The Director’s Prep was a lot shorter and painless than people had made it out to be (maybe because this is a fairly simple film). On the administrative side, the Head of Production, Cinematography, Screenwriting, and Editing teachers attended. Crew wise, it was the Producer, Director/Writer, 1st Assistant Director, 2nd Assistant Director, Unit Production Manager, Production Designer, Art Director, Editor, and Script Supervisor.
Here’s a rundown of how the prep went (in chronological order):
- The teachers come in and grab some snacks provided by the Producer.
- The Producer:
- Goes around the table and introduces everyone.
- Goes over the shooting locations, showing photos and descriptions.
- Goes through all the actors, showing head shots and resumes.
- Plays tone clips as the Director explains why he chose each clip.
- Then the Cinematographer:
- Plays a silent tone clip to illustrate the cinematography.
- Shows sample stills adjusted in Photoshop to give an idea of the final image after color correction.
- The Production Designer and Art Director:
- Show various samples of clothing for each actor.
- Show images to illustrate the set design.
- Show some props that will be used.
- The Editor:
- Shows a silent style clip to illustrate the desired style of editing.
- Explains how they want to edit the film.
- The Director:
- States the log-line, premise, elevator synopsis, and tag-line.
- Goes through the entire storyboard, which was mounted on the wall beforehand.
- Final questions are asked.
- Director’s Prep is wrapped1.
The Prep went very well. During our part of the presentation, the Production Designer mainly explained what we were going for with the costumes while I passed out photos, and then I covered the ideas behind the set design and props.
During each person’s presentation the teachers would jump in with any questions or raise any concerns. The list above is a pretty good pre-production checklist, though I can see why some people might find Prep a waste – a lot of it is common sense.
But having a formal meeting with deadlines forces you to get everything in order well ahead of time, and I know for sure that some people would be waiting until the last minute if this wasn’t mandatory.
- I realize some of these terms might be confusing or vague, such as tone clips and elevator synopsis. I’ll try to address them in future posts ↩
Related posts:
- First Director’s Prep
- Inside Director’s Prep [Producing]
- Getting the Greenlight
- No Communication is a Bad Thing
- Presentations and Filmmaking
Posted in Pre-Production, Thesis Films on Wednesday, 16 May 2007 at 10:58 pm
