Speaker 1: You know a lot of people don't realize that before a director can shout and action guys there's usually months or years worth of planning that needs to be put in place first. What should the character say? Who should play them? Where should we shoot? Is it safe to shoot there? All of these are steps that filmmakers take in pre-production and in this video I want to outline all of them and just how important they are. Okay so where do we begin? The very very first thing that I would argue that any filmmaker needs to do is invest some serious time in research and development. Even if your gut is really saying I just want to start writing I've got this idea and I want to make it, time spent researching will really really pay off I think for the rest of the project. What kind of things do we need to research? Well it depends on what you're making but it's all about adding authenticity. So if you're making a crime drama or a hospital drama what kind of lingo do they use? The pox are dome-shaped they're on 80% of his body and they're not scabbing over. If you're making anything scientific like something based in space what kind of physical scientific factors are going to impact your narrative? If you're making a Western what kind of clothes did they wear in the 1800s? So you can see now why research and real films can sometimes take up years in itself and the nice thing about doing research is it very often naturally gives you ideas for your actual story. So I'd recommend spending a decent amount of time doing your research. Now what should it look like? Well that can vary depending on how you work it might just be a selection of notes or a slideshow like a scrapbook. Me personally while I'm researching I like to just have a jotter which I can just scribble down lots of random ideas and it really is like the forming of your idea. So I'm going to give research and development a solid B plus I think. Sometimes you have an idea and you just know it and you want to start writing but I'll be honest I think in almost every case it would benefit from having done some research first. Okay so now we can get to the step where we actually really start making the movie and I think the most obvious place to start is with the writing. So we're talking script right now. Scripting can take many many different drafts it's very rarely the first draft and it's done but it's the most important process. It literally is the narrative it is the the body of the film. Scripts have to follow a very very specific criteria. So I've actually made a film all about how to write a script and I'd recommend you check that one out if this is the stage that you're at. But it's the one where you really need to invest an awful lot of time because this is literally your story. This is where you really really need to put in some development time and get a lot of feedback as well. How important is it? I'm gonna give this one an A plus. In fact I'm gonna say this is the only step in all of pre-production which I'm going to give an A plus because it is the backbone of your film. Without it there is nothing. There are films such as Don't Look Up which use a huge amount of improvisation but even these films rely on a script some kind of backbone as to what happens in each scene. Okay so you researched an idea and you've written a script that you're really proud of now you can start making a film right? Well there's still quite an awful lot left to do. First off we need to look at all of the ingredients of your script and make them physical. So think about all of the characters you have, all of the locations, all of the props, all of the special effects. Everything which you've written which sounds great on a page they need to be accounted for. So the next step is a script breakdown. A script breakdown is usually when you go through the finished script and you color code everything into categories. So perhaps every single character will be highlighted in green. Therefore we can make an itemized list of every character that we need and therefore who we need to cast as them. You might want to use blue to highlight every single prop so when it comes to filming day no one has to say oh where's that gun we need on page five it's already been counted for. So we use the script breakdown to literally almost to do like a stock check of every single element that's going to be needed. Every sound, every piece of music, every character, every location. How important is this? I'm going to give this one a solid A because there is nothing worse than doing your storyboard, your script and getting all of your cast ready and then you get there on the day to start filming and someone has forgotten that key prop. So this step really makes sure that everything is accounted for. Next up it's time to do some art design and this isn't just going to be the characters it's also going to be the locations, the props and for me this is really the difference between using something which is convenient and freely available and actually using something which has got a lot more intention. So let's take the example of a character in a Western. It would be very easy to kind of like get him the cowboy hat and make him look like a cowboy and be done with it but in truth with a little bit of art design we can actually think about well who is the character? Why would they wear the kind of clothing that they do? What does it say about them? This is where we really start getting creative with our film and I think the more time that filmmakers invest really thinking about the aesthetic of every single aspect of their film not just the characters but the props and the locations the more storytelling is going to be done visually in the final piece. How important is this? I'm gonna give this one a B+. Purely from the perspective of I think most people watching this video are students or people making low-budget movies so it's great if you can really pay attention to what people are gonna look like and your props and stuff like that but obviously you have got to be aware of your budget so sometimes there are limitations of what you can achieve but the more influence that you can put on each of these aspects the better it will look. Okay so kind of alongside these things at the same time now that we've got a script and we know that everything needs to go in it and we started designing the locations and the characters now would be a good time to start working on your storyboard. So the storyboard bear in mind is just your first visualization as to what this film is actually going to look like through the lens. Now storyboards are really important because they provide you with an opportunity to start seeing what works and what doesn't work before you start recording. I've actually made a video all about how to draw a storyboard. I'm a really big believer