PRE-PRODUCTION TOOLS
Here are the tools and documents that I use to handle the pre-production of my film projects.
*Full disclosure. Film Trooper provides Amazon affiliate links on this resource page. If you choose to purchase any items from this list, please know that Film Trooper will receive a little bitty bit of earnings for sending you to Amazon. Cool thing is that you will NOT be charged any extra, it's just an affiliate commission for sending peeps like you to Amazon. Every little bit helps and we thank you 🙂
I started out using Microsoft Office for MAC, then worked on iWorks ... but the iCloud has just been miserable of late. So, I started to utilize the Google eco-sphere and all the cloud products. I have to say, I'm really loving what Google has done with Google Docs. It's FREE ... Google is definitely on its way of becoming our Skynet 😉
Once the outline is done, I start barfing out a script ... and I mean literally. It's disgusting and unhealthy. But alas, I use Final Draft. Final Draft has been the industry leading screenplay writing software for years. One of the best features in Final Draft is the Tagger add-on. Once I'm completed with my script, I reformat it to add the appropriate scene numbers and send it off to the Final Draft Tagger tool.
Movie Magic Budgeting 7 & Movie Magic Scheduling 5 Bundle
Once I've tagged my script, I can import that file into Movie Magic's Scheduling software. It is here that I start to break down the script and create strip boards for each day that it will take to complete the film. Basically, you'll be uber-organizing your days o figure out what you're really up against in production. The great thing about seeing it all laid out, is that if you realize you'll have difficulty securing a location or something, you can just simply re-write the scene to take place in a location that you can secure. The original location for my film THE CUBE, was supposed to take place at my friends' apartment. But then they moved. So, I rewrote the script to take place at my house instead. Movie Magic's scheduling software makes it so much easier to deal with all the variables than trying to manually create it on a standard word processor.
FREE DOCUMENTS AND FORMS
• Excel Film Budget Template. I use an excel file for creating my film's budget. I just prefer it better than the more expensive software. Just my preference and it's FREE for you download and use too!
• Storyboard Template. I like to doodle, and having a simple storyboard template makes it easy to imagine what each shot might look like before I shoot the scene.
• Call Sheet Template. Once you start getting into production, you'll need to let everyone know what the hell is going on every day. I even created these call sheets on days it was just me acting alone in front of the camera. It helped me keep things organized.
• General Legal Agreement. Look, I'm no lawyer and it's always good to consult and hire proper legal representation, but I used these general agreement forms to ensure I had something in place that clearly stated my intent of the project. The biggest clause that you can add in these general agreements is a section calling for any disputes to be settled by "binding informal arbitration". This essentially says that the first party and second party agree to let a third party look over the documents of the dispute and make a final judgement.
• Talent and Crew Volunteer Release Form. If you really want to make sure no one is confused by what you're asking them to do when volunteering for your film project, you could use this simple document.
*Full disclosure. Film Trooper provides Amazon affiliate links on this resource page. If you choose to purchase any items from this list, please know that Film Trooper will receive a little bitty bit of earnings for sending you to Amazon. Cool thing is that you will NOT be charged any extra, it's just an affiliate commission for sending peeps like you to Amazon. Every little bit helps and we thank you 🙂
