Business assignment 2

The legal status of small businesses

Sole trader- you are personally responsible for your business and you run your business as an individual. Advantages of this are that any profits are solely yours and that you can make decisions on your own, however disadvantages are that you may have less of a chance to make profit compared to a partnership business.
A media example of this would be starting up a photography business by yourself 

Partnership- A single business in which two or more people share ownership. Each partner contributes to all aspects of the business- including money, property, labour or skill. Advantages are that the ability to raise funds may be increased with more than one owner and that partnerships are easy to establish. Disadvantages are that disputes can happen over decisions that need to be made or lack of effort, and the distribution of profit can be an issue.
A media example of this would be starting a video production company with someone who was good at the filming side of things if you were only good at editing or vice versa.

The legal aspects of small businesses

Health and safety law at work (1974) affects all employers no matter how small, and therefore still affects small businesses. Employers must take responsibility for their safety, as well as the safety of their employees. 
Employers need to ensure that their staff are trained in safe working practices. If using equipment (e.g camera) specific training must be given and protective clothing must be supplied if necessary (if they are on location).
Businesses which employ staff are legally required to take out 'Employers liability insurance' and the minimum they can take out is £5million worth of cover, and the insurance certificate needs to be clearly displayed at the workplace.


 -
'Any business employing staff is legally required to take out employer’s liability insurance with a minimum of £5 million worth of cover. The insurance certificate must be clearly displayed on the premises.'



The tax liability of small businesses

Tax is 'A compulsory contribution to state revenue'; and is paid so that the country can keep running. Businesses have to pay 20% whatever their size, although businesses with headquarters in another country do not have to pay tax. An example of this is Apple.
Most people pay tax through PAYE which is a system in which your employer takes the tax before you get your wages, in self employed cases tax is paid through a self assessed payment.
If you do not pay tax then HM Revenue and Customs will take certain enforcement actions to get your owed money. E.G Make you bankrupt or close down your business.

V.A.T or Value Added Tax is a type of tax that the public are required to pay for goods or services.

You charge V.A.T in addition to the cost of the service or goods provided when you sell something, but eventually V.A.T is given to the government as it is money they use to deal with trades.
The V.A.T rate currently stands at 20% in the UK, however certain items such as alcohol or cigarettes have more tax on them.


National insurance is 'a system of contributions paid by workers and employers towards the cost of certain state benefits'. 

You pay National insurance with your general tax through your employer and your payslip should show your contributions. 

Generally you pay 12% tax if you have a job, but circumstances such as being self employed change this. 

Funding

Bank loans are available and usually flexible with how long you have to pay them back and allow you to get one if you promise to pay it back.
Charity backed loans such as The Prince's Trust usually help out younger entrepreneurs from 18 to 30 in starting up a business and offer free workshops and a business mentor.

Financial systems

There is software which helps to manage VAT, invoices, stock, budgets, and payroll. An example of this is Sage which costs £20 a month for up to 20 employees.

Credit control

Credit control is used to know who you're dealing with and in theory to do this; all you have to do is keep information on your customers or traders and ensure that money is paid to you or to them when necessary.

Production Management- Assignment 2

Production diary

09/12/16- presented presentation to client. This included my swot analysis therefore i do not need to do this item.
06/01/17- Received list of tasks to complete before march for this project, and worked out predicted dates of getting this work together:

• Production diary (constant)
• Pre-production documents (15/01)
• SWOT analysis (done)
• Focus group- film it (21-22/01/ after final advert is edited)
• Film and edit advertisement- 1 minute long (half term week?)
• Evaluate feedback and product (week after half term)

13/01/17- Decided to focus on pre production documents. I need to print out contributor release forms for the actors/actors' parents. I have completed a risk assessment which labels the inexperienced actors as the only risk. Before the end of this week I need to complete a script, script breakdown and storyboard which I will scan in next week.

