This document outlines the key requirements and processes involved in film pre-production. It discusses financing, timescales, facilities, locations, personnel, additional materials like scripts and storyboards, health and safety regulations, and the various script formats used in pre-production like proposals, master scene scripts, and shooting scripts. Effective pre-production planning is essential to organizing all elements of a film production and setting it up for success.

1. Pre-Production Requirements
Every film requires pre-production. Pre-production is essential to the
creation of any film or moving image production and is one of the most
important phases during the production.
The Requirements of a Moving Image Production
Financing
Financing is essential to the creation of film or moving image production
because they all cost money to make and need to ensure that they have
enough money for the whole production. The finances for a film go
towards paying for many things. Examples of these things are; Wages for
the actors and the director, wages for the camera crew and other crew
members, the production costs, visual effects (if required) and
marketing.
There are two ways that a film can be financed, publicly funded or
privately funded. When a film production is publiclyfunded, the funding
usually comes from an agency such as the national lottery, tax relief or
funded by grants that are provided to support the arts from the
Department of Culture. The advantages togetting a film publiclyfunded
are that it has more of a chance for the fund to completely cover all of
the production costs and other costs however, the disadvantages are
that the grant/fund can be disapproved. Therefore, the production of
the film cannot continue.
When a film production is privately funded, the funding is accrued from
investors or if it is a large production, from a production company. For
these investors to actually want to invest in the film, it has to be seen
as financially attractive (the ability to make a profit). The advantages
to getting a film production privately funded are that the funding is
more flexible. That means that if they need a little bit more money for
the whole production, they can work it out privately and negotiate. The
disadvantage of private funding is that if your idea is not financially
attractive, then the investors are less likely to go through with funding
your film.
Timescales

2. Creating timescales in the pre-production phase is one of the most
essential parts since it keeps the whole production organised. The cast
and crew may also have other commitments outside of this production
so it is essential that the whole production sticks to the schedule and
timescales. When creating the timescales, it is also essential that the
timescales are realistic to how long the shooting of each scene and act
will be. Sometimes a problem can occur on set at any moment and
depending on the problem, it can set back the shooting schedule and
therefore the timescale is there to cover the problem and not delay the
rest of the production.
An example of an unrealistic timescale is the production of Jaws. The
original timescale was scheduled for 55 days. However, the production
almost lasted 3 times that amount (159) since the producers etc. did not
plan for realistically for the task that was filming at sea. Filming at sea
caused delay after delay and crew members even got sea sick.
Facilities
One of the key elements of pre-production are the facilities. Facilities
refers to the equipment, props, costumes, set design and post-
production. The financing of the film is also used for this element of
pre-production. The equipment is important because depending on the
genre, the film may need some of the actors attached to wire rigs to
give the illusion that the characters in the film are flying or whatever is
happening in the particular scene. Wire rigs can be expensive to hire
therefore using some of the budget on that. Other pieces of equipment
can also have an effect on the budget. Equipment can either be
purchased or hired however hiring the equipment can work out cheaper
in the long run since buying all of the cameras outright are very
expensive especially if the production companies are wanting to film in
a higher resolution like 4K. Timescales also fit into this element
especiallyif the equipment has been hired. If the production lasts longer
than the expected timescale then it can cost even more money to hire
it for longer. All of this is the same with all of the other facilities (props,
costumes and set design) since they can also either be hired or
purchased.
Locations
A successful film production requires all of the shooting locations to be
thoroughly planned out and sourced perfectly during the pre-

3. production. During the pre-production, the producers will work with the
director and location scouts to attempt to source out the perfect
locations for every scene to take place. The director will give a
description of what they want the scene location to be like and then the
locations scouts will go on a search to find the perfect locations. The
producers are there so that they can get the permission to film at the
precise locations. However, the location scouts must consider any
limitations of the locations. This includes how easy or difficult it is to
access the location, how much it will cost to shoot there (if necessary)
and all limitations regarding the weather. All of these must be
considered however the is a main priority for the locations. The health
and safety of all the cast and crew is the most important consideration.
Health and safety concerns are the most critical factor in determining if
the location in suitable or not. If it is not safe to film there then the
location most likely cannot be used.
Personnel
A film crew is made up from many different roles. From the director to
runners, the roles vary a lot. A lot of films hire specialist crews to ensure
that the shooting of the film will go smoothly and also keep it accurate
to the screenplay. The stunt crew is a part of the specialist crews, the
stunt crews essentially take part in the more dangerous stunts during a
scene so that the main cast don’t get injured. Injuries for the main cast
can be disastrous since it can halt the production depending on how bad
the injury is. If the specific film has an intense fight scene then the
producers may look to hire a crew to come in and choreograph the
fighting scene with the actors so that the fighting will not look amateur
and will be intense for the viewers.
Additional Materials
There are many additional materials that have to be considered during
the pre-production stage. Examples of these materials are; scripts,
storyboards, sounds, props and costumes. The script is arguably the
crucial part of the pre-production because if there is not script, then
there is no film. During the pre-production phase the script may be
altered many times to make the narrative of the film more interesting
and appealing for the target audience. Storyboards are also crucial to
the overall production because they give the film crew a visual idea of
what the director/writer want the scene to look like therefore making
the whole production flow smoothly. The costumes are important for

