The pre production stage is the first stage of any programme. This is when the planning and preparation that is needed to actually make the programme is done.
Pre production is very important and will usually take up nearly three quarters of the total time between getting a request to make a programme and its final delivery to the client.
This is the time that will need all your communication and management skills. Apart from designing and writing the programme you will have to meet people, negotiate with them, look after them, plan every last detail of the actual shooting and editing and be able to work out budgets and costs so that you offer a fair product for a fair price and make a fair profit.
Every time you go through this process it will get easier and more familiar. Your course will probably allow for this by asking you to write treatments, storyboards, scripts and so on as you practice making programmes. Eventually you will have to go to a client, take the brief and do all the planning yourself.
There are people in the industry who find this side of a production so absorbing and challenging that they make it their career. They are production managers and producers. They are responsible for the production rather than the shooting of it, which is left to the director and crew.
If you eventually intend to start your own production company you will need to become very skilled in this area, or be prepared to employ someone who is, unless you are going to produce small scale corporate type programmes which you can produce and direct. Two important jobs does mean two workloads but won’t necessarily mean two salaries!
If you have read the section called ‘An outline of our production’ you will see that two people run Ace Productions. Elaine looks after the clients and writes and directs the programme, while Simon looks after the management side and is responsible for bookings, logs and locations. It is one of their programmes that we will now follow.
There is no one way that a request for a programme will arrive. You could receive a phone call, a letter or fax, a personal approach or you could reply to a tender request in a trade paper. We will look at examples of phone and letter requests.
The Request for a Programme – By Phone
Phone calls are probably the most difficult to deal with because you will have to think on your feet, take notes, be very careful what you say and sound professional all at the same time.
Imagine this telephone conversation and see how many mistakes you can spot.
The phone rings and you pick it up:
‘Hello’
‘Is that Telly Productions?’
‘Yeah. Who wants to know?’
‘This is Jean Bright, marketing manager of Toys for All; we are looking for a promotional video. Is that the sort of thing you do?’
‘Yeah, all the time, and we won’t charge you an arm and a leg.’
‘Could we meet and discuss some details and prices?’
‘We’re pretty busy at the moment but if you want to pop in sometime tomorrow I can probably spare a couple of minutes. Or, better still, I am always in the Rose and Crown for lunch so I could see you there and buy you a beer.’
‘I have got a busy schedule at the moment, and some other phone calls to make, so perhaps I will ring you back.’
‘OK but make it first thing in the morning next time.’
You are right. Jean Bright did not ring back, or go to the Rose and Crown, and Telly Productions are still looking for their first job.
Often the really silly examples are the best because you know you wouldn’t respond like that. But what about the mistakes?
Always answer the phone in a professional manner. The company and your name should be part of the response. ‘Telly Productions, Pat speaking, how can I help?’ suggests a professional organization. This is a very important first contact.
Be honest. If you have done a promotional video before say so, but do not ‘name drop’, clients are looking for confidentiality and to be told that you have done a promotional video for their biggest rival is not going to help. A simple ‘Yes we have done promotional videos for other organizations’ is enough. If you haven’t, don’t say ‘No never, but we are always willing to give it a try’. Far better to say ‘We have done similar programmes, yes’.
Don’t ever refer to the cost, even if asked. You cannot put a price on a programme you know nothing about. Only if asked directly be honest and professional. ‘It would be unfair to both of us to put a price on anything until we have discussed your exact requirements. You will, however find our prices very competitive.’
If you are asked to meet and discuss it, there are two ways of dealing with this. Neither is right or wrong, just different. The first way involves you saying something like ‘Let’s get our diaries together, have you got a preferred day?’ Having sorted out a mutually convenient day the next problem is to sort out where. This is not as straightforward as it might appear. If, for example, you are working in your back bedroom, you hardly want clients there on a first visit do you? If you have an office, offer it as a second choice, so it is either ‘Could you warn security that I will be coming to see you?’ or ‘Shall I come to you or would you prefer to see our facilities here?’
The second way is arguably more professional and probably more time constructive. Don’t arrange to meet until you have something to discuss. How about ‘Perhaps it would be more constructive if you could send me some details of what you have in mind, then we could arrange to meet and discuss them?’ If you have even a rough idea of what is wanted it will be easier to guess a price range if asked.
Always ask for an address and contact number and remember to say thank you. So ‘Thank you for calling us. Could I take an address and contact phone number, please?’ will end your professional call and you will know that the potential client already has a positive image of your company. This is very important because, even if you do not get this job, Jean Bright might be impressed enough to offer your name to other potential clients that she talks to.
One final important point: you spend a lot of money on advertising to get the work in the first place. It is very helpful to know which adverts work and which don’t. Always ask how clients heard of you. Again there are no fixed rules about when you ask. The rule is ask nicely, ‘How did you get our number then?’ just won’t do! ‘May I ask how you found out about us?’ is about right.
All of this conversation, with names, addresses and any details must be written down. It is the first page of your production diary, under the heading ‘Requests for programmes.’ Even if you never hear any more from Jean Bright, she, and her company, are a useful contact when you send out your next mail shot.
The Request for a Programme – By Letter
Look at this letter that has been received from Fashions for You. The first thing is to read it more than once so that you understand it, then ask some questions: What is it asking for? Is it a request for information? What information? Is it a request for a programme to be made? Is it a request for a meeting? How are you going to reply? By letter or phone?
The list of questions is almost endless. Two things depend on how you answer this letter. One is whether we get a programme to make, the other is whether I can write the rest of this book because this is the letter that Ace Productions got and upon which this book is based. Fashions for You and Ace Productions are relying on you!
What we need to do is learn as much as possible about what is being asked and, perhaps more important, what we are not being told. Let’s look at the letter in some detail and answer some of the questions. First look at the company logo. Under the name is something called their USP or KSP, this stands for unique selling point or key selling point: ‘exciting, affordable clothing for you’ is their identity of themselves. This is important to you because the programme will have to reflect this. They don’t sell ‘ordinary’ or ‘normal’ clothing; they sell ‘exciting, affordable’ clothing.
Business is about having an identity that makes you stand out from the competition. You will do well to remember exciting and affordable because you will drop these words into conversations with this client at meetings and use them in their programme.
It may be that your course requires you to invent your own company to make your programmes and files more realistic. Give some thought to your logo and USP. Ace Productions’ USP is ‘Video Programmes on Budget & on Time’ and you will see it on their paperwork. It is their identity that separates them from ‘normal’ companies.
The first paragraph is an important answer to the question ‘how did you hear of us?’, it is also a warning. They kept the brochure you sent them. You should keep a note somewhere in your business files showing who you sent mail shots to, when or whether they replied.
Why is it a warning? Think about it, if they kept yours they must have a file of ‘Production companies’. Most companies do, very few use telephone directories. You are not the only video producer in the world; other companies will have got this letter too. This would be normal. What you do next, with your reply, will determine whether you get a meeting. What you do at that meeting will determine whether you get the programme.
