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1. Unit 4 Pre-Production
1. The Requirements of a Moving Image Production
Finance
Film production is expensive and therefore the first thing to consider in pre-production is
finance. The cast and crew of the filmneed to be paid, along with facilities, equipment,
props, costumes and transport. Equity financing is used in pre-production where investors
contribute money towards the production in exchange for a percentage ownership interest
in the film and the profits derived from the exploitation of the film. Another form of private
funding is crowdfunding which collects multiple small investments via private donations.
Funding provided by a publicly funded agency is known as public funding. These agencies
support the filmcreation of the film with the money of the public. For example, the Nation
Lottery.
Timescales
Time management is essential for film production. The cast and crew may have other
priorities in their schedule therefore the shooting times should carefully consider when
everyone is available. You should also consider if the equipment is available at the given
times, and make sure the shooting times make sense for the story of the film. For example,
if you’re shooting a scene that is set at night, make sure it is shot at the same time each day.
Schedules should be carefully thought out and shooting should not overrun as it can impact
the crew and cast as well as budgets. An example of not following a timescale is Jaws. They
took around 3x longer to shoot the film originally scheduled for 55 days but actually taking
159 days which was extremely over budget and over schedule.
Facilities
Thinking about facilities used in pre-production is important because you need to consider
the equipment required and where it will be stored as well as whether it will cost money
and how much. You will need equipment such as cameras, lenses, props and costumes and
you must consider which days of shooting they are needed for. You also must think ahead to
post-production equipment such as editing software and access to music or special effects
software.
Locations
During pre-production, you should undertake location scouting where you look for a good
location to shoot in. You should first recce the area. In an effective recce you would look for
access to necessary facilities and a good spot for lighting/sound etc. An effective recce
would avoid any audio problems such as unwanted background noise and lighting problems
such as natural light not being as effective in the shots.
Personnel

2. In order to undertake filmproduction, you must hire crews for different aspects of the film
production. This includes crews for editing, visual effects, electrical, camera, hair/makeup,
and costume. Aside from the cast and the crew, other important personnel to be considered
are experts such as stunt coordinators.
Additional Materials
In pre-production, you will need to consider additional materials. Additional materials
include the script which is the dialogue/speech of the entire film which directs the cast on
what to say, how to say it, and what to do. Storyboards are an additional material which are
used as a plan for the different types of shots and angles used in each scene. Original filmed
materials are things that you film yourself which allow you to pursue your idea without the
risk of getting copyrighted. Archive or library materials are used when you need access to
something like certain props or sound effects. For example, a low budget filmmay not have
a helicopter for a certain scene but needs one. Props and costumes are needed for the cast,
as well as other assets such as cameras or anything that holds value are needed.
Codes of Practice and Regulations
Important codes of practice and regulations include health and safety, trade union and
professional Body memberships. It is important to be granted permission to use copyrighted
material within the film because otherwise you could potentially be forced to remove your
film from the public and pay the original owner of the copyrighted material for the illegal
use. Health and safety and risk assessments must be maintained and stored because it can
prevent health and safety problems such as crew or cast being injured during shooting. Risk
assessments are important because they provide risks and ways to prevent the risk from
happening therefore making it safer for the crew and cast members. Trade unions provide
rights for people involved in the film production and shooting such as producers, crew
members and cast members. This ensures that they are treated correctly otherwise a law
suit could be in place. Effective and robust procedures are vital because you legally need to
provide clear paperwork as evidence to show everything such as copyright and health and
safety are being properly executed.
2. The Formats for Pre-ProductionProcess
The Proposal
The first process in film production is generally the writing of a proposal. The proposal sums
up the premise of your film – it includes a summary of the film, key information about
characters, sums up the structure of the narrative and considers a potential target audience.
Proposals are used as a base / guideline for ideas to be formulated over a project, and then
to pitch the concept to prospective investors. Once this is complete a script can be written.
Scripting: Master Scene Script