4. the narrative of any film because the show a character's personality and
should be considered highly. Props too are also as important as the
costumes because props are a key factor to linking a film to a certain
genre and they need to make sense to why they are in the film that
they’re in.
Codes of Practice and Regulations
Every film production must make sure that they have the rights to use
and sort of sound or moving image that they use within their film
production. Copyright is the term used to determine if a source of media
can be used with or without permission. Copyright means that you
cannot use it without permission and copyright free means that you can.
If anyone uses any source of media that is copyrighted and has not been
given permission to use it can face consequences. These consequences
include being sued by whoever own the right to the source. Every film
must also make sure that their health and safety procedures meet the
expected regulations and make sure that they have insurance in case of
accidents on the set. If there is a serious whilst shooting the scene and
the production does not have any insurance then it can also result in the
producers being sued just like the copyrighted material.
The Formats for Pre-Production Process
The Proposal
The proposal is created by the writer of a movie. The writer essentially
pitches the idea of their movie to investors or a production company.
The proposal has to be pitched professionally to persuade the investors
that this film will do well in the market and make a profit. The proposal
should contain the film synopsis, the logline, screenplay structure, the
characters, production crew, mood board, storyboard template, target
audience and the abbreviated budget. All of this information must look
appealing to the investors since they will not want to invest in the film
for it to not make the money back.
Scripting- Master Scene Script
The master scene script is essentially the format that is required for a
film production. This format is designed to be as straightforward as
possible and be accessible for producers to show to investors. It offers a

5. mix of description and dialogue to allow the reader to easily follow the
story without having to spend too much time reading it. The story is the
most important thing to get across to the reader with technical
information being very limited within the MSS format. MSS is split into;
scene headings, narrative description and dialogue blocks. It is also
important to only write about only what can be seen and heard and it is
a customary assumption in the movie industry that 1 page of screenplay
equals 1 minute of time on screen. This is convenient for planning
purposes since the average feature film length is 120 minutes.
Scripting- Shooting Script
Shooting scripts are scripts that are used during the production to shoot
the film. They are written in much more detail using 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 the movie script
to investors. The main difference between a shooting script and a
screenplay is that the screenplay is a selling tool whereas the shooting
script is a production tool.
Storyboarding
Once a script is completed, it is converted into a storyboard so that it
helps the directors and the cinematographers visualize the scene before
shooting and decide if they want to change aspects of the scene and
notice any potential problems. Besides this, storyboards also help
estimate the cost of the overall production and saves time in shooting.
Shooting Schedules
A shooting schedule utilises the storyboards and the shooting script. A
shooting schedule is essentially a breakdown of everything planned to
shoot for each day of the production. Most likely to be organised into
the most logical and efficient order to shoot. Every production tends to
film all the scenes in one location at a time to save travel expenses and
time since the whole crew would have to travel backwards and forwards
over and over again.
Other Paperwork

6. Overall there are a lot of different pieces of paperwork to fill out during
the pre-production. This paperwork includes;
 Location Release Forms - A form to formalise permissions to use
locations owned by other people.
 Location Scouting Templates – Used to collect relevant information
about shooting locations.
 Risk Assessment – This is used to collect relevant information about
potential risk on the set whilst shooting.
 Sound Templates – Used to chart where sound may be used.
 Copyright Clearances – This is used to collate any issues that have
been actioned.
The Functions of Pre-Production
The functions of pre-productions allow all of the overall ideas for the
film to be fully developed thoroughly so that it can be the best and most
organised it can be. During pre-production, it allows time for the script
to be developed/improved from the original piece that was pitched at
first. The script can and most likelygo through multipledrafts and script
editors can be utilised to identify potential problems with the script.
The storyboards and screenplay will most likely be developed alongside
the script so that they correspond witheach other and there are no loose
ends within the narrative. It is also very important that the locations are
thoroughly thought about so that they will work and fit the film and so
the director knows how they want to use the location for the scene. By
getting all of the locations scouted and confirmed during the pre-
production period, this can tweak the original plans of the timescales
and the budget. The budget uses could go on other things if they manage
to save someof it on locations. Near the end of the pre-production, with
all of the changes to the script, screenplay and anything else that has
been changed, may mean that certain ideas that were originally there
might get dropped for another idea. The costumes, props or any other
visual ideas are all things that could be changed or dropped.
Collaborations could also be worked out with big name music producers
or actors so that they can give insight to their fans therefore widening
the target audience for the film.
The Purpose of Pre-Production
As well as assisting in the success of a project, a robust pre-production
has some specific practical purposes relating to legal and ethical
responsibility. One of the reasons that media companies undertake pre-

7. production work is to make sure that what they are planning to produce
adheres to the relevant codes of practice, laws and regulations that
govern and control their industry. The legal issues that production
companies need to acknowledge are; health and safety procedures and
the correct paperwork in place, permissions in place for the use of
copyrighted material, permissions in place for the use of privately
owned locations and the permissions in place in the form of contracts
for those appearing in work. Public liabilityis another legal requirement
for production companies who are involved on creative media
production, particularly when they are recording on location where
members of the public may be at risk from the production activities.
In the case of street filming, the production companies must get
permissions sought and approved for filming in any public spaces. They
may also receive a compliance audit which is a comprehensive review of
an organisation’s adherence to regulatory guidelines. Independent
consultants evaluate the strengths and thoroughness of compliance
preparations. Auditors review security polices, user access controls and
risk management procedures over the course of a compliance audit.
Therefore, it essential to maintain a thorough pre-production to adhere
to any legal responsibilities in the event of a compliance audit.
The BBFC is the UK’s regulator of film and video, providing age ratings
to film materials. They are a designated body and as such have legal
powers to rate and sometimes even cut or reject works. All decisions
are based on public consultation and our guidelines, which form a
contract between the public, the film industry and the BBFC. They are
updated every four years following a major public consultation. Film
productions will have their target audiences/distribution platforms in
mind from the very first pitch, therefore careful pre-production
decisions may be influenced by target audiences/envisaged certificate
requirements. Organised records allow the sharing of information across
relevant parties' efficient therefore is needed for an effective pre-
production.