What are the elements of a movie?

The composition of a movie is time and space

The production of a movie: first, the script

The biggest problem our crew has is what led to this The main factor in the chaos of filming was the lack of a complete and detailed script.

Everyone understands that a script is the foundation of a play. It is the blueprint of the production project and the basis for film and television shooting. It can also be said to be a story bought with money, and it is also a money-making text and symbol. Therefore, it must be studied in detail. First, it must study its commerciality and visibility; second, it must study its ideological and artistic quality; third, it must study its difficulty in shooting; fourth, it must study its distribution method and cost recovery. Situation, only with the above foundation can investors have enough confidence to invest. The script also has two functions: 1) Provide enough material for reasonable arrangement of production plan and progress. 2) It is a guide or plan that a director should follow when shooting a film.

The more detailed and clear the script is written, the more accurate the budget will be. Although there are some methods to preliminarily estimate the approximate cost of the film before the script is written, this approach is dangerous from a financial management perspective. of. (This danger has been clearly exposed in the current crew.) From the day I joined the crew on October 26, I have been studying how to finish writing the script every day. Until filming started on November 24, there was no completed script, so there would be no storyboard script. If the sub-shots are not released, the art production will be affected. Many targets that should be completed during the preparation period are moved to the shooting period, which increases the workload during the shooting period. All departments are overloaded, which will inevitably affect efficiency. It could have been a short and capable team, but due to the above reasons, it had to be organized into a huge and bloated team now. It would be weird to use more people and cars, eat more, live more, spend more money, so the cost does not exceed the budget!

Also, since film is a comprehensive art, it should not only be known to the director, but also to all the staff, and every small link should not be sloppy. If the director can't come up with a storyboard script, how can he ask the following departments? I don't have enough confidence to curse, so I can only make do with it. But in this case, if points are deducted for each process, how can the quality of the film be guaranteed? But our director is still very majestic in this situation. (There are many deeds, I think everyone knows some of them)

So what are the results of the above problems? This has resulted in the current shooting cycle being extended, costs increasing, and shooting quality also being affected. At the same time, due to overload operation, various departments became irritable. During the filming process, departments argued with each other, pushed and blamed each other.

The minimum daily consumption of the crew is 6,000-8,000 yuan, which is during the filming period, and the time extended by rushing into action without a script is exactly during the filming period. If one month is overdue, the cost will be over 180,000 to 240,000 yuan, so I think it would be better to spend an extra year preparing the script than to change the script and split the shots during filming. One of the biggest taboos in making a movie is to wait until the filming starts. Change the thematic structure of the script.

In the film industry, there are indeed masterpieces made without scripts. There have been in the past and there will be in the future. Only when the producer (investor) is very familiar with and thoroughly understands the content he wants to shoot, can he successfully make a film without a script. Unscripted films generally include art films, underground films, one-off events, documentaries and newsreels. The film we are shooting this time is both a feature film and a commercial film, and it is a film that is ready to participate in awards. How can it be hastily launched without a detailed and complete script and without detailed research on its prospects? As future producers, we must consider what kind of film we need in the future, is it a commercial film? Or an art film? Of course, there are some man-made factors here that we cannot change. So through this experience, or a lesson, will it serve as a wake-up call for the future development of our film industry?

Second, the filming plan

Although there are many tasks and processes in filmmaking, some basic steps are the same in all kinds of filmmaking, but there are no absolute rules and procedures. can be followed. Every film, every producer and every specific working environment is more or less unique, so a film's production process needs to be appropriately tailored to meet the needs of the specific situation.

The filming plan is very important, so let me first introduce its importance.

There is a preparation work in the early stage of filming, which includes all the work that must be done before shooting of a film. A plan should start with a central idea that can be developed into a script. That is to say, feature films usually start with a story or a synopsis of the story, or the script problem mentioned above. Transfer the script to the production director. He will use a professional perspective to sort out every character, prop, special effect and item required for filming. He will then make several copies of the script and distribute them to the art team, Props team, photography team, etc., ask them to analyze the script and propose a detailed plan based on their professional requirements. It is very important to draw up a filming plan and budget based on the detailed plans proposed by each type of work.

The filming planning work is also very rigorous, specific and comprehensive.

