The Pre-Production Process

The Pre-Production Process

Pre-Production is one of the 3 main parts of a production, (Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production) and is the planning section of the process. When used in a moving image production, the type of moving image production, source of finance, requirements, time and the legal side of the motion picture are all taken into account. This stage begins once the project in question has been ‘greenlit’.

Type of Production

Our production was a short independent film for a college project which we distributed on YouTube.

Two of the most well-known types of production include Hollywood and Independent movies. Hollywood movies are more publicised due to the high budget – meaning it is easier for advertisements to be strategically placed throughout media in order to attract attention of possible consumers. The ‘trailers’ for these movies are regularly shown at film festivals, in cinemas, on TV and in places easy for the public eye to see, such as on the sides of buses and on billboards along busy streets. Transformers: Age of Extinction is an example of a large advertisement scheme, with its marketers spending a reported $100 million on the films advertising alone.

On the other hand, independent movies are less main stream as a result of the low budget; with the average independent movie’s budget lying at around $750,000, meaning that advertising on a large scale is harder due to a lack of sufficient funds. As a result of this, independent films would usually try to rely on social media for its advertising, using sites like YouTube, ITunes and Facebook as advertising is much cheaper, however the advertisement would not reach as many people as a Hollywood movie would – hence why most Hollywood movies have a much larger income and audience than that of an independent film.  

Another side of the type of production is the type of Moving Image Production, in which there are many types. The most well-known types are Film and Animation. Film is live-action content with most adding in features in post-production to increase the realism – or unrealism – of the film in question. An example of a film would be The Dark Knight, which is a large budgeted Hollywood production.

Animation, on the other hand, is a collection of related drawings or models edited together to create a sequence. There are different types of animation, including traditional animation or 2D animation, which is created using many related drawings edited together. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is an example of a traditional animation, and took months to animate on a $1.5 million budget. 2D animation was later created digitally.

3D animation is created digitally, and is used to create more realistic models and surroundings for the production. It works the same as any other animation, with the models being moved one frame at a time to create the sense of movement. An example of a 3D animation is Toy Story 3, which cost $200,000,000 to make.

Stop motion is another type of animation, in which physically static objects are moved around frame by frame to create the illusion of the character/object moving. It is a less popular method used in films, usually due to the long process, with some animators even making the stop motion type animation in a 3D software; which helps avoid the long periods of work time, allowing more to happen in the scene without the process becoming too confusing. An example of a stop motion film is Coraline, which cost $60 million to make. The digital stop motion technique is shown in the Lego Movie, also costing around $60 million.

TV shows are also a Moving Image Production, usually running for shorter period of time than a movie, however more than one part is produced. These include Soap Operas, which are TV programmes that revolve around the daily lives of a certain group of characters, including EastEnders, which costs a predicted £140,000 per episode.

Dramas are a form of TV programme that are usually less realistic than soap operas, with a more intense storyline. An example is Stranger Things, who’s second season cost around $8 million per episode.

Sitcoms are ongoing comedic TV shows – usually going with a Soap Opera style basis of a certain few characters and a certain few environments, however go on for a shorter time than Soap Operas. Seinfeld was an example, with the main character Jerry Seinfeld making around $1 million per episode by the 9^th season.

Sources of Finance

There are many sources of finance a film can receive. A film needs this money to fund the requirements of the film, such as actors, camera equipment, creative, etc. and depending on what type of film and production is being made, may cost a lot.

Equity is one way of funding a film, and requires the investors to be shareholders in the film. The investors must be paid back – plus profit – before the film makers can make pay-outs to required sources using the profit they received. This method is usually used by Hollywood/larger companies, as they are more likely to have a higher-class person invest a lot of money into their film due to it being a well-known company who will receive a lot of profit.

The Pre-Sales method is agreed before the making of the production, with a distributor generating a value of its cast, script, marketing team and crew, with the production team then given a deal to draw out a bank loan of the amount of money the distributor has set, which then is paid back without profit once the production has finished.

