Pre Production Report

My company has been required to produce a report and outline the range of requirements necessary to produce a one minute short film to be entered in the London short film festival. My company is called Davics TV. It’s a small company and it’s privately funded as it’s not a public company so therefore I will be sourcing funding myself from kick-starters and other investments form producers.

TYPE OF PRODUCTION: My short film is a thriller genre it requires a small crew of about 3- 4 people, a script of the story, certain locations that are suitable for my short film, i will also be needing certain shipments and facilities such as camera, lightning kit such as LED lights, props and costume such as fake blood and certain clothes.

FINANCE: For my one minute I'm going to be needing at least a £100 and this money will be used for the following reasons: Location would cos around £50 and then I will also be using the rest of the £50 to buy props.  I will be sourcing my finance from money I will get from kick-starters, kick-starters are sits where people put up their projects and they get funded by donations or other personnel's looking to invest. 'm using kick starter because it’s the easiest way for film producers like myself to earn and raise money for their short films. Other producers user other ways of raising their funds such as saving money from their day to day jobs or they play the lottery and the money they earn from it they invest it into their short film. Also there are governmental national film agencies that actually fund low budget films such as CREATIVE ENGLAND, CREATIVE SCOTLAND, FFILM CYMRU WALES and NORTHERN IRELAND SCREEN they offer funding’s for short film they aim to promote creativity and film skills. Also charities are also a way of raising money for short film productions and also private investors is another way of also raising money for short films. For my short film I'm going to be sourcing my funding from online kick-starters as they are the easy ways of raising money fora short film I'm also going to be getting money from my personal savings in other to fund my short film, I have chosen these two ways not because they are the very best ways of raising money for Short film but because there are the means that I can readily and quickly raise money for my short film. In a real life situation it will cost around £1,300 to shoot a produce a short film and below is the budget breakdown of the budget

Actor's - £100
Crew travel expenses - £100
Equipment (lovely Canon C100) - £870
Location - £80
Craft - £30
Film festival costs - £100
Emergency (back up) - £100

Producers will source there in come in a real life situation from saving up money or either using kick-starters or winning the lottery the only reason they do this is that most of the times when things don't work out if they lose money they will  not lose a lot. The producers also go out and they source for the right people for the right positions such as directors, actors and camera operators. Below is a spreadsheet of a budget requirement in a real life situation things they will need and how much they really cost. 

http://www.slideshare.net/ellieeeee/short-film-production-budget

FACILITIES: For this short film I'm going to be needing a professional filming camera, lighting kit, microphone kit and a tri -pod. In a real life situation I will have to go out and but cameras and my other equipment I need for my short film, I will also need to book an editing suite where my short film will be edited, I will also need to purchase editing software such as Final cut Pro x, the main reason why I need these equipment such as my camera and all the other important ones is that without them I cannot film not having them is as good as not doing anything about it therefore I will need these equipment in other to make my short film a success and meet deadlines  . I will not have to physically go and buy cameras and lighting kit or go and pay for a recording studio because my school allows me to borrow or take out cameras  under our borrow and return policy all the equipment such as cameras (a video camera), lightning kit, tripod and microphone kit will all be provided to me by my school the equipment  I will have to go and source out and buy myself will be the props and make up and also a room or location that I will film in, for location it it's not 100% certain I will have to pay because I can get permission and shoot on various locations for free. I will also need a way of transportation, normally everyone in my crew will have an oyster which allows them to get to different places on bus for a very low amount it's about £10 for a year or two for places that the buses won't be able to go we will be calling up a cab or getting dropped there by parents or friends that drive. In a real life situation production mangers will hire camera operators that will either come with their own equipment or will give the production manger particular specification of materials to buy or the camera operator will be given the funds to go and buy these equipment themselves and this will cost around £870. For location they will either call up the local council of where they want to film and get a permit to film there and also they call up property mangers of the properties they want to also film on they would be given a price to pay per hour or per day depending on how long they want to use them most properties range between 50 pounds to 80 pounds. Also for editing they will also need to book an editing suite which cost 150 pounds per day for dry hiring these means that there will be no equipment such as mac and final cut pro x the producers will have to buy they or they can hire with all the equipment for 250 pounds per day these includes Macs and Final cut pro x all provided but in my situation I am going to book my schools editing suite which is equipped with Macs and Final cut pro x software for free.

LOCATION and PERSONAL: locations are very important when planning a short film because this is where the Fillings will take place without the locations the film cannot be. In other for us to secure a particular location we will have to get out a location release form to the local council to fill out to show that we have permissions to film on specific grounds or we send it to private owners of the locations. Finding locations suitable for my short film is the director’s job and then he gives his findings back to the producer and the producer looks at these and sees if they are suitable for the short film because mine is horror I will be looking for deserted and isolated locations and when these locations have been found the producer then calls up who he needs to the get does locations ready for filming and if he has to pay for any he will also take care of that.

For my short film I will need only two talents  and the way I'm going to get my talents is that I'm going to get them from my school, I’m going to put up posters as adverts and people who are interested will come for an audition where the best will be chosen as my talents. Also the producer which is me is responsible for hiring crew members such as directors and camera operators, for my short film I have been put in a group of 4 of we have evenly distributed the jobs between us, we have someone who is the director who is in charge of sourcing locations, writing the script and aligning the script. While we have a camera operator who is in charge of the story boarding and camera work and also have someone who is in charge of lightning kit and editing.

