This article uses my latest short film iRelationship as an example to show you exactly what goes into the planning of a short film. You can watch the actual film here or here if you’re in China. To learn about the other processes involved with the making of a film, check out my other articles (still works in progress, unpublished):

• Take Control On Set – Handling the Production Mess
• Editing Like A Pro – Color Grading, Slick Cuts, and More

Pre-production planning

Oh pre-production. You’re not as exciting as post-production editing, nor as glamorous as production shoots. You’re faced with the piles of planning, casting, and scheduling you need to take care of before starting production – unless you want that to be a complete mess. When you think of filmmaking, paperwork is probably the last thing you’d think of doing, but the reality is – besides the creative stuff like scriptwriting – pre-production is just that.

This article will be covering the planning and organization involved in pre-production, such as casting, budgets, locations, and scheduling. I won’t completely leave out the story, idea creation, etc. because those are things paramount to good filmmaking. However I don’t do this crucial part of pre-production justice in this article, so I plan on writing more on the matter in the future.

Photo credit: Roberto Sali

The Idea
Every film starts with an idea. Before all the casting and budgeting happens, you need an idea or reason to make a film. In the case of iRelationship, a couple months before starting on the film I had noticed that devices like the iPod touch and iPhone had become ubiquitous devices, and that cellphones were playing a larger and larger role in our social lives. This led me to the idea of a teenage couple in a world reliant on telecommunication incapable of face-to-face communication. When time came to start writing the script, this proved to be the most original and unique concept and was chosen to the film’s primary theme.

This brings me to an important point: ideas should be original – they should be unique. You might think, “What is there to make a movie about that’s still truly unique? Drama, comedy, action: it’s all been done a million times before!” But that’s just not true. There’s no excuse for not being creative. This is well illustrated in photography. You can take a boring front on picture of the Eiffel Tower that every mom, kid, and their dog has, or find an interesting perspective. Instead of making an action film about a kid with superpowers, you can have an old man with superpowers. Or maybe a man’s life who’s dictated by a coin flip. Remember, clichés should be avoided!

Screenwriting in the pre-production suite Celtx

The Script
My view of filmmaking is that it’s storytelling with visuals and sound. It can be heart touchingly realistic, or out of this world awe-inspiring; but it should always tell a good story, and tell it well. The script can easily make or break a film (bar the visual effects parties like Avatar and 2012). You can have amazing technical quality and the best locations in the world, but with awkward dialogue and a crapfest story, your viewers will be bored and not notice any of the positive qualities. In other words, your film will suck.

A useful method I use when creating plot designs is using a mind mapping application like Popplet to visually place the plot events. This allows you to create parallel character plot lines, as well as very clearly show the plot progression with your writers, making collaboration a whole lot easier. Here is the one I created for iRelationship.

Plot visualization created in Popplet for iPad

With your overall plot planned out, you’re ready to begin writing the script. I did this as well as almost all of the pre-production mess with a wonderful application called Celtx, which is an alternative screenwriting application to the industry standard Final Draft, which does a whole bunch of other pre-pro planning goodness like production scheduling, catalogs for everything from locations to greenery, and sketches for lighting setups. It’s cross platform and is seriously powerful. You can also sync the desktop version with the iPad and iPhone app so you can work on your script on the go or view it on set. Another piece of software I use for not only filmmaking but also everyday life is Evernote. With it I keep a journal with schedules and budgets that I share with my crew. Using the syncing functionality I can keep up to date with my notes everywhere, as well as jot down ideas and take pictures as I come across inspiration. It’s another great application that I highly recommend you check out.