The next sentence shows this is a real enquiry, there will be a programme made. They have thought about it and this means they already have an idea about the content. They are intending to ‘commission a short video for use at trade shows’.
The second paragraph tells you who they are, what they do and whom they sell to. It also has another selling point you will use in the programme: they are proud of their designs and quality of productions. This is not a company that produces either rubbish or designer wear, but they do have exciting affordable, quality goods.
The third paragraph tells us how they see the video. This is not going to be a collection of static images; their brochure obviously does that. It wants excitement and movement. It must stop people walking past their stand. It is a sales facilitator type of programme. That means we make a programme showing exciting, affordable, quality clothing designed for the young adult of today, get people to stop and watch it, and then their sales people sell.
The fourth paragraph is not as simple as it seems. The company has obviously seen videos on other trade stands and they have also seen product videos in stores. These two videos are different types, aiming at different audiences. What works for one audience will not necessarily work for another. A compromise won’t work for either. What this paragraph says is that they want the video primarily for their stand, but they would like to explore the possibility of extending it to another audience. They don’t know how it can be done and want to explore the possibility with you. It is a trap. How you deal with this sort of innocent wording is crucial. It will come up again later in the book, so for the moment we will just store it away in our heads.
Our reply to the last paragraph will be the key to getting, or losing, the programme. Do not be tempted to write back and say ‘we do programmes like this all the time. It will be £5000 and will take a week’.
They have asked for an indication of price and time. We cannot do the programme until we have a full brief, we cannot cost it until we know what is involved; what if you find out later that their factory is in the Far East and it will take a week to shoot with six crew? There would not be much left of your £5000, or your week to produce, then would there? This requires some thought and is another trap. We will have to think of something that does not commit us, but does not lose us the programme.
Finally look at the person who sent the letter. Is Pat Hermandes male or female? Does it matter? It would if you decide to reply by phone and ask to speak to Mr Hermandes, only to be told ‘this is Miss Hermandes speaking’.
Look at the job title. What is a projects officer? Not a project manager. Not a marketing manager. Is this someone in an office who has been told to investigate the possibility of a video? Is Pat in charge of the budget? Can Pat make decisions? Is Pat even the client?
At this stage it doesn’t matter. Pat is our only contact. Later, if we get the commission, we will have to find out how much authority Pat actually has. We cannot have a situation where we need a decision now and are then told by Pat Hermandes that it will have to be referred to the procurement committee, which meets once a month.
Finally, we have spent a lot of time looking at, thinking about and developing this letter. All the thoughts, and questions, should have been noted down. Remember that everything goes into the production diary. We will need these immediate thoughts about what this letter says to form part of our reply. We should have not only the letter, but also our thoughts on paper beside us when we compose our reply.
Before we can reply, we need to think about the aims and objectives of this programme.
Aims
It is important to remember that a television programme is an audio and visual experience. This means that the whole thing must be thought out in both sound and picture. Programmes will not work if either is thought of in isolation. It is never a success to try and fit sound to existing pictures or pictures to existing sound. The only exception to this is possibly the pop video where the song exists first, and then pictures are fitted to reflect the mood or theme of the song. Sometimes this works reasonably well, but attempting it is a specialist skill.
The programme must have some sort of aim, without an aim the programme will wander ‘aimlessly’. The aim is an initial idea, often quite vague in nature, along the lines of, for instance, ‘we will do a programme on fashion’. The importance of an aim is that it gives something to focus on, a starting point, we now know the programme will concern itself with promoting stylish clothing. This germ of an idea gives us the concept of the programme that can be stated as an aim, ‘We will do something to promote this range of exciting, affordable, quality clothing’.
Objectives
The next stage is to write down some objectives; these are precise statements of intent. To take our example, fashion is so vast a subject that we need to select an area or areas that the programme will concentrate on. We need to set time limits for the programme. We need to define the type of programme, is this a serious documentary or a comedy for instance. Above all we need to define the content. Most of the answers to this question can be found, often hidden, in the letter requesting a programme.
Sometimes you will get a request with the aim and objective clearly stated. More often you will have to work it out, as in this case, from the information you have been given in the request and then from subsequent meetings with the client. We might end up with a statement such as ‘We will do a short (5–7 minute) promotional programme, promoting the “Fashions for You” range of clothing to buyers visiting their trade stand. The programme has the objective of stopping passing trade and assisting the sales department in increasing their output to retail stores.’
From our idea, or aim, we have now moved to a much more precise statement of what the programme is about. The precision of our objective is such that it is measurable. This means that we can test whether the programme met its objective. Did our programme stop people walking past the Fashions for You stand? As a result of watching the programme did their retail sales increase? Only if we have an objective and we test it through the results of the programme can we really say whether the programme was a success or not.
The certainty is that the client has an objective in mind. Your difficulty is making sure that both of you are working on the same objective and that the objective is met. Difficulties will arise with final payment to you if the client does not think the programme meets their objective. It is crucial, therefore that both of you agree an objective, preferably in writing, and that the objective is referred to throughout the production to ensure that it is met by the picture and sound track content.
Target Audience
At this early stage we need to define whom this programme is aimed at. The whole structure of the programme and its language and images must be fitted around a particular group of people. If a programme is intended for children, for instance, the visual and aural language will be much simpler than if the programme was aimed at university professors. Defining the target audience will keep our minds on who we are making the programme for. In our example we are trying to heighten awareness within a particular group of people – retail buyers at a trade fair – of the existence of, and sense in buying, Fashions for You clothing. This a specialist programme with a very limited target audience.
Both the objective and the target audience really go together and need thinking about together. If the two are too rigorously structured it becomes easy to lose any creativity that may be brought to the programme. A simple approach is to start off by thinking about what we want to do and to whom. This can then be tightened up at a later stage. The really important thing is that if we have precise objectives and target audience we can avoid the traps.
This programme’s objectives and target audience are not the same as a programme that would attract customers in the shops to buy a particular range of clothing. We cannot have one programme for two conflicting uses; therefore we need two programmes, or a modification of one.
Don’t forget, all of these aims, objectives and target audience notes go in the production diary with a heading at the top of the page ‘Fashions for You – (and the date)’.
You might find it helpful to write down what you think are the aims, objectives and target audience based on the request letter. It will help you to focus your mind on your reply and on your production of this programme. There is no reason why you should accept my suggestions. The important thing is that you understand the principles. I suggest that when you have done that, you reply to Pat Hermandes before you go on to look at Ace Productions’ reply. You will then be able to compare them and see how much you have learnt so far.
The Reply
There is one main purpose to our reply. We want the programme! What we need to do is to pick up on as much of the request as possible (which is why we spent so long looking at it and writing notes), be professional, sell our services and appear approachable.
Above all you need to be honest. If you are not, you will be caught out sooner or later. If this is the sort of programme you cannot do, don’t want to do, or don’t have the time to do, say so as tactfully as possible. A simple ‘Thank you for your enquiry about a video. We do not do this type of video and it would, therefore, be unfair to suggest that we do.’ or, ‘We would enjoy working with you on your video but unfortunately we could not meet realistic deadlines at the moment due to the pressure of work’ is enough.
