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Dec 10, 2023 · Pre-Production in film is the planning and execution of necessary tasks before production begins, including creative and logistic decisions.
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- Cast Your Actors
- What Is Pre Production?
- 4 Steps in The Pre Production Process
- Scripting
- Legal & Budgets
- Creative Planning
- Logistics
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Pre-production is the creative and logistical process of planning the elements needed to produce a feature film, TV show, play, or any other type of creative performance. Pre-production is part of a three-step process followed by production (the actual filming or performance), and post-preduction, which mainly consists of editing, visual effects.
Scripting: Write your script and create a script breakdown.Legal and Budgets: Take care of the business side of production and hire your crew.Creative Planning: Work with your department heads to plan out everything needed to make your project work. Storyboard and make a shot list.Logistics: Revise your shooting schedule and budget. Work with your location scout, book gear, hire talent, and start rehearsing.1. Write the script
The first step in successful film production is getting your script ready. Not sure how to tackle the screenwriting process? We've got you covered with our handy guide: How to write a script.
2. Create a script breakdown
Now that your script's sorted, it's time to dive into the meat of the pre-production process. At this production stage, you need to go through your entire script and pick out everything – location, character, costume, sound effect, prop, visual effect, extras – that's seen or heard in the film. It's important that you get every last bit. If not, your list of things to prepare for the shoot or post-production will be missing some crucial elements.
3. Form a company
Every production is basically a business. So before you start putting out casting calls, you need to decide what kind of business you are. Some people produce the film with an existing production company. Other people create a new corporate identity for the production. Once you've sorted out your business entity, you can do all the important stuff: open a bank account, deposit production funds, and start building your production team. Maybe make some business cards if you're feeling fancy.
4. Make a budget
It's time to work out how much money you're going to spend on this thing – and that's where your script breakdown comes in handy. You'll use it to create three different budgets: 1. Dream budgetImagine money's no object. Who would you cast as your lead? Who'd be in your film crew? Where would you shoot the film? Figure out how much it would cost for all your perfect locations, characters, props, and everything else in your script breakdown. Then write that figure down. 2. Restrained budgetDo...
5. Create a production schedule
If you've got the resources, you might want to bring a line produceron board to prepare a preliminary production schedule. It's mostly dictated by your shooting schedule, so you'll need to go through your shooting script to figure out how many scenes you can shoot each day. Most productions try to shoot five pages a day, which is about five minutes of screen time.
7. Start creative planning
Once you've recruited your department heads, your director will start the creative planning. The goal of this stage is for the departments to figure out what they'll need to fulfil the director's vision. They'll meet regularly and tell the line producer what they need so the budget can be adjusted. This is the time for the line producer or production manager to ask big questions and identify any risks. Like whether the production designer needs extra time to build a tricky set. Or if the cine...
8. Create a storyboard
As you start thinking about your shot list, you might find it helpful to create a detailed storyboard, too. Not sure what a storyboard is? We've got a tonne of examples featuring loads of different storyboard artists – and a free storyboard template. Essentially, storyboarding is when you (and your director, DP, and creative team) map out each scene in pictures. It's a way of being able to visualise your film before shooting starts. Which should mean you make fewer mistakes – and save more mo...
9. Make a shot list
It’s easy to get lost during a shoot, even with a small team. If you’ve got lots of settings, multiple actors, and a large crew, then things only get more complicated. A shot list keeps a project on track. Before filming, it helps directors to collect their thoughts and build a shooting schedule. During filming, a solid camera shot list means different departments can work independently from each other. It also makes it easy to keep going if a crew member’s sick one day, or has to leave the s...
10. Revise the budget and shooting schedule
Now that the pre-production process is a little further along, your line producer or production manager will have more information to tweak your budget and schedule. This stage of the video production process can be a bit sticky if your director or department heads have larger cinematography goals than your finances can handle. The whole team needs to pull together to help the line producer or UPM strike a balance between your creative, financial and logistical goals. It's also important to c...
11. Book the gear and locations
You're going to need a lot of stuff to make your cinematic masterpiece: equipment, rentals, props, building supplies, costume designer. This is mostly a job for department heads and your line producer or production manager. It's also when your location manager starts location scouting. It's happening!
12. Hire your production crew and talent
As things start hotting up, your departments will begin to build their crews. It's also time for your casting director to put out some casting calls and find the hottest talent. You'll sign union agreements and contracts so you can bring union members onboard – which will keep your production coordinator nice and busy with paperwork. Lucky person. After this stage is complete, you should have all the things you need to make your movie: cast, crew, production staff, locations, and any special...
Boords is the storyboarding app for creative professionals. Simplify your pre-production process with storyboards, scripts, and animatics– then gather feedback – all in one place. Creating storyboards has never been simpler.
So if you do neglect any aspect of your film during pre-production, just know you are effectively relinquishing your control over it. For example, some directors may choose to not hold any rehearsals with their actors.
Mar 31, 2024 · Pre-production refers to all the preparation necessary before filming begins. In other words, it’s everything that happens between financing being secured and production. There’s three major things that have to happen during this stage. Budgeting. You have the money, now how do you spend it?
- Script breakdown: After a project is greenlit, you’ll need to finalize your shooting script. Once the script is locked, the first AD will comb through the screenplay and create a breakdown of all your times of day, locations, characters, stunts, extras, special effects, props, vehicles, animals, sound effects, music cues, and costumes—everything that is significant on a logistical level.
- Budget: Once you know the logistical elements to prepare for, you’ll have to figure out how much it will cost. Whether you have a low budget or a high budget, now is the time to determine how you can achieve the vision of the film with the resources you have.
- Schedule: Your production schedule (or shooting schedule) will help you figure out which scenes you shoot when, where you shoot them, and how many you shoot per day.
- Crew: Assemble your crew members and valuable department heads. You’ll want to hire a director, a first assistant director, a production manager, a cinematographer (known as the director of photography), a casting director, a production designer, and a costume designer.
Mar 27, 2022 · Pre-production involves organizing every aspect of the film before the cameras start rolling — from casting to the crew that will work to bring it all to life.
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The Pre-Production Process in Film — As part of our Stages of Filmmaking series, we dive into all the preparation necessary before the camera rolls, includin...
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