Pre-production report

 PRE-PRODUCTION REPORT 

INTRODUCTION 

Pre-production in media means the components that make up the actual production. When it comes to producing a film, prior planning and documentation is the first and biggest step to creating the greatest possible desired outcome. Forging successful pre-production material will result in a significant impact on the rest of the production. This is because of the smoothness of procedures and events with everything being professionally organized and distributed to the team. If pre-production is conducted effectively, the main production will be a swift process, while still ensuring precautions are correctly taken. The aims of this report include: 

1. To clearly state the importance of the documentation. 

2. For the reader to be aware of the consequences of what may happen if the documentation is not done. 

3. Assess the coherent use of pre-production. 

By effectively evaluating these aims, you will gain a thorough understanding with the impactful nature of pre-production. 

 

FINANCE & BUDGETING 

To start off with, the financial aspect of pre-production will illuminate your access to funds, enforcing a budget and your limitation to what the film can achieve. There are numerous types of funding, I advise you to take into consideration which source best suits YOU. It is not the same for everyone. Having several options available allows a more precise view of the advantages and disadvantages in comparison to the rest. Whereas if there was only one source, you will be limited and might feel as if that option does not seem of immense value to you. 

One source would be though the public, commonly known as ‘Crowd Funding.’ This method is done through advertising the general film concept to the public in hopes of donations and investments. The funding you gain is determined by the viewers liking, making this method awkward with how you deliver it to the public. I advise choosing a specific demographic or location that best suits the target audience you desire. Moreover, this option tends to take a longer period to get the amount you desire in comparison to the others, so if you are hoping to gain a high amount, a lengthy period will be needed to achieve so. Even with the lengthy period, this option tends to gain a small amount. On the other hand, this method works as a form of advertisement to the film, which can be easily spread amongst social media to grant even more recognition. This means that you will already have awareness of the film, so if any of the viewers like the concept even without having funded the project, they will still await the releasement in excitement. An example of this method being used would be the ‘One Mile Away’ documentary, an award-winning project of 2012. This is undeniably an impactful source of finance as it not only will you be able to freely advertise your film, but also gain an acceptable amount of funds with little to no risk. This source is most suitable for small-scale production lines so I would highly advise using this source if you categorise yourself as such or close. 

Another source would be through a bank loan. This method will allow you to form a loan with a selected bank with the agreement of repayment at a negotiated/set deadline. By using this method, you must be able to be able to make the repayment. This can be done positively though making profit from the releasement of the film, or negatively through your own self-repayment due to not making the amount back. This is a huge gamble to take for the film but ensures a great amount of funds to use to make the film successful. In comparison to crowdfunding, this is the opposite, so I would highly advise this option to be avoided by small-scale production lines as you are less likely to make the repayment if the film is not profitable. On the brighter side of this method, the funds are easily accessible in both getting the loan and through using the money with swift transactions. Banks are trustworthy financial institutions making this method reliable thus heavily decreasing the plausibility of being swindled or unavailability of funds. An example of this method being used would be the film ‘Monsters’ that generated a worldwide box office of $5.6 million. Which in comparison to their production budget of $500,000, the film was a remarkable success generating an approximate 11x net profit. I recommend this source of finance to be used by production lines that are confident in their ability to make repayments and have contingency plans if the film does not make profit.  

In conclusion, the most suitable source of finance for you would be crowdfunding, as it is small-scale and has minimal risk and will gain a much greater result if delivered to your community as they will feel more favourable. By knowing these sources, you will be able to forge effective budget schedules with full awareness of your allocated budget.  

 

LOGISTICS 

The organization of producing a film is a complex process, requiring thorough planning to run smoothly. This aspect contains numerous documentations of simple necessities that provides a clear presentation of simple yet easily forgotten materials. Logistics is a core aspect due to its importance with precautions and ensuring everything is coordinated for the production. Just like finance, there are several types of elements that must be complete. Having all these elements correctly documented guarantees your acknowledgement of what you are going to use and when, reflecting efficient coordination. 

An example of crucial documentation is an equipment list. Conducting this equipment list in consideration of the budget will allow full acknowledgement of what equipment you will be using alongside the pricing of using it for your selected time. Thus, enhancing the understanding of the use of your equipment. This is undeniably one of the most important documents for the logistical aspect of pre-production. I strongly advise you forge this list due to its significance for the budget. 

