Unit 4 - Pre-Production (Linked to Unit 10)

Assignment 1 - Learning Aim A

 

Introduction 

In this blog, I am going to evaluate the pre-production requirements, processes and documentation within the film and TV sectors and look at how they apply to a range of different types of the product within these sectors including examples of independent films, and mainstream films as well as TV dramas. 

The pre-production requirements:

Finance

Before a film can begin production there are several pre-production requirements. For example, finance is extremely important for any media production to take place, you need to be able to afford what your end goal is. With finance comes budgeting and it is extremely important, you must have enough money in order to take the media product. There are different ways films are financed.Independent film makes can try to get funding from different things such as Kickstarter and the British film institute. The British film institute use national lottery funds which help just starting and inspiring UK filmmakers. Lots of other methods of independent funding are available too and a list can be found at http://film.britishcouncil.org/resources/funding.

 

In the case study film “ the cottage” , steel mill pictures were not able to raise enough funds to achieve the film and instead were able to achieve a budget which allowed for the making of a social British realist film “London to Brighton” the money they made from London to Brighton. London to Brighton had a budget of £80,000 which was funded by private equity and completion money from the UK film councils new cinema fund. London to Brighton was filmed over 19 days, using guerrilla filming. Steel mill pictures couldn’t afford for any days of the filming to go wrong as they were on a small budget as they wanted to make as much money as possible to go towards the original film idea which was “the cottage”. This shows that for some genre types, films can be shot under short time frames and low budgets. Thus, the UK Film Councils New Cinema Fund can help new producers to create their films to a good standard, despite having any doubts of finance.  

Another way of sourcing finance is through film festivals. Again, Steel Mill Pictures were involved in the use of this source of finance in the production of ‘The Cottage’ in 2008. The Cottage was Paul Andrew Williams' original idea as he set up Steel Mill Pictures with Ken Marshall, in 1995. When realising he didn't have the funds to produce the film, he gave up on the idea and made 'London to Brighton instead. This film became a massive success, as it was published in the film festival, then Steel Mill Pictures gained a lot of attention and equity through this, and a lot more than expected. Steel Mill Pictures then managed to raised a lot of money, £2.5million in fact, to produce 'The Cottage'. The Microwave Scheme was a way of sourcing finance used by Rory Aitkens and Ben Pugh, working for Between the Eyes, when producing the film Shifty in 2008. The Microwave Scheme is funded by the government and is where you are given a set budget of £100,000 and challenges you to make a short film. From box office, the film then made £244,579, a £144,579 profit. 

 

Veronica Mars was funded by kickstarter. Veronica Mars was originally a programme so when fans heard that they wanted to make a film all fans rushed to help fund the project. Veronica Mars was the most popular film on kickstarter so was the quickest film to make $2million. Without all the funding Veronica Mars wouldn’t have been able to be made as they did not have the money.
 

Costs and logistics 

Another thing that needs to be thought through properly in pre- production costs and logistics.

In 2015 the Bruce Willis film the Wake came up short on cash so it didn't get completed and the cash they had just spent on it got wasted. This also meant that a portion of the staff don't get paid as well, which would be terrible for them. 

 

To stop this from happening you need to plan spending appropriately in advance and think about every one of the expenses. You need to ensure you spending plan for all the undeniable things like on-screen characters and team, props and outfits and you either need to purchase the camera gear or contract it. You additionally need to consider different costs, for example, transportation, encouraging the group, employing areas and office and paying for clearances. 

 

You have to spare a portion of the spending limit for after generation too as you may need to pay for consents to utilise music, and so on. A portion of your team, similar to the content author may get paid on an eminences premise which means you pay them less forthcoming, so have more cash to spend on the generation, yet you need to pay them a greater level of the benefit if the creation is successful. 

 

To ensure this doesn't occur you have to ensure you produce a definite creation plan and finalise spending plans, and work in some possibility in the event that the most exceedingly terrible occurs and you over run, so you have an approach to make up for lost time before the finish of the shoot. Furthermore, it may not simply be a cash issue if things run late, your areas may just be accessible for the time you have booked them, or entertainers may need to take a shot at different undertakings, so a generation plan truly is significant.