Production Management assignment 1

Introduction

This report will outline ideas that I had for the film-making part of my Production management unit, and will also show how i developed my final idea, as well as research into target audience.

Research

18.8 million people aged between 6 and 64 are estimated to play video games in the UK; and on average games aged between 11 and 64 spend 8.8 hours playing games per week in the UK.
Of these gamers, different percentages use different devices to play games:

• 24% use consoles to play games
• 11% use handhelds to play games
• 24% use computers to play games
• 21% use smartphones to play games
• 16% use tablets to play games

The male-female split in the UK is 58% male and 42% female with the largest age/gender demographic being 15-24 year old males.

PEGI (Pan European Game Information) provides age ratings for games as well as showing warnings for what the game involves. 

There are 5 age ratings:

• 3: Suitable for all ages. May contain very mild violence in an appropriate context for younger children, but neither bad language nor frightening content is allowed.
• 7: Suitable for ages 7 and older. May contain mild or unrealistic violence (e.g. violence in a cartoon context), or elements that can be frightening to younger children.
• 12: Suitable for ages 12 and older. May contain violence in either a fantasy context or a sporting action, profanity, mild sexual references or innuendo, or gambling.
• 16: Suitable for ages 16 and older. May contain explicit or realistic-looking violence, strong language, sexual references or content, gambling, or encouragement of drug use.
• 18: Unsuitable for persons under 18. May contain extreme or graphic violence, including "violence towards defenseless people" and "multiple, motiveless killing", strong language, strong sexual content, gambling, drug glamorization, or discrimination ("stereotyping likely to cause hatred").

The warnings are as follows:

Violence- May contain scenes of people getting injured or dying, often by use of weapons, whether realistically or in a fantastical or cartoonish manner. May also contain gore and blood-letting.

-7, 12, 16. 18

Bad language-May contain profanity, sexual innuendo, threats, and all manner of slurs, insults, and epithets. May be an influence or encourage children.

- 12, 16, 18

Fear/Horror- May contain scenes and plot elements too disturbing, overly suspenseful or frightening to younger/sensitive players.

- 12,16,18

Sex- May contain references to and scenes of sexual attraction or sexual intercourse. May also contain nudity (sexualized and otherwise) and characters dressed in suggestive clothing.

-12, 16, 18

Drugs- May contain references to illegal drugs or a fictional substance that has parallels to real-life illegal drugs (in use, possession, or sale), may influence or encourage children.

- 16, 18

Gambling- May contain elements that encourage or teach gambling.

- 12, 16, 18

Discrimination- May contain scenes, behavior, or references to cruelty or harassment to a group of specific people such as race, religion, ethnicity, gender, ability, or sexual preferences.

- 18

Online- 

- 3, 7, 12, 16, 18

Target audience 

As I found during research, the uk games industry has a target audience as young as 15, and this fact would create another target audience- their parents or guardians who buy the consoles for the children. 
Pen profile: Derek is a 34 year old male who lives in Essex with his wife and their 10 year old son. He works part time in Tesco, however has always looked up to David Beckham as he wanted to be a footballer, and looks up to him now as he thinks he is a good dad to his children. Derek spends a lot of time with his son on the weekend and plays games on the playstation with him such as fifa. He is a very family oriented man.

Ideas

My ideas are going to involve parents/ families as I know that the typical playstation audience is teenagers as young as 15 and on average they do not have their own income; therefore relying on parents to buy their games consoles and games for them.

Idea 1 is going to show a young boy playing fifa in his front room, then playing football in real life in a garden setting. The advert is then going to show an older boy playing fifa to portray the idea that the child has grown up playing fifa and that it is as much a game for children as it is for adults. The only personnel I would need for this idea are the young male and the older male. The thumbnail for this advert would show the younger male playing football.