The deferred method usually means that the producers avoid most costs when making a film. This type of deal states that all actors, crew members, equipment, locations and vendors are cost-free until the film’s profit is made after it comes out. This film is infamous due to the fact that the crew of the film could have worked hours only to get a smaller pay check than expected because the film didn’t do as well as the producers thought.

Crowdfunding, a method popularly used by independent filmmakers, requires the producers to use sites such as Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Patreon to fund their films. Donations are given by anyone who wants to help the film, and no money is given to third parties once the film is complete, instead the profit given to those involved in the production, such as the crew, cast and production team. Depending on the scale of the company who have set up the crowdfund, rewards such as coming on set, meeting the cast etc. can be given out to large scale donators for their input. An example of a crowdfunded film is ‘Veronica Mars’, which raised their targeted $2 million in less than 10 hours.

Requirements

In a film’s production, almost everything has to be paid for. In a large-scale Hollywood production, this includes the cameras and mics used, which are usually rented out from specialist distributors, with the average Hollywood movie camera renting at around $10,000 a week. The crew and cast is also paid for, including the editors, sound team, camera team, makeup team, lighting team, prop team, crane operators, runners, technicians and the set team; actors and production team, costing around $14 million to fund all of the crew. Not only this, but the props are also paid for, which includes the costumes, locations and mis-en-scene, as well as the sound effects and visual effects shown and heard throughout the film.

For our project, we had to obtain a camera bag which included a camera, hard drive and a tripod. We also had to get cloaks online to wear in our production.

Personnel

In a low budget short, the members of the crew are not the highest ranked in their sector due to the most skilled being too expensive for the small company making the film. Usually the director and actors of the film takes on other roles, such as editing and lighting. The crew could be made up of 10/15 people at a push, and money is not usually of concern, with a gain of experience being the reason each crew member is involved.

Television programmes are different to film crews due to the fact that the writers, cast, crew members are working for a much longer period of time. This means that the crew is paid less to keep the TV programme going and with a stable budget – as the crew and cast aren’t doing a bulk of work, but more of a drawn out process. The writers need to constantly be coming up with ideas, and are one of the most important parts of the programme, as they need to keep the show fresh and original in order to keep viewers and bring in new ones. Because of this, there are usually a team of writers used, and many crew members so that other crew members can have breaks as the entire process is extremely long.

Hollywood films usually have more cast than a TV show and a low budget short, but for a shorter period of time than a TV show. Due to this, the crew and cast are paid more, but the Hollywood production has less backup crew as there is less risk of them needing as many breaks as a TV programmes crew. The average credits of a Hollywood movie are around 588.

There were 3 people in our group. We all had a say in the plot and script, as well as writing the script and making the storyboards. Katie did the legal papers such as the Clearance and the talent signings. When it came down to the production, each one of us played a role as the cast, as well as all setting up the camera at one point or another. The jobs were split off when it came to post production, though, with me being the editor.

Time

If a studio doesn’t reach a deadline, many issues appear. Most are financial, with the camera equipment having to be hired out for a longer period of time, and crew, casting and props having to be kept for longer, increasing the prices of these priorities. Not only this, but the film will have to be remarketed, costing more money for this to happen. Not only is remarketing a financial problem, but the audience who wanted to see the movie may become uninterested or feel as if there was a problem with the film, meaning they will look at reviews of the film to see if they want to spend their money on it rather than forming their own opinions.

An example of a film which suffered due to not hitting a deadline was ‘Motor City’, which didn’t hit Warner Bros. deadline and was therefore pulled because it’s financial backers couldn’t get a bond for the film. This was due to ‘a very short post-production schedule and complicated visual and special effects’. This would obviously not go down well for all involved as they realise that the production was a waste of their time and effort.

Our timeframe was 2 weeks for each section of production. We had to cut parts out of our production as we were running out of time – something I will work on for the next production.

Equipment/Facilities

Professional moving image productions rent out their equipment using high level film and production rental companies. An example is Monsoon Production Services, who rent out camera packages including mounts, lenses etc. for around $1000 a day. There are 2 relatively close – one in Suffolk called ‘Greenspark’ and one called the JMS Group in Norwich.

