Pre production report learning aim A

UNIT 4 - Pre Production Portfolio Report

 

Pre-production is arguably one of the most important aspects of film production, it is a solid foundation a film is built upon. The better the stronger the foundation, the bigger the house, it works the same way for filmmaking. Pre-production is the process of planning the elements involved in a film, when the film content starts being produced, pre-production ends. The county council have asked me to produce a report on the essential pre-production work that takes place as part of a creative digital media production. The council intend to send this report to community media organisations that receive funding for future projects. I will be evaluating the pre-production requirements, procedures and documentation procedures and documentation and how they relate to digital media products like 'One Mile Away'. Successful pre-production can have a massively positive impact on the final result of a film. This is because the production is much smoother and happens with fewer problems. 

 

Finance and budgeting

The budgeting and financial side to production are very important as it sets the bar to what the film can achieve, a strong structured budget plan is vital; every aspect of the production will be influenced by it. There are many different ways to fund a film, crowdfunding, grants, government funding, big studio funding and private investors just to name a few. Finding the right funding for a film is no easy task, the right funding depends on the content of the film, the location and the budget. Lots of filmmakers don’t have access to all the different options so they have to find one that contains the least risk and is suitable for them and the production. In this case, it is a small scale production so no major investment is required. 

One method of finance is getting funding from a bank, this is usually done by pitching your idea to them, then they will decide whether or not to give you large amounts of money on loan, however, this usually need some sort of collateral in case the production goes wrong. It’s a big gamble, if you don’t make more money than was invested at the box office, you will go into debt to the bank. This would be a major problem for a filmmaker, especially a smaller one as it would mean you would have to declare bankruptcy or even fold your production business. In the case of the film Monsters, they told the bank all about the film and pitched it to them, in return the back gave them a $500,000 budget for the film. Getting money from the bank also has a few key advantages. It is instant, methods like crowdfunding take a long time to see the money, that’s if you get any money at all. It also has no creative influence, if you get private investment or big studio investment, they almost always want at least some control over the creative element. However the bank has the downside of loan interest, this means that you will have to pay the back more than you received, as compensation for their risk, this is usually a cut of the profits of the film. Luckily the producers at Monsters made 5 time their budget at the box office so they made a profit, debt-free. However the producers did cut corners to keep the budget low, they didn’t ask permission to film at most of the locations and the extras were all people who were already at the locations when they got there, although this allowed them to save potentially months, this could have cost them their entire production and made them in crippling debt. The people who owned the locations or the extras could have easily sued the production for lots of money causing it to fold. L

For a smaller-scale production, crowdfunding could be a better option. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing, it’s the process of raising large amounts of money online for a creative project, typically this is done through a website like Kickstarter; One Mile Away was a small scale documentary production filmed in Birmingham, the film was funded through Kickstarter, an online company that helps backers invest in new products and creative projects, the main backers to the film were Creative England, Barrow Cadbury Trust, and Channel 4. Without them, the documentary wouldn’t have been successful, or It might not have gone ahead at all. The Kickstarter project collected over twenty thousand pounds in funding that the documentary could use. Crowdfunding has many key benefits, one of these is the fact that it can generate a very large amount of money very quickly with no upfront fees. They also create a large amount of attention, this could be amazing for your brand or message as it generates huge momentum within the project. However, like every form of investment, it comes with risks equal to the benefits. The project could not generate attention at all and it could not meet the amount of money needed to continue, this would be a massive flop for the funding of the production, this could be caused by the audience not having interest or by the project being overshadowed by a more popular one. Simply put if the target amount is not reached, the money will go back to the backers and your company will finish empty-handed. 

Managing budgets and finances is a key part of any production, this can easily be done by creating an intuitive budget plan. It would organise the extensive costs involved in the production. This would allow you to stay organised as well as keeping costs to a minimum. Overall, for a small community organisation, I would suggest using crowdfunding. Crowdfunding allows the project to gain funds with minimal risks. It will have a positive impact on publicity for the project as it can be shared by backers easily across social media. Crowdfunding will also allow you to keep control of all the aspects of the film; if you pick private investment you will have to give the investors some sort of control of the production. I would also recommend playing by the book and getting the right permissions unlike the producers of ‘Monsters’. 

