Unit 4

Annabelle Hitchings

Unit 4 - Pre-Production (Linked to Unit 10)
Assignment 1 - Learning Aim A

Introduction 
In this report, I am going to evaluate the extent to which the pre-production requirements contribute to the success of the planning and delivery of a film. This report will also evaluate the pre-production requirements and procedures relating to a film. 

Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance. There are three parts in a production: pre-production, production, and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content starts being produced.
The pre-production requirements:
requirements of the product (FILM)
Filmmaking involves a number of discrete stages including an initial story, idea, or commission, through screenwriting, casting, shooting, sound recording and pre-production, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a film release and exhibition.  In the case study film ‘life in a day’ producer Liza Marshall used crowdsourcing ( the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet ) to create the film. The film is 94 minutes 53 seconds long and includes scenes selected from 4,500 hours of footage in 80,000 submissions from 192 nations. In this film's case the requirements of the film were too select from hours of footage to create their final film. So therefore the pre-production requirements are very important as they contribute massively to the overall film, without the pre-production requirements such as making the initial story idea you would not be able to produce a film at all.

sources of finance for the product (FILM)

Film finance is an aspect of film production that occurs during the development stage prior to pre-production, and is concerned with determining the potential value of a proposed film. In the case study ‘Veronica Mars’ producers Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge, Danielle Stokdyk decided to fund the film using kickstarter, where fans of the previously cancelled series could donate money to help fund the film. This method of finance is called crowdfunding. Unexpectedly, the film received the desired $2 million dollars in under 11 hours just by crowdfunding alone. It then went on to receive $5,702,153 dollars by the time the kickstarter campaign ended with 91,585 donors. This is important because without finance there is no way of making a film, so by using crowdfunding film makers can make their film without having such pressure of needing to find finance. My example of ‘Veronica Mars’ would not have been able to have been created without using crowdfunding which shows it’s importance.

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. The film ‘shifty’ used the microwave scheme and the film then made £244,579. Once the film had been made, it was then distributed by a distribution company named Metronome distribution. Therefore using the microwave scheme was beneficial to the producers of ‘Shifty’ because it gave them the opportunity to create their film and  it ended up making a profit of double the amount it cost them to make.  

I looked at the case study ‘The Theory of everything’ which is about the story of the most brilliant and celebrated physicist of our time, Stephen Hawking, and Jane Wilde, the arts student he fell in love with whilst studying at Cambridge in the 1960s. This film is an example of a synergy because it is produced by ‘working title films’ but funded by the american company ‘Universal Pictures’.  A synergy is where two or more organisations both have ideas and work together to create something that can become bigger or better. Using the method of synergy helped the company ‘working title films’ as they were not able to fund their film alone, so therefore by teaming up with ‘Universal Pictures’ they could create the film they wanted to make without having the pressure of finance on them (because ‘Universal Pictures’ funded it for them.

​logistical considerations (such as deadlines)

Film making requires a lot of hard work and preparation, some of the logistics include Location, Scene changes, Actor clothing, Production details,  Props, Technical aspects, Cast call, Crew Call, Night or day shoots and more. Calculating your budget is a big consideration as determining the budget for the production can show what you can actually produce. After getting authorization for at least a starting point, looking at your script closely is important as you need to see what elements you’ll have to pay for from actors or spokespeople to props, cameras, and post-production tools like editing software. 

Making a film requires a lot of planning and paperwork to make sure that everyone is safe, this means for every location there must be risk assessments. Another thing would be for every location that needs to be used the production needs to have the permission of the owner, this also applies to any copyrighted material such as music. In order to film in certain places, it costs a lot of money because of insurance reasons. The film ‘London to Brighton’ which we studied, filmed without asking for permission (guerilla filming) . This was beneficial to them because they needed to film this scene as part of their film so they used guerilla filming to help them pursue it.

When making a film another factor that needs to be thought of is time. There are many ways time plays a part during the making of a film some examples would be,
Actors and crew that have other jobs, locations that may only be available for a certain time period, equipment that is needed for another project and for many films there is always a deadline to meet.

resources and regulatory requirements

Guidelines for media use differ across the world. This regulation, via law, rules or procedures, can have various goals, for example intervention to protect a stated "public interest", or encouraging competition and an effective media market, or establishing common technical standards. If you want to film on public land, you would need to check if you require permission from the appropriate local authority or council. They are responsible for public land, public buildings, roads and parking. 

