Assignment 1 - Pre Production

Pre - Production assignment 1

I have been asked by Middlesbrough College to prepare a blog post to explain to new students coming into the college next year, who are considering making their first film, how they may want to plan their short film productions and how they may want to monitor each stage of the production process.

Step One:

As it is my choice I'd preferably choose a film compared to a TV or video type of production. These can be compared and be all completely different in their own separate ways, they would be planned. For example for a film you could be thinking about making it into a franchise or making only one of them, which can be compared to a TV series where there has to be another episode until the finale. It also needs to be planned differently as you may need to think about different scripts , characters, plot and a story line and if there are any dilemmas you want to be in it. 

Step Two:

Secondly there are many ways to manage your time in this project, there is also a document called a ' Call Sheet ' this document is needed for all professional film directors and people who are starting in the trade, this document is essential, it is used for people to know exactly what they're doing at a specific time, for example if they're shooting different parts of the film on different days and different times of the separate days, the image below would represent a part of a ' Call Sheet '. This part of the call sheet is completed which shows in depth where everybody should be e.g. if you're a member of the crew you should be at the studio for 9.30 getting the equipment checked over and making sure everyone knows what they will be doing when they get to the correct locations e.g. Car Park, Scrapyard, Bus Station and the abandoned warehouse. If every member of the cast and crew have one of these and they're late or don't turn up to the shoot then the producer can question there whereabouts and can then have a reason to fire that person.

These work sheets are very important in the media industry because it puts everyone on the same page and as long as everyone gets one there can be no confusion where people are at a time of the day e.g if they are in a wrong place and they are late to set. Another part of the ' Call Sheet ' is the location list and cast list which is shown in the image below , this shows you where the filming will take place at various locations. Also on the ' Call Sheet ' is the assembly point which is where you would meet everyone when lunch time has occurred etc. Below is a completed call sheet where it tells you the correct places to be at a certain time, for example everybody should be in the car park at 10AM.

Step Three:

There are different ways to choose what resources you will need, one of these you can choose is BECTU.org - this website is for people who need to know what kind of people they will need for the production. For example the website shows you from people who would be working in the Art Department to the Camera Operators and the Editors. BECTU.org also shows you the recommended rates and the actual rates which are given to companies/ independent workers who will be in the shoots. For example a camera operator would be getting £620 if he was to work in a high budget film compared to a film operator in a low budget film only getting £373 - these rates are per day.

There is also another way of finding out what resources you will need to carry out a short film, this document is called a Script Breakdown. As you can see below there are many slots which need to be filled out before the production is anywhere near started, for example ' W/R ' = Wardrobe ( What clothes you need for that certain scene. ) Another example could be if you need a sword, many people would think it would be classed as a prop however when shooting any sort of film you need a weapons specialist who has a license to use them therefore a sword would go in the SFX/WEAPONS slot. This document is essential before starting your production as it helps understand what everyone needs to buy/rent in their separate teams and also what people you may need to bring in e.g. weapons specialist.

Step Four:

One way you can manage the budget for your certain project is the use of Microsoft Excel, it is a very easy platform to use and you can get many things out of using it, you can easily find out how much camera equipment , lighting equipment etc is to rent , then put it into an Excel document and find out how much overall it will cost you to get the products you need. As you can see below is an example of an Excel Sheet, this shows you how much a film shoot costs to run ( Prices came off www.hireacamera.com for cameras and lighting equipment ). In the spreadsheet there are slots for camera equipment, lighting equipment, camera operator, the main key grip, editor and the first assistant cameraman, just these people and the equipment total to £5,101 for just 3 days ( excluding the editor ).

Step Five:

On a film shoot you need to communicate with the people you are working with and in order to do this there are documents which can help you, one of these documents is a storyboard, a storyboard helps the actors as well as the film crew know what they're doing and how to film a certain part of the film correctly, as you can see below this is a completed storyboard, it is in depth as it shows you where the director wants the shots at different angles, e.g it has close ups and an over shoulder shot. This is an important part of the pre-production planning.

Step Six:

For a film to be broadcasted correctly there are certain rules and permission which have to be completed accordingly to correct laws. For example before anybody is filmed a ' Contributor Release Form ' has to be signed by every actor therefore they cannot say they don't want to be in the film, the producer can then say they have signed a document which means they can publish the film worldwide without any hesitation. One of these documents can be seen below. I have completed an example of one which would be completed with an address and a signature.

To conclude I think these six steps and the information provided with the examples will help new students who are considering making their first film a lot easier and how they can monitor each stage of the production process made out to them.