that you don't need to be an artist to do it so you can check out that video just here. Now I really want to stress the point that storyboards like I said are just the first iteration of how it might look. I like to think more as a guide than as a set way of doing things. So there are some filmmakers who will literally shot for shot recreate their storyboarded film whereas an awful lot of them will use them almost as kind of like as a springboard and when they get there on the day obviously they shoot an awful lot of b-roll and the films come out very different to how they looked in the storyboard. So for that reason I'm going to give this one a solid B. I think it's a process that needs to be done but in all likelihood the finished movie probably will look quite different to what's been storyboarded. Okay so next step just as our script breakdown took everything from the script and itemized it the next thing we've got to do is a shot list and this is where we get all of the shots which have been storyboarded and put them into a massive list and this is a really really great way of ensuring that every single shot from our A-roll is captured. It also means that we can divide things up between first and second units to ensure the best use of everyone's time which obviously on a big film set can be very very expensive. How important is this? I'm going to give this one an A-. Like I said with the storyboards the truth is an awful lot of the shots which are actually used will probably just be from b-roll but actually to ensure that those key scenes are shot and to ensure that we make the best use of very expensive time a shot list is the best way of doing that. Okay next up spending some time actually casting. Now casting is a fairly labor-intensive process especially on a short film but one which really really pays off. Now I think again a lot of people watching this video are probably going to have to resort to actors of just people they know people who are willing to act for them but the more time that you actually spend looking for the right part for the right person I think the better performance and therefore the better film you're going to have. I'm gonna give this one a B- because it's it's almost like an ideal sort of process but one that I know isn't necessarily realistic. It usually takes the form of reading part of the script to camera so that we can actually see the chemistry between the character in the camera but also between

Speaker 2: other characters. I think I actually interviewed about 3,000 Anakins and from that 3,000 I narrowed it down to three boys. Scene 1A take 1. Scene 1A take 2.

Speaker 1: Scene 1A take 1. Okay next up we've got to make a location recce and this is really a case of finding the best location for each scene. Now again very often I find people will shoot in a very specific place because it's what's available to them but spending some time location scouting or doing a location recce really ensures that like well of these three or four options which one is best. The other thing that comes from a location recce which is often overlooked isn't just the aesthetic but it's also the logistics and the suitability of a location for a scene. So has it got access to power? Go to the location with your phone. Do you get signal there? If not that could be a deal-breaker. What's the lighting like? Is there any nearby intrusive sounds such as traffic or overhead traffic? If so it's much better to find this out before you turn up on the day with your cast. Okay so having done a bunch of location recce's and found that one perfect place for your scene, next we legally need to make sure that this one is safe to shoot in. So we do a risk assessment and that is really thinking of what could possibly go wrong and if it does go wrong what could we do to minimize the damage that is done. So this is legally this is something that has to be done. So this is the risk assessment and it's considering stuff like tripping hazards. If it's a hazardous scene have legal practices been followed. When you're shooting a scene and there's pyro, there's special effects, there's explosives, there's fire, it's dangerous work. It also goes along with those very very basic things like if you're having a full day shoot somewhere very very cold, have you provided enough blankets and thermals for people who are acting? Is there food and drink made available? Next up is the shooting schedule. So this is making sure that now that everything's basically ready to go we're in a position where we can start filming. All of our actors and our crew and the people providing props, everybody knows where and when to be. Now this is really really important but I think one of the things that people overlook the most is having a contingency. So it's not just the case of saying well on the 6th of March I'm gonna film all my scenes and I'm done. Well that would be a pretty pointless document. The important thing is breaking down how long do you need for each scene realistically to shoot it. If you aren't able to because of weather, if you're shooting outside, when are you going to shoot it instead? So we really do need to think about the logistics of how long it's going to take to get each scene, who needs to be there and how long you're going to need them for. Depending on the size of the production I'd give this like a B plus possibly an A minus and the reason for that is the bigger the production the more essential it is. You need to have all hands on deck. Obviously if you're making a fairly small budget student film there's probably only gonna be three or four of you there so you'll probably arrange that via text but it's always good practice to document that. Okay and the final process I want to talk about is painfully it's a budget. It's not glamorous, it's not fun but it's really really important and again when you get into professional filmmaking it all comes down to the numbers. So for every person who's working for you and for every prop that you need to buy and for every piece of food that you need to provide for the people on set you need to literally know how much is this going to cost because very often it'll be the making or breaking of a film. If you can't afford it it will never come to fruition so there's no point doing the rest of the stuff. For me it's an obvious A it all comes down to the money. Can you afford to make it? There you have it guys. Really good luck if you are going through this either as coursework or it's a small budget production. If you're looking for where to go I would actually signpost you to those two videos I mentioned earlier. How to script and how to storyboard. Really they are the backbone of your film. That's what you need to turn up with on the day to start filming. As always thank you very much for watching and I'll see you next time.