industry, the film industry has
been one of the many constants through most people's lives
today, and while I feel as if it is not going away, I believe the
landscape is shifting. The recent covid-19 pandemic has
proven that streaming is bigger than ever, in the UK alone in
2020 the three main streaming services (Netflix, Amazon and
Disney+) gained more than 8 million new subscribers. These
services all released several million-dollar films, which more
than likely would've dominated the box office in a non-
pandemic year and showed that streaming was equally
comparable to theatre quality films. While this doesn’t seem
like something that should affect the industry too much it is
starting to affect theatre chains around the world with
massive branches like AMC having to shut down several
theatres after losing 4.6 billion in 2020. This ends up costing
many jobs throughout the theatre industry. The rest of the
filmmaking industry is also seeing shifts made mainly behind
the scenes with the advancement of technology, looking
towards the future it is clear more tech-based jobs in things
like special effects will become more important in movies as
people are only really going to the theatre to see these
massive vfx heavy films. In terms of jobs this is both a
positive and a negative as while it is opening up lots of work
for special effects artists, the better the special effects get
the more it removes other jobs such as stunt work, as it is
safer and more time efficient to use CGI in action sequences
than to train an actor for 6 months.
Outside of the tech-based jobs, I believe other jobs in the film
industry are more accessible and easier to obtain than 30
years ago. With the introduction of social media, getting your
work out there and seen by professionals is easier than ever,
sites like YouTube have become starting grounds for
filmmakers today as filmmakers like David Sandberg have
gone from creating short films and uploading them to online
to directing multi-million-dollar films like “Shazam” and
working with studios like Warner Brothers.

Different Roles
A films production is made up of a variety of important roles.
A producer's job is to manage a films production and
everyone involved, while also allocating the funding. A
director's role is to manage the shooting and assembly of a
film's production, and ultimately are at the core of the film's
production.

A producer's role is more complicated as their input on a film

varies, for more smaller budget films they are less involved
but with a huge franchise they will be more involved. They
will monitor and allocate funding and talent involved and
most of the time give a pass on many decisions regarding a
movie.
 The DOP or cinematographer are the people behind the
camera, the set up the shots and mainly control the overall
look of a film. The most famous cinematographer today is
probably Roger Deakins, having shot films like Skyfall and
Blade Runner 2049 among many more.

A film is made and held together in the editing process and

excluding the director the editor may have the most
important job in the film. They work closely with directors
and sometimes even the actors while deciding what takes to
use and the overall pace of the film. A very well-known editor
would be Thelma Schoonmaker who edited films like
“Goodfellas”.

A screenwriter is the person responsible in the film for

writing the dialogue of a film, they also write about scenes
and how they should be lit, what the actors doing and stager
direction of the scene. The biggest screen writer working
today would be Aaron Sorkin, who wrote films like “The
Social Network”.

An art director's responsibility on a film is to ensure the

movie is as immersive and engaging as possible. They will
design props and sets to try and match a films aesthetic and
will try to make it all seem as natural as possible.
An actor is the most known role in a film, they are the person
on screen that the audience is meant to relate too, an actor's
popularity can heavily dictate the movies box office, and
sometimes an actor being involved could even up the films
budget.

My Role - Editing
The role I am most interested in in the film making industry
would have to be editing. In terms of filmmaking editing is
incredibly important and has been around almost since the
start of film making with the first Jumpcut being accidentally
created in 1896 by Georges Méliès. Since then, editing has
evolved alongside filmmaking, editors realise they could do
so much more and popularised things like montages and
unique transitions in films. The Jumpcut is the most
important tool an editor has and is probably what they use
the most, but it is also their responsibility to sync up things
like sound effects in a film and choose the best takes for a
scene.

An editor works closely alongside the director when it comes

to film making, but when it comes to a live broadcast like a
sports game or live news, they will work alongside a producer
instead as these things don’t typically feature a director. Live
broadcasts are made up of simple cuts between multiple
cameras and are much simpler compared to a film. Film edits
 are massive and usually take multiple editors working over
months to finish. The editor for the most part works with the
director but an actor may be involved in the edit so they can
decide what cuts are being used in the final film. After
recently analysing editing in films, I realised that the best
editors are the ones who know when not to cut. I analysed
the editing in American Psycho and editor Andrew Marcus
would often let scenes play out only cutting when absolutely
necessary. This allowed the actors performances to feel more
natural and the audience to become more immersed in the
film.

How to achieve this goal

In order to achieve this goal, I have been studying media
production in North West Regional College for the past 3
years. I have tried to work on editing projects as often as I
could in college. I have also been editing videos outside of
college in my own time to build up a portfolio. I have also
done research on websites like “Morrisby” in order to see
what roles fit me in the media industry and editing was on
that list. Starting in 2022 I will be monitoring my progress on
a 1-year plan and will finish my 3rd year of college to the best
way I can. Having done a SWOT analysis I have devised that
my greatest strength is the time I have. I have a lot of free
time throughout my week in order to practice me editing
skills and try and get better, another great opportunity is
internet access to thousands of editing videos online. Looking
at my weaknesses I think my most obvious one is the lack of
 resources. I am not actively making videos to edit so I don’t
often get as much practice in as I like, however that is
something I am working towards changing as I recently
upgraded my camera gear in the hopes of filming and editing
more projects to help improve. In terms of opportunities the
most obvious one that stands out is freelance work, having
access to my own camera gear and editing software means I
can make my own content and advertise it around for
potential customers to see. And finally, the threats facing me
today would be the market for editors coming over
saturated. With editing software becoming more and more
easily accessible means more people will be doing it, leading
to the market for editors coming crowded and work harder
to find.