| Preproduction Introduction |  |
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At the beginning of a venture, the preproduction staff is generally chiefly you – the filmmaker. Whether you’ll be the director, producer, writer, or make-up person on the actual shoot, a guerilla film almost always begins with one person. To assure success in the endeavor, spending time on preproduction planning is a must.
Preproduction time is perhaps the one huge advantage guerilla filmmakers have over large Hollywood productions. Big-budget films are often launched during a short crunch time window when the green light decision, the actor’s schedules, and the director’s vision all coincide. Preproduction is often kept to a bare minimum in order to get the film off the ground. Sometimes shooting begins without even having a completed script! Most guerilla productions, however, aren’t made until the desired outcome comes into clear focus. That means that there is usually time to think things through.
The following chapters are meant to help you maximize your preproduction time. Whether you’re storyboarding or location scouting, the time spent in these areas can result in tremendous savings of time and money to the production. Guerilla filmmakers need to get the most out of limited and precious resources to make great films.
Writing a production statement
At the very beginning of your project, perhaps before the script is even complete, you should write a production statement. This statement is a brief description of what the production is actually about. It doesn’t even need to contain a plot summary. A production statement might read like one of these:
• This 35-mm film will be a claustrophobic psychological murder mystery with gothic overtones.
• This commercial spec will provide a demonstration of the cutting edge compositing technology available from our effects house.
• This DV romantic comedy will be a light, surreal romp through the highways and byways of employee relationships in the banking system.
Each of these single sentence abstracts tells the reader a great deal about the production. The camera department will know the general feel of the lighting that’s needed; wardrobe and make-up will be able to start thinking about the appropriate looks of the character types; post-production will have an idea whether the film will be effects-heavy; and so on. The point of the production statement is to provide a general overview that describes the destination of the project.
Begin organizing
Organization is really the only way you can accomplish a movie effectively. I’ve worked on many disorganized shoots and it always takes its toll on the final on-screen results. The less organized a shoot, the less likely you’ll be able to get the quality you want. While studio-backed productions can (often) afford the waste instigated by on-the-spot decisions, I’m assuming you don’t have a spare couple of million sitting around to cover overruns.
Organization, while not glamorous, can set a professional tone from the beginning of the project. The amount of information that must be collected and organized for a film is simply staggering. Therefore, the first thing you should do when beginning preproduction is set aside a drawer in your file cabinet to centralize all the information you collect.
Some important documents you should keep in your file cabinet include:
• Crew list This list should contain the names, general positions, phone numbers, and emails of all principal members of the crew. If one crew member needs to be able to obtain information from another crew member, this list will make communication much quicker and easier.
• Copies of the storyboards Storyboards are often kept by the director, so notations and instructions can be made on them. You should try to keep a copy of the panels in the file cabinet both for reference and security against the loss of any material.
• Legal release forms All legal releases should remain in a secure location. The loss of a release could cause tremendous problems for distribution in the future, so be sure to keep them out of harm’s way.
• Location scouting reports Be sure to keep reports of scouted locations even if you don’t plan to use them. Discarded locations can be like gold when planned locations unexpectedly fall through.
Creating a preproduction deadline list
Principal photography may be a long way off and you might think that setting deadlines is premature. Although it’s usually never too early to start setting at least tentative deadlines, the preproduction deadline list should record the critical path required before you begin your production.
There are immutable time periods and requirements that mean that some dates must precede others. For example, if a location permit is required, it may take the issuing city 2 weeks from the time of the request before the permit is granted. You need to know this! Any problems that create time delays that can’t be immediately resolved should be added to a list.
Some of these deadlines might include:
• Construction times If a stage, set, or prop needs to be constructed, you’ll need a time estimate of how long this will take. That way, when you begin actually scheduling dates, you can either allocate the time before production begins or push the dates of the scenes that require the constructed item to the end of the shooting schedule.
• Permit issuing time How long does it take for the city to issue a permit? What documentation is necessary to obtain the permit? How long will it take to obtain this documentation? These questions should be answered on your deadline list.
• Location, cast, and crew availability Scheduling around actors can test the patience of nearly everyone – especially the first assistant director. Although all the schedules can change at the drop of a hat, begin planning early.
• Loan of equipment Does your brother-in-law say you can borrow his boat for filming in March? This may be an important consideration in your schedule – especially if he’ll be using it himself all April. Anything that needs to be borrowed, even wardrobe, should be determined for availability.
• Seasonal items Finding Halloween decorations in the beginning of February may be difficult even for well-funded productions. Begin to consider where and when you can obtain any seasonal items needed for the shoot.
Here are a few general suggestions to help you get the most out of your preproduction time:
• Get an organizer or project folder For any film, you’ll have to organize a million details and record a million requests before you shoot one frame. Keep names, phone numbers, ideas, and dates close at hand. Whether you keep a well-planned folder or a notebook with a bunch of random notes, keep this information together in something you can carry with you.
• Take note of other movies There are many occasions where something you’ll observe in a film will be something you can use in your own. Don’t focus on big-budget productions – rent B-movies. B-movies and independent films are places you can really see where ingenuity was used to find ways of solving film problems even if the film itself is terrible. Everything from faking big locations to successfully implying offscreen carnage can be learned by paying close attention and guessing how they were accomplished. Likewise, make it a point to listen to DVD commentaries (preferably by someone other than the movie star) for tips on production procedure.
• Don’t listen to criticism It seems sometimes like everyone feels the need to offer discouraging advice or commentary just to help you “keep things realistic.” I don’t know what it is about making a film that seems to induce people with the need to criticize the script, the premise, the budget, the actors, the locations, the authenticity of the props, or even the likelihood the movie will ever be shown. Ignore everyone. If you want to make your movie, make it.