Pre-Production Tools

By Connor Baker

Storyboard

A storyboard is a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at Walt Disney Productions during the early 1930s.

Script

A screenplay or script is a written

work by screenwriters for a film,

video game, or television program.

These screenplays can be original

works or adaptations from existing

pieces of writing. In them, the

movement, actions, expression,

and dialogues of the characters

are also narrated.

Gantt Chart

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart, developed by Henry Gantt in the 1910s, that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project.

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is the determination of quantitative or qualitative value of risk related to a concrete situation and a recognized threat (also called hazard). Quantitative risk assessment requires calculations of two components of risk, the magnitude of the potential loss, and the probability that the loss will occur.

Location Recce

It refers to pre-filming visit to a location to work out its suitability for shooting, including access to necessary facilities and assessment of any potential lighting or sound issues, and is closely related to location scouting.

Call Sheet

The daily call sheet is a filmmaking term

for a sheet of paper created by an

assistant director that is issued to the cast

and crew of a film production to inform

them of where and when they should

report for a particular day of filming.

Budget

Film budgeting refers to the process by

which a line producer, unit production

manager, or filmmaker prepares a

budget for a film production. This

document, which could be over 150

pages long, is used to secure financing

for and lead to pre-production and

production of the film.

Release Agreement

A release agreement is a

document in which is signed

by actors in order to give legal

consent in order to for the

director to release the film

and/or short film.

Shooting Script

A shooting script is the version

of a screenplay used during the

production of a motion picture.

Shooting scripts are distinct

from spec scripts in that they

make use of scene numbers

(along with certain other

formatting conventions

described below), and they follow a well defined set of

procedures specifying how

script revisions should be

implemented and circulated.

Location Release Forms

These forms are required in

order to gain permission to

film in a certain location,

they’re often obtained by

the owner of the piece of

land or from the Town

Mayor.

Footage Log

Footage logging is a process in which video footage is watched and labeled according to its content.

If a video has a high shooting ratio, it can be impractical to remember exactly where each shot is on each source tape or source file. Finding a particular source shot by searching through hours of video during editing can be time consuming.

Asset Log

An asset log is where all personal

assets (mainly equipment) that is

taken for the purpose of filming

on that day is recorded down in

a log and any damage already

affecting the equipment is

noted.

This is particularly helpful

detouring any accusation of theft etc.

Overhead Diagram

An overhead diagram is a

snapshot of the area above

where the filming will take

place. There will be

annotations of several things

just like where the camera

people will be located,

along with where the actors

will play out a certain scene etc.

EDL (Edit Decision List)

An edit decision list or EDL

used in the post-

production process of film

editing and video editing.

The list contains an ordered

list of reel and timecode

data representing where

each video clip can be

obtained in order to conform the final cut.

Shot List

A shot list is a list put together normally by the director in order to plan which shots are going to be used for what scene and at which location.