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Pre-Production
Introduction | creating | writing | planning

When you get a new digital video camera you are excited like Boo Boo the jumping frisbee dog. You want to film everything that moves: Your car, your friends, etc.. You want to play with the zoom, the different digital camera effects, and try out the night shot function(if you bought a Sony). But when you go back to watch your video, you realize it's a bunch of camel dung that will only be watched once by you and nobody else. When you are ready to build a film for others to see, preproduction is your foundation.

Pre-production is what comes before Production, hence the name. It is the planning of what you are going to make and it involves a few essential things: generating the idea, writing the script, and planning the shoot.

People want a chance to make sense of what they are watching.

You had this idea, "Ultimate Chinese Fight Movie 2001!" You'll do fake punches and flips on trampolines. You call 5 of your best friends to help. They all come. But when it gets down to it: you just spent 7 hours on a Saturday filming yourself and Fred rolling around in the leaves. It looks like crap. But when your mom watches what your did, she says "your so creative and full of energy." These encouraging words help your mind to start thinking again instead of being weighed down by the crap you just made. Next week you have another idea. You call up your friends again, but all of the sudden they got real busy. Soon you realize your friends would rather not dick around while you wait for inspiration. It is at this moment you understand the importance of pre-production.

Soon you realize your friends would rather not dick around while you wait for inspiration. It is at this moment you understand the importance of pre-production.

Film is both a method and an art form. People like watching crisp video over blurry video. They would rather watch steady video over shaky video; they would rather watch a movie with a coherent story line than a bunch of random video clips of you on a nature walk. If the video is constantly shaky or blurry, people can't see what they are watching and have trouble understanding what is going on. The bottom line is people want a chance to make sense of what they are watching. They don't have to make sense of it immediately, but they want a chance to make sense of it either now or in the future. Good planing and pre-production is the start of giving them that chance.

1. Introduce a problem
2. Attempt to solve the problem
3. Ask if the problem was solved.

When most stories are broken down to their most basic element these are the components that you will find. Almost everything else is a play on words, educational, sarcasm, or pointing something out that is disturbing. If you go into generating your ideas with these three things in mind, you will have a much better idea of how to create something that is viewable to the masses.

next step >> Generating the idea.

Introduction | creating | writing | planning

 

 

 

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