Another example is a document illustrating location clearances. This documentation relies on the completion of a location recce. A location recce underlines what locations you will be using with contact information of the management of said location, and any other valuable information regarding general considerations for the place. These clearances are the permission of the location’s management to film within the premises. This works to ensure no legal action will be taken by the management if you do not gain permission, which could result with the film being taken down and completely ruin the project. I advise confirming your availability to use film in the locations as quickly as possible so even if you do get rejected, you will have plenty of time to find and use a backup location as a substitute. 

In relation to my previous sentence, preparing a document containing contingency plans is crucial for ensuring a smooth process since it provides effective recovery operations if things do not go exactly as planned. Moreover, a production schedule will influence the production process immensely, this document will encourage a swift and effective workflow due presenting a professional illustration of the entire process with when you are going to do certain things, and for how long.  

 

CODES OF PRACTICE/REGULATIONS 

When creating a film, there are numerous legal factors that must be remembered. The last thing you want is to be taken into court, which of course will cause major injuries to the financial side of the production. To counteract this, you must complete these documents correctly: location clearances, a risk assessment, and cast and crew release forms. By having these documents completed professionally, it will guarantee an extremely minimal risk of being challenged for a court case. Every production team must prove their correct understanding of these regulations to make a protected film for a greater chance of having no issues.  

 

PRE-PRODUCTION DOCUMENTATION 

Pre-production documentation is single-handedly the most important aspect of pre-production, simply because it makes up the entire process. There is a countless amount of documentation that must be done to ensure a smooth operation. A few examples of these documents would be storyboard, script, call sheet, film concepts, location recce, production log. These documents contain financial, technical, and creative aspects of which are fundamental to a production team. By having all of these made effectively,  

A storyboard is undeniably one of the most valuable documents to create with its generation of creativeness and ability to affect most pre-production documents. This type of document contains all the shots that will be done in the filming and what they would like it to look like, alongside a brief description of what is happening in the shot, so the production team have a thorough understanding of what they are going to be shooting and for how long. This is incredibly beneficial as it will quicken the process of filming by a great margin while maintaining a successful operation. I strongly advise this document to be completed as soon as possible due to its unparalleled significance to the pre-production process.  

Subsequently, film concepts are fundamental for delivering the creativeness to its upmost potential. There can be as many documents as you would like of different film concepts that you have created. By having these film concepts, you can compare and evaluate the effectiveness of each one to see which would be the most profitable produce. These documents are mostly created  

To conclude this, all documentation made during pre-production should be kept safe and secure. This should be done for a distinct number of reasons, including project accountability, risk prevention, consistency, guidelines and more. All these reasons make pre-production the most influential, important aspect to the entirety of the production process.  

 

PRE-PRODUCTION PROCESS 

To forge the documents of pre-production, there are 4 factors that must be completed. These 4 factors are research, pitch, proposal, and treatment. The factors are used to categorise each document within pre-production to gain an understanding of the reasoning behind each of them.  

The first factor, research, concludes of primary and secondary research analysing everything that forges the foundation of the film. This contains the reasoning behind each part. By doing this, you must effectively evaluate your thought process with your idea with why you chose to do what you did. The second factor, pitch, concludes of you pitching the idea of your film in hope to gain investors, which means you must talk fluently and persuasively to gain said investors.  

 

CONCLUSION 

In conclusion, since you are a small-scale production team, I would advise you to carefully evaluate your choice of budget expenditure to not overspend. In addition, it will be a more challenging task to advertise/market your film to the public, so you must conduct specialized research for the target audience and deliver it cautiously and effectively. However, since I advise you to use crowdfunding as your source of finance, managing your advertisement spend will be heavily reduced compared to how you would with a greater-funding source like a bank loan. Lastly, keeping all these documents secure even after you have completed and produced the film will allow you to stoop back and recognize the ways of which worked best, or what did not work well for you. I hope for the best with this film and wish the best for the future. 

This is report was produced to generate an evaluation of the entirety of pre-production for a county council to aid community media organisations for future productions. I have illustrated the aspects of pre-production, concluding with examples of the documentation included for the selected areas, while evaluating the reasoning behind doing all of these steps. This will allow the council to be able to effectively fund and produce their desired productions in an impactful manner.