Documentation is essential for planning and executing a film project. It includes ideas generation, proposals to justify ideas and secure funding, scripts to outline the story and characters, storyboards to visualize shots, lighting and production schedules to organize shooting, location recces to scout settings, risk assessments to ensure safety, budgets to estimate costs, call sheets to inform actors of shooting details, equipment booking forms to arrange technical resources, and contributor release forms to obtain consent. Thorough documentation is necessary to transform ideas into a finished film.

1. Documentation What is it? Why do you need it?
Ideas generation Thinking of an idea, brainstorming it, meeting up with the
team and fitting ideas together. Planning what staff,
actors and crew you need.
Without ideas there will be no movie or plan. This is the
foundation of a successful film.
Proposal Used to justify ideas and gain an idea of the budget
required, job roles. The proposal also includes the title,
running time, genre, team members, job roles and a brief
description of the film.
To be abke to look back on it and make sure all goals are
met. Presentation to help get funding to have a good
enough budget to make a good quality film.
Script The writer’s ideas on what the characters will say and do.
It also tells the kind of shots used, time of day and some
appropriate context
To give to the actors so they can read, agree and learn the
parts.
Storyboard A visual shot by shot plan of the film or a section of the
film, containing a visual plan, timings, information about
shot movement and movement within the shot, diagetic
and non-diagetic sound, special and visual effects and
editing.
1. It provides a visualisation of your written plans –
what do you think your ideas are going to actually
look like through a lens.
2. It organises a scene in a script very specifically into
shots rather than narrative beats
3. It allows you to effectively time the different shots
– based on how much content there is in the shot
– and so lets you consider in more detail the pace
of the scene
4. It allows you to make sure that you are paying
attention to the grammar of a scene – the 180
Rule, the use of Shot/Reverse POV/Shot (the
Kuleshov Effect), line of sight shooting…

2. 5. It allows you to check the logistics of your planned
movement within the shot and of camera
movement within the shot
6. It allows you to plan for the use of sound – both
diagetic and non-diagetic – within the shot
7. It allows you to plan the editing linking shots
8. Along with a production script it provides a
detailed blueprint for the departments managing
the practical aspects of production planning –
costume, location, props…
Lighting Plans Lighting plans are made when the storyboard and script is
finished. Lighting plans are a bird’s eye view of where
lights are going to be placed for each shot.
This is done because it’s important to be as effective as
possible when shooting a project. If the plan is done well,
the shoot can run smoothly and efficiently.
Production
Schedule
Production schedules are for organising where and when
the director wants to shoot what scene. This is important
because it tells actors when and where to be present on
set. This is also used to organise what equipment will be
needed for that day. This is usually done in excel
To keep the actors on top of knowing what and where
they will be them. This is used for pre-production
documents to set a due date to make sure everything is
done.
Location Recce A photograph of all the settings and locations.
It aids research and preparation processes to meet
potential contributors.
This is important to do early in the pre-production
process.
Helps plan out schedules and produce the risk
assessment. Also, potential power sources. This is also
important for the storyboard artist because it tells them
the kind of location they are dealing with.

3. Risk Assessment A document that proves a safety check A risk assessment is created to highlight safety concerns
and check items such as electricity, natural disasters and
animal problems that could happen.
Budget A estimated budget for a film planed out and have taken
many considerations such as renting locations, actors,
equipment and distribution and other background crew.
This also included props, special effects and advertising
and merchandise costs.
Estimating the budget is important because the higher
the budget for a film, the more the filmwill sell for.
Typically, if two identical films were made and one had a
budget of 5 million, and the other 10M, the 10M one
would sell more. It’s a good idea for a director to set a
budget to estimate the outcome.
Call Sheets A document that tells actors when to arrive on set Makes sure everyone is in the right location so the
shooting can run smoothly.
Equipment Booking
Forms
This is used to sort out what equipment is needed for
each shoot. This contributed to the budget.
Helps organise the cinematography and production team
as they will know what equipment has been hired for
what they need to shoot.
Contributor
Release Forms
A form that every actor needs to sign. This included
anyone that is going to be on the screen. This also
confirms their consent to play the role.
The contract for the actor will be read beforehand.
It's important to confirm that everybody has consent to
be on set. All legal items will be sorted such as right,
property and other considerations.