Pre-Production Theory

STEP ONE: What Type of Production is This? 

My type of production will be a film, not a feature length but a short film. Picking film affects my planning in a few way, for one, if films are planned, one has to go through the processes of going through pre-production documents. Such documents can be: casting (which is more of a process), script breakdown, breakdown contract, actor's contract, budget, storyboard, equipment list, timetable/schedule, camera shot list, makeup and hairdressing record and a lighting diagram.

All of these are used in film pre-production and will be explained in answer to the question.

Script - The script is the essence of the idea from the creator and script writers, without it, most planning falls out of place and is almost hopeless without a script which is the foundation for a film and planning for a film. For a short film, i.e, a minute long film, one only needs to write about 1-2 pages, as time can easily slip by.

Casting - Casting is a process in which the director and creator aim to hire people to play a role (or many roles) in their film but allowing them to perform in front of them and letting them know what character they wish to fill the role of before beginning. For a short film, you'd probably only need one actor, if not one then up to three.

Script Breakdown - The script breakdown is more a less the process of the producer or assistant director reviewing the script and marking elements that have to be seen to before filming and production. There are many different colour codes that they use to specify what is what, such as red for cast, orange for stunts, yellow for extras (silence), green for extras (atmospheric), blue for special effects, pink for vehicles and animals and brown for sound effects.

They also have different symbols for other things, such as a circle for wardrobe and clothing, an asterisk for make-up and hair, a box for special equipment and an underline for production notes. For a short films, chances are you wouldn't have to mark many different elements, only really a few for each, the only one that would be considerably common would be red for cast, the actors or actor.

Breakdown - A breakdown is where you summarise who is in your crew, and make it so that they sign the sheet, clarifying that they are going to take part in your film. For a short film, you'd probably only need a few people, an actor or a few, a camera operator and so forth. You wouldn't have as many people in the roles as you would in a feature length film.

Actor's Contract - An actor's contract is the contract form that your actors sign to show they will be in the film, they have to also leave details such as where they are staying at that point and their home/mobile number. In a short film, you shouldn't need more than four of these, or one with all of their details on.

Budget - A budget is the amount of money that is provided to the crew for the film, it is a funding that they are given and it's the amount of money they have to work with for actors, equipment and other necessary things for film.

Storyboard - The storyboard is the basis of all visual ideas in the film, where there are sketches and drawings of the shots that will be contained in the film. These shots are based off the actors (vaguely) and also contain details of what actions will be performed based off of the script and what movements the camera will do, and what type of shot the camera will do, long shot for example.

In a short film, you would probably only need about 10-12 drawings as opposed to 100s of different drawings in feature length films, as there will be less shots.

This picture is from an assignment I did on Pre-Production Practical, an example of a Storyboard

Equipment List - The equipment list contains all the equipment, as simple as it sounds, but it is a list of all the tech and such that has or will be booked out. It will show the type of equipment and how long you have it for, also who will be operating it and who's making sure it's all in place and accounted for. You can also say how many you are to have if you're booking them in bulk.

In a short film, you wouldn't need more than one of each thing required, chances are you'd only need a single type of a camera and maybe a different one. You'd only really have one camera operator so to get more than one wouldn't be necessary in a short film production.

Camera Shot List - This is a list that contains all of the shots that will be used in the film. A little similar to a storyboard actually, but the camera shot list shows many different shots and when they will be. In a short film you wouldn't need anything more than a few shots, depending, as your time is less than that of a feature-length film.

STEP TWO: How Will You Manage Time in This Project?

To time manage in film, it's always best to have a schedule and a call sheet to fully manage your time for when production comes around.

Schedule - A schedule is mainly used for planning out what days will involve shooting, like what days certain people will be in, and what people will be in for their job, for example when the film needs editors. You will need to assign certain hours to these people and what they would have to do and where to go at what time, if they keep on top of it, it will make a work flow that's very efficient.

