Why and what is pre-production and why is it key for a film?
The official definition - work is done on a product, especially a film or broadcast programme before full-scale production begins. The work before the literal work. I'm going to explain what goes into pre-production and why they're all important.
Finance - financing is important as film-making is quite expensive, even the highest grossing film cost 237 million dollars to make. The more money available to you the better the film will end up being. I believe that finance is the most important aspect of filmmaking, as it's obvious to say but without finance, you wouldn't get past writing the script for a film, it wouldn't be able to be made at all. Without money, you couldn't get actors, a crew, equipment, places to film, anything.
How does a film get financed? One method that is commonly used in the director meets with potential investors and pitches the idea to them to see if they're interested in financing the film, the pitch will need to be convincing as some films solely rely on people investing in it to get the project made. For potential investors to be interested the film idea needs to be interesting and unique as they won't want to invest in a film idea that has been done hundreds of times before, and a film that is similar to others won't stick out which will heavily impact the money the film could make, because, with investment, people want to see a return (plus a bit more) on their investment, with the aforementioned Avatar, it cost 237 million dollars to make and it made 2.788 billion, which is a sizeable profit on the investment that was made.
Another common method is that filmmakers get loans/grants (the difference between loans and grants is that grants don't need to be paid back) from the government or other institutions. As someone from the UK, the British Film Institute is the organisation I would request funding from. They were founded in 1933 and as well as funding films, they have the worlds largest film archive, they fund many film festivals and they have their own film academy in which young filmmakers go to learn how to make the future masterpieces. The way the BFI gets their funding is that they use funds from the National Lottery to fund films for UK filmmakers. More recently they funded Yardie, which was Idris Elba's directorial debut. This would be a good method of getting money to make the film as being a filmmaker who is looking to make their first film is difficult, it's almost impossible to gain any funding as first-time filmmakers won't be offered a Hollywood budget as there's no guarantee that the studio will make their money back and with first time filmmakers their first film might not even be good, and if it's not good it won't be profitable. This means that they aren't used to the massive resources that many film studios are used to.
The final way that films get financed is with something called sponsorships. Sponsorships are financial support. Usually, sponsors pay money to have their product in the film (another term is product placement) in some way or another, for example, Heineken paid 45 million dollars to have their product in the film Skyfall, this is used by companies to get their brand out there, Heineken knew that Skyfall would be widely viewed by audiences and saw it as a perfect chance to get their product out there (although audiences questioned whether 007 would drink Heineken, but that's irrelevant). This is what big studios do to try and low the amount that comes out of their pocket for the film, as they'd rather spend less but make more. As a filmmaker sponsors benefit everyone, they benefit you as the director as that's less money that you (or the studio) had to put for a film and it'd benefit them as it'd increase their audience which will make it more likely that they'll invest in your future projects.
Location Scout and recce - a location scout is where a certain location is scouted to gather information about a certain location. Scouts are used to determining which is the most ideal location for your shoot. To be a successful location scout you have to identify a variety of factors: is the location safe to film in? Because there was a tragic incident in which a location scout for Narcos: Mexico named Carlos Munoz Portal was shot dead in Tesmascalpa, Mexico. The town was drug cartel territory and Portal wasn't aware of this, this tragically showed the show's creators that this area was a no go to film. Linking in with the previous point you have to identify all the safety risks to a potential area, for example, there could be an area which is prone to flooding and as a location scout you need to identify all the risks that come with a location to provide the safest working environment for everyone involved with your production. Location scouting can take a long time, as it's not easy finding the right location, everything has to be right and perfect. It takes Game of Thrones months to film so there's a need to find the right location that is suitable, and available because in some cases you need permits to film somewhere and nobody wants to go through the stress of asking permission over and over again, also with location scouting you can determine if lighting/sound will be an issue, to conclude location scouting is more than just if the location looks ideal. Regarding asking about permits, location scouts don't just scout locations, they also handle the legal side of booking locations, normally a contract is drawn up by the filmmaker, the owner of the land you want to film on and any other party involved. Then you settle on the price the owner will want for you to film, and a location scout basically deals with all the potential issues that could arise, so it's a burden off the directors back, it is one less thing for he/she to think about, and any director will want as little responsibility than they already need. A location recce is similar to scouting a location. But a recce solely focuses on highlighting the potential hazards a location has, for example, a location with wires makes people prone to tripping over said wires, a recce is also used not to just highlight problems, but solving them too. For example, a potential hazard in a room with lots of computers is that there's a risk of spilling water. Here are the five questions that you should really be asking while doing a recce. A recce is important as it highlights all the potential issues that you may face as a crew, and knowing these hazards will give you the safest shoot possible: Is there a power source for charging up equipment? Health and safety considerations?