When creating productions, copyright is something that can stand in the way, and can limit you. For example "music" copyright is one of the main limitations. When someone wants to use copyrighted music in a film, they have to buy the rights to use the song, although this can be very expensive. Although in some situations, "fair use" allows copyrighted music to be used for free. For example if someone was doing a parody of a film, and used the same music from the film then this would be under the "fair use" rule and they would not be breaking copyright law, by not paying for the music. For example if someone was using music in a video but clearly states that it is not for monetary gain then some people tend to allow it,  an example of this would be that in the background of some viral social media videos music can be used but not be considered as copyright.

Health and safety is something very important and is taken with great care in the film/TV industry. When filming on a set, the environment must be safe for the actors and crew in most cases, unless they are in fact shooting a more dangerous scene than normal. If an actor/crew member is injured on set because of something breaking safety rules, e.g. something not being cleared up, then the actor can sue the film company.  An example of health and safety and risk assessment going wrong is actress Taylor Hickson was working on the film ‘Ghostland’ when she suffered a huge gash on her face when she fell through glass on the set, she then went on to sue the company. 

The established industry formats used within the pre-production processes

A Risk Assessment is an examination of what could cause harm on a particular shoot or at a specific location, so that the production company / producer can decide whether control measures are in place to prevent harm.

A Risk Assessment could start off by focussing on a certain hazard, looking at who is at risk, chance of injury, risk and additional control measures. 
An example would be falling objects, the people at risk would be anybody who is on set at that certain time. It can be controlled by the people who are above set and can be more careful when moving objects, nets can be installed so there is less risk of falling items hitting people. All equipment should be secured and checked before filming. Risk assessments are very important because everybody needs guaranteed safety when working on set. 

Scripts are all written in size 12 and in the font style ‘courier’ so that it resembles a typewriter look. Also this size and font makes each page of script add up to one minute so if there was 90 pages of script it would add up to an hour and a half (90 minutes) film.This is a good technique used by film directors and producers because it means that scripts are easier to read and everyone would have a rough idea on how scripts work. A shooting script is the version of a screenplay used during the production of a motion picture. Shooting scripts are distinct from spec scripts in that they make use of scene numbers (along with certain other formatting conventions described below), and they follow a well defined set of procedures specifying how script revisions should be implemented and circulated. 

The functions of pre-production processes, reasons for undertaking them and impact they have
When looking at pre-production you need to firstly decide whether you can definitely fund the film intended. As if you get halfway through filming and run out of finance, the whole film would end up cancelled. Which is why a set budget needs to be planned and followed so there is no risk of failing. Props and costumes need to be planned and purchased in advance so they are ready for filming on day 1 and there is no delay.  The film ‘slipstream’ which was being made by Steven Spielberg was estimated to only need $5,000 to make. When this turned out not to be the case and the director ran out of money, the project was aborted.

The purposes of pre-production documentation          
Mood boards - A mood board is a pre-production document which is a collage of pictures which try to capture a feeling , theme, or design. They are used to generate ideas for a client to meet their approval before making the final product such as a film. It can help in terms of planning because it could be used to create a design or a theme. A film director would use a mood board to show their ideas for a film.

Storyboards -  They are made up of images or sketches to show different ideas for example a film. The purpose of a storyboard is that they show the ideas, camera angles and timing of each scene or line. It can help in terms of planning because instead of just making a film, first they would have to make a storyboard to show different scenes, camera angles to show the actors or actresses how and what is going to happen in the film. For example the film ‘Harry Potter’ used storyboards to help with ideas for the film, to film the scene: Battle at the Department of Mysteries they created this storyboard as it helps inform the whole production team how the scene is going to work. It is a visual display of how the whole scene is going to plan out and it also saves time and props etc because it saves time doing it all on set. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Conclusion

In conclusion, after evaluating the extent to which the pre-production requirements contribute to the success of the planning and delivering a film, pre-production contributes a lot to the success of a film. This is because without a good amount of successful pre-production you are setting your film up to fail. Planning is also more cost effective, because if you plan before you save money. Everything that is on set you pay for, for example the longer actors are on set the more they are paid, but if your production is planned effectively then it can be filmed easier and quicker and cost less money for the company. 

Bibliography/Webography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-production  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_script