pre-production report

 

Pre-production report

In this report I will be advising local media organizations on film pre-production and how to plan and research to produce their own films.

Pre-production is an incredibly essential first step towards making a film to a professional industry standard. It covers many aspects that need to be thoroughly planned, which are finance and budgeting, logistics, codes of practice/regulations and it is important that you have the correct process and method to effectively plan as well as use documentation that is professional. Making mistakes in any one of those aspects of planning can have massive negative ramifications on the entire project. However, the chances of something going wrong, that is out of your control are quite high and so it’s just as important that the logistical planning takes into consideration potential issues and contingencies to circumvent these. Even incredibly high profile and experienced movie studios and production companies make mistakes that would appear to be obvious, so expect setbacks and be ready for them. For example, ‘World War Z’ had an entire rewrite of the final act and they only decided what zombies should look like three weeks before shooting the film.

Finances

One of the first steps in any filmmaking process is finding a source of budget to work with. This is an important decision as it impacts every aspect of production and every decision made needs to take it into account. Almost all high-profile films are funded by one of the big six production companies, but it is incredibly unlikely that they will fund a small-scale media organization film as they are big companies looking for millions in profit and that is unlikely to happen so investing millions in small projects would be deemed as a risk for them. Obtaining a loan from a bank is another option to consider. The downside to a bank loan is that they will loan you the money with interest meaning that this is only an option if you are sure that you will get profit and even with profit it is still a significant risk and can add unnecessary extra stress to the overall production. There are two more methods of funding which would be easier to obtain and less risky and those are crowdfunding and private investment from local businesses in the local area. These should provide plenty of money for the film without being held accountable by multimillion dollar corporations and banks. The successful documentary ‘One Mile Away’ is a great example of a film made through crowdfunding finances and shows that you don’t need millions to make a great film. They used crowdfunding to get a budget of £21,003 which is enough for a documentary on the scale that the project was on. As you can see there are many upsides and downsides to every method and careful consideration is needed before deciding. The film ‘Monsters’ clearly shows why this step is important and needs to be decided early in the production as the director knew that he had a relatively low budget of $500,000 and knew what steps he needed to take to get the most out of what he was given.

 

The second aspect of finance is the overall management of the available funds to ensure that you don’t go over the budget. Effective management of the budget and getting the best out of what you have. In the film ‘Monsters’ clearly the director knew that he had a relatively low budget of $500,000 and knew what steps he needed to take to get the most out of what he was given. He miraculously made an impressive amount of profit of $4.24 million by expertly getting the most of what he had without wasting anything. This contrasts the film ‘World War Z’ where poor management meant that they needed to do reshoots which they didn’t leave room for in the budget. This meant that they had to beg Paramount to give them extra funds in order to finish the film. These extra funds took the total budget from $170 to $400 million. Obviously, this was not a great situation for Paramount and the director, and the film could have been potentially left without the reshoots or it could have been scrapped altogether. And even if the studio gave them extra money it was still a financial risk from the studio no matter what they did. This shows that a lack of budget organization can lead to the film being inadequate, unfinished or completely cancelled making everything a huge waste of both time and potential.

 

Logistics

Logistics is the organizational aspect and contains the majority of the processes that you will need to do to keep at an industry standard through the process. You need to organize when you are shooting, have detailed risk assessments, a plan of what you are shooting and where contingencies in place to minimize production issues that may occur.

A vital piece logistics is the scouting of your locations using a location recce. In ‘Monsters’ the locations to shoot are all relatively nearby to each other allowing them to quickly travel in a van from site to site and not need a plane to go from country to country. This was done due to the low budget in order to reduce the costs of travelling with the crew. This is done to ensure that the location is adequate. You will also need to do test shoots whilst you are there. This ensures that the location gives the desired look on screen. You need to scout multiple locations and evaluate them all so that you see all the potential options for your project. You also need to find multiple locations in case you cannot get permission to film on your first location of choice. You should scout out all the locations that you would need for all your scenes at the same time so that you remain organized and efficient so that production runs on schedule. However, the crew for ‘Monsters’ didn’t acquire permission to film on the locations. If they were caught, they would have been subjected to fines. 