Shooting schedule - a shooting schedule is a plan of each day (over a certain period of time) and what you want to film on these days. These are key to any production as it indicates that the production team are organised and with a schedule, you won't lose focus and won't be catching up and not going back to the same location another day and possibly missing out on a lot of filming time, these are usually timelines indicating what equipment will be used and what scenes will be shot. Like I referenced earlier this is important as with a schedule you won't be recording any scene, because without no schedule then you'd be panicking as you have to figure out what you want to film. The downside to these is that it could be hard to make a schedule as peoples availability may vary.
Storyboard and shot list - a storyboard is used to plan for shots in a media production., this is shown with drawings detailing what the scene will contain, the camera angle that the scene will be filmed in and what the sound is like in the scene (non-diegetic and diegetic). Why is it important? Firstly, the storyboard is used to tell the story about the film, to break down the narrative, storyboards can be used to tell the story in case someone doesn't have time to read the script. Also, they're used by the director to make it clear (implementing their vision) to the crew what they want. The producer uses a storyboard to identify the shots that will require special effects and the ones that won't, how many extras you'll need for a scene and so on. Storyboards can also be used as a pitch to potential clients who may be interested in jumping on the project and like said previously, having drawings on what the scene will look like will make it clear to the potential client what the director hopes to achieve with their film, because you could have the best script but without showing what it'll look like visually may put some people off, as people would rather see their ideas come to life. Martin Scorsese himself said 'Storyboards express what I want to communicate'
A shot list is the list of all the shots that you will have in your film and wherein the film they will be. It lists the type of shot (Eg: tracking shot) and who will be in the shot. An example of this is that while filming you'll need to list the props, actors and as much about the shot as is possible. The reasons shot lists are important is that it makes it clear to the film crew what sort of shot you want to film and it won't be unclear, also it allows the other crew members to know just in case they need to provide anything for the shot. As Dawn Cobalt writes, 'When there is no shot list there is no guideline'
Script - the script is the written of a play, film or broadcast. All of the other pre-production methods are important but scripting is the most important of them all in my opinion, because without a script you have nothing, the script is considered the blueprint of the whole production, the script is needed if you want to make your shot list, your equipment list, storyboard, shooting schedule, everything. Also the most important people (the actors) will require the script as the majority of films rely on the actors giving an amazing performance to draw attention to the film which the film studios hope will make them profit on their movie, the script allows you to get your shot list as certain scenes will require certain types of shots, shooting schedule as some scenes may be harder to film so you'll need to plan your schedule around it and so on. There are three different types of script: a standard script is a script that is pitched to potential clientele, if they're interested it'll be written with their input. A spec script which is a script that has been written in advance in the hope that someone will pick it up and turn it into a film and finally an adapted script where a script is adapted from an already existing product (books), a famous example of this is the Harry Potter book franchise, which has been made into one of the most successful film franchises of all time.
Audition - an audition is a process ('sample performance') where an actor/actress goes through an interview for a certain part in a movie whether it be a main part or bit part. This is usually done before any pre-production is done as with the actor/actress you choose, you'll have to base your schedule off of theirs, then once you have the main lead you can begin your pre-production as now you know who'll be playing the role and you can move forward with the second part of the process of making your film. Auditions are used to see who'll be the best for a certain role, not necessarily the best actor. So for example in an audition for James Bond the directors will be looking at British actors in particular as that is where the character of Bond is from.
