Stages of Production

Pre-production is a term which refers to the tasks undertaken before production begins. Exactly what is included in this stage depends on the medium and situation. For a small video company, pre-production may refer to everything that happens before shooting begins, for example, meeting with the client, research, storyboarding, location planning, etc. For feature films, pre-production is more specific and only begins when other milestones have been met such as financing, screenplay, casting and major staffing. In this case preproduction includes: Location scouting Prop and wardrobe identification and preparation Special effects identification and preparation Production schedule Set construction Script-locking (semi-finalization of the script) Script read-through with cast, director and other interested parties

Idea
The beginning is the most important part of the work. Sources for ideas. Friends, family, or fellow students Total strangers. People you meet on a plane or at a party; everybody has an interesting story to tell. Newspapers. The Internet Libraries Books History Biographies Steal from the best. Read great books, narrative and nonfiction.

Your own creative well: Inside that brain of yours is an endless pool of ideas

The treatment, or outline

The treatment, or outline, is basically a brief sketch. It suggests an approach and tells the overall story of the film. Its typical aim is to clarify the purpose and progression of the film with the funding agency. It presents much more information than your sketched-out proposal but is not yet as detailed as your shooting script.

Generally, the purpose of the treatment is to show and illustrate the following:
The key sequences Who your main characters are The situations they get caught in The actions they take and the results for them or society The focus at the beginning and the end The main action points, confrontations, and resolutions The sense of overall dramatic buildup and pace

RESEARCH
Research can be broken down into four sections: (1) Print research, (2) Photograph and archive research, (3) Interviews, and (4) Location Research.

I.

Print Research Read as much as possible about the subject.

Print research can involve scanning databases, checking bibliographies and print sources, and reading books, papers, magazines, trade journals, articles, diaries, letters, and even congressional records and transcriptions of court trials. Photographs and Stock Footage You might search through local libraries, private collections, family albums, and attics or look at old videos shot by the industry you are investigating. Interviews Your objective in research interviews is to talk to as many participants and experts in the field as possible. You should look for people seriously involved in the subject. They can range from technical experts and authorities to the ordinary people who have undergone the experience documented in the film. Location Research You should experience the subject on location. Research can help constantly showing you new possibilities and new direction for your film.

II.

III.

IV.

Screenplay and Script

Syd Field, author of several books on screenwriting, describes a screenplay as being "like a nounit's about a person, or persons, in a place or places, doing his or her or their 'thing. In a screenplay, the story is told with pictures, and it follows a very definite form. Like a play, the screenplay unfolds in acts: In act one the writer sets up the story. Act two contains the conflict-the basis of any drama. According to Field, All drama is conflict. Without conflict you have no character; without character, you have no action; without action, you have no story; and without story, you have no screenplay. Finally, act three provides some kind of resolution. There are two kinds of screenplaysthose that are developed specifically for film, and those that are adapted for film from another published work. Both use the same standard format, typed in 12-pt. Courier.

Audio-Visual Script or Two Column Script

You can also add other information to this format, such as graphics (lower thirds like name, location, title), transitions (a dissolve or wipe), and duration (the length of a sound bite or visual action). Any voice-over or narration is written in the Audio Section.

Division of screenplay:
1. Act 1 Roughly 25% of the story. There is a set-up (location, relationships between characters, whats going on), an event propels action, the feeling of the show is conveyed, a running theme is presented, and a turning point leads into Act 2. 2. Act 2 Roughly 50% of the story. Subplots and other characters are introduced; relationships and characters further develop; increased conflict, complications, action; and a turning point that leads to Act 3. 3. Act 3 About 25% of the story. The pace picks up, questions are answered, conflicts get resolved, and the story comes to a climactic and satisfying end.

Importance of Study
The script is an organizing and structural tool, a reference and a guide that helps everyone involved in the production. The script communicates the idea of the film to everyone concerned with the production, and it tries to do this clearly, simply, and imaginatively. The script helps everyone understand what the film is about and where it is going. The script is also essential to both the cameraperson and the director. It should convey to the cameraperson a great deal about the mood, action, and problems of the camera work. It should also help the director define the approach and the progress of the film, its inherent logic and its continuity.

The script is also an essential item for the rest of the production team because, apart from conveying the story, it also helps the crew answer series of questions:
What is the appropriate budget for the lm? How many locations and how many days of shooting are needed? What lighting will be required? Will there be any special effects? Will archive material be needed? Are special cameras or lenses called for because of a particular scene?

 The script also guides the editor, showing the proposed structure of the film and the way the sequences will fit together. In practice, the editor may read the original script but will eventually work from a slightly different document, that is, the editing script.

Storyboard
A series of sketches of the key visualization points of an event, with the corresponding audio information. There are also available many storyboard software programs offer a great many stock images (houses, streets, highways, cars, living rooms, kitchens etc.) into which you can place figures and move them into various positions in the storyboard frame. Most commercials are carefully storyboarded shot-by-shot before they ever go into production. Storyboards help people who make decisions about the commercial see the individual shots and imagine them in sequence. Storyboards are also used for other types of single-camera productions that contain a great number if especially discontinuous shots or shot sequence.