2. financing
financing is crucial, films cost money and in the case of Hollywood productions,
lots of money.
The cast and crew need to be paid for the work they do and how long they spend
on it. There is facilities that need to be hired and equipment that has to be
purchased or hired which all costs money too. Things like cameras and lights could
need to be hired which would cost a lot of money effecting the finances. Props and
costumes must be provided for the cast.
You need to consider the fact that locations will change and it could cost money
depending on the setting it is in. clearances may need to be budgeted for the use
of soundtracks for example.
3. Public and private funding
Public funding is also another important part of finding. One of the examples of it could
be the BFI Film Fund, he BFI is the lead agency for film in the UK.
There has been over 26 million pounds of lottery funds per year to support film
development,
production and distribution activity in the UK. Private funding is another way of funding
in the film industry.
Private funding is accrued from investors; therefore, the film production often has to be
seen as financially attractive so it can make a profit.
Equity financing is having investors contribute money to the production in exchange for
a percentage ownership interest in the film and the profits derived from the exploitation
of the film.
A more recent way of private funding would be crowdfunding. This enables the chance
to collect multiple small investments via private donation.
4. Timescales
Management of time is essential and really effective when it comes to pre-production.
Cast and crew will often have other commitments in their schedules. Planning must be made
carefully and you must consider things such as when people or locations are available.
You need to consider what availability times are required when it comes to the equipment needed.
For example if you’ve rented a camera and it needs to be back with its owner by a certain time then
you would have to stop filming at a certain time too. This effects the schedule because you could
have to have more days of filming due to having to give up a camera to the owner or someone else
who needed it.
realistic schedules for production and pre production need to be thought out properly and
planned properly. For example if you were to film and it took up more time than needed this could
impact everyone and everything's time table cast members may have other things to go to and
crew members could also be the same.
5. Facilities
A key element of pre-production is the consideration of the things you need such
as what materials and equipment will be required in order to successfully produce
your film.
You need to consider what filming equipment is required and where will you be
able to get it from. So for me I could use cameras, greenscreens and more from the
college. You need to consider things such as does it need to be hired or
purchased? are there any specialist pieces of equipment required for certain scenes
and days of shooting.
What props, costumes, set design is required and what times are they going to be
needed.
What post- production equipment is needed for example, editing software, use of
specialist effects software and more important equipment.
6. location
To have a successful pre-production and production you need to do research on
the backgrounds of your chosen locations. You need to consider the research and
these locations prior to shooting. This involves:
Identification and recces- actual location scouting
A consideration of any limitations of the site- distance, access, hiring, cost, weather
issues.
All health and safety concerns considered- are there any risks associated with the
location or the requirements of the scene in relation to this?
7. personnel
Any film must clearly identify the personnel required- this is not just cast and crew
members but you must consider any extras or the advice of experts or specialists
who may be working to ensure the accuracy of the shooting and to make sure it all
runs smoothly. For example stunt crew, advisors, etc.
Careful consideration must be given to match peoples skills with jobs allocated
8. Additional materials
This would include all the things required for production and pre-production.
Scrips and story boards
Original filmed materials
Archive or library materials
Sound or sound library materials
Props and costumes
Assets/ valuable things
9. Codes of practice/ regulations
All filming projects must make sure they adhere closely to accepted codes of
practice and follow any regulatory requirements.
Health and safety is a very important stage of pre-production and production.
Rigorous health and safety and risk assessments must be maintained and stored.
The trade union and professional body membership
Pact- the producers groups or partners come together for cinema and television,
which campaigns for producers rights.
10. Formats for pre-production processes
When you're planning your pre-production its important that you follow industry
accepted formats.
The first thing you need to do when it comes to film production is write a proposal. A
proposal sums up the theory of your film.
It provides a brief description and in take on the characters, the structure, the narrative
and the target audience which is very important.
Having a proposal is like a base of what you are going to create and you can share and
debate about your ideas through this with the cast and crew of the film.
Once you’ve completed the proposal you should be ready to create a script for your
film. When you make a script it will be known as the master scene script.
A lot of studios wont even read scripts that are not labelled and formatted as this so it is
very important.
11. Master scene script
This is the only way a studio will accept a script, when it is formatted as master scene script.
Its created to show a clear understanding and straightforward format of the film so investors
can clearly and quickly decide what they want to do next, whether that be invest or leave it.
It offers a mix of description and dialogue to allow the reader to understand and follow the
story.
The master scene script is split into scene headings, narratives and dialogue blocks.
A scene heading is known as a slug line and is made up of the interior verses the exterior, the
location and the time of the day.
The slug line information is always capitalised and stated as to what it is. For example if it was
the day time it would be DAY or DUSK, DAWN, NIGHT.
The narrative description is telling of the story, which is obviously the most important part of
the production. It begins directly below the scene heading.
The writing should be lean and visual, focusing on the action that moves the story onwards. It
needs to have enough volume within the story's script to engage the readers.
