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Introduction
Unit 4: Pre-production portfolio – Pre-production requirements.
Learning aim A : Understand the requirements of pre-production of a digital media product.
The more fleshed-out and in-depth your Pre-production is, the better you end project will be.
How Pre-Production Will Help
While it may seem tedious, pre-production is critical for the success of a film, with countless directors being plunged into dept and development hell through minor oversights or major mishaps, all caused by poor planning and ineffective pre-production.
Examples of poor pre-production
Dr.Dolittle (1976)
From difficult star (Rex Harrison), to terrible weather, wayward animals, expensive reshoots, and poorly-chosen locations.
Dr. Dolittle was a pre-production nightmare with the producers trying to build an artificial dam in the middle of a rural village. Naturally this upset the locals, so much so a member of the SAS (Ranulph Fiennes) decided to blow up the dam with flares.
Original budget: $6 million
Final budget: $17 million
Box office: $9 million
Alien 3 (1992)
A film seemingly doomed from the start, its script was rewritten repeatedly, even as sets were being built and scenes shot.
A variety of directors attempted to take control of the production but many left after studio executives grew unhappy. Eventually David Fincher was attached but he was not happy about the $7 million already spent on construction. Cast, crew and studio bosses all opposed him and finally a poor test screenings caused re shoots.
Budget: $50 million
Box office: $159.8–$175 million
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Apocalypse Now was a mess. With a variety of issues plaguing the film from bad luck to bad behaviour culminating in a pre-producion disaster.
After the success of The Godfather, Coppola sunk millions of dollars of his own money into an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness. The film went from a production time of 5 months to about a year. “We were in the jungle. We had too much money. We had too much equipment. And little by little, we went insane,” – Coppola
Budget: $31.5 million
Box office: $150 million
Money
The film industry is all about money. If a show or movie gets cancelled it’s rarely about the content or creative differences it’s probably about the money. Poor pre-production can cause bad money management and major budgetary issues.
The Blog
The rest of the blog will delve deeper into all the ins and outs of Pre-production.
Pre-Production 