TIMESCALE: As a media company we attach so much importance in meeting our deadlines and if we don’t meet these deadlines we are going to lose money and we cannot afford to lose money as it will result to us losing in general. So for my short film our time scale to making these will be a week. The first day we are going to be sourcing our locations and getting our recces and props and actors all sorted and the next day we are going to get our equipment all sorted out and ready to go on the third day we are going to be filming and so as the fourth and on the last day we are going to be editing our film and the next Monday our film is going to be released there by allowing us to meet our deadline set for us after these days we be evaluating and distributing our work. For filming we are going to start at 9am and finish at 3pm each filming day while for editing it’s going to take the whole day for us to fully edit our shots together. For our short film we are not going to be needing a lot of crew members and talents and this is because it’s a one minute low budget short film and not a high profile film or series which includes or needs a lot of people. In order to meet these deadlines I’m going to be using various documents such as call sheets to make sure that my crew and cast are organised, also due the fact that I have to book equipment I will have to get that done a lot earlier in order to get the equipment ready before the actually shoot which gives us more time to shoot and edit also have to book or get to the editing suite early in order for us to also have enough time to edit the short film. 

CREW & PERSONNEL: We are going to need certain individuals who can diligently do the job of important roles such as the producer, the director and the camera operator. Also we need actors but this will be the producer’s job to source talent for the short film. For the producer below are the certain skills that will be needed: 

Have a good business sense
Have a good understanding of finance
Have good creative vision
Be self-motivated
Be good at negotiating
Be good at motivating people
Be good at problem-solving
Understand the creative processes of film making
Be able to secure finance for the production
Be able to prepare and control the production budget
Have excellent communication skills
Be able to work well under pressure and motivate the production team
Ensure compliance with regulations and codes of practice
Understand the relevant health and safety laws and procedures

For the director below are certain skills that the director will need to have?

Creativity and imagination.
Good communication and 'people skills'
the ability to lead and motivate others.
Excellent organisational and planning skills.
Initiative and problem-solving ability.
Decision making ability.
Good time management and budget awareness.

And for the camera operator these are the skills they will need to have:

know how to operate the camera expertly
have good working knowledge of all camera systems, lenses, support equipment and accessories
provide creative input
have artistic ability
be patient
have a good sense of visual composition, perspective and movement
have physical co-ordination and strength
combine creativity with technical skills
pay precise attention to detail
communicate effectively
be able to collaborate and work as part of a team
be diplomatic and sensitive when working with artists and crew
know about health and safety legislation and procedures

In a real life situation the film company will either give the job to one of their qualified staff or they will put out adverts for other people with these skills to apply and thy will be granted an interview not all but those that are well qualified for it

 I have been put in a group of 4 people and within us we have chosen people for specific duties, I have been given the role of the producer and before this was done a skill audit had to be produced and the reason why I got the place was because I was the most organised and the person that gets things done on time. The person chosen for the director was chosen because he was the most creative in our group and the last person who took the position of the camera operator has a very good skill of camera work and working with the rule of thirds. In all our roles we are not all great at it in other to sharpen our skills based on these we have decided to attend media workshops at our college which is held every Friday and after these we should be able to carry out everything in a professional manner. Below are some of the skills of the personnel that have been chosen to handle specific roles:

PRODUCER: Micheal Oladokun. |SKILLS: Organised and gets things done quick and in relative time, not very good at have patience with someone, confident.

DIRECTOR: UGO |SKILLS: Has a very good relationship in working with others, has a very artistic                                                 way of looking at things and a very good artistic mind. mind.

MATERIALS:. The materials I’m going to need I’m going to need will be provide for me I will not need to produce any new materials for production. I will be using already made materials such as music tracks in other to make my short film very presentable, I’m going to be using royalty free music tracks I will have to not pay and these tracks can be downloaded from you tube but in a real life situation to get a piece of copyrighted music on a movie it will cost around 1074 pounds for a duration of one year . Also professional materials such as scripts and story boards will be provided for us as there are various templets available to be downloaded off the internet for everyone. 

CONTRIBUTORS: Our contributors are specialized people who are good and are still in the processes of learning or already good at what they do the people I’m referring to are producers, directors and camera operators. Also we are going to sourcing actors from people in the drama section of my school which makes it more professional which makes it more professional as they will know what they are doing.

CODE OF PRACTICE AND REGULATION:  These are the documents by regulation that we must have in other for our short film to be successful, examples are locations and pictures and videos of our locations, forms for the owners of the locations to fill in other to show that we have permission to film on their site, also other documents such has consent forms that actors need to sign in other to know that they have given us the right to post what we have film. We are also going to have a set of rules which are meant to govern the organisation. Also health and safety regulations will have to be met.

CONCLUSION: due to my production team been small I have decided to prioritize getting equipment and getting the required equipment and documents done in order to have enough time to shoot and edit , also because we are a very large class in my media class there might be a problem booking equipment so me and my crew will book our equipment earlier also giving us enough time tom shoot and edit within the 2 weeks production submission deadline.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://ctkmedial3shortfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/18-codes-of-practice-and-regulation.html

http://filmlondon.org.uk/filming_in_london/planning_your_shoot/legal

http://ctkmedial3shortfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/unit-11-financing.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/before-you-start/funding

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/before-you-start/links-funding

http://film.britishcouncil.org/resources/funding

http://ctkmedial3shortfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/unit-12-timescale.html

http://www.firstlightonline.co.uk/make-a-film/step-1/

http://ctkmedial3shortfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/unit-14-facilities-and-equipment.html

http://vmi.tv/vmi-hire-ratecard.pdf

http://www.thehireco.co.uk/rc3-video_camera_production_equipment.html

http://ctkmedial3shortfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/unit-15-materials.html

www.ipo.gov.uk 

http://ctkmedial3shortfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/18-codes-of-practice-and-regulation.html