Ep. 46 How to create filming schedules during pre-production planning

Welcome back fellow filmmakers! We’ve come along way but we still have some important work to do before we enter production. So, without further ado let’s get into the nitty gritty details that are going to make your documentary happen. 

The next vital step in your journey is scheduling. Yes, your read correctly: scheduling. 

Now, if you have all the time in the world, unlimited resources and all your subjects on standby, you may not need to worry about this next step. But in the likely scenario that this is not the case, I’ve put together the perfect cheat sheet to get you into pre-production asap. 

When you’re juggling clients, crew and deadlines, it may seem a weight off to throw caution to the wind and not create a detailed schedule. But I implore you to read on with curious optimism, as a schedule may be all that stands between you and a film ending disaster. 

Being a creative, you would be forgiven for thinking this part of the process is slightly mind numbing. But stick with me! By creating the perfect schedule not only will your production be a logical and organised one, it will also construct the perfect environment for you creatively thrive and produce the best documentary you possibly could. 

Listen now! 

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello, my fellow filmmakers. Welcome back. This is already episode 46, and today I'm talking all about scheduling in pre-production. And I know I've just said the word schedule and some of your eyes are already glazing over, but stay with me because this stuff is important and it's actually not boring because it's where you get to really explore how you're going to put your film together. Now we have come a long way, but we do have some important work to do before we enter production. We're still in pre-production. And without further ado, let's get into the nitty-gritty details that are going to make your documentary happen. And the next vital step in your journey is scheduling. Yes, you read, well, you heard correctly. Scheduling. Now, if you have all the time in the world, unlimited resources, and all your subjects stand on standby, you may not need to worry about this next step. But the most likely scenario is that that is not the case. So I've put together the perfect cheat sheet to get you into pre-production ASAP. When you're juggling clients, crew, deadlines, it all might seem a weight off to throw caution to the wind and not create a detailed schedule. But I implore you, please stay with me with curious optimism because a schedule may be all that stands between you and a film ending in disaster. Okay, that's very dramatic, but it is the start of the year, and I feel like I need to really draw you in to get you enthusiastic about scheduling. So being creative, you would be forgiven for thinking that this part of the process in pre-production is slightly mind-numbing. But creating the perfect schedule will not only will your production into a logical and organized state, it will also construct the perfect environment for you creatively to thrive and produce the best possible documentary that you could hope for. Now, why why why am I the one telling you about all of this? And if you're new to the Moonshine Moonshot podcast, maybe it's because it's the new year and you were looking for something exciting and new to get you started, and maybe making a film this year is your goal. So I'm really excited to have you join me. I'm Sue Collins and I am part of the team behind Moonshine Agency, which is an impact film production house producing films that have a positive social impact. Impact films are films that are designed to take an audience from passive viewing to being an active participant, and it gets them doing something, getting involved and being part of a solution. I've recognized that learning how to craft films is a challenging process, and when I was just starting out, it was very hard to find information and learn about filmmaking without formal study or without being under the wing of a mentor. So avoiding the pitfalls, being pigeonholed, running out of funding, or simply not understanding the business side of the industry has meant that over the years I have seen many people, many people with a lot of talent, give up or simply move on to more stable work. But my hope is to see the industry thrive here in Australia and beyond, and I recognise that to do that, I have to be more open with skills sharing. So that is why I am sharing more of what I have learned through many years of filmmaking through this podcast, The Moonshine Moonshot, and also through online courses at the Moonshine Communications Academy. So make sure you check out the Academy, particularly the resource section, where I have put access to free downloads like check sheets and ebooks. And if you haven't come across them already, there are some great online courses available through the Academy, such as Define Your Ideal Audience, which helps you figure out who your project is best suited to well before you even roll camera, and it is gold for any marketing person involved with your film. But back to today's lesson, and I hope you're staying with me and that you're excited to learn more about pre-production and scheduling. So what is scheduling? Well, it's a pretty obvious question, really, and I'm sure you do know what it is, but pre-production scheduling is exactly what it looks like on the tin. It is allocating the adequate and necessary time to various parts of your production. It sounds relatively pain-free when I phrase it like that, doesn't it? Now assuming you have all your subjects lined up, locations selected, secured your funding, and you've planned carefully, the scheduling of your production should be some fairly harmless admin. That being said, the difference between a poor and a well-organized schedule could have a drastic effect on the end product. So where do you start? Well, I always like to start with a timeline. And the timeline of your film can be a daunting prospect when considering how far you've still got to go. But with that in mind, often the best place to start is actually at the end. Do you have a film festival in mind? Do you have a screening date already booked in? Do you have an expecting client and perhaps a broadcaster with a deliverable deadline? Or maybe none of these are applicable, so throw a generous but definitive dart on that calendar. But whatever you do, pick an end date. When will your film be complete by? Because when it comes to pre-production scheduling, it's important to be clear about your timeline and your targets. However, regardless of your plans, you will be at the mercy of your subject's time and not only your