Pre-Production

In my last blog post, The Power of Three, we discussed the three basic concepts that are elemental to film making; the shot, the scene, and the sequence.

Having knowledge of these key concepts and how they relate to film readies us for our first official step in the making of our student film, pre-production.

What is Pre-Production?

Pre-production is the first of three essential elements of film making. “Pre-production is everything that happens before you begin to film,” says Professor Thomas Campbell. “What you’re really doing is laying out the groundwork…so that when it comes time for production all issues have been dealt with.”

As Professor Campbell highlighted, pre-production is known as the “planning stage.” Your key goal, as the film maker, during pre-production is to find the most efficient way to get this film made.

What Does Pre-Production Consist Of?

There are a great number of tasks that fall under the pre-production category. All of which are designed to make your life much easier when it comes time for filming.

One of the most essential elements of pre-production is having a written script. Once the script is finalized you can begin making important decisions and plans for the project.

Such plans include the casting of your actors, setting your allotted budget, floor planning and location availability, scheduling and story boarding. Each require the utmost attention and if dealt with in advance eliminate any issues on set.

Other things that are important to keep in mind while planning for your shoot are what kind of equipment you want to use and have access to, the sets you plan on using for your film, as well as any props or wardrobe that maybe need to enhance the scene and make it more realistic.

All of these concerns, issues and decisions fall under pre-production.

What is Story Boarding?

Most of the components of pre-production are self explanatory however, you may find yourself asking, what is story boarding?

Story boarding is very simple. It’s basically taking your written script and converting it to images using various slides to depict your scenes The purpose of story boarding is to help the director visualize the concept and layout how he/she wants things to look.

Pre-production is all about decision making and planning. It’s important to be very organized and efficient throughout this stage of film making because the decisions made during this stage heavily impact both production and post-production.

For more information about pre-production check out one of my favorite sites Videomaker.