Pre-Production: The Vital Catalyst

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

Assalam-u-alaikum (Peace be upon you),
cat·a·lyst : someone or something that helps bring about a change
This post is to backup a little bit and "start from the beginning."

There is a saying that goes something like "A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step!" This most definitely holds true to this day.
These days, it is very easy to find the basic equipment to make movies in order to tell your story. Just like, today, there is all the information you need at your fingertips to accomplish whatever you want. You obviously need motivation to make you do something. So, if you want to accomplish something, start now, open a text file on your computer right now, and write some ideas down, or grab your camcorder and shoot something, or sign up for a blog and document something awesome..Just DO SOMETHING! Many people nowadays would love to do something, or should I say, they love the idea of doing something. That first step is never easy, but someone has to take it. It might as well be you.

Enough lecturing, wow, now back to Pre-Production: The Vital Catalyst. As I have just explained, you need a first step, and that first step in making a movie is commonly called, Pre-Production. This could involve doing many things. Like, just shooting some clips and worrying about the rest later. But most of the time, it involves writing a script and getting a producer. For Tomorrow Never Comes film, UmmahFilms wanted to do this right. Therefore they wrote a script and got some more experienced individuals (check archives on that), to help them get the script up to par. From there, the blog was advertised to entice people to jump on board, which allowed people to come on, and helped in making this thing happens. The producer was already designated since UmmahFilms had the person who would be "in-charge". But they truly wanted to get as much experience on the team as possible so they kept searching and attempting to get things together. After a while, an undisclosed number of months, UmmahFilms got enough motivated individuals to put this project on the fast track. This was done with patience, believing in the project and continually working on getting the right team together. Meetings were setup weekly, on Sundays and most aspects of Production and Post-Production were discussed. For instance, location of the shoot is very important, so options for that were laid out and discussed, etc. After things settled, the script was analyzed and a Production schedule was made. The date of Production was ready to be set. Setting the date allowed the team to move forward and detail even further who, how, and when people would get together, and how and when this movie would be shot. The Producer is the person who is responsible of ensuring most of this to be happen. A director (or two) is/are usually brought on early stages in Pre-Production as well to layout how the movie should be shot, which constrains the Production Schedule. This sums up in a "big" nutshell how UmmahFilms got through the first and most vital stage in making a movie.

Takeaways:

• Pre-Production is The Vital Catalyst to making a movie.
• The only reason of anything to be happened is because of the first step (action!) It should be taken to achieve the goal, of making this movie, real.
• Subscribe to this blog so you can see how we progress :)
• Take that first step, and start your "Pre-Production" today.