 

Logistics 

The making of a film is very complex, it takes lots of documentation, careful planning and pre-production to make the process run like a well-oiled machine. Film producers need to have a strong portfolio of documents for each film they make. these logistical documents have a massive impact on the result of films, without them the films either won’t happen, or they would be completed messily and months behind schedule. The use of contingency plans and effectively managed schedules is vital to the success of the production. Doing this properly and planning things like permissions, props, costumes and crew needs (eg parking food toilets) in good time will allow the production to progress with minimal setbacks. However great logistical planning is not just to benefit production progress, it can save you an expensive court case. 

Getting permissions for locations from the people that own them, makes sure you are covered if anyone wants to take legal action against you for being there. For example, the producers of ‘Monsters’ didn’t collect any location or filming permissions for most of the locations and the people they filmed. If something went wrong with someone or something in any one of the locations they could have faced major consequences as they had no legal reason to film there. Furthermore, people in the film or owners of land could seek compensation leading to a court case ending with a massive loss of time and a massive loss of money. You could lose rights to segments of your film rendering them unusable. Luckily the producers pulled it off, enabling them to reap the benefits. Skipping steps like the permissions and contingency plans do have a few key advantages. You don’t have to pay money for some locations, you also don’t have to wait for a scheduled date, you can just film straight away. This gives you more flexibility and you might not need to pay your crew for as long as well as cutting down on time. Time is money. 

The producers of one mile away used location permissions and asked for filming permission slips for their documentary film, they had to do this because of the nature of the documentary; they had to think very carefully about who they could show on camera and who they couldn’t. Because of what they were filming, if they hadn’t done this correctly they would have faced major consequences and major backlash from the backers of the film. The fact they have carried out all these documents carefully and by the book leads me to believe that this is a good example of logistical planning. They would also have to plan if one of the locations suddenly becomes unavailable or denied. This means that they would have to have detailed contingency plans, for extra locations they can go to as a backup. They would also have to add what to do in case of police activity, arrests or violence towards them selfs or others. This enables you to know exactly what to do in any situation you might find your self in, having a massively positive impact decision making. Effective management of the production schedule is a key component of successful logistical planning, as a small production I would defiantly recommend this, it will save you lots of time and money. It allows you to make the most of the time you have while strategically ordering elements of the production in a way that makes it easier for you. The bonus of having a schedule for every element is you complete them quicker because of the deadline. 

 

Codes of practice/Regulations

The making of a film is very complex, there are many legal factors to consider when in the pre-production stage, as a producer, making sure these documents are right is vital. If one of these documents is wrong the whole production could be at risk of a court case. This could bankrupt the entire project and potentially put them in debt. You will have to create documents such as risk assessments, music royalties, location releases and cast releases. These documents allow you to follow the strict guidelines in place to protect you from litigation, whether that be from your cast and crew or from a record company that you forgot to make permissions for.

Even the producers of ‘World War Z’, a big blockbuster film, made a fatal error in the importation documents on the props for the film, partway through production the Hungarian anti-terrorism centre raided the warehouse where the guns were stored, confiscating all of them, this put the production behind schedule and they almost faced criminal prosecution. This was because they hadn’t cleared the guns with the centre of the Hungarian import, they also had the wrong paperwork for the guns, naming them completely disabled, however, they were completely functional when found. This could have been much worse for them as they imported large amounts of live arms across borders. Lucky the charges were dropped and they faced no prosecution. This shows how easy it is to accidentally make errors on documents, and the consequences this could lead to. As a smaller production, I would recommend double-checking these documents, this could save you massive amounts of time and money. It could even save you from a criminal conviction. 

I believe the producers of ‘One Mile Away’ used location permissions, contingency plans and risk assessments successfully. Because of the nature of the documentary they had to make sure they made the documents like their risk assessments and contingency plans were comprehensive and detailed. This allowed them to travel to risky locations and meet risky people, knowing that every scenario was already thought out. This made the production safer and it allowed the crew to improvise and adapt to any scenarios with better decision making. As this was a small community production they needed to do this stage perfectly otherwise they would have faced a large amount of backlash from the amount of publicity surrounding the production from the backers. 

 

Pre-production documentation  

In film production many different documents need to be created by media producers, these are very functional, necessary documents that make the production run smoothly and without legal or technical problems. Pre-production documents include storyboards, scripts, risk assessments, contingency plans, call sheets and filming schedules, location recces, release forms and shot lists to name a few.