Similarly do not give too much away. The idea of a reply is to say ‘yes we are interested’, not to explain in great detail how you would do it. You do need to put in enough for the client to want to know more, but not so much that your whole idea is given to another company as the client’s idea.
Look at Ace Productions’ reply, and compare it with your own. We will take a little time to work out what has been said.
The most important thing with a reply is its length. A short note saying ‘yes we are interested’ won’t do and neither will several pages on the life and times of you and your company. A guide is to keep it to one side of paper while answering all the points in their letter.
First of all notice that Ace Productions has addressed the letter ‘Dear Pat Hermandes’. This is for two reasons; the first is that is the way the letter was signed. The second is that it gets them out of the awkward situation of is Pat male or female. It would be quite wrong to become too friendly too soon and write ‘Dear Pat’, it would be a mistake to guess and put ‘Dear Ms’ or ‘Dear Mr’, and I am sure you wouldn’t dream of ‘Dear Sir or Madam’!
The first paragraph is the standard ‘Thank you for considering us’ opening. Notice, though, that apart from saying we are interested, the Fashions for You key selling point has been picked up by saying ‘this exciting venture’.
The second paragraph shows two things, both very subtle. Elaine has done some research into their products and has found a clever way of saying that she is in the age group of people they are trying to sell to. This means that she will be able to identify with the product much more easily than say a middle aged male. It is not essential that this sort of thing is put in, but with lots of companies being considered it may swing things in your favour if they feel you are already familiar with the product.
The third paragraph is the longest and the one that is the most important. Fashions for You want a programme to show on their trade stand. This means that there will be a passing trade that needs to be stopped from passing. There is a possibility that all, or parts, of the programme will be used in stores to attract the youth of today. The Sales Department see a problem with static brochures. We want to do this programme and need to offer enough of a carrot to be asked more. This paragraph has not said what the programme actually looks like but it has said how we see the programme idea developing. Remember to make it just enough for them to bite. Don’t give long explanations and creative ideas that can be stolen and given to another production company.
Look at how we have guided them around using the same programme for the retail presenter. The problem with using the programme for two purposes is that there are two target audiences and two separate objectives (as mentioned earlier). We would like to do two programmes, and get more money, so it is sensible to leave this as ‘we should discuss it’.
Notice that the subject of cost is also skirted around. This is a standard trick, they know what their budget is, you know roughly what the programme will cost and want all the budget! Ace Productions have used their USP (Video Programmes on Budget & on Time), and at the same time shown honesty by saying ‘it would be unfair on both of us (yet)’.
It is standard practice to not charge for initial development work (meetings, phone calls etc.). This cost can always be hidden in the programme fee should you get the commission.
It is sensible to use the last line. The client is placed under an obligation to reply. Hopefully there are enough of the three important ingredients in our reply for us to be given the job.
What are the three important ingredients? One is to show interest in, and preferably knowledge of, the product. One is to give enough of an outline for the programme for them to want to know more. One is to appear honest and professional.
If you took the time to write your own reply before reading Ace Productions’ reply, and this explanation, it would be worth looking for those three ingredients in your response.
Remember that there is no standard letter of reply. Yours is probably as good, if not better, than Ace Productions’. Your programme idea will not be the same. The client will decide what is best suited to their needs from all the replies.
Client Meeting – Preparation
We will assume that a week or ten days has passed. You haven’t heard from Pat Hermandes and wonder what to do next. It is not wise to telephone, either the letter has arrived or it hasn’t. If you wanted to know if it had arrived you would, presumably, have registered it and then you could have asked the Post Office. If it has arrived it has presumably been read. Decisions will now have to be taken. Maybe there are five or six letters from other companies about the same programme. It is quite possible that two or three contain good ideas and the client is now holding meetings to decide what to do next.
A good habit to get into is for you to image you are the client. Read your letter of reply as if you were the client. Be honest, is there enough in it to make you want to see this producer? Read Ace Productions’ reply; would you like to see them?
Out of courtesy you will normally get a reply. It may not be the one you wanted, but you will get it. Do not forget to keep everything. You should have a file for requests, replies and rejections. These are business files, not production files, they will form part of your mailing list and the more requests you get, and the more replies you send, the more experienced you will become.
Just when you begin to think that the rejection letter will come today, the phone rings.
You answer it in a professional manner stating the company name and your name; never just say ‘hello’. It is Pat Hermandes’ secretary.
She says that Mr Hermandes would like to arrange a meeting to discuss the proposed video. Did you notice the crucial point the secretary has just made? The mystery of Pat Hermandes is solved – he is a man! This could affect the way that you now deal with this client.
You reply with ‘ I’ve got my diary in front of me’ (you have haven’t you!). You ask when would be convenient. If the time suggested is not convenient, say so. Honesty is the best policy and it is normal to have to move meetings around or change dates. It is simple to say that Wednesday afternoon is a bit awkward, but if that is the only time he has you could move things around.
Always remember to ask all the questions you need to; it is not professional to keep ringing back. Is this meeting at Fashions for You or is Mr Hermandes coming to you? If you are driving do you need to know if you can park, are you confident enough to assume there is visitor parking or will you rely on a convenient double yellow line? How long will this initial meeting be? Do you know where you are going? A simple ‘That will be at 21 Gothic Road, will it? Do you have any visitor parking?’ gets you out of ‘your place or mine’ and the worry of parking.
Having arranged this meeting there are now two things you can do. Neither is right or wrong, it comes down to how you feel about it. This is a new development in the programme planning so something needs to go in the production diary. Either write a note, with the date on top, saying that Mr Hermandes’ secretary rang to arrange a meeting for Tuesday 20th July at 2 p.m. at Fashions for You which is expected to last for half an hour, or write a letter to Mr Hermandes confirming the arrangements. A copy of this letter will then go in the production diary.
This first meeting is crucial. You have not yet got the programme. The sensible way of looking at this meeting is to imagine it is a job interview. What you may find helpful, at this stage, is to write down what you will do before the meeting, what you will take to the meeting, what questions you think you will be asked and what questions you will ask. Then go on to read how Elaine Booker, of Ace Productions, handled it.
Pre Meeting Planning
You will remember that Elaine Booker deals with the clients for Ace Productions and wrote the reply we looked at that resulted in her getting an initial meeting with Pat Hermandes. You will find it helpful to compare the way you would handle the preparation for this meeting with the way she did.
The first thing Elaine did was to go to the production diary and remind herself of what Pat Hermandes had said in the request letter, and what she had said in reply. She did this because it helped put her in the right frame of mind to concentrate on the company and the outline of the programme.
Elaine understands that the better she knows the company’s product, the easier it will be to talk to Pat Hermandes about it and how the programme might go. She needs to do a little research. She goes to the local store that sells the Fashions for You designs and looks at them. Are they fashionable? What does the range consist of? What is the quality of manufacture? Are they affordable? How does the assistant describe them? Are they comfortable? Could she be seen in them? Does the range change with the seasons?
