Pre-Production

Pre-production is a fairly loose term which refers to the tasks undertaken before production begins. Exactly what is included in this stage depends on the medium and situation.

For a small video company, pre-production may refer to everything that happens before shooting begins, for example, meeting with the client, research, storyboarding, location planning, etc.

For feature films, pre-production is more specific and only begins when other milestones have been met such as financing, screenplay, casting and major staffing. In this case pre-production includes:

Location scouting
Prop and wardrobe identification and preparation
Special effects identification and preparation
Production schedule
Set construction
Script-locking (semi-finalisation of the script)
Script read-through with cast, director and other interested parties