Week 8- Tips for pre production pt.4

4. Do this Now, or Earlier

If you have serious dialogue, want to follow a tight production path for content and narrative you will need a script . Your script doesn't have to be formal or perfectly formatted, though that can help others in your production crew who might be more familiar with standard script terminology. A simple basic outline of what needs to happen when and what needs to be said when will keep your production focused.

Your script makes possible another important production/directing element and that is your shot sheet. This is a list of what has to be videotaped with or without audio to accomplish your vision, to satisfy your inspiration.

Without a list - definitive or not - you will miss must-have shots and not recognize areas during production where you need to improvise, adding shots that establish a script and shot sheet can be mission critical. It can also come in earlier in the planning and development of your Great Video Production but I've found that following my inspiration, determining what I will need to make it happen and deciding what approach I want to take, what format, helps me better establish a script and from that the shots I will need to make it all come together.

You need to recognize situations like time of day, outdoors or in, daylight or nighttime, camera placement, location availability, weather conditions and a host of variables that will affect what you capture. These notes are easily placed alongside your described shots and will keep you alert to necessary improvisational changes.



The production "big boys" have all this and more going into actual production but still discover the need for script additions, deletions or changes and have re-writes done mid-shoot. This isn't cost effective and can be wa-a-a-y counter-productive, but it happens. The more prepared you are going in, the more satisfied you will be with your production going out.