So what are Media Practitioners?
Media Practitioners are creative people working in the industry that are currently practically active. I.e. Andrew Kramer, the creator of popular Youtube Tutorial Channel Video Copilot, is currently active for Bad Robot as a VFX artist working on the new Star Wars film.
So if we continue to use Andrew Kramer as a comparison to an individual such as myself to talk about what creative opportunities we both have, and how our limitations differ.
Creative Opportunities and its limitations
In big scale production companies, especially those working for films like Star Wars who have the backing of Disney, money isn't really much of a problem in the sense they account for all hardware limitations. As a student, I have the opportunity to insight into various media aspects and though out of Pre-Production, Production and Post, Post is my weakest area but in a way, my biggest interest. The opportunities these factors can give me are surprisingly large and varied. So, to make a comparison between me and someone in the position of Andrew Kramer, there are several factors we can take into account. These include; Budget, Software availability and workforce.Budget:
As stated before, Andrew Kramer is currently working on a huge production and given these circumstances will be handed anything he needs to be able to creative the potential work they hired him for; other why hire him? Obviously, the budget isn't endless each department gets a budget set by a producer and they must stay within it (unless with a great reason to get more funding). So, Andrew Kramer will have a high end computer that has to be able to shoot the raw digital formats that JJ Abrams will no doubt be shooting, he'll need the equipment, software and any plugins for that software. Though, Andrew Kramer is somewhat of an exception as his software company created Element 3D, a powerful 3D design plugin for After effects, he'll still be given industry standard software such as Nuke or Maya.
On the other hand, I am on the opposite side of the scale. I practically make projects with little to no budget and software used would be that available through college or Adobe CC (on student discount which is 60%). Also, hardware is very limited compared to that of what Kramer is using. Though, I will are shooting my FMP on a Canon XC10 with compressed 4K 300mbps at most, this still doesn't match the work flow that Abrams will be shooting for Star Wars seeing as he's a very visual director that still uses legitimate anamorphics ratios (most Hollywood films don't anymore due to cost in lens) and on Star Trek: Into Darkness they had the budget to shoot with the Red EPIC for some shots despite having an shot the the majority of the film on both Arriflex 435 E and a iMax MSM 9802.
Software Availability:
In terms of software, I have almost every limitation. Though things like pirating software is an illegitimate option, and a lot cheaper, Adobe does recognise the cost of their products and have offered Students and Teachers discounts. This to me is the most likely option as pirating is both illegal and when it comes to the point that I begin to start doing client work, software has to be brought and not stolen, so its not worth the risk. The great thing about Adobe for me is that they have an industry standard editing software (Premiere) and other great tools to use that are often found in the industry (such as Photoshop and After Effects.) In terms of Andrew Kramers work, he works heavily with After Effects, but he will also have the access to software that is otherwise to expensive for me to even consider. These are things such as Maya and Nuke, both used as a step up to the more commonly used consumer products After Effects and Cinema 4D (which are the software available for people like me).
Work Force:
The biggest team of people I've worked with outside of college is 14 for a local short film set in Rayleigh. This was on production, but the workforce varies. For the most recent project I had undertaken, the 48 hour short film (which I have consequently happen to hate) was me alone on pre-production, 3 people on production and 2 people (including myself) on post. This in comparison to what Bad Robot has is nothing. Considering this entire post has been centred between the difference between my productions and Andrew Kramer's, I'll continue to do so. Andrew Kramer is probably sitting in a room right now, working with 30 other people on the entire films visual effects. That 30 people is 2.14x more then I have worked with on production (production being the largest section of any film in terms of work force.) When you talk about the massive productions, such as The Hobbit: Trilogy they have hundreds of people working on production spanning jobs from deliveries, to prop design/creation to camera operations and light technicians.
Conclusion:
Media practitioners always start off with limitations, and all these limitations will be to do with either the work force, software, or their budget, or all of them. But yet, the best are the ones that eventually rise above these limitations and find ways that solve them. And though these limitations exist, there are ways round them and its all down to factors like networking, skill and effort. Networking will increase you work force because you'll potentially get more people into your film and make it better. And having more people will make it seem a higher profile as well which is better for funding (i.e. Crowd funding). Skill is a big thing with software, of course software has a large influence over a film's edit but a very skilful editor could still produce an amazing cut with something simple such as Windows Movie Maker. Skill will also seem attractive for funding as well, seeing as people want to make sure they throw their money as something they feel is worth it. And to make something seem worth it, you need the skill to be able make the project work it.
So in short, though the limitations exist; that doesn't mean that you can't make anything near the standard of other Media practitioners in Hollywood it just means you have to work harder.
No comments:
Post a Comment