ABSTRACT
Pre-production usually only commences once a project has been developed and is green lit. At this stage a project will generally be fully financed and have most of the key elements such as principal cast, director and cinema-tographer in place, as well as a screenplay which is satisfactory to the financiers. Even though the writer may still be working on it, the screenplay is generally page-locked and scene-numbered at the beginning of pre-production to avoid confusion. There are three key documents that guide a production: the script, the budget and the schedule. Scripts we talk about elsewhere but the budget is central to the producing of a film and the schedule is critical to the actual work on the set. Blank budget forms for small, medium and large projects can be found on the website that goes with this book. They are in both printable form and in Excel/Numbers format.