At the same time she is thinking about the programme. The opening shot is important, but what is the opening shot? This is a video that has no end or beginning because it will be on a trade stand and people will pick it up as they go past. It is going to be more of a series of connected adverts.
She goes back to the office and writes up her notes. From the notes comes a series of unanswered questions. Where is the factory? Who are the designers? How can she show the clothes in an exciting way, particularly if they are not? All these notes go into the production diary.
Having researched the product, she tries to work out the questions she will be asked. It helps to have someone to work on this with, so now is the time to involve her partner at Ace Productions, Simon. They look at her reply letter again.
‘Tell me how you see this programme developing?’ is an obvious question. They think about the soundtrack that is going to reflect the ‘vibrancy of youth’. This will be punchy, modern music. There will be very few words; she cannot tell a story because of the nature of the programme that has no end and no beginning. An idea develops from her original reply; they will show the designs from designer through manufacture to a catwalk display and on to the retail outlet. Each section will be short and the order that the viewer sees them is irrelevant. All the stages are there; all will stand up on their own and link from the stage behind to the stage in front.
‘How do we get over the seasonal changes?’ Simon suggests that they simply replace the catwalk section. This would not be expensive, but would mean that they get to work with Fashions for You on a regular basis.
‘What about the video presenter?’ A change of emphasis to the voice track highlighting the benefit to the customer, an additional scene of real people wearing the designs in real situations. A natural ‘tweak’ to an existing programme. Again, not expensive but ensuring a continuity of work with Fashions for You.
‘Cost?’ Difficult. Simon knows how much it costs to hire a crew on a day rate basis, knows how much editing costs and knows how much Ace Productions want for the development work. He can guess at how long this programme will take. What he does not know is the budget. Simon also knows that any programme can be made cheaply or, with extra refinements, clever effects and editing, can cost a great deal more. They decide that Elaine will say what she has always said ‘That depends on the quality you require. A basic programme would be around £10,000 but using famous actors or complicated effects would add to that. The sensible thing for us to do is see what we can get into your budget.’
All these thoughts and notes are written up and put in the production diary, perhaps in a new section called Research and Development.
You will begin to see that a very large part of production relies on communication skills, attitude and teamwork. A good course will teach you these skills. Even if you eventually decide that you only want to be a camera person, or an editor, you will still need these skills to communicate and negotiate with your team and all the other people involved in the production.
You have done as much preparation as you can and now you go to the meeting. Remember you are going as a salesperson whose job is to sell yourself as honest, efficient and knowledgeable as well as someone who sells video productions. It is very important that you are in the right frame of mind. Often with this stage of the course your ‘client’ will be your course tutor or another lecturer that you already know. This does not matter because you are in a role play situation and you both pretend that you are somebody else. Elaine and Simon have made all the mistakes during their course and, having now completed the course, have set up in business.
You turn up for the meeting representing your company, prepared to be interviewed for a job. You will have a folder containing a copy of the original request and your reply, your notes and thoughts about the programme idea and a notebook to make more notes based on what you and Mr Hermandes discuss.
It is sensible to aim to allow lots of time to get to the meeting. Things happen that are out of your control, trains don’t run, cars break down, car parks are full. To be early leaves you stress free and perhaps with enough time for a cup of coffee before your meeting. You would not be the first producer to arrive late only to find the client cannot now see you because he is in another meeting, probably with another producer who has arrived on time!
We will sit in on Elaine’s meeting with Mr Hermandes and see how she does. It will be helpful for you to imagine you are Elaine and think how you would answer the questions.
There are a couple of minutes ‘pleasantries’ of introduction, and then Mr Hermandes picks up Elaine’s reply from his desk. Elaine opens her folder and gets her notebook out.
‘Apart from thinking that this video will be between 5 and 10 minutes long and wanting to emphasize the quality of manufacture, as well as our range of clothing, we are open to ideas and suggestions. I like your idea of the soundtrack reflecting the vibrancy of youth, can you tell me more about the way you see this happening?’
As he is talking Elaine writes 5–10 minutes run time in her notebook. ‘Well, we thought of using a punchy non-vocal track to link a series of images together. It would be rather like a pop video, the music makes you want to stop and watch, the images tell the story.’
‘Wouldn’t that be rather expensive? Surely you can’t just take a piece of pop music and use it as a sound track for our video?’
‘No we wouldn’t suggest the expense of using a popular tune. There are music libraries we can use that produce similar tracks and are very reasonable to licence for non broadcast applications, such as this. We also have a supplier who will write and perform something appropriate especially for your programme at an acceptable price.’
Elaine makes a note to contact Julian, a friend of Simon who often helps out with their sound tracks with the help of his synthesizer.
‘Your idea of the visuals seems a little uncoordinated. We had thought of a story following the range from designer, through manufacture to wearer, can you explain how you will show that continuity?’
‘We need to look at the situation realistically. Imagine you are at a trade fair, walking around the stands. You hear a punchy soundtrack and move towards the Fashions for You stand. It is very unlikely that you will arrive as the opening credits are showing and stay for the whole 10 minutes watching a story. It is more likely that the programme will be some minutes in, hopefully the soundtrack will attract you for a minute, allowing the Fashions for You sales people time to approach you. During the minute or so you have been watching you have seen cameos of the design, manufacture and range. In that way the continuity is in the cameos, rather like an advertisement.’
‘But we don’t want static images.’
‘No, our idea is to show the designers working, and use fairly close shots to show the quality of manufacturing, the quality of the stitching for example. The clothes themselves, we thought, would be worn and paraded as a catwalk show, with exciting lighting and camera angles.’
‘I like that idea, but how much are we talking about to get models and catwalks?’
Elaine makes a note that he has a very limited budget, that is twice he has said that sounds expensive!
‘We pride ourselves on being able to produce the best programme possible and keep within budget. If your budget cannot stretch to professional models, then there are other ways. We have, for instance, a very strong working relationship with the local dance and drama college.’
‘A catwalk would be easy to construct in a studio with proper lighting and all the modelling sections could be shot in a day.’ Another note in Elaine’s notebook to remind her to contact the local college and see if they would be interested.
‘Let’s look at the retail presenter use. Sales are very keen that we should get the most use out of this programme. Do I get the impression that you cannot produce a programme that fits both roles?’ Elaine had guessed that this question would come up in some form, so her answer was ready. ‘What we feel is that there are two different target audiences. One is trade buyers, probably wholesalers and retail purchases managers, and the other is people like me, who go into the shop and need to be persuaded to buy your clothes and not someone else’s! There are two different needs. What I am suggesting is that we can use the same images but edited differently to tell the right story for each type of viewer. It is more likely, for instance, that the person in the shop would be there for long enough to see a story. We could produce two programmes consisting of material shot for one, but edited differently, so I cannot see it costing much more.’
