Pre-production report

This is my pre-production report which gives community media organizations tips on how to run their pre-productions and examples from the pre-productions of Monsters, World War Z and One Mile Away.   

The county council have asked you to produce a report on the essential pre-production work that takes place as part of a creative media production. The council intend to send this report to community media organizations that receive funding for future projects. 

Pre-production report 

The aim of this pre-production report is to give advice to help community media organizations with the stages of pre-production and overall, make it easier to manage. Pre-production is the build-up to making a film. The pre-production is essential for the film to be crafted in the first place and covers everything that goes into making the film from the financing and logistics to the creativity elements of the story. I will now go through the sections of the pre-production process and explain how to complete them efficiently.           

Financing and budgeting 

There are several different ways to fund your film. You can crowd fund your film, which involves starting a GFM page where people can donate towards your film. This is a good way to get more people on board with your film but if the film fails at the box office, then their money will be wasted. You can be given a grant, which is a non-repayable fund by the BFI (British Film Institute), which eradicates the stress of having to pay people back. The only problem is that they might not give you anything at all or not enough to complete your film. Your film can get a private investment, which is when your film is funded by a huge film company like Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox or Universal Pictures. Your film will be given a very high budget, but the companies will have equally high expectations and if they are not met then you can be in huge debt with these companies. You can self-fund your film meaning you fully fund it yourself. This means you don’t have to worry about paying anyone back but if the film makes little to no profit, then you have spent your money for nothing. Your local council or local authority could invest in your film, supporting and funding it for you. Like private investment however, if the film makes no profit, you will have to pay them back. Finally, you could take a bank loan to fund your film. Even though you can take out as much as you need to fund the film, you then have the added stress of having to make it all back to make a profit and avoid debt.  

The documentary ‘One Mile Away’ is an example of a crowd funded film as the documentary had a website where people could make donations towards the film. The documentary raised £21,033 through crowd funding. Below is a screenshot of their go fund me page. 

 

The documentary also received private investment from Channel 4, Cadbury Trust and Creative England. This is evident on their website onemileaway.assemble.me/about-us. The reasoning for this choice was due to the team of two making the documentary, making self-funding impossible. The organisations who funded the documentary would’ve been persuaded by the message of the documentary as it highlights the danger of street gangs and their struggle for peace. This was the best way for them to get the funding to help with the filming.       

Once you have acquired your source of finance, you need to manage your budget well and spend as little of your budget as you can. Keeping track of what you buy and how much it costs is very important. You need to know exactly how much you spend on equipment, props esc, and how much you need to make back to make a profit. The best way to keep track of your budget is by keeping a budget log of all that you have purchased, including the equipment, props esc, so that it is easier to calculate how much you have spent. This in effect will make it easier to keep track of your budget and manage it better overall. Below is an example of a budget log.   

My advice for a local media organisation would be to always keep track of what you spend your budget on because it allows you to manage your budget more efficiently and professionally. The impact would be positive on the overall pre-production as with a well-managed budget, the film will be more to the industry standard and overall more professional.  

Logistics  

The Logistics covers the overall organization of the film and how efficiently the whole pre-production is managed. Examples of logistical documents consist of a risk assessment, cast and crew table, location recce and a contingency plans. These contribute a huge portion to the pre-production and therefore are very important to complete. The risk assessment deals with any potential risks, who it will affect, the severity and how to deal with said risk. This is to help avoid any harm or danger towards the cast and crew and keep them safe. Below is an example of a risk assessment.    

 

This is a good example of how you could layout a risk assessment as it is organised and easy to follow. The impact of a good risk assessment results in the cast and crew staying safe and no delays to the filming either. This is highly advisable to complete.  

 The Location Recce covers all the locations considered for filming at. It gives a brief description of the location and the pros and cons of the location. The Location Recce is very useful to use when comparing each location and making a conclusion of which location to go with. Below is an example of a Location Recce.  

        

The example shows how a location recce can be useful to compile before selecting a location as it gives you an insight into all locations making it easier to choose one. The impact would make the decision easier in the long run.   

The Cast and Crew table makes everybody's roles and responsibility's clear so that when the first day of filming approaches, everyone knows what they need to do. This helps avoid any confusion on the day of filming and allows the cast and crew to immediately start. Below is an example of a Cast and Crew table.    

 

 

This cast and crew table makes it clear who oversees what role as it was intended to. This will, as a result, cause no confusion on the day of filming, leaving a positive impact.  

The Contingency Plan highlights any potential problems that could occur during filming, such as technical issues or weather issues, and gives advice on how to avoid or fix the problem. This is also very helpful to have as a backup if one of the problems should occur. Below is an example of a Contingency Plan.  

        

This contingency plan is organised and meets the industry standard whilst giving good advice on fixing the potential problems that may or may not occur during filming. This is highly advisable to complete before filming starts.     

An example of a poor logistics can be found in the pre-production of World War Z. The crew were transporting 100 weapons for the use of the film including machine guns, rifles and pistols. The weapons were confiscated when they reached Hungary by the authorities as they had not been fully deactivated could still fire live rounds. This caused problems for the filming as they no longer had any props for the scene. Therefore, this shows why it is so important to plan efficiently and organize your pre-production with contingency plans and risk assessments, to avoid problems which could impact on the filming or the cast and crew’s safety. The information was posted in an article at 'World War Z' prop guns confiscated, able to fire live ammunition - CSMonitor.com.  