 

Codes of Practice

Film makers have to have people that sort the legal side of things out. For example the “legal people” need to look into things to do with copyright etc. Whilst making a film it is very important that if any music is used that it is original or the music has been paid for and the permission from the MCPS/PRS has been granted. If this is not done the film producers could get taken to court, this would cost a lot of money and it may put a financial strain on the film directing company.

 

There is also a lot of health and safety in pre-production. In pre-

production risk assessments need to be filled out and some specialist equipment may need to be used during certain stunts for them to be safe.Sometimes stunt doubles are needed as the actual actor may cause injury to themselves as most the time they won’t be properly trained.Although stunt doubles will be properly trained stunts still go wrong at time so it is important that there is always a first aider on site during filming.An example of this is In 2009 the Harry Potter stunt double suffered a serious back injury and that meant filming closed down for a week which cost the producers a lot of money(www.dailymail.co.uk). 

 

Another thing that producers must do is make sure they are paying their actors enough. This is because of the union called equity which says how much actors must be paid for the jobs they are doing. Independent producers have their own organisation they can join called PACT (Producer’s alliance) which “supports its members with legal and business affairs advice and support” (www.pact.co.uk). 

 

There is also a union like this called BECTU which says how much directors and technical crew should be paid for there work.

 

Formats of pre production documents 

Some big companies won’t look at work if they are not documented in a certain way. For instance scripts have to be written a certain way depending on what the media product is.For example a film script written in the UK would look different to a script written for a programme in the US. 

 

Scripts needs to have a title page with details on how to contact the director usually in the bottom left corner. There are different types of scripts, there is a ‘shooting script’ which is the script that is actually used during filming, these are more complex than spect scripts. Spect scripts are just used to sell the media product. Spect scripts are used instead of shooting scripts because shooting scripts whilst trying to sell the movie might get confusing to the director. If the director is confused by the script this may put them of wanting to direct the script you are putting in front of them. If spec scripts were given out to crew and camera men, there wouldn’t be enough information for them to go off. As there is more information on the shooting scripts it also tells the camera team and crew members what to do in order for filming to go smoothly.

Both the script contains different information and are formatted differently, but they are both extremely important.  Other documents will be created in numerous formats, however you'd still got to ensure they nine are appropriate purpose. for instance legal documents like agreements will have totally different phrasing however they'd have to be compelled to be checked out by legal consultants to create certain that there aren't any loopholes and are truthful to each side.Same with documents like risk assessments, they will be in several formats however got to show the risks and the way you'd minimise them and ensure procedures are safe to stop accidents.it's essential that each one pre-production documents are created to hide all the aspects of the method. this may make sure that the production runs okay.

 

Whilst filming Harry Potter they used multiple scripts as they were changed and updated throughout. Every Time they updated the script the script was printed on different colour paper,they did this so when they update the scripts it is obvious that everyone has the correct scripts. They also watermarked all their scripts so that the scripts could not be taken and spread online.

 

The purposes of pre-production documentation.

The purposes of pre production documentation is too ensure that every single part of production is planned and ready, meaning production can run as smoothly as possible. Also, these pieces of documentation can possibly make it easier to know how things will run if parts of production go wrong. Correct budgeting is very important for the production team to know just in case staff and cast need to travel again which will cost a lot of money if there is any spare money to pay for it.

Whilst budgeting the thought that things may go wrong needs to be in mind. There needs to be enough money for if something goes wrong. 

Risk assessments are used within pre production to prove what companies are planning to do is safe enough and to ensure to others allowing the production companies on their sites or premises that the likelihood of severe injuries occurring is very low. Scripts make the time on set when shooting scenes much easier and efficient due to the fact that all cast members and staff have a clear understanding of when and where to do things. 

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In conclusion all parts during pre-production needs to be done thoroughly. In order for things to go well all the sectors in pre- production need to go well.All minor details add up in order for the whole production to work.