Mr Hermandes likes that idea, but says he will have to discuss it with sales so the two of them will need to discuss it further after that. Elaine is sufficiently experienced to note two things – see if you spotted them. One is that he is probably not the client. It must be discussed with sales. Sales have the budget and final say. The second is perhaps more important, he likes the whole idea; he has let slip that he likes the idea and is thinking of another meeting (will need to discuss it further).
‘Have we got enough information to discuss price and time scale?’ Elaine was waiting for this. She has to answer because another producer may be the next meeting and may have decided on a price. She starts with time scale. ‘The programme production time is critical to cost. We will need access to your designers, your factory and your range of clothing. I think you liked the idea of models wearing the clothing so we will need to set up studio time.’ Mr Hermandes interrupts with the fact that the designers are in this building and the factory is only 20 minutes away in the car. He agrees that he does like the models idea and the vibrant, punchy music. He also lets slip that he can almost see and feel the video, which sounds very good. Elaine has to risk it. ‘Can I know what your budget is, then I can work some figures out and cost it out for you within the week?’ This is a very fair way of proceeding at this stage. It is honest and does not need further explanation. Mr Hermandes suggests that they are thinking it will cost ‘in the region of £8000’. He agrees that it will be helpful if Elaine sends him a treatment and cost breakdown within a week. He adds that time is important because the first trade fair is only a couple of months away.
Elaine gets up to leave, says ‘Thank you for taking the time to see me, I will be in touch within a week with the breakdown and treatment.’
Back at the office the very first thing to do is write all of this up, enclose the notes and scribbles from the meeting, and put it in the production diary.
This is the initial meeting with a client. What would you have done or said differently? Do you rate Elaine’s communication skills as highly as your own? Have you learnt any little tricks that will be helpful to you?
‘Paperwork’ is generally regarded as boring. By being involved with the process of getting and then producing video programmes you will find it more interesting. The paperwork saves you getting brain overload by trying to remember too much. It also tells the story of your success from start to finish. Paperwork has a purpose: when you need information or facts in the future it will be there in your production diary. The production diary should ensure that anyone can recreate your programme exactly.
Now Elaine and Simon will sit down and discuss the meeting and work out some figures and a treatment. You will remember that Simon guessed at around £10,000. Now they have enough information to be much more accurate. The agreement is that these initial stages are not charged. That is the way most companies work. The cost can usually be hidden somewhere in the overall budget. You could have discussed ‘Cost of development work’ at the meeting, but I leave it to you to decide the morals and ethics of charging someone to give you a job!
Budgets – Overview
Before we look at what goes into a budget we need to consider what a budget really is. The idea of a budget is to approximate as closely as possible how much every detail of a programme will cost. We allow a sum of money to each part of the programme, whether it is a performer, a location shoot or lunch for the crew.
It is essential that these figures are as accurate as possible so that we can see, during the production, if we are going ‘over budget’ (spending too much), or ‘under budget’ (not spending what was allocated). We need these figures so that we don’t go to the client after we have made the programme and ask for twice as much as we originally quoted. He probably won’t pay and we will be the losers.
Not everything can be costed accurately; only with experience can we get better. We can build in ‘contingency’ to cover odd little mistakes, but the danger of that lies in over estimating and costing the programme too high for the client to agree to. We lose the programme unnecessarily.
In reality there are three budgets we need to complete. One is the ‘client budget’, one the ‘predicted budget’ and the last is the ‘actual budget’.
The client budget is a summary sheet of the predicted budget. Remember the client wants to know what the programme will cost. It is fair and reasonable for him to see how you arrived at a final figure, but he really won’t be interested in how many sandwiches were eaten or how much sugar went into the tea. Neither is it a good idea for him to know how much profit you made.
The predicted budget is an estimate of exactly what money is allocated to what item in the production process. The whole process from letters and stamps to hiring crew and doing the post production must be estimated as closely as possible. There are lots of suggested headings, as you would imagine, and these will be dealt with later under ‘budgets’.
The actual budget is the real cost of all the items that make up the programme. Using the same headings as before the actual cost is noted down. This enables us to check whether our estimate was accurate or not. Comparing these two figures will allow us to see whether we are over or under budget as the programme progresses. This way we can make corrections as we go along, avoiding any possible nasty shocks at the end, which could result in us having an embarrassing meeting with the client.
There are no rules to laying out your budget, but I would suggest it is helpful to have the items in one column, the predicted figures in the next column followed by the actual figures. You will see a budget sheet later in the book.
I suggest that for the client budget it is easier for the client to understand if you break down the whole programme into the three areas of pre production, production and post production. Often you will see a further area called indirect costs; these are costs for lawyers, accountants and contingency. There are no rules and you may want to break it down further. Certainly you will need an idea of all the figures in case the client says ‘how much is the studio costing us?’ or ‘why is pre production so high?’
The ‘proper’ budget, the one I am calling the ‘predicted’ budget will take a long time to draw up because everything connected with the programme must go into it. Unless you are given the Fashions for You programme there is no point in wasting time trying to construct a budget before you have the programme and have agreed a format. This leaves us with a big dilemma, how do we construct the client budget without wasting a lot of time?
Some people will tell you of ‘magic formulae’, some will say ‘guess’, and some will say ‘use your experience’. It may be possible to be reasonably accurate with a magic formula and this is certainly a starting point. A short corporate video of this type, with very little enhancement (famous artists, known pop songs, complicated effects, etc.) often does work out at about £1500 a running screen minute. A five minute programme costing about £7500 would have pre production of about £2500, production of about £3000 and post production of about £2000.
The more programmes you do, the better you will get at estimating the cost. Until then let’s see if we can find some pointers to a quick estimate.
The pre production stage contains all the meetings, phone calls, letters, research, location visits, scripts, storyboard and so on. Who is going to do all that? If it is you, how much will you charge? Are you worth £5 per hour or £25? How long will it take you? A day, a week or a month? The more planning, the less time in studio or on location. Pre production is cheaper than production.
For the production stage you will get quite accurate ideas by spending a few minutes looking at rate cards from production and hire companies. How much does a crew cost for the day? When the Fashions for You programme was discussed at the meeting, it was suggested that the local fashion college might provide models. It would be sensible to ring up and find out (a) will they supply them, and (b) how much for? Elaine also said that a friend might compose some music for the programme. Again, ring up and ask will he and how much. How long will it take to shoot this programme? A day in studio and a day on location? A week in studio and a month on location?
Post production is the editing, audio dubbing, effects and general tidying of the programme. How much is an edit suite for a day with an operator? How much is audio post production? How long will it take?
Fortunately you are not working completely blind. Your course will have taken you through a series of exercises already. You have probably done scripts, shooting and editing for months. You know roughly how long it takes. Most companies will work on a day shooting equals a day editing for location work. You may already have found this is a bit optimistic. Or maybe you have found that spending longer on the planning you can cut this down to a day shoot and half a day edit. Maybe you have had such a lovely time shooting anything that moves without planning anything and then found yourself in edit for a month!
