Pre-Production Intro

What is pre-production? What are the steps that a filmmaker must take to transfer an idea in their head into a form that is ready to be filmed on camera?

Pre-production is a step in filmmaking that helps prepare for the day of the shoot. A filmmaker must first create a story. This refers to pitching, outlining, writing a treatment, writing a script, story boarding, and then writing a shot list. When in the process of pitching, a group of people must come together to collect each other's ideas for the story. This is simply a rough draft with no specific shots or scenes planned. Shot lists are created in order to have an idea what shots are needed to create the story planned during the pitching process. The document may include the angle or direction of the camera in relation to the character and the location. The second step to pre-production is planning the day of the shoot. This will require deciding which characters appear in what shot, blocking the action, and planning the lighting set up. Blocking the action will dictate what specific actions or movements the characters will need to take to fully become the created characters themselves. This will become even more important in action films.