An incredibly useful process for the logistical planning is the contingency plan. This is presented as a table and it outlines all potential problems which could interfere with the project and solutions to circumvent and reduce the impact of these setbacks on the final outcome. This includes but is not limited to what to do when an important cast member is unable to arrive for a scheduled shoot because they were sick or other important matters arise or if you end up losing footage due to computer errors or losing the storage devices that were used. All these problems can have massive ramifications on the final product and therefore these types of scenarios need to be carefully considered and planned before they happen to give the crew the best chance of effectively handling the situation and reducing the negative impact it will have. When ‘World War Z’ was in production, the plan didn’t include the potential issues that could arise from a rewrite/ reshoot and so the production ran out of both time and money and needed to delay the film in order to extend production to film new scenes which isn’t ideal as the studio funding the film had to choose whether to release the film and risk it being poorly received by the public or to spend more money to extend production and have reduced profits all because the pre-production contingencies didn’t account for this problem. Now a smaller scale project would be unable to afford to extend the shooting schedule.

Overall, effective logistical planning is essential to ensure that the project is successful to a high industry standard and to minimize problems that may occur that can have negative impacts on the production.

 

Codes of practice/regulations

In order to make a film there are various necessary legal documentations that need to be completed. If they aren’t then the production can be sued and subjected to various legal damaging than has unnecessary costs to the budget. For example, whilst ‘filming World War Z’ the guns used in the film weren’t deactivated properly because of poor paperwork. 100 guns were confiscated by Hungary’s counterterrorism Centre which cost the studio. This was a huge inconvenience as they would have had to pay a fine from the government and get new guns which would cost the studio money as well as give them bad publicity in the media. So, you need to ensure that the correct legal documentation is completed so that you aren’t liable to legal actions that can cut.

The first thing you will need is permission to film at a location which would need to be in an email or letter to prove that they are allowing you to film there. Without it you could be sued if the owner of the land wants to and without proof of permission there isn’t a lot you can do to stop them. This money would then have to come out of either your budget or profits which is not ideal. However, permission to film could come at a price so some low budgeted productions may film illegally and take the risk of a fine in order to create the film cheaper. This was done for the film ‘Monsters’ if they had been caught it would likely have costed more in legal fees than obtaining the permission in the first place to shoot on site but that is a risk that they had likely thoroughly assessed the legal risk and had contingencies in place in to allow production to be continued. Besides from fines, other potential problems that can arise if they are caught are that the shots will technically belong to the owners of the land and they decide what is done with the actual footage. Therefore, not gaining permission to film can result in losing your footage which would cause a massive setback and you would need to reorganize everything from shoot schedules for reshooting and location recce if the project doesn’t get cancelled altogether.

Risk assessments are also vital to ensure the safety of the crew and protect the projects budget. This is an evaluation of what can go wrong to injure cast members or crew and what steps are taken to ensure everyone’s safety. The ‘One Mile Away’ gang documentary is a great example of why a risk assessment is needed as in the documentary the crew were surrounded by armed gang members who were involved in drama and arguments with each other. This scenario is obviously volatile and dangerous and therefore needs to be assessed in order to reduce harm to the crew. One example of a step they took to keep the crew safe was that they all wore stab proof vests, and every member of the cast was fully informed of the risks to their wellbeing and signed documentation so that if anything were to happen then the production company would not be liable to and they won’t have to pay compensation.

In summary the codes of practice need to be followed as the risks are too great. If the worst happens and someone is severely injured or dies, then these documentations are important to protect the project and if they aren’t adequately filled in then the costs could be too great for a small-scale project.