We will come back to the budget later. For now we are only going to estimate the three areas so we have something for Mr Hermandes within a week. We will give him a breakdown of a five to six minute programme costing £2800 for pre production, £3750 for production and £2750 for post production, leaving £700 for the indirect costs. This is a total delivered cost of £10,000. It may look like a contrived, convenient figure (which it is!), but it is a starting point. We can tell him that we are looking at a fair estimate. It is unlikely to be more and will probably be less. We need the programme content agreed before we can get any more accurate.
Phone Calls and Letters
When we looked at ‘requests for a programme’ we started to discuss the basic communication skills used in phone calls and letters. Simon now needs to find out if his friend would be interested in composing some music, and if the college would be interested in providing models.
There are no rules or a ‘right way’ to make phone calls or write letters. There are, however some important points to bear in mind. In this case this is a business conducting itself in a professional manner. It might be a friend that Simon has to ring but this is not a social chat, it is a business proposition. Phones cost money and time costs money. We need to say what we have to say as concisely as possible, in as short a time as possible, while remaining professional and, at the same time, listening to and understanding what is being said to us.
It is sensible to jot down what you want to say, not word for word but the main points. That way you don’t forget anything and have the embarrassment of ringing back. Simon gets his notebook, looks up Julian’s phone number and puts at the top of the page ‘Fashions for You – possible soundtrack – Phoned Julian (6874 476201) 21st July.’ This identifies this sheet of paper as yet another that is going into the production diary.
Simon rings Julian and, remembering this is a professional call not a social ‘mates down the pub’ call, identifies himself as ‘Julian, this is Simon from Ace Productions’. You can see from the note what Simon wants. He will be honest and say ‘we haven’t got the programme yet’, he will tell Julian the style of music and its approximate length. He wants to know how much it will cost (roughly) and how long it will take. The note ‘chance of a bar or two for a meeting?’ is something Elaine and Simon like to do, and you might copy. When they send the costing and treatment to the client they also send a cassette with some sample music on it. There are two reasons for this. The first is that when I say to you the music will be punchy and vibrant, you have a sound going round in your head, which is punchy and vibrant. It probably is nothing like the one that is in mine! So that there is no misunderstanding, Simon and Elaine make up a short cassette of a couple of library music tracks (and in this case, Julian’s) so that the client can hear the sort of music they are thinking of.
The second reason is more subtle. It shows the client that they have already started to develop the programme. This makes it a bit more difficult for the client to turn them down. It is possible that the client may like the music enough to want it, and therefore pay a little more than he originally said he had in his budget. I don’t guarantee it, but anything you can do to make the client feel special can only help your cause.
The last note is important. This is a professional call; Julian won’t have all the answers immediately. If he rings back with the answers there is only hearsay evidence of what was said. If you ask him to write to you with the answers, the figures and dates could form part of a contract. There is evidence of what he said, and, of course, something else to go in the production diary!
Now for the college. This is a different phone call. They are not like your friend. Simon does not even know the name or title of the person he wants to speak to. The switchboard operator won’t help. He needs to sell the idea as being of benefit to the college. Why don’t you write some notes and then compare them with Simon’s. Two heads are better than one and both of you may have some ideas the other could use.
Simon is going to call the college and ask to speak to the head of the drama department. If he just asks for the drama department, he will probably get a staff room or a secretary. Neither of these is wrong, it is just that they will probably have to refer him to someone else, wasting time and money.
The ‘identify’ note is to remind him to start by saying this is Simon, the production manager from Ace Video Productions.
As with Julian, there are no promises here, he is enquiring whether they would be interested in a possible programme.
The ‘experience in TV’ comment is to remind him that there must be some benefit for the college. Equally the ‘credits’ comment. He will say ‘of course we will credit the college with supplying the models’.
If all this seems a possibility then he can go on to say that he will need them for probably a day in three or four weeks time. He needs to know how much will be charged. The college may have an idea or it may be that Simon pays the girls direct.
Whatever the result of this telephone conversation is he will send a ‘back up letter’, confirming what has been said. Even if it is a negative response from the college, it does no harm to say thank you for your time.
The final ‘name, address,’ is very important. Do not forget to get the name of the person you spoke to. You cannot address a letter ‘to the person I spoke to on the telephone today’! It is possible that Simon spoke to the deputy head or a head of section. The telephone operator put him through to someone, but not necessarily the head. The address should be a confirmation; Simon has already got the address from the phone book when he looked up the number.
I am not going to spend time on telling you everything that was said, I am sure you know how to conduct telephone conversations, suffice it to say that the head of department agreed in principle but needs to speak to a couple of people about the details. He introduced himself as Joe Martin and would have to speak to the head of production, Sally Beagle, before clearing it with the principal.
Simon adds notes to his original note with details of the conversation and, yes you guessed, files it in the production diary.
At this stage there is only one letter that Simon needs to write. Like business telephone calls, business letter writing is a basic communication skill, which I am sure you have been taught. The basics are to keep it short and to the point. Include any and every thing that is relevant. Make sure there are no ambiguities. It should be clear what the letter is about and what you want the recipient to do about it. Is this a ‘for information’ letter, a ‘please reply to these points’ letter. Are you asking for information? Do you need a reply by a certain date? Do you need a reply in writing?
Simon will write to the college, on company paper, thanking them for their interest and confirming what has been said so far. He will suggest that he needs a provisional agreement as soon as possible, and will let them know as soon as there is a new development.
It may be that if you are finding this simulation helpful, you would like to construct your own letter now, bearing in mind the above points.
You will find Simon’s letter on the next page and can compare it with your own. Once again, there are no rights or wrongs, just a few do’s and don’ts, so your letter is probably just as good, if not better. Check that it has all the points that need covering included.
If you compare this letter with yours, you will see that Simon has tried to be formal but friendly; he has made it clear that he needs an agreement in principle as soon as possible and has covered the detail of cost, credits, transport and meals.
You will notice that this letter contains three important ingredients, which I will call what, why and when. There is no room left in the letter for any misunderstanding or need to waste precious time, by the college asking questions, if these three ingredients are included. The college has been told what is required, why it is required and when it is required (four or five models for a studio catwalk shoot within three to four weeks).
Does your letter contain ‘what, why and when’? If not do you understand the sense of including them?
We could simply have written saying ‘I asked this morning if you could supply four or five girls for a studio catwalk shoot in three or four weeks. Please let me know if this can be arranged’. Not very friendly, quite formal but OK. Assume you are the head of department, which letter is most likely to prompt you into finding a way of supplying these girls? You would probably rather have the one that says ‘thank you for your time’ and ‘I realize you will have to consult with people’, than the two lines saying ‘Can I have the girls’?
You will have to write a lot more letters before we finish this programme. It will help you to remember that they will all follow the same format. Be polite. Say thank you. Include what, why and when.