Codes of Practice/Regulations 

The legal factors you need to take into consideration are elements such as getting permission to film at your location, from whomever has ownership and the cast and crew release forms which deal with any potential suing or problems with permissions. When asking for permission to film at a certain location, you need to specify what your film is about/why you need that location for you film and how long you estimate you will need to shoot you film there. By asking permission, you will avoid any lawsuits by the landowners for filming without their permission. The best way to ask permission is by email as it is quick and easy to complete. Below is an example of how you would set out an email asking for permission to film at the location.   

  

This would avoid any permission related issues from occurring such as the film being scrapped by the landowners or having to pay off a lawsuit from the landowners. This is what was at risk during the pre-production of ‘Monsters’ when Edwards didn’t ask permission to film at the locations.    

The cast and crew release form stops any of the cast or crew suing you or asking you to remove a shot or scene for any reason. The cast and crew need to sign the release form before they are allowed to work on the production. Whoever refuses to sign the release form shouldn’t be allowed to work on the production as this could lead to the threats previously mentioned. Below is an example of an official Release Form.  

 

As previously mentioned, Edwards didn't ask for permission to film on any of the locations used in the film which was very risky as this could’ve resulted in the whole film being scrapped due to the films budget being spent on lawsuits. Even though Edwards suffered no consequences for this decision, it is still highly risky and unadvisable to not request permission to film at your chosen location. My advice would be to email the owner or the person/people who run the location for permission to avoid any potential issues from occurring.   

    

Pre-Production Documentation 

It is very important to have documents that are to the industry standard so that the logistics run smoothly overall. By compiling a call sheet, shot lists, location recce, budget pan etc, you will create a strong, professional pre-production which will lead to your film being successful.      

The director of ‘Monsters’ (Gareth Edwards) didn’t have a storyboard or script, with just a brief plan of events that needed to happen in the plot. This, I believe, is a poor choice to make as this will increase the overall time of the pre-production as without storyboards or a script, you will have no plan to follow leading to delays and other issues. Edwards would’ve completed call sheets for the cast and crew as without them, nobody will know who is supposed to be on set at what time leading to confusion and further problems. As the film involved a lot of stunts, risk assessments would’ve had to have been completed for the cast and crew’s safety and if there was an accident and there was no risk assessment, that would be very unprofessional, and the producers could of gotten under fire.     

‘World War Z’ had to re-script/storyboard, pushing the film back from its original release date. This was due to certain scenes having to be re-filmed because of the re-write. If the producer's storyboards were checked and planned efficiently overall, then this issue could’ve been avoided. The producers also failed organize the delivery of the 85 assault rifles, sniper rifles and handguns correctly, leading to the Hungarian Counter Terrorism Centre raiding the warehouse in which they were being kept. This was another mistake which could’ve been avoided if the producers had spoken to the CTC and gotten permission before going through with the delivery.  

These are two examples of poorly managed pre-productions which resulted in problems had a negative impact overall. My advice would be to manage your pre-production efficiently and professionally as to avoid any problems like the examples given from happening. This will also improve the final film overall and make it more successful.     

 

Pre-Production Process  

When you start crafting an idea for you film, the things you need to take into consideration are research, proposal, treatment, pitch/seek funding and a plan.  

Gareth Edwards (the director of ‘Monsters’), was new to directing which meant he had to compile a lot of research before filming could start and he took into consideration that he would only have a small budget because of this too and researched about managing his budget efficiently before he started filming. He then pitched his idea to Vertigo Films which resulted in James Richardson telling him to watch the film ‘In Search of a Midnight Kiss’ as it would give him advice on low budget film making as the film only had a budget of $15,000. This helped Edwards understand that he needed to manage his budget cautiously to make ‘Monsters’ successful. Edwards also set himself a time of 5 months to complete the visual effects for the film which kept him on time and that he didn’t miss any deadlines, but 2 months went by, and he hadn’t completed one effect. Having deadlines is very important as they help you work more efficiently but you must meet them for them to be effective. The impact of poor time management can result in the film being pushed back to another release date which will lead to the loss of more money.   

The producers of World War Z pitched to Paramount about their budget, and they received $125 million to fund the film. The producers show little intelligence with budget managing as they had to go back to Paramount for more money and got their budget upped because of the script being re-written and scenes being reshot. This shows poor budget scheduling as they had to ask for more money. The film was also pushed back to a December release. The producers clearly didn’t follow any time scales because of this delay.  

Therefore, it is so important to complete a pre-production schedule before filming starts as to avoid any time management issues. A pre-production schedule lists all the items that need to be completed and states how long the producer will need to complete each item. Here is an example of a pre-production schedule below. 

    

This will create a positive impact on the pre-production and eliminate any time delays from occurring.  

Conclusion 

My key message for small community projects/media producers is that if you manage your pre-production efficiently and follow the advice given in this report, then it will leave a positive impact on your film overall. ‘World War Z’ and ‘Monsters’ both suffered from a poor pre-production which caused multiple problems for the producers which could’ve been easily avoided if planned efficiently and professionally. If you plan out your pre-production, then you will have a better chance at avoiding any potential problems or dealing with them if they occur.