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Pre-production

Pre-Production is the planning stage of your shoot, and occurs before the camera starts rolling.

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By creating storyboards, scouting locations and figuring out the budget ahead of time, your production will be free of unnecessary worry.

Prepare a schedule

When you are making any kind of film then the actual shoot takes up only a small proportion of the time involved. There is a lot of time spent in development and pre-production. And then after the filming, more time to spend in post-production and then getting your film out to be seen (distribution). To help you plan properly, then it is good practice to produce a schedule. Kate says that when she schedules she usually works backwards from the date when she needs to deliver the film. Even if you don’t have a set deadline, this can be a useful process. You will probably have other projects and activities going on in your life that you want to get on with. So, identify the date by which you want to have finished your film and work back from there. Allow plenty of time for editing and changes, then work out how many filming days you need, and think about whether these should be spread out over time, or concentrated into a burst of activity. And then this will tell you how much time you have for development and pre-production. Ensure you have enough time to fully develop your idea, and do all the preparation necessary to make your shoot go smoothly.

Create a storyboard

Dramas, in particular, benefit from a storyboard. Bim says this is a particularly useful device as British Sign Language is his first language, with English being very different. So putting together a series of images to capture what will happen in the film is particularly helpful for him. It’s easy for other people to grasp what you are trying to achieve with your film, so it’s a useful document to share with crew members and people who will be in your film.

Choose your Cast

Dramas and documentaries have a “cast”. For dramas these are actors, for documentaries they are known as “contributors”. Nikki finds contributors for How to Look Good Naked. This process involves her in chatting over the phone to potential contributors, and then following up with a visit for people who sound particularly promising. She then has to convince her managers that these are the right people for them to film. If you are making a drama then you might hold auditions and cast actors yourself, or you might work with a casting expert who is used to reading scripts, and then bringing together appropriate actors to audition. It is useful to film people at this stage – both potential contributors and actors, as it will help you remember people in more detail when you are making decisions.

Select your locations

Choosing locations can be quite complicated. Usually someone else will own the location, and you will need to negotiate with them to be able to film there. If it’s not a private location, then often the local council will own it. You still need permission, and may need to pay a fee.

Think about sound It’s important to think about sound when you are preparing for your filming. Sometimes this is an issue with a location, as Gary found. It’s important to visit your location and to think about the sound, but also to ask questions about what might happen on your filming day – is there any DIY or maintenance work planned? Does traffic change at a particular time of day?

Prepare a budget You may have lots of volunteers all contributing their time for free, but it’s still important to prepare a budget. Include people’s time, and make a note if they are donating this to the project. Think about how they will travel to and from the shoot. Do you need to cover their expenses? Is the location charging you to film there? Do you need to feed everyone? Are actors being paid? How are you paying for tapes or memory cards? Are you hiring any extra equipment? What about the edit… will you be doing this yourself? Do you need to work with an editor or hire in extra computer power? This will all help you to realise whether or not you need to raise some funding before you can start filming.

Prepare your actors or contributors

Filming days are expensive, so think about spending time with actors or contributors before the shoot. Do you need a rehearsal day? Gary found it invaluable to bring his two lead actors together so that they could get to know one another.

Brief your Crew

It is also good to spend time briefing your crew before the filming day. This might be by email rather than in person. But it’s really helpful for them to have a run down of what is planned, so that they can bring the right equipment and maybe remind you of things you need to think about. It’s also good to start building a relationship with the crew, so you get a sense of how you’ll all work together as a team.

Prepare your paperwork

Kate says that if you go on a shoot without any paperwork you either work for news or you’ve done something wrong. What she means is that a news crew reacts quickly to an event, and has to show up and record a piece. They do an on-the-spot risk assessment to ensure they’re filming safely, and they ask contributors to do a “release form” on camera… they record them saying they’re happy to be filmed and edited.

For the rest of us, with a bit more time available, there are three important pieces of paperwork:

• the risk assessment – this is a form that you use to assess any hazards (such as the trip hazard of working with cables, perhaps filming by a roadside etc). You include details of what you will do to reduce the risks to everyone involved. This form is then circulated to key members of the crew.

• release forms – these are signed by contributors to say they are happy for their contribution to be edited and shown. If you are working with actors, then you will have a contract with them outlining the terms of your agreement.

• the call sheet – this provides useful contact details for the crew and locations, maps of how to get to locations, emergency contact numbers and other useful information about the shoot. Sometimes, if you are filming outside, it will give details of sunrise and sunset times and weather forecasts.