What Happens in Pre-Production?

Pre-production is the period between a film being green-lit and the first day of shooting. It is when the script is broken down, the schedule and budget are finalized, the crew is hired, the cast is chosen, the locations are found and secured, the design work is done, and every department prepares what it will need.

It typically runs four to eight weeks on an independent feature, longer on anything with construction or effects, and one to three weeks on a short. It produces nothing an audience will ever see, and it determines almost everything about whether the shoot works.

Every problem you solve in prep costs an email. The same problem on a shooting day costs a day.

The shape of it

Pre-production is not a checklist run in parallel; it is a sequence with real dependencies. Nothing can be scheduled until the script is broken down. Locations cannot be locked until the schedule roughly exists. Call sheets cannot be built until locations are locked.

Roughly, on a six-week prep for a modest feature:

Weeks 1 to 2: lock the script, break it down, draft the schedule and budget, hire key crew, start casting and location scouting.

Weeks 3 to 4: cast the principals, choose and negotiate locations, design work in progress, refine the schedule, equipment ordered, insurance placed.

Weeks 5 to 6: tech scouts, department prep and fittings, permits confirmed, rehearsals, final schedule, call sheet for day one.

Below is what actually happens inside that.

Locking the script

Prep cannot properly begin until the script stops moving. Locking freezes the scene numbers and page numbers permanently, as described in script revisions, and everything downstream references those frozen numbers.

Scripts do change during prep, and that is normal. What matters is that changes are issued as tracked revisions rather than as new drafts, because by week three there are forty people working from the document.

The breakdown

The first substantial piece of work, and the foundation for everything else. Reading the script scene by scene and recording every element it requires: cast, props, wardrobe, vehicles, effects, and the page count in eighths.

The full breakdown process is covered in Chapter 3. In pre-production terms, note that it is usually done twice from different angles: the first AD breaks it down for scheduling and the line producer for budgeting.

The schedule

From the breakdown comes the stripboard, and from the stripboard the shooting schedule.

This is an iterative document, not a single act. The first version is built on assumptions; then a location turns out to be available only on Tuesdays, an actor has a fixed window, and the whole thing is rebuilt. A schedule going through ten or fifteen versions during prep is entirely normal, and each version is distributed and tracked.

Alongside it comes the day out of days, showing which cast members work on which days, which is what makes cast deals possible to negotiate.

The budget

Finalized against the schedule, because the number of days drives most of the cost. Every schedule change is a budget change.

By the end of prep the budget should be locked, cash flowed, and agreed with whoever is financing. See above the line vs below the line for how it is structured.

Crewing

Heads of department first, and as early as possible. The production designer especially, because art has the longest lead times of any department and a designer hired late cannot do the job properly.

Then each department is filled out under its head, mostly by the UPM. Deal memos are issued, start paperwork collected, and the crew list circulated. See how to find and hire crew and deal memos and rates.

Casting

Runs in parallel from very early, since certain casting decisions affect financing and all of them affect scheduling.

Breakdowns go out, auditions and callbacks happen, chemistry reads confirm the pairings, and deals are negotiated with agents. Then the actors' availability is fed back into the schedule, which frequently changes it. See what does a casting director do and scheduling around actor availability.

Locations

The most fragile part of prep and the one most likely to change late.

Scouting, presenting options, choosing, negotiating agreements, and securing permits. Covered in location scouting, film permits and what does a location manager do.

Two things to hold onto. First, a location is not secured until there is a signed agreement, not when someone says yes on the phone. Second, keep a second option alive for anything essential, which is the subject of building a contingency.

Insurance

Placed early, because you cannot secure most locations or hire most equipment without proof of it, and because you are exposed from the moment prep involves anything physical.

Public liability, employer's liability, equipment cover, and production-specific cover for cast and negative. See production insurance explained.

Design and department prep

Running through the whole period:

Art department. Concept work, drawings, set construction, sourcing dressing and props, and modifying locations. The longest lead times on the film.

Costume. Research, sourcing, fittings with each actor, making where needed, and acquiring multiples of anything that gets damaged.

Hair and makeup. Design, tests, wigs and prosthetics, which have their own long lead times.

Camera. Format and lens decisions, testing, and the equipment order.

Lighting and grip. Location power assessments, the equipment order, and any pre-rigging.

Sound. Location listening, and flagging anywhere that will not work.

Stunts and effects. Coordinator engaged, sequences designed, rehearsed and risk-assessed.

Tests

Camera tests, makeup tests, costume tests on camera, and any effect nobody has tried before.

These get cut when prep is compressed and they are among the worst things to lose. A test costs half a day. Finding out on a shooting morning that the fabric strobes, or that the blood reads brown, costs considerably more.

The tech scout

Late in prep, all heads of department walk every location together and work out how each scene will actually be achieved: where the camera goes, where the lights rig, where the power is, where the unit parks, how long each setup will take.

This is where the schedule stops being theoretical. See what is a tech scout.

Rehearsal

Where the schedule allows, which on independent films it often does not. Even a day with the principals is worth arranging, because it is the only time performance can be worked on without a crew waiting.

Blocking rehearsals at the actual locations, where possible, save real time on the day.

Health, safety and paperwork

Risk assessments for every location and every hazardous scene. Method statements for stunts and effects. Safety briefings planned. Medics booked where required.

Alongside it, the administrative spine: contracts issued and signed, crew paperwork collected, permits confirmed, clearances obtained for any logo, artwork or music appearing on screen, and the production office set up with its distribution and version control conventions.

The last week

The final week has its own shape and it is mostly confirmation rather than new work.

• The final shooting schedule is issued and distributed.
• Equipment is collected and checked. Cameras are tested, not assumed.
• The unit base and first location are prepped.
• Movement orders go out for day one.
• The first call sheet is produced and distributed.
• Every department confirms it has what it needs.
• Contingency plans are confirmed: the cover set, the weather fallback, the second option for the difficult location.

Anything not resolved by this point will be resolved during the shoot, at ten times the cost.

Doing it on a short

A short film gets one to three weeks and the same dependencies, compressed. The parts that matter most, in order:

1. Lock the script. Then break it down. Everything else waits on this.
2. Schedule properly, with realistic day loads. Not an optimistic list of scenes. See estimating scene shoot time.
3. Confirm locations in writing, with dates and hours.
4. Confirm cast availability in writing.
5. Get insurance. Yes, even for a short. Locations will ask, and the exposure is real.
6. Recce every location at the time of day you will shoot, and listen to it.
7. Shot list every scene. See what is a shot list.
8. Send a call sheet the night before, every day.
9. Have a wet weather plan for every exterior.
10. Check your kit before the day, not on it.

Why it gets compressed, and why not to

Pre-production is the easiest thing to shorten, because nothing visible is lost when you do. There is no footage missing, no scene cut, nothing anyone can point at.

What actually happens is that the work moves. It does not disappear; it reappears during the shoot, when a hundred people are standing around and every hour costs money, and where the answers available are worse than the ones you would have found with time.

Almost every disastrous shoot is a shoot with insufficient prep. Almost every calm one had enough.

The chapter ahead

The rest of this chapter takes each part in turn: the stripboard, building a shooting schedule, day breaks and banners, the day out of days, scheduling around actors, tech scouts, location scouting, permits, insurance, shot lists, storyboards and floor plans, night shoots, children, animals and weather, and contingency planning.

Next

Start with the tool the whole schedule is built on: the stripboard, and how to read one.