 

Pre-production documentation

Pre-production documentation refers to any documents that are made and ranges from storyboards to contingency plans. Everything should be organized and documented in a secure place or saved in a single folder on the computer so that you don’t lose or forget to fill in specific documents that you will need. For example, when you get to the day of shooting you will need your shot list.

‘Monsters’ didn’t have a completed storyboard or script when filming. Instead, Gareth Edwards had specific key plot points in his head that weren’t outlined in any form. Because of this a lot of burden was placed on the actors to perform with minimal direction and few lines to work with. Therefore, scriptwriting is important to help actors give their best performance possible. The story may also have made sense in his head, but he may have overlooked a plot hole he didn’t see and if he had a script, it would have been noticed and corrected. The director was lucky that he was able to have great actors that were on the same page as him and that his story was well crafted. This contrasts ‘World War Z’ which had a detailed script but needed a rewrite of the third act. This highlights the benefit of having a script as it can be reviewed by other people and corrected whereas Monsters was all in one person’s head. In my opinion putting pen to paper and writing a script is way more organized and secure. Gareth Edwards could have forgotten certain details and remembered them when it was too late, he could have started to doubt his ideas on set and wouldn’t have anything to look at to change or correct on set. A script can be an ever-changing part of the film and writing it down doesn’t mean that you have to commit to that story and you can change it whenever you want. 

An important reason for keeping every document safe is because you never know when you might need them. In production of ‘Deadpool 2’ a stunt went disastrously and it cost a stuntwoman their life. This is a situation that the production would have assessed and anticipated it potentially happening. When the tragedy occurred, the studio needed the risk assessments and needed to review them to see if the safety measures were taken to avoid the situation. They needed to see if they were liable for the accident so that they can take steps to move onwards with the production without lawsuits burdening the project.

In conclusion, I feel that the documentation must be secured, safe and completed for the cast crew and ready for any legislation issues that may arise so that the production can run smoothly and without needlessly losing budget due to inadequate documentation which can ruin a small-scale project like yours.

 

Pre-production process

The order of which you complete these production processes is as important as doing these processes themselves. For example, you can’t have an effective shot schedule without first having a script and storyboard. The first stage of all production is coming up with the idea of what film you are wanting to make and researching into the genre and films like yours so that you have a good idea of which direction you want to take the idea in order to be successful. Then you can organize budget, scripts and storyboards.

When ‘World War Z’ was about to be filmed the director still had not decided what the aesthetic and movements of the zombies should be. This clearly shows a lack of organization and overall lack of vision for what the final project should be. A crucial creative decision should have been made way before shooting because they could end up needing more props or might need to spend extra money on CGI and these could be problematic to sort last minute. A smaller scale project like yours may be unable to get new props in a week if you have already used a substantial amount of the budget and they might not arrive in time causing a delay and making you must reschedule shoots which can lead to cast and crew contract extensions. This problem could have been solved if the pre- production had this aspect of the creative side of the film included in the action plan as then this choice wouldn’t have been made at the last possible moment.

Therefore, I would suggest that you start off creating a clear order of what needs to be done and create an action plan outlining when you should do certain processes to guarantee that you have plenty of time to complete pre-production production and postproduction. If you are still doing aspects of pre-production whilst filming, then the project is behind schedule which leads to unnecessary costs that may end up reducing your overall profit.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion the key to all the stages of production is organization of time money and paperwork. All these aspects are constantly needed to be balanced as I’ve explained how each one of them can detrimentally ruin the entire project. Successful management can allow you to create high quality industry standard films without a multimillion-dollar budget of other films like ‘World War Z’. It doesn’t matter what scale project you are working with; all productions need to be well managed to make the production run smooth on schedule. Making a film can be highly profitable but it can also be very risky and so any media producers big and small need to do their own research and assess whether going ahead with a film production. You need to be smart about where you obtain funding as well due to the many pros and cons of each funding method but with smart decisions and not cutting corners any small producer can make a lot of profit-making films for a low production cost.