We had to hire out the equipment from out Skills Department, in which one person of the 3 would rent it out and hand it back in. We had to get a camera, hard drive and a tripod as the basics for our film, and had to hand it back once we’d finished with it each day.

Locations

Location recces is similar to ‘location scouting’ and it is visiting a location prior to filming to determine its suitability for shooting, including any issues such as light or sound issues, as well as any nearby facilities which may be needed. To film in that area you need a release form, which is a contract between the production team and the owner of the property to allow the project to be filmed in that area. If a location is not under contract of a location release form, though, the owner of the private land has the right to sue the trespasser.

We picked out our settings based on what we wanted the mood to be, with one half of the film being light due to a light, innocent atmosphere and the second half being in darkness to reminisce the evil atmosphere surrounding the plot. We had to get legal permission to film outside and inside the college – in which we had to sign paperwork. 

Materials

Materials that don’t include equipment, cast or crew are just as important as the stars of the production and the cameras. This includes the scripts, which is the main idea of what the project will be about, and what the story would lead to. A list of equipment is also needed, so that the production team can get the right amount of each piece of equipment that would be needed. A storyboard is important for any film so that the director can visualise what each scene will have to include when on set. Both the script and storyboard will cost time and money due to a script writer and a storyboard maker having to be employed, as well as a lot of paper being used when making each because of the number of pages used for the creative writing as well as the amount of times the script and storyboards have to be rewritten/drawn.

Legal Issues

The BBFC take into account many legal considerations when giving a film an age rating, as it is restricted for people under the age of 18 to enter an 18+ film to prevent crime and disorder, public nuisance and to protect children from harm, as it is believed that children who watch films which include criminal behaviour, violent behaviour or incidents, horrific behaviour or incidents or human sexual activity could affect children or vulnerable people in a negative way.

Copyright is a massive issue in film, which can lead to legal action if there are any original creations such as musical or artistic work used without permission. It prevents copying and distribution of work that is under copyright law.

Clearance is getting all of the required permission for sets, actors/extras, stock film, computer programs, music, etc. when creating a film. This could be using a piece of music that wasn’t created by the production in question, such as the use of ‘Ain’t No Grave’ by Johnny Cash in Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge trailer.

Public Liability Insurance is when a production needs proof that they have permission to film in a certain area with coverage if filming activities damage or injure property/people not involved in a film. Many action movies, such as the Avengers, use this – as they filmed a battle scene on the Streets of New York which could have easily damaged surrounding were something to go wrong.

A Completion Guarantee is insurance in which the producer sets a date that the project will be finished by, and if it isn’t the producer can take action in order to protect the financial standings of themselves and the investors in the film. Most films have one, which is what dates of film release is calculated by.

Copyright meant that our project could not use any known music for our project to create an ominous setting, instead having to use royalty free music which is lower in quality, as there was a slim chance we could have got permission to use any copyrighted music.

Regulation

OFCOM is the UK’s communications regulator, which stops UK residents from seeing programmes on TV considered inappropriate. After 9pm, the strictness of the regulation lowers due to children under the appropriate age usually not watching TV at that time. They also regulate radio and phone telecoms.

The BBC is regulated by the non-profit organisation OFT (Office of Fair Trading) which instead of a media regulator is more of an economic regulator, which prohibits scams, cartels and rouge trading.

Moving image productions via the internet are harder to regulate due to their being so much more content with so much freedom as to how and where the content is put up. This means that pirated movies, live steams of pay-per-views and illegal videos can be put on the internet for days without being paid any attention. Although the videos are considered ‘illegal’ due to the content and other laws, there are actually no laws which stop people from being able to post what they would like, also because of how hard it would be for companies such as OFT and OFCOM to regulate.

Trade Unions and Trade Associations

Trade unions are a group of people that fight for rights. It is important in today’s society with racism and sexism still around, and they can be portrayed in films to help deliver a message and get the point of that union across.

PACT and BECTU are examples of a Trade Union, and can help filmmakers forward their ideas to a production company depending on what production company that the filmmaker thinks is best. The point of this is to help the careers of filmmakers who need recognition to get their careers moving in the right direction.

A trade association is a business which promotes advertising, education and publishing. It collaborates with other companies in order to help them.