3. Master scene script is the accepted formatting for the scripts of films. Prospective studios
will not even read scripts that are not produced in this format. It is designed to offer a
straightforward and accessible format for producers to show to investors. It offers a mix of
description and dialogue to allow the reader to easily follow the story – the story is the most
important thing, and as such technical information is very limited within MSS format, which
is split into scene headings, narrative description and dialogue blocks. In master scene
script, a scene heading is known as a slugline which is split into three parts:
 Interior vs. exterior
 Location
 Time of day
The three parts are written on one line and capitalised, as in the example below.
Interior and exterior are always abbreviated as INT. and EXT.
Time of day is limited to DAY and NIGHT, with the occasional use of DAWN and DUSK.
Narrative description is the telling of the story as it unfolds on screen. It begins directly
below the scene heading. The writing should be lean and visual, focusing on action that
moves the story forward. Though concise, it should have enough flair to engage readers.
You should only write what can be seen and heard on screen. This is because unlike a novel,
everything in a screenplay is recorded in terms of picture and sound. Therefore, the
narrative description should never include anything that can’t be seen or heard by the
audience. For example, you can’t describe a character’s feelings, however, you can convey a
character’s feelings through their expression, tone or actions. In the movie industry, 1 page
of screenplay is usually equal to 1 minute of time on screen. This is convenient for planning
purposes as you can estimate how long the filmis based on how many pages is in the
screenplay. The average features are 120 minutes therefore the average script should be
around 120 pages long. Because of this, description passage should cover as many pages as
the scene is expected to run in real time. For example, if you sense that an action scene will
take a minute of screen time, it should be written to cover 1 page, rather than 1 line.
Dialogue blocks are composed in three parts:
 Character name
 Wryly
 Dialogue
Character names are written in upper case, a wryly is written in lower case inside
parenthesis, and dialogue is written in normal sentence case. A wryly indicates how a line
should be said. It was named after all the novice screenwriters whose characters say things
in a “wry” way. A wryly should only be used if the subtext of the dialogue is not clear. Keep
them to a minimum.
Other conventions of MSS include the font being courier and font size always being 12,
sluglines and character names in dialogue in capital letters, voiceover and offscreen used as
V.O. and O.S. and footers at the bottom right of a page say (CONTINUED) only where a
scene moves from one page to the next, the next pages have (CONT.) in the top left.
When writing a spec script, do not use:
 Scene numbers
 Camera angles
 Page footers
 Capital letters for sound effects in narrative description
 Capital letters for character names in narrative description (except when first
appearing)

4.  Third person use of “we”
Scripting: Shooting Script
Shooting scripts are different from master scene scripts because shooting scripts are used
during the production to shoot the movie. They are written in much more detail than spec
scripts and may include, among other things, scene numbers, editing transitions and camera
angles. Since shooting scripts are used in production, they are formatted to include any
helpful information that the director may request. They are not used for selling purposes
because shooting scripts can be difficult to read and will turn off prospective investors. This
approach is used when the script is going directly into production. In broad terms, the main
difference between the screenplay and the shooting script is that the screenplay is a selling
tool, whereas the shooting script is a production tool.
Storyboarding
Storyboards are created once the script for the filmis complete. It evaluates a screenplay
and pictures it in terms of separate shots that can be visually translated into individual
storyboard panels. This helps directors and cinematographers visualize the scenes and find
potential problems before they occur. Besides this, storyboards also help estimate the cost
of the overall production and saves time in shooting. Some directors such as Alfred
Hitchcock were famous for storyboarding in great depth, visualising the film extensively
prior to shooting on set.
Shooting Schedules
A shooting schedule is a breakdown of everything planned to shoot for each day of the
shoot. It is organised in the most logical and efficient order to shoot. As opposed to a
schedule for the entire shoot, focusing on scenes and days, this schedule focuses on shots
and hours. A shooting schedule is essential for a smooth and efficient shoot (which cuts
down on time, hence budget and allows plenty of coverage to be shot).
Other Paperwork
 Location Release Forms – to formalise permissions to use locations owned by other
people.
 Location Scouting Templates – to collect relevant information about shooting
locations.
 Risk Assessments – to collect information about potential risks relating to shooting.
 Sound Templates – to chart where sound may be used.
 Copyright Clearances – to collate any rights issues that have been actioned.
3. The Functions of Pre-Production
A well-planned pre-production encourages collaboration, revision, development and
improvements. For example, scripts go through many drafts and redrafts because multiple
writers can collaborate on one script which will allow each writer to develop on areas they

5. are weak on to make the script better then script editors can be utilised to identify potential
problems with the scripts to improve on them. The initial ideas for the screenplay can be
amended and revised such as visual ideas like costumes and set design or locations of where
scenes will be shot. These ideas can be improved and allows for collaboration and the
weighing up of pros and cons to each idea. Budgets and timescales can be amended based
on problems that could occur during production. For example, when Steven Spielberg was
directing Jaws, principal photography was supposed to take place over 55 days, but instead
took 159 days and its budget went from $3.5 million to $9 million.
4. The Purpose of Pre-Production
The practical real-world purpose behind pre-production consists of legal and ethical
responsibilities and requirements. Legal issues include the health and safety procedures
which include writing risk assessments and making sure all the paperwork is in place. Other
legal issues are having permission in place for the use of copyrighted material, privately
owned location and contracts for those appearing in work. Another legal requirement for
film production is public liability when they are recording on location where members of the
public may be at risk from the production activities.
Compliance audits are reviews of whether or not an organisation is following the regulatory
guidelines of filmmaking. Independent consultants will evaluate how well and effective
compliance preparations are during the production of the film, they review security polices,
user access controls and risk management procedures over the course of a compliance
audit. They are essential for maintaining a thorough pre-production to follow the guidelines
and laws of filmproduction.
The BBFC is the regulator of film and video. This means they provide the age ratings to films
and are a designated body with legal powers to rate, and sometimes cut or even reject
works. All decisions are based on public consultation and our guidelines, which form a
contract between the public, film industry and the BBFC. They are updated once every four
years following a major public consultation. Film productions will have target audience /
distribution platforms in mind, therefore careful pre-production decisions may be
influenced by target audiences / certificate requirements.
Finally, production of films often includes a large list of cast and crew involvement. An
effective pre-production with organised records allow sharing of information across relevant
parties effectively, to ensure that all cast and crew members are working together well.