What we wish our budget was

Budgeting
Moving on to the meat of this article, there is the issue of budget, equipment choice, assembling the cast, crew, and extras, scouting locations, and scheduling – basically the logistics. Let’s tackle the budget first, which decides what equipment can be afforded if not already owned, locations that can be afforded, etc.. The first thing I usually plan for is craft services (food on set). Like I mentioned in my article on organizing shoots, craft services is imperative to most successful shoots. When shooting iRelationship, it turned out everyone was generous and shared the food costs – even the cast! This is nice when it happens, but you won’t always be working with a cast or crew you’re close friends with, and asking them to pay for the food is unprofessional and ill-mannered. How much money to set aside depends on the length of production, size of cast and crew, and the cost of the food you’re choosing. I usually set aside enough for a simple sandwich plus drink per person and multiply by half of the cast and crew’s combined headcount, then scale up by the number of days production lasts. For all-day shoots, you might want to provide additional meals. I don’t see anyone being able to make it through a tough day of production without lunch and dinner.

Locations also contribute to the cost of a film. Not only securing them, but travel costs as well. When you have just a few bags of equipment, a driver to move the equipment (and you) can be helpful. When you have a ton of equipment, a driver is essential. Depending on where you live, you can call in a favor from a friend, or hire a taxi. Either way, make sure you have a way of moving your equipment and that you’ve accounted for the cost. You might also have to provide for the travel costs of your talent, such as taxi rides to certain locations.

Equipment choice should be easy for most indie filmmakers. Usually you already own a camera, tripod, lights, sound equipment, etc.. However, there might be a shot in a pivotal scene that needs that extra shot of production value, like a crane shot while the couple walks off into the sunset (so much for avoiding clichés). This is the perfect time to rent equipment, as it’s cost effective compared to buying a crane you’ll rarely ever use, and you can use quality gear instead of making do with a rickety DIY jib that could send your camera plummeting to the ground. Just be sure to spend time getting to know the equipment and be ready to use it on set. Renting equipment has its own required knowledge, so be sure to read up on that, as unfortunately I don’t have much experience with rentals.

Money drives everything in Hollywood. But in the indie world of filmmaking, you’d be surprised how much you can do with very little. Favors, food, and that warm feeling you get when you’ve finished a film project is what drives things in this world. So be sure to use that to your advantage!

A casting call

Casting
Actors are the central figure of films. When average people think of certain films, they don’t think of the director or DP, they think of the lead actors. That’s why casting the right actors is so important. When you’ve got character development down, it’s time to begin the casting process.

Sometimes, if you’ve worked with or have access to a number of actors, you’ll know right away who you want for a certain role right away. In iRelationship, I had my eyes set on the lead actor, Symington Smith, from day one. I knew he was comfortable in front of the camera, and could transform into his character well. However, it’s not always this easy to find suitable actors, or in fact actors at all. If you go to a school, the best thing you can do is get the word out with flyers and contact acting and drama clubs. Social networking is also very powerful; get the word out with a Facebook or Twitter page, and if you’ve got lots of friends or know people with lots of friends, make some posts to garner people’s interest. The number one thing you want to do is create interest in your film. The more hype you get, the more people will know about it. If it becomes something people bring up in conversations, a casting call won’t go unanswered. Also remember, you don’t need someone who is a professional actor and has hundreds of hours of experience in front of the camera. You’ll likely be surprised at your local talent. For larger productions, there are always acting unions like the SAG (Screen Actors Guild).

With your potential candidates in mind, it’s time to hold a casting call. For mine, I had present an experienced actor who helped the auditions along. He gave me a lot of helpful advice that I used during the casting call and while directing. For example, it’s helpful to have the actors do some improvised dialogue, which helps you figure out how they act in a natural environment, without a script to follow. This then allows you to direct them in a way that makes for a more genuine performance

During the casting calls I also ran into a problem that happened as well during shoots. When working with inexperienced teenage actors or any inexperienced actors, they have the urge to giggle. For whatever reason, be it being uncomfortable, excited, happy, or nervous, there’s a strong tendency to laugh. The way I solved it was simple: allowing them to do take after take without interruption for a long period of time. Eventually they’ll dial themselves in and tire of giggling. An added bonus is that each take will be more consistent, which is helpful when cutting them together.