No two letters from different people can be identical. Each person will put what he or she wants to say in his or her own words. What I am suggesting is that all the letters anyone writes in connection with a video programme should have the same content. It goes without saying that the letters will be word processed. The days of trying to decipher someone’s hand written scrawl are long gone. Perhaps your mother would like to see your handwriting, because it makes it more personal! Business letters are business letters and word processors these days do all the hard work for you. They can spell check, grammar check and allow you to try out different formats and styles without losing the content.
I will let you into a little secret about Ace Productions. All the hand written notes, plans and diagrams concerned with their programmes are scanned into the computer. These together with the word processed material are carefully indexed so that the whole production diary is also on disk. If there is a need for Simon or Elaine to reference something quickly it is easily retrieved.
You may think this is a good enough idea to ‘borrow’ for your production diary, but remember there must be original hard copy, as well, in case something goes wrong and you need to produce the original document.
While Simon is dealing with Julian and the college, Elaine decides to give some thought to the treatment of this programme. The only thing to do is sit down with a cup of coffee and think through the programme.
Elaine has now got the basic idea of the programme; she knows the area we are working in. We called this the aim. ‘We will do something to promote this range of exciting, affordable quality clothing’.
She knows precisely which aspect we will deal with. The objective. ‘We will do a short (5–7 minute) promotional programme, promoting the “Fashions for You” range of clothing to buyers visiting their trade stand. The video will stop passing trade which will assist the sales staff in increasing their output to retail stores’.
She knows who we are expecting to watch the programme. The target audience. ‘Retail buyers at a trade fair’.
What Elaine doesn’t know is how she is going to do it.
The treatment of a programme is the beginning of its creation. The treatment will state how the programme will take shape. All the ideas we had when we were thinking about the programme can now be brought together into a simple document, which follows the programme from opening to end. The treatment is a very important stage in the production process. When a client is involved and we have been asked to make a programme for that client, the aim, objective and target audience will have been supplied, or, as in this case, it has been deduced from the original request.
Elaine has been asked to go away and come up with a treatment. This gives the client a basic working document that shows precisely how we are going to do his or her programme. It is neither a script (but the script will come from the treatment), nor a visualization (but the pictures and sound will also come from the treatment).
To help in the construction of a treatment it is necessary to have lots of ideas about the programme written down, ideas about the type of music, ideas about the type of shots, ideas about the type of words to be spoken, ideas about the type of performers, ideas about the types of locations and so on.
The treatment will pull all of these together in a logical order so that the client can get the overall feel of the programme. This makes it a lot easier to discuss precise areas of script or precise locations that will be part of the programme.
The problem with this treatment is that the Fashions for You programme does not technically have a beginning or end. Because people will not sit down and watch it, but walk past it at any moment in its showing, Elaine suggested, at the client meeting, that the programme would be a series of cameos, showing the process of design, manufacture and the range of clothing. She sips her coffee and thinks. She is imagining she is at the trade fair and passes the Fashions for You stand. She sees a designer working on rough layouts of a casual shirt. Now what? She imagines she is busy, has lots of stands to look at and walks on. She has not seen the finished shirt or its manufacture. How then can we show all three stages at once?
Elaine has realized how easy it would be to make a programme that failed completely because it spent three minutes on design, followed by three minutes on manufacture, ending with three minutes of the actual clothes.
Constructing a treatment is, arguably, the most creative part of the whole process of production. The whole programme has to be described, on paper, so that the client can ‘see and feel’ it for himself. Perhaps you would like to help Elaine by jotting down a few notes on how she could show all three processes in a coordinated, but short, space of time.
How are we going to do this programme? What sort of visuals will we use? What sorts of sounds are there? What sorts of performers are involved? Do we use a voice track? How are we going to start?
The treatment also gives a starting point for the dialogue that will follow when we sit down with the client and discuss the programme. Often a client will have ideas for the programme that, perhaps, haven’t yet quite formed. The problem we are faced with is how do we get the ideas out of the client’s head and into our treatment. It may be that the client will like the opening but, for example, want the order reversed. Start with the factory and then go to the designers. There should be enough flexibility in the treatment to have things moved around, or added to. Nothing is yet fixed. The ideas have been put on paper and communicated. The treatment shows how we are going to ‘treat’ the programme. What is important is that the whole thing is described in sounds and pictures to build up an idea of how we are going to make this programme.
Elaine is going to put the ideas she has on paper, in any order, as they come to her and then show them to Simon to try and form a cohesive outline.
Elaine asks Simon if he has got a few minutes to run through her ideas. In a more formal sense this meeting could be called a production meeting. Production meetings are any meetings that involve two or more people that are directly concerned with the production. We will cover them later, but for now we will settle for Elaine and Simon chatting about the treatment.
Elaine explains her thoughts. She can see that the shots will be cut to the beat of the music; this will allow pictures to change quite quickly in a natural way. The shot lengths will, therefore, be short. She sees the Fashions for You logo being used to link shots that would otherwise not cut together naturally. The special effects to be used on the logo will be, typically, to rotate it, streak it, or zoom it out of a visual of the product. She sees the designer shots being mid shots of the designers working on their ideas and layouts. Elaine explains that she can see possible links by using cuts or mixes from a design to the catwalk or from the factory to the catwalk. This would allow for the product, design, manufacture and logo to be shown continuously within about 30 seconds to a minute. There is no beginning or end as such so a credit for the models could be superimposed over one of the catwalk shots. Ace Productions’ credit could lead into a Fashions for You logo, as could a credit for Julian, if they use his music. It may be possible to use split or quarter screens for one sequence, although Elaine realizes that the playback monitor will be very small and they will have to choose the images carefully. A carefully chosen voice track will be used to cover the cuts between the various stages.
Simon agrees that he can see the general concept but points out that they must produce a programme that, technically, has a beginning and an end. Of course the end must link into the beginning, because it will be shown continuously, but that is their problem. He feels that Mr Hermandes is looking for a treatment that describes how they will deal with the programme from beginning to end and not as something that has no beginning or end.
They talk it through for about an hour and then Elaine sits down with the word processor and does a first draft of the treatment.
Elaine prints a couple of copies and goes back to Simon for another production meeting. They know that a treatment is supposed to describe how they see the programme developing. It is the first attempt at creation. It is natural to leave it as fluid as possible. Expressions such as ‘the voice-over will use these type of words’, ‘the pictures will show this sort of image’ are common in treatments. The idea at this stage is that you have a creative idea of how the programme will look and feel that you can convey to the client. Nothing is cast in stone; the treatment will be the central discussion point if the client wants you to go ahead with production. It is the storyboard that maps out the entire programme shot by shot and, because this is an expensive and time consuming process, it is implicit that fees have to be agreed before we spend any more ‘free time’ on developing the programme.
While Elaine has been working on the treatment, Simon has been busy listening to music tracks from the library music CDs, and has copied a few of them onto cassette. They look at the treatment and listen to the tracks. Already we have the opening feel of the programme, we can ‘see’ the images and imagine the complimentary sounds. The precise locations are not necessary, what is needed is an overall view of how the programme runs. They both agree that there is enough ‘feel’ in the treatment to send it to Mr Hermandes and they listen to Simon’s selection of music.
