The Preproduction Phase

In professional filmmaking, the preparation phase is known as preproduction. At this point, two roles are central: that of producer and that of screenwriter.

The tasks of the producer are chiefly financial and organizational. She or he may be an “independent” producer or work for a distribution company and generate ideas for films. A studio also hires a producer to put together a particular package.

The producer nurses the project through the script process, obtains financial support, and arranges to hire the personnel who will work on the film. During shooting and assembly, the producer usually acts as the liaison between the writer or director and the company that is financing the film. After the film is completed, the producer will often have the task of arranging the distribution, promotion, and marketing of the film and of monitoring the paying back of the money invested in the production.

A single producer may take on all these tasks, but in the contemporary American film industry the producer’s work is further subdivided. The executive producer is often the person who arranged the financing for the project or obtained the literary property. Once the production is under way, the line producer oversees the day-to-day activities of director, cast, and crew. The line producer is assigned by an associate producer, who acts as a liaison with laboratories or technical personnel.

The chief task of the screenwriter is to prepare the script. Sometimes the writer will send a script to an agent, who submits it to a production company. Or an experienced screenwriter meets with a producer in a “pitch session,” where the writer can propose ideas for scripts. Alternatively, sometimes the producer has an idea for a film and hires a scriptwriter to develop it. This course of action is common if the producer has bought the rights to a novel or play and wants it adapted into a film.

The script will go through several stages. These stages include a treatment, a synopsis of the action; then one or more full-length scripts; and a final version, the shooting script. Extensive rewriting is common, and writers have resigned themselves to seeing their work recast over and over. Often the director or star will want changes in the script. Shooting scripts are constantly altered too. Some directors allow actors to modify the dialogue, and problems on location or in a set may necessitate changes in the scene. In the assembly stage, script scenes that have been shot are often condensed, rearranged, or dropped entirely.

If the producer or director finds one writer’s screenplay unsatisfactory, other writers may be hired to revise it. Most Hollywood screenwriters earn their living by rewriting other writer’s scripts.

As the script is being written or rewritten, the producer is planning the film’s finances. He or she has sought out a director and stars to make the package seem a promising investment. The producer must prepare a budget spelling out above-the-line costs (the costs of literary property, scriptwriter, director, and a major cast) and below-the-line- costs (the expenses allotted to the crew, secondary cast, the shooting and assembly phases, insurance, and publicity). The sum above- and below-the-line- costs is called the negative cost (that is, the total cost of producing the film’s master negative). In 1999, the average Hollywood negative cost ran about 50 million dollars.

The producer must also prepare a daily schedule for shooting the film. This will be done with an eye on the budget. Since transporting equipment and personnel to a location is a major

expense, producers usually prefer to shoot all the scenes taking place in one location at one time. A producer must also plan to “shoot around” actors who can’t be on the set every day. Many producers try to schedule the most difficult scenes early, before cast and crew begin to tire. Keeping all such contingencies in mind, the producer comes up with a schedule that juggles cast, crew, locations, and even seasons and geography most efficiently

 

c) Answer the questions:

1. What three phases do most films go through?

2. What are the central roles at the preproduction phase?

3. What are the tasks of the producer?

4. How is the producer’s work subdivided?

5. What is the task of the screenwriter?

6. What stages does the script go through?

7. In what way are the film finances planned?

8. How does the producer take part in shooting process?