evaluation

 Evaluation

Pre-production is all about managing the finances, logistics and creative choices that need to be made to make a film. This stage in filmmaking is the most crucial as it effects every aspect of the film and can easily decide the quality of the finished product. Effective project management is all about ensuring that the production of the film runs smoothly, on schedule, and that no aspect is forgotten about. My aim for the project is to make sure all those things happen.  

Finances

I feel that my management of both finance and budgeting were professional and efficient. Very little money was wasted and we managed to make the film on a low budget. An important part of keeping the expenses low was being organized and planning, ahead of time, what funding methods we should use. By evaluating, in pre-production, the advantages and disadvantages of various sources of funding we managed to find a way to get enough money without much hassle. I figured out that a bank loan has its drawbacks; with repaying the loan and we were unlikely to obtain private funding due to the fact that there is no profit in the final outcome and the funding would be little anyway as it’s a small-scale project so private investors would see it as a waste of time. Here is a table evaluating them (below).

                                           

Therefore, I decided to fund it myself as it was the easiest and quickest method and I knew the only drawback would be the fact that I’m spending money, which I was prepared to do. This overall meant that we had to be careful to prioritize money for costumes and props and other resources and not spend too much money on things that weren’t necessary. I believe in this aspect of production it was incredibly successful as we ran into little issues. The only negative impact on my project is that we can’t go over budget because it’s my money but this does mean that I can spend however much I want without making myself poor.

 

Logistics

Logistics is the organizational aspect of production and it is vital that it is done effectively as if it isn’t at an industry standard, then the entire production can fall apart due to a lack of direction, coordination and organization. Therefore, if the logistics are done without careful consideration then you could miss crucial steps in production which could lead to the final outcome missing scenes or with segments with rushed editing which wouldn’t be professional and therefore wouldn’t meet the aims. A key part in this is the action plan. This plan is the first thing that I did in pre-production as it outlines all of the steps in pre-production that need to be taken and in what order. This also outlines where I have gaps in my schedule designed to allow me to reshoot if necessary and give me extra time for editing if I run behind schedule. This action plan is aided by my risk assessment and contingency plan which both outline problems that could occur and how to solve the in an effective way.

                                                    

  

As you can see this action plan is very well thought out and user friendly to read with the weeks outlined to notify the production team how long it should take to complete each given task. This effectively makes a checklist that allowed us to clearly see if we were behind or ahead of schedule and allowed us to effectively foresee any setbacks. Whenever we started the next step the first thing we did was check the action plan making it essential to the entire filmmaking process. We always did this to keep on track and never miss any steps.

Inevitably, setbacks occurred. We had two imperative outlines for how to circumvent these catastrophes in the form of risk assessments and contingency plans.

Potential problem	contingency
Equipment damaged or lost.	If we are unable to use the equipment for example the cameras, we can use our phone cameras as a last resort. The camera quality is good enough and the microphones can even record in stereo now so we could even use them for sound if any microphones are unusable. If the equipment is damaged and it’s our fault we may have to pay the loaners some   compensation which would be a blow to our budget.
Last minute rewrites.	I will most likely only rewrite the script if I already have thought of the big changes. If I have ideas for extra lines they will probably be added to the script and tried during filming after the main shooting has done for the scene. This allows me to then edit these parts out if I change my mind later. Bigger changes like new scenes set in new locations with a slightly different plot for the overall film will be considered more and the logistics of being able to make these scenes will be thoroughly evaluated. The extra weeks may also be obviously used.
Loss of footage	Depending on the amount of footage lost there   will be reshoots needed which is accounted for in the action plan with an extra week in between the editing phase for any necessary reshoots. These reshoots may also be used for any changes in the story.
Staff/cast unavailability	Depending on the reason then there can be a rescheduling later on in the weeks of filming. If cast will be unavailable unexpectedly for a significant amount of time to the point where rescheduling is impossible then they may be recast. If nobody can be found a crew member   or myself will step in and do the job ourselves.
running behind schedule	If we run behind schedule then it we have extra time to reschedule for extra shoots. If the editing process is what is taking too long then the extra two weeks will be used as extra editing time.

 As you can see this, contingency plan outlines the potential problem that can occur. This was   when we needed to reshoot as it outlined the way we should logically move forward in a professional manner. In conclusion this contingency plan was crucial to staying on track and it was incredibly vital to keeping the production industry standard and without it the entire final stages of the production wouldn’t have been as organized in, what I consider, the most vital stages of the project. This is because if these risks aren’t planned and they happen then the problem may not be handled as effectively which can cause the film to be delayed, rushed and the quality of the film could not be an industry standard.

Here is my risk assessment and after is a professional example.

I believe that my risk assessment is as detailed as the example however, the professional example has information such as the site that its is supposed to be assessing making it more organized within the entire project.

If I didn’t have this risk assessment then I could be liable for any damages to people or rented equipment and I would have to pay compensation which can impact the entire project as I wouldn’t be able to invest as much money in the project for extra props and equipment. This risk assessment also outlines what needs to be done to minimize the risk so having it would also reduce the chance of injury to the cast and crew.

 

Creative

The creative aspect of production mainly consists of the story and how it should be presented to the audience for example what angles and shots will be the most effective at presenting the story in its full glory to the audience. If the film ends up being boring, confusing or just plain awful then the creative process is flawed. The key to success in the creative component is trying to blend the vision of the writer alongside what the director and editors choose to cut and keep. This is because what makes an excellent book, story or script doesn’t necessarily work well on the big screen due to filmmaking concepts like pacing. To circumvent this we used a film treatment to establish basic guidelines for what the creative vision of the film is to allow us to ensure we are heading in the right direction.

                                        

This treatment also gives us simple character descriptions with room for their motivations and charisma to be fleshed out in the script. We also have a run time which allows the director and editors to cut and alter the story to make the scenes flow in a professional manner without making the film too long and avoiding the film from dragging on.  

Here is a professional film treatment to compare to my own.

This treatment is a lot more summarized and easier to understand than my own due to the layout and presentation making the information clear to the reader. They can quickly see each section and find the necessary information that they are trying to find where mine isn’t as clear to see the subheadings as they are not bold and therefore at a glance they are hard to see.

Conclusion

In summary, the production went relatively smoothly. When we needed to reshoot some sequences in the final stages of the development due to a mix of creative changes in the editing phase, the contingency plan led us to the appropriate path forwards and lifted the pressures of last minute panic that would have likely overwhelmed me if I hadn’t foreseen it as a potential issue. Because of this I believe that the creative aspects needed to be developed further as in my opinion they were the clear downfall in the production. This shows me how essential the logistics were due to the fact that without them this entire film could have quickly fallen apart and been a catastrophe. I do believe that my management style can be perceived as professional because I had the ability to accurately see the problems that we would have with professional contingencies to succeed in our aims.