The Pre-Pre-Pro List

I am a working man. I work very hard at what I do, and like most everyone that works hard at what they do and actually like their job, I get paid just enough. Money is a big part of movie making. Hearing about a comedy with 200 million bucks to spare makes me sigh. If i had a hundredth of the budget, I could get shoot my most expensive script. As it turns out, I’d be lucky to get a fraction of that fraction for a budget.

With money woes hot on my heels, I’ve devised a plan that will ensure that I either create my vision with as little wasted money as possible. If at any point I do not feel like I can create my script to my satisfaction, I can pull out at any of the steps and not be at loss.

I’ll show the list and describe each part after:

1. Make packs and traps
2. Test shooting with standard camera and broomsticks
3. Test out audio recording
4. Test out editing
5. test out proton and foley FX
6. Decide on script
7. Design ghost
8. Decide how to shoot ghost
9. Test out ghost FX
10. Complete storyboards
11. 2D animatic
12. Complete props and costumes
13. Test sets and lighting with standard camera, Live action animatic (cam/light/blocking/set)
14. Write out shooting schedule
15. Get actors
16. Get cranes, dolly’s and other shooting equipment
17. Create call sheet
18. Rent camera

The first and foremost thing I want to have done is the proton packs and a trap. This is a very expensive endeavour on it’s own. However, even if I don’t make the movie(s), at least I’ll have a bitching Halloween costume, and who else do you know that has a proton pack hanging above their fireplace?

Secondly, I want to test out shooting with friends and broomsticks, just to make sure that I can handle the camera, and ultimately test out a plethora of little things, that will prove to me that when I rent an expensive camera I can handle all aspects of the movie making process.

I find sound is some of the weakest parts of home made movies. They tend to use the microphone on the camera to capture the sound for editing and even the background and footstep foley. I plan to test out an external recording device, using visual mark cues to sync up in post and also record background sound FX foley completely separately.

Testing out the editing is pretty straight forward, I just want to make sure I can make a sequence flow correctly.

While editing I will figure out the foley and proton FX. I want all of the sound in the flick to be authentic.

Decide on script. This has been done, so I can skip it.

Designing the ghost is extremely important because we need to decide if it is going to be a practical puppet or if it’s going to be CG.

After the design of the ghost, we will need to test out and decide how to film the ghost.

Directly after that we will test out shooting with the ghost, as in create the ghost and composite it into the previously shot footage.

That last step is the last of the testing shot. Now I must complete the storyboards for the full script.

2D animatic is just so I can be sure of all the assets I need. Including temp sound and music.

Complete all props and costumes, this must be done before anything else, once this is complete, all assets should be acquired and, technically, the script can be shot in a moments notice.

After we find our location, we can test out lighting it with some temp actors and create a quick live action animatic.

The shooting schedule is very important. In cahoots with the animatic, the shooting schedule lists out all the shots I need to have in the editing room. Obviously this doesn’t count the quick pick-ups or improvised shots. There is room to grow.

Getting actors will be a bit tough. I’m still undecided at who’d I want to put in the flick. I really want someone passionate about the franchise, and someone that really wants to find a new and interesting character to imbue on the screen. As of now, I’m leaning to going to the local film school’s and putting up a notice to anyone that is interested in doing a shoot. I’m sure they wont mind the pro-bono stuff, right?

The equipment for the flick will be a little complicated. I’m going to try make as much of it as I can stationary, or steady/handy cam. But it would be very nice to have a dolly and maybe a crane. We’ll see as the pre-pro goes on. Perhaps Tucker can make me most of it, he is quite talented.

Call sheets will be one of the last things to do before we actually film. I will need to make sure I have everything in the above ready, then we will set the dates and create the call sheets for all cast a crew, then hand them out.

Renting a camera will probably be one of the easiest things to do on the production. I’m just trying to decide which one at the moment. I plan on going to Matrix Video in Vancouver to rent, I’m sure whatever I choose they will have.

Now, we shoot.