Call Sheet - A call sheet contains times and orders for those times, laid out in a table. There are usually commands such as 'setup' and 'break', 'lunch', also 'finish', 'pack up'. Words are usually placed in such as 'setup' and 'break' or 'end', all which mean different things. Setup means to set things up for shooting, and break signals a break for food and such, or to relax before going shooting again, and end pretty much means end of shooting for the day.

These pictures are from an assignment I did on Pre-Production Practical, an example of a Call Sheet

For a short film, chances are that you wouldn't need to have longer than a few hours shooting, with a break or two in-between, due to there being a smaller amount of shots and crew to handle. You also can put contact details on for each person involved in the production, such as a phone number for calling that person in particular.

This is an example of a call sheet with I downloaded as an example, featuring call times, people, their positions and sets with descriptions on them too. There is also a chart to the right containing the weather that it will be for that day and where to report to on the bottom left.

These documents are excellent for prepping for an upcoming film, with everyone organised by one of these, the process should be a lot easier, especially for a short film production.

STEP THREE: How Will You Work Out What Resources You Will Need?

Resources are a key asset to film, things you may need will include, actors, locations, props, camera and sound equipment too.

Actors, Locations and Props - One of the easiest ways to determine and iron out how many actors you will need would be via a script, and a script breakdown, where you highlight key things such as actors, sound, make-up and this is used to schedule the budget and production. If you scan through he script and for example, highlight all the actor parts in certain colours for each actor (with a copy of your script, as an actual script breakdown would be needed, but not in this case). You can see how many different characters there are and which will be played.

This picture is from an assignment I did on Pre-Production Practical, an example of a Script Breakdown

From there, you can see how many different people you will need for these specific character roles, and you would also note down certain attributes the characters would have to help with casting the role to someone.

This rings true for locations and props too. If you highlight certain points when the actors will go to a certain area or a different location in the story, you can total up how many locations you will need to book out and shoot at as well as what characteristics they will need to match your writing. For props, if an actor interacts with a prop or two, then you note that down too, or you could check certain parts of a storyboard to see what the drawings contain for some shots, if the props are important.

Camera and Sound Equipment - A slightly different method to obtain the numbers of how many of these you will need. You can find this out by using a storyboard, they will contain specific camera names and shot number, even the type of shot it will be (long shot, mid-shot, etc).

STEP FOUR: How Will You Manage The Budget For This Project?

Script - When you make a script, there can be costs involved, such as when you print off the script, as ink and paper for printing would cost money. It could also cost more money depending on the quantity of the paper.

Script Breakdown - The script breakdown can cost a ranging amount of money, if you keep certain parts of the script for the film and decide to keep it for the production stage, then you'll want to keep notes on how much these things would cost. This means it can be very costly or not costly at all, for a short film the budget from a script breakdown shouldn't exceed a high amount.

This picture is from an assignment I did on Pre-Production Practical, an example of a Script Breakdown

STEP FIVE: Communications?

Script - The script can be sued to communicate to your actors, if it contains stage directions, and if it contains ways in which to deliver a line. This gives a deeper meaning to the script and the writing of the writers depending on how they describe and deliver commands and emotions.

This picture is from an assignment I did on Pre-Production Practical, an example of a Script

Call Sheet - The call sheet can show communication between the producers and directors to the camera operators and actors. Since it gives specific dates to go to certain places and what time shooting is, what time breaks are and when the day ends.

STEP SIX: Ensuring Copyright?

Clearances - To ensure that one has legal copyright for using the actors in your footage and locations, you have to get clearances. These mean they are approving that they can use their acting talents and also shoot on specific locations. There are also post-production clearances, however these are for audio clips and tracks only, as that's when you would need them in your film production.

In a short film, there wouldn't be too many clearances needed, there would be a few, but not that many.

This is an example of an actual clearance form, the text covering it is due to me previewing it, not purchasing it.

This picture is from an assignment I did on Pre-Production Practical, an example of obtaining Clearances