Pre Production

Film Production is generally broken down into these 5 stages

  1. Development

  2. Pre Production

  3. Production

  4. Post Production

  5. Distribution

The following links provide some good tips and examples for your production folders including development and pre production

Concept board from ‘The Lost Letter’ - for pitch for short film - Grace Fox - Yr1 FdA Film & Media Arts Production UCW.

Concept board from ‘The Lost Letter’ - for pitch for short film - Grace Fox - Yr1 FdA Film & Media Arts Production UCW.

Pitch

When pitching your ideas for film projects, the most important thing is that we can follow/ understand, visualise and get excited about and your idea.

For Pitch * generally good to have:

  • Logline - the story of your script in a sentence, not a tagline

  • Synopsis

  • Treatment

  • Script (if available)

  • Concept Board/ Mood Board / Photos / Art work

  • Character ideas

  • Location ideas

  • Crew outline

You might also want to consider

  • Look book

  • Sizzle reel

A good pitch needs

A ‘sticky’ story.

You want to engage people and for them to be able to recount it to others. Therefore keep it simple and find the core of the idea.​

Emotion​

You need to generate an emotion. That's what will ultimately make them want to be involved. Comedy? - make your pitch funny. Tragedy? - make it sad.​

Your passion (Why you?)​

Why do you have to tell this story? How can they know that you will see this through to the end?​

Urgency​

This is the hardest part and the most often left out. You have to create a sense of urgency around the project. It has to happen and it has to happen now because...


* the list above is a generic overview for first year Film project pitches, obviously you will need to adapt depending on who you are pitching to and what for … Ross will do a more in depth version ahead of Year 2 - Short Film pitch.

See example from previous year here.

http://poool.co.uk/lost-letter-madrid

TREATMENT

Storyboards

PRE PRODUCTION / PRODUCTION

For your course work, each of your production files must contain: 

  • Your Name, Title of Project: i.e. Style & Meaning and Title of Film 

  • Synopsis/ Logline 

  • Treatment 

  • Idea Research 

  • Contextual analysis 

  • Pre-Vis (Could include Moodboards, animatics, or storyboards, Thumbnails, Sketches) 

  • Production Schedules/ Diary, Call Sheets, Location Reccee 

  • Critical Evaluation 

Your Production file should contain most (but not necessarily all) of the following: 

  • Logline 

  • Synopsis 

  • Script, Script Breakdown 

  • Pre-Vis (Could include Moodboards, animatics, or storyboards) 

  • Casting notes 

  • Budget 

  • Production research e.g Location research, ideas for props, costume, make-up, cast, equipment etc 

  • Schedule 

  • Call Sheets 

  • Shot list 

  • Kit List 

  • Crew Sheet 

  • Location recces 

  • Permission forms 

  • Clearances 

  • Camera/shot log 

  • Production Diary 

  • Communication Log 

  • Evaluation of production 

  • Any post production paperwork or research 

Production stills are also an excellent way to document and demonstrate your understanding of production process.