The film crew must work strictly in accordance with the script and detailed filming schedule. The production director must plan every activity in advance. For example: this filming, on December 27th, filming the 31st script of the school, day scene , in addition to directors, staff and actors, it also requires 1,322 students and PEGASUS large crane cameras, as well as local police to seal roads and maintain order. Then the production director must notify the equipment, school, public security bureau and other departments in advance to cooperate. For the above example, a lot of written materials are required, such as letters of introduction, invitations, notes, etc. If you cannot prepare in advance, big trouble will occur. This time, because there was no planned shooting plan, photography equipment was temporarily transferred from Beijing Xianli Company. As a result, the price is higher than what was negotiated in advance. Moreover, the shooting time of this group of shots conflicted with the school activity time, and a lot of work was done temporarily to be able to shoot normally. (This is not the responsibility of the production director, nor the responsibility of the production department.

The pre-production planning work does not end with the start of filming, it runs through the entire production of the film. In a film During the filming, it is necessary to check the execution of the plan at any time to understand the implementation of the budget and when major problems will arise. There were many problems like the above during this filming, and the reason why the crew had a day off was that there was no filming. The plan failed to set up the scene well, which caused the crew to stop work. Another time, the script was changed temporarily. There were still 5 hours before shooting, and the art team was notified to start work. The result can be imagined.

During the two-month study process, I divided the filming plan into four stages: 1. The planning stage lasted for one month, and the main creative staff selected locations and set design at the same time. 2. The preparation stage was determined. Various indicators include costumes and props, photography settings and lighting, a summary of the scene arrangement schedule, the number of working days required for each scene, transitions, and technical considerations. 3. Develop two sets of shooting plans to prevent emergencies, such as Weather, natural disasters and government actions, do not stop once the film is started. 4. Develop the film and review the samples in time and make a post-production plan.

Third, use of funds and cost control

From a macro point of view, our crew has done a good job in managing funds. It adopts segmented management, which is a good way to control funds and avoid spending money lavishly and blindly. We help some people with bad intentions to ask for money. At the same time, the company can also coordinate and manage it. However, our crew does not strictly follow the principle of "no filming can start without a storyboard" and no preparations can be made, even though every expenditure is required. Budget, but there is no requirement that every budget should be based on calculation. Of course, we have to admit that "shooting cannot be started without a storyboard" is not something that we can control.

A brief introduction to the current situation of the film. Problems in the use of funds and cost control. ①According to common sense, the cost of a movie is 1/3, but the cost of our film’s staff already accounts for 1/2. This is very unreasonable. phenomenon. I will briefly give some examples of unreasonable aspects.

1. For example: a director has basically not directed a few scenes, and the scenes he has directed have been rejected and re-filmed. His remuneration remains unchanged. Why? Due to reshoots, the amount of film used has increased. Each scene must be calculated as at least 8 films, 1598 yuan/book, so 8 films are 12784 yuan, and 3 reshoots are required. The movie costs 38,352 yuan. (This value is for reference only and is not completely accurate.) Director, as I understand it now, is a verb, not a noun. As a director, what’s the point of being idle every day?

2. Photographers of the crew

3. Increase in the number of props team

4. Recruiting other directors to direct the play

5. Costumes Budget overrun

6. The required extras are not well controlled

In summary, although each expense seems to be very small, it is all due to the accumulation of small amounts. into more. The above is a brief list of a few items, including housing, transportation, arbitrarily set actor fees, rented props that are never used, rented props that can be bought new, and rented props that can be borrowed instead of borrowed. I believe that in daily finances Some problems will also be reflected in the report. It is difficult to control the daily capital expenditures. Things that should be done by the production department are now all handled by each group, and there is no way of shopping around. The financial management system we have established now only adheres to two aspects: reimbursement and payment request.

Obviously, the film industry is different from other industries. It includes some factors that change every day or every minute. The time and cost of completing each job may have been planned very accurately, even in minutes. Seconds count, but there are too many uncontrollable and unpredictable changing factors in production work, and plans and budgets are in danger of falling through at any time. Therefore, a contingency budget must be prepared to cope with unexpected events, which means that 20% of the total budget should be used for emergencies. This is also a special item in filming work.