Idea 2 is going to simply show a family at Christmas playing a multiplayer game such as Just Dance as it shows that the playstation can bring people together and be fun for all the family. As well as these reasons, I also believe that over the Christmas period adverts which are Christmas themed are more likely to do well with a family audience if families are looking to buy a generic present that everyone will enjoy. The personnel I would need for this idea are two parents and two young people. The thumbnail for this advert would show a younger person playing just dance with an older person.











Idea 3 will show two siblings battling on a game of Mario-kart with one playing as Mario and one playing as Luigi which enhances families spending time together and bonding over a playstation. The only personnel I would need for this idea are two older children. The thumbnail would show the two siblings shoulder to shoulder. 

Possible constraints of these adverts include working with younger people as it can be difficult filming them, however a solution I have for this possible problem is to work with children whom I already know such as family friends.

The most time I would need is two days to gather all of the footage needed to complete this advertisement as I would need to add in time for extra takes due to working with young people.

As there aren’t many resources I need for this project, this means that the budget for this project would be low.
With needing the main focus of the advertisement- the playstation I could lend it from someone in order to film this advertisement and that therefore would not cost anything.
To hire a Black-magic pocket cinema camera and tripod for two days would be £41 a day for the camera and £8 a day for a tripod which totals up to £98 for camera equipment for two days.
Adding in additional costs for audio equipment and lighting would be around £100 for two days.
Taking £100 as payment and £100 for food and travel costs over the two days would then make the full budget £398.

Since all of my filming could be done at the actors house as the settings I need are a front room for all ideas and a garden for idea two I would have to abide by the privacy law in a way that I would not give away their location or show parts of their house that they did not want showing. I would also have to use un-copyrighted (royalty free) music and sound effects in my project to abide by the copyright law.



SWOT Analysis

Strengths- 
Strong ideas that I would be able to produce.

Weaknesses-
Time Management

Opportunities-
A chance to develop my time management skills

Threats-
Actors not being available.

Financial systems

Explain there is software to manage vat, invoices, stock, budgets, and payroll. USE SAGE AS EXAMPLE!!!
Credit control list video on canvas
taking/recieving new order-- payment terms must be discussed(when to be paid) signed contract (your right to make interest charges) credit check- sole trader or partnership (need to know names&addresses), write a credit policy
Purchase order-- does value agree with original quote/ is goods&services the same/other payment terms/same customer?
courtecy telephone call-- call to ask level of satisfaction, call finance department if different, highly professional, good customer service
invoices-- clear concise layout (order numberm date reference and total) good description, methof of dispatch

KNOW WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkYT-SnE3KY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6CetcfCuWs

Photos of people- photography

How Media Producers Define Audiences

Audience research is important because they allow the companies to build a picture of their audiences attitudes, knowledge, interests, preferences, or behaviours (By using psychographics and demographics). In building a picture of their audience it enables the companies to see which target audience their product will do best with and then they can market it towards that audience which will gain them the most money as they won't waste money on marketing campaigns aimed at the wrong audience.

Audiences are profiled based on a number of factors.
Simple demographic factors include age, gender, sexual orientation.
Psychographics categorises audiences based on their personalities, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. The 4 C's (Cross Cultural Consumer Categorization) are a way to analyse lifestyles by assigning people into a certain group.




















Another factor companies take into consideration is Geo-demographics which is based on your location in the country. It is assumed by media producers that people in the same area will live through the same conditions and will therefore have similar demands and requirements.
Socio-economic status segments people based on their work experience and theirs or their families economic and social position compared to others. This can be based on income, education and occupation. 
A similar segmentation to this is NRS social grades which are a system of demographic classification used in the UK that was developed by the National Readership Survey to classify readers and is now used by other organisations as a standard for market research.
The grades use occupation to classify people to a grade, as shown below.

These grades are what is mainly used for audience profiling, as an example the profile of the target audience for Assassins Creed Syndicate would be similar to this one below:

The age of the players would range from teenage to 25.
The gender division is mostly males as the main character of the game is male, however there are females which enjoy the action type game such as this.
The socio-economic split would be from B to E because these are typically the types of people who would enjoy gaming.
The main occupations would be students who may have part time jobs.