The producers of ‘One Mile Away’ made a documentary, this meant that the pre-production didn’t need storyboards, scripts or film ideas. This saved them some time because there was no need to script the documentary. After all, all the action they wanted would happen organically. This unpredictability would have meant they had to create more in-depth risk assessments and contingency plans and cast and crew release forms. The producers of ‘One Mile Away got their budget from crowdfunding, they sourced a budget of around £20,000, using this money would have to make a comprehensive budget plan that accounts for everything they might need to spend money on. A good budget plan would allow the producers to spend money efficiently making sure they direct money to elements that need it most. 

The production of ‘World War Z’ was a massive operation involving multiple departments working on multiple elements of the pre-production process, however, some of the departments got the pre-production documentation wrong, for such a big film, they are a surprisingly bad example of pre-production. Like any film, they would have to have created documents like risk assessments, contingency plans and scripts. As it was such a big project the likely hood is they had every pre-production document there is. They made a script for the film to help the cast and crew grasp the lines of the film but also the help them with the creative planning, however, the final part of the film was deemed whelming and they had to film the whole ending again starting from scratch, this was a massive setback for the film, it delayed the release date and made the film hugely over budget. The money they lost from the late release date and the re-filming could have got them lots more profit or more expensive stunts, effects or shots in the film. This was poor production practice, they should have only had the go-ahead on the scrip when they were very confident. Because of the nature of the film, it contained lots of expensive stunts, this means they would more than likely have had a comprehensive risk assessment in place outlining what could go wrong in every scenario. They also failed to create the right importation documentation for their props to be brought over the border legally. This created massive consequences for the film and the people that made it, one of which was being raided by armed Hungarian counter-terrorism police, who confiscated all of the props they had imported. The producers were very lucky they didn’t face career-ending legal action. All this wouldn’t have happened if they had imported the props under the correct documentation. I would advise small local productions to double-check that they have the right documentation that has been filled out correctly and to only go ahead with filming once you are extremely confident in your pre-production work such as your script.

 

 

Pre-production process

There is a standard conventional structure of pre-production activity’s that a producer should follow, from big films to small budget films they all follow this order: research, proposal, treatment, pitch/seek funding then plan. These basic categories enable producers to efficiently plan films. 

This process has been standardised as it is simply the best way to plan a film. The researching stage is where the ideas are born, in this stage, they have to come up with the foundations of the film. In the proposal and treatment stage, you have to compile all that you have researched about your film and turn it into writing, simply selling the feel the meaning and the general storyline. Finally, at the pitch/ seeking finance stage, you have to pitch your film idea to potential investors that might give you funding. After you have received funding you then have the opportunity to start pre-production planning to make your film a reality. 

Penny Woolcock, the director of ‘One Mile Away’ had made many documentaries before, however, this documentary needed lots of research as they were working with potentially vulnerable people like children and people that might carry weapons on them like knives and guns. This would have meant that they had to do extra research on the logistical work they would need like risk assessments and contingency plans. In the documentary, she said that she wanted to make Birmingham a safer place by targeting the documentary at a younger audience. 

The producers of the film ‘World War Z’ got their budget from the film company paramount, they had to pitch their film idea to them, and in return, they gave the producers 120 million dollars to make the film, with a percentage of the profits going back to them. However they didn’t research how they should import the prop guns across the border and the documents that they would need properly, this leads the Hungarian counter-terrorism centre to seize all of the props and the crew nearly being held accountable in court, this could have ended the entire production, luckily they got away with it. However, they lost lots of time and money from the delay. They also didn’t spend enough time researching how they should spend their budget. This led to them re-filming the entire final part of the film because they went massively over budget and had to ask for more money from paramount so they could complete the film, paramount could have easily said no and that would have ended the production of the whole film resulting in a loss of 120 million dollars. Because of all the setbacks and filming their production schedule would have been a complete mess and the errors say that it was poorly managed as they didn’t follow the deadlines and timescales for the production.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion as a small local production, I would recommend that you meticulously research what documents and procedure would need to complete the task at hand, it could save you your film. I would also make sure that you balance the pre-production, production and post-production carefully so you don’t overspend and keep the production efficiency. Following and setting timescales is also very important, having a deadline makes you work harder and quicker to get something finished, this means that you are saving money by knocking potentially weeks off your production. When you are funding your film is wise to do plenty of research as the content of your film will decide which funding option is best for you. As a small local production, the big studios are unlikely to invest, so this may not be an option unless you have massive publicity and they are confident that you can turn a profit. Your most likely option would either be crowdfunding or the bank, however you will have to pay the bank back and you are not guaranteed to receive the desired amount via crowdfunding. Good look with future productions!