Determining the right actors for the roles was pretty simple. It really came down to who had the drive to go the long run in this project, because I certainly wanted to avoid a mid-production disaster where an actor just refuses to act. For the roles I had in mind, I also needed a very natural and honest performance from the cast, and the teenagers provided just that. With no formal acting experience, they were very natural in their performances. Another plus for the film was that they the two lead actors were excellent typists on the phone, which was a very important factor in this particular film. The only worry I had was that my lead for James wouldn’t work out because the actor was the complete opposite in real life of his character. Thankfully during production I saw that with the right wardrobe, hairstyle, etc. plus his very good acting, you couldn’t tell he was anyone more than a nobody.

Besides the lead roles and Rachel, the actor for James’ friend Richard was a personal choice made from my school’s drama club, which had offered their actors to me. I chose myself to act as Ryan in the final scene (if you’re gonna be in your own film, you might as well be Mr. Suave), due to a shortage of male actors and because, well, I wanted to be in my own film!

Photographing locations when you're scouting them is invaluable when reviewing

Locations
Having the right locations for a film is almost as important as having the right actors, because it in a large part determines the look of the film. As a student, I naturally have access to a school and lots of kids, which would otherwise be difficult to obtain, so I used this to my advantage. For the other locations, I pooled the collective knowledge of our cast and crew and brainstormed some locations. Choosing the houses of the cast as locations was simple, since we were already working with them and they were open to the idea. The park, restaurant (which went unused in the end), and sidewalk scenes were all thanks to suggestions and scouting done by the crew.

The primary things I consider when scouting a location are the feasibility of shooting there i.e. can you really setup a crane in Grand Central Terminal, how you, your crew and your cast will make the commute, the atmosphere of the location and its effect on the film, how to light the set, and the acoustic qualities. You really want to pay attention to the difficulty of accomplishing these things, because like it or not, certain difficulties can be too much to overcome. Don’t take that as discouragement to chase after that dream location! Just realize that you have to take it one step at a time, and if your film is being postponed because you need to figure out just how to get that crane up the mountain, maybe you should consider somewhere else. I have an article coming up very soon that speaks about this in more detail.

Production schedule made in Celtx

Scheduling
Having a set shooting schedule will help you meet deadlines, which I recommend you set even if it’s a hobby project. Deadlines help you get work done efficiently and improve on yourself faster. Without a deadline, you might want to constantly hone your edit, shifting a cut a frame over here, and tweaking the color grading for another shot over there. Make sure to review the schedule with your cast and crew and confirm that they are a-okay for the shoot times. Like I mentioned in my article Organizing A Shoot, you do not want to be giving your boom op a wake up call fifteen minutes after the shoot began. Set minor milestones throughout your project, such as beginning of principal photography, end of principal photography, completion of rough cut, etc.. These will help you work towards your final goal.

For this film I used Celtx to make the shooting schedule. Like I mentioned before, this is a seriously powerful software suite that I highly recommend you check out. I specified the shooting dates specific to the hour on each day, marking days when dedicated to moving equipment, and days we all take off.

A tip for scheduling for the best efficiency is allotting large slots of time. Say you’re shooting at a school and you’re trying to pull of one hour shoots during lunch break. Your crew will probably spend twenty minutes setting up and tearing down the equipment, and you’ll risk continuity errors between shots if you don’t finish everything in that forty minute time slot. What I did in iRelationship was clear multiple periods to shoot, which I found was much more efficient. You’ll take less time overall, and your results will be much better.

The pre-production process usually seems to drag on for a long while, and you’re always all too ready to jump into production. There’s so much to plan, so many details you want to mull over and consider, but there’s one thing you need to remember when doing pre-production: not everything is completely predictable. Despite the most meticulous planning, unforeseen incidents will pop up, and the best thing for you to do is be prepared to handle them. In iRelationship, I had to make split second decisions on set because of scheduling issues with certain shooting locations such as the bus. Acknowledge the fact that some things are unpredictable, and jump into production prepared and ready!

There’s just so much that goes on during pre-production I could literally write volumes about the topic. I’d really appreciate it if you post what you want to hear more about in the comments section. Check back often for more on the topic!