The target audience for Downton Abbey would be quite different to this:
The age of the viewers would be anywhere from 30 to 60
The gender division would be an equal male/female audience due to both genders being represented in the program.
The socio-economic split would be AB as the characters represented are of higher class.
Their main occupations would be higher managerial jobs such as managers or principals.

Audiences can also be profiled based on the kind of things they like- this is split determined on whether they like Mainstream film, Independent film, or niche film.
Mainstream is commonly liked and is mass produced and distributed due to the popularity of it. Mainstream films are usually commercial successes- films such as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, and the James Bond series. These films are simple to understand and are based upon a single stranded narrative. More often than not, these films use their stars to market the films and will commonly include product placement. These films have large scale marketing campaigns and a universal appeal.
Independent films are produced outside of the major film studio system and are known for having a complex narrative. These films go against Hollywood conventions and have a limited UK cinema release. These films usually do not have big stars in, however can sometimes provide a breakthrough for their cast or crew to work on bigger projects afterwards. The marketing on these films are limited and Word of Mouth is usually the most useful marketing. An example of an independent film is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre directed by Tobe Hooper in 1974, which was shot for around $140,000
Niche films are serious, independent 'art films' which are aimed at a specific market rather than a mass market audience. These films have targeted marketing campaigns.

Media producers carry out research into their audience by using both Quantitative and Qualitative research.
Quantitative research is data which involves numerical figures such as box office data and viewing figures.
For example, Gravity falls originally aired on Disney Channel as a trial show and has now been moved over to Disney XD Despite only reruns being aired the show still gets in the top ten data for the channel week after week, for example on the BARB website in the week ending 11 september the show was the 4th most watched with figures of 64000.
Another example is the box office data for Finding Dory; as Finding Dory has made $970,135,653 since it's release in June 2016, but had already made $135,060,273 on its opening weekend in the US.
Qualitative data is data which involves words such as a review.
Reviews are normally more based on opinion rather than facts since the reviewer themselves is an audience member when they watch the film, however they give people a taste of the film without spoiling too much but rather explaining the film- This is what the following extract of a review of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children does.
'The grandfather has old black and white pictures of his friends from the home, all of whom seem vaguely freakish (one is actually invisible.) Jake is a likeable but gauche adolescent who works part time in the local supermarket. His parents fret about him and have sent him to a psychiatrist.'
Wikia is a website created for different films and TV shows with information inputted by audiences, including facts, characters, etc. Wikia has a forum section which is also another form of qualitative audience research as the producers learn what the audience are interested in with the film or TV programme and can take that into consideration when researching into sequels or next episodes. 

More forms of qualitative audience research include focus groups, questionnaires, and face to face interviews.

Photography private study

DSLR Camera Controls

ISO- The relative speed of sensitivity that we set to the camera- can tell the camera to respond to lower light levels when the ISO is higher, which allows more light in. This isn't always a good thing as the higher the ISO is, the more 'noisy' or grainy the picture is, which can significantly make the image worse quality.

Shutter speed- This is used to control movement, as it is the amount of time you give the camera to see the scene you are trying to capture. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second and typically 1/60th of a second is used as faster speeds will result in a blurred result if your camera moves.
High shutter speeds can be useful when trying to take pictures of things that slow shutter speeds wouldn't capture; such as bubbles.

Aperture- Simply known as 'The opening of the lense'- the size of the aperture can let more or less light in. Aperture is measured in 'F- Stops' and the larger the amount of light, the smaller the number (e.g. F/1.4) and the smaller the amount of light, the larger the number (e.g. F/22)
The other thing aperture impacts on is depth of field, as a large aperture such as 1.4 will have the front subject in focus but the background blurred, and a small aperture such as 22 will have everything in focus.