subject, but the availability of your cinematographers, your editors, your composers, your animators. So more appropriate would the approach be to blocking multiple days on certain tasks. So with all these different elements, your first point of call could be to consult with the necessary parties involved in your production. Because without understanding their schedules and their expectations, you won't be able to get an accurate understanding of your timeline. And so what I mean by that is say your key participant, the key interview you need, is a person and they're located on the other side of the world, and they can only fit you in on a very specific period of time. So now you've got that date sorted out. Is your cinematographer available? Can you book airfares at that time? Do you have the production planning in place to enable all of these things? So you can put those things into the calendar and then you know those things have to happen at that time and that your people are available. And you can start making those bookings, which is actually really essential to get things moving. So once you've done this, you'll be able to develop a realistic and a manageable and ideally exciting schedule. So what should you be scheduling? Alright, the more organized you are, the better. Everything right up to your release needs to go on your production schedule. If your blocking is detailed, it will give you the tools to be flexible and give you a precise reference for the tasks that need to be completed. Things that you would have in this big overarching calendar for production, you would have your proposed shoot dates and locations. For post-production, you would have when's the editing happening, when's the graphics package going to be developed, animations, music composition, audio post-production, color grading, and final delivery. So with a breakdown of everything that needs to go into your production and post-production, you begin to block out in a way that makes it as efficient as possible while also ensuring it's creatively possible and inspiring to you. And the best bit is if your tasks are all organized in this way, your team can be working at various stages of the production at the same time. Because remember, documentary is not linear. It's not like feature film where you might shoot everything in a six-week block. Documentaries could shoot a week in March, two weeks in April, another week over in July, and then it all comes together. So a good example of this is at Moonshine Agency, where our team might be out filming and they'll be in direct communication with the editing or post-production team, and they will start editing the footage that's already been captured from the previous block of filming. And then when they've done part of their rough draft, we can figure out if we need any pickups that we mightn't have captured, or do we need, you know, a bit more overlay, or what else is missing to flesh out that particular part of the story. And all these informed decisions can be made in the edit suite as you go. And in complete conjecture to that statement, there are parts of the post-production that are considerably more difficult to undertake without first having completed previous parts of the production. For example, you generally wouldn't schedule your composer to commence until you're pretty close to a final cut of the film. So it's important when you're creating your timeline to consider all of these tasks. And if you can, try not to squeeze them in too close to your deadline. Try and give yourself breathing space in the schedule so that you've got some buffer when things get delayed or you need to bring something forward. So you're not trying to cram everything into the last couple of months of post-production. Scheduling traps. These are really important things to point out for you. When you're dealing with a budget, it can be very alluring to tighten your shoot schedule to minimize costs. This has got a producer's hat written all over it. Cost reduction, tight schedule, but beware. In doing so, you potentially put the quality of your documentary at risk. Let me elaborate on this. Production requires a perfect union between fluidity and structure. And that's a really vague statement. So I get that you're probably going, what is she talking about? What this really means is developing a detailed plan while also allowing space for replanning and unexpected change. You cannot be rigid, you have to be flexible. Documentaries are live, and that means anything can happen. Whether it's a new subject, a sudden cancellation, rescheduling, or a total film altering event, think pandemic. Leaving room in your schedule for these unplanned experiences is just critical. So once you've got some breathing room, you can now review your footage and ensure that it's coming along just the way you imagined. And if it isn't, you now have time to implement changes, reshoots, pickups, or take the film in an entirely new direction. So once you're doing all this, what's next? If you've gotten this far, firstly, take a moment to congratulate yourself because you are getting so close. With your schedule in place, you now have an exact timeline and process that will lead you to your red carpet event. So start thinking about those sparkly shoes right now. But the real work is actually about to begin. Because with scheduling behind you, you will be looking at another key part of the pre-production process, and that's graphics. And that's what I'm going to tell you all about in the next episode. So don't worry about that right now. Just keep thinking about your scheduling. How do you fill out your calendar with all the bits and pieces that has to happen between now and when your masterpiece is completed. Now, the reason that I'm talking about graphics next week while we're still in pre-production is because I really couldn't wait until post-production to have you considering graphics for your film. And there's a lot of reasons for that, which I'll clarify in the next episode. But I would encourage you to start considering graphic ideas now and how these designs will relate to the greater brand of your film. And it's also worth noting that the significance of this factor in the scheduling of your documentary, whether it be in the film's graphics, posters, or other general buildings. So get your schedule down, switch your mind to graphics, and I will go deep dive into that next week. But until then, hit subscribe on whatever podcast you're listening to because I would love it if you could help me out with that because it helps other people know that this is a podcast you enjoyed and they might get something out of it as well. So I will speak to you again in another week. Happy filmmaking until then.