12. Master scene script
In the production you should never include something that can never be seen or heard like in
a book. You need to be able to recreate what you’ve written in the script otherwise you wont
be living up to investors expectations and the film may not be anywhere near as successful if
it doesn’t include bits that you can actually do in terms of the audience hearing and seeing
these things happening.
For example when writing a book or an essay you would describe what things sound like and
how the character may feel but you cant do that in a script unless you were going to have
someone show it via emotions because you cant follow the script as a character and read out
how you're meant to feel. To show the characters thoughts along with many other things they
need to be presented in some form.
Timing is another major key point when it comes to the MSS. In the movie industry they have
estimated that 1 page of a script is the same as 1 minute of the filming time. This is useful as
you can estimate how long the film will be based on the amount of pages listed on the script.
Because of this the description passages should cover a whole page in order to have a
dramatic effect on the audience.
13. MSS
Dialogue blocks are made up of 3 parts, character names, dialogue and wryly.
The character names are written in uppercase, wrylies are written in lowercase and the
dialogue is written in the normal form of a sentence.
A wryly indicates how a line from the script should be said but you're meant to keep
these at a ow amount and at the minimum through the script.
Some conventions of MSS would be the font size, its always 12 and the font is always
courier, sluglines and character names in dialogue are always in capital letters, if any
voiceovers and off screens are used they are identified as V.O and O.S, and last but not
least the footers at the bottom right of a page are only there when a scene moves from
one page to another and the next page would have the letters (CONT.) to show it has
been continued from te last. This would be on the top left of the page so it’s the first
thing you see when you turn the page.
14. More conventions of mss
What not to do when formatting the script.
Don’t use scene numbers as they could change and vary
Don’t state camera angles as you may change your mind or not be able to meet
the most dramatic effect with the camera angle listed in the script.
Page footers are not always required on scripts
Caps for sound effects in narrative description
Caps for character names in the narrative description unless theyre appearing
The third person use of “we”
15. Shooting scripts
When it comes to the production of filming, you have spec scrips and shooting
scripts. The spec scripts are the ones that have a lack of setail and are quickly
reviewed by people such as investors. The shooting scripts are the ones that contain
more detail and are used on set during making the movie. The screenplay and spec
version of the script can be used for selling purposes whereas the shooting script is
purely just for a production tool.
These scripts are the official ones so they may include things such as screen numbers,
editing transitions and camera angles whereas the spec scripts don’t, techniques are
included to help the crew shoot on set, whether that be the movement, angle or
composition of the camera.
They are not used for selling purposes as theyre used directly in production
They are made to include anything that the director may request or need for the film.
Shooting scripts can be harder to read and investors may turn them away which is
why they only read the spec scripts which are shorter and get straight to the point for
people who have less time or patience.
16. storyboarding
Story boarding is a brilliant way to plan your pre-production as it gives you an idea
of what the story in the film is.
A story board is created by the scripts that are created earlier on in the production
of the film. It evaluates a screenplay and pictures it in terms of separate shots.
Using a story board gives us a clear view of what certain camera angles and acts
could look like. It helps the film producers and directors as well as the
cinematographers visualize what these thing will look like.
They also help the producers and directors have an estimated price of the overall
production.
When doing a story board it helps to go in depth and extremely intensify it prior to
filming it because it allows you to see how things work.
17. Shooting schedule
With the story boards and the shooting script complete and done, a shooting
schedule will need to be put in place and will be quite easy to do with all of the rest
of the production already complete.
The schedule is a breakdown of everything that will be captured in the shooting
process. It will be broken down by days and by each day what exactly will you
shoot.
As opposed to a schedule for the entire shoot, focusing on scenes and days this
schedule focus of shots and hours.
If you want to have a smoothly running process and efficient smooth shots in the
film you will need to have a shooting schedule.
18. Things you need
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 relevant 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
These are all important to do in order that the film runs smoothly when being produced
and it had no bumps in the road on the way to success.
Pre production is a very time consuming and important thing when producing a film. Its
essential for successful projects as it helps the whole process run smoothly and tidy. It
makes things a lot easier to understand and plan.
19. The functions of pre-production
Allows ideas to be revised, amended and improved
Scripts go though many drafts and re drafts before they find the perfect one for
the shooting script
Script editors can be utilised to identify potential problems with scripts
Multiple writers may write on one project
Visual ideas may be thought of and then left again, locations and props may also
change due to being discounted.
20. The purpose of pre production
There are legal issues when it comes to pre production:
Health and safety procedures and paperwork in place
Permissions in place for the use of copyrighted material
Permissions in place for the use of private locations
Permissions in place in the form of contracts for those appearing in work.
Public liability insurance
Public areas and street filming can be an issue if you don’t have a filming license
obtained.
Compliance audits
The bbfc- the British board of film classification is the age restrictions. These are
important for any film and you need to state what the age restriction is in anything.
The age restriction is normally easy to state as it would be your target audience.
A large list of the cast and crew is usually shown by film producers
Effective pre-production and thorough and organized records allow sharing of
information across relevant parties effectively, to ensure all involved are working
together efficiently