Although the music tracks are different, the same theme of youthful, bright, punchy beat is obvious in all of them. Two of them have both Elaine and Simon tapping out the beat on the table. It is these two that are the obvious choices to send to Mr Hermandes. There is no word from Julian and his music track yet, and they decide to give him another day to come up with something.
While Simon works out a breakdown of the budget that was asked for you might like to compare your treatment with this one. You will see that neither can be the same. Equally one is not better than the other. Your programme and Ace Productions will both work. The dilemma is that Mr Hermandes may well have asked three producers for treatments and cost. The programme that is commissioned is the one that Mr Hermandes likes the feel of most. Is there anything in Elaine’s treatment that you might want to borrow to change yours? Is there anything in yours that Elaine might want to borrow?
Client Budget
Simon knows that the client had suggested they had a budget of about £8000. He also knows this is unrealistic for the programme they want to do. Ace Productions do not want to compromise their programme, so what do we do about this shortfall of £2000? You think about it while Simon prepares his budget.
Simon will show this to Elaine and they will sit down to discuss the covering letter that will go with the treatment and client budget. You will see that, although the two of them have different roles, they are working as a team. They have spent a reasonable amount of time on this programme already, even though they may not get it. This is perfectly normal in business. You would get two or three quotes for work you wanted done on your house, for instance, which would involve the suppliers spending time in trying to come up with the work you require at an acceptable price and with an acceptable result. The trick is for you not to tell the supplier exactly how much you are prepared to spend and for the supplier to come up with something special that you are prepared to buy.
What Simon has done is to give rounded figures, in the three areas, which are moveable downwards. Everybody is then happy, the client will have ‘knocked some off the bill’ and you will have got the price you wanted.
Elaine gets her notepad out and the two then decide on the content of the letter that will, hopefully, persuade Fashions for You to commission them to do the video.
Before they can write to Mr Hermandes, Julian rings to say that he has come up with some examples of the sort of music he could produce. He will put the cassette in the post with an idea of costs and the time he will need to complete it if they want to go ahead.
Because we have already spent some time on letters, I will leave it to you to write the letter to Mr Hermandes, or imagine what is in it. You can guess the content from Elaine’s note. There will, of course, be reference to ‘the music we can have specially commissioned for you’ and ‘meeting?’ on the note will be translated into ‘We would be pleased to have a further meeting to discuss any of the detail or costing of the programme.’
Elaine will send the letter and cassette Recorded Delivery to ensure that it can be tracked and she will know it has arrived. Some companies use a courier service; some will have a junior assistant who will deliver it. The point is not ‘how it is delivered’ but ‘have you got a signature for it’, and a record of it arriving. If you know it arrived, and you haven’t heard anything within a reasonable space of time, it is fair to assume the letter you will get will be a ‘thank you, but no’ letter!
Negotiations and Costs
A few days have gone by and a letter arrives from Joe Martin regarding the girls needed for the catwalk sequence.
Simon and Elaine are very pleased with this. Even if they don’t get the Fashions for You programme, they have established a very important link together with the offer of the use of Genie College’s facilities. This may be very useful in future productions.
Simon will write back thanking Mr Martin for his prompt and positive response. He will say that it may be possible to make use of their facilities and he doesn’t see a problem with evenings. He cannot say ‘we will use your facilities’ because Fashions for You may want ‘real’ models and a studio. He cannot promise anything because Ace Productions have not yet got a programme to produce.
You will find your programmes will run more smoothly if you are honest and do not promise things that you cannot deliver. To write back and say ‘yes, we will use your theatre and want six girls in two weeks’ would be very difficult to cancel, if you don’t get the programme, and would wreck your chances of ever using that contact again!
I know of some enthusiastic students who told passers by in the street that they were from the BBC, doing an item for the evening news. They ended up in the Police Station and the college had to apologize to the BBC!
The next day another letter arrives. This one is for Elaine. It has a Fashions for You logo on the envelope. Elaine and Simon know this is crunch time. They make a cup of coffee and open it.
This is an interesting letter, and typical. Elaine has done enough at the initial meeting to impress Mr Hermandes with her professional approach. Simon and Elaine have gone to an amount of trouble with simple early research to produce a treatment that the client likes. The client knows that a proper budget cannot be worked out without accurate details of exactly what is required, but accepts that the programme’s estimated cost is about right.
It is possible that another producer has got a similar letter, so what happens next is very important. This is where Elaine’s negotiating skills are required. She will arrange another meeting, but first Simon must look at specific areas of his budget. He now needs to negotiate with the intended suppliers and try to get more accurate figures.
As you will have realized, all of this initial procedure is taking time, for which no money has changed hands. The delicate balance of negotiation lies in its two definitions, one is to come to an agreement about (the programme cost), the other is to overcome an obstacle (the client wants the programme, but does not have the money). Somehow we have to agree a fair cost and end up making the programme.
You cannot suddenly drop a couple of thousand pounds off the price of the same programme. Either the programme has to change or you have to accept a lower profit margin. In reality the result will probably be a combination of both. If you go back to Simon’s original budget statement, you will see that the only areas that could be cut were the production and post production stages. The pre production stage is pretty well fixed because the time spent on research, writing, location visits, bookings and so on will not be massively affected by small cuts and alterations to the programme.
A major influencing factor with this particular programme, and a strong negotiating tool, is whether Fashions for You can be persuaded to pay for a ‘tweak’ to the programme to make it more suitable for the other target audience, the customer in the shop, and whether they will pay for updates to the programme to include seasonal changes.
It may be that the cost of the shop outlet copy, which only involves different editing, a couple of additional shots and a slightly different voice-over, would be minimal if shot and edited at the same time and could be included in the original quoted cost of the trade show programme. This would provide two programmes for the price of one for the client and not involve the production company in the greater outlay of doing the whole thing again at a later date.
There are options that involve the actual payment of money. It is perhaps not ethical for companies to keep suppliers waiting for payment, but it is quite usual. This gives everyone a cash flow problem and can seriously damage a small company. It is possible to negotiate ‘prompt payment terms’ so that you get paid in stages, by your client, whilst the production is being made, which in turn means you can negotiate reductions for crew, studios, editing suites and so on if you offer them payment on completion of their service.
Beyond these negotiating tools there is one more. If staged payments are accepted by the client, it is usual to present an invoice for approximately a third of the cost when the storyboard has been agreed. It may be that the client will accept a charge for a detailed budget before he commissions a programme. This means that you get paid something for all the work you have done so far and the additional work involved in drawing up an accurate budget. Of course the client has the option of looking at a detailed budget and still not commissioning the programme. With large productions clients may pay for a budget and a storyboard before agreeing to a programme.
Elaine has telephoned Mr Hermandes’ secretary and arranged a meeting for the following afternoon. These are the notes she will take with her.
Elaine meets Mr Hermandes as arranged and has with her a folder containing her notes, the treatment, Simon’s budget and the letters that have been received and sent so far.
Before we see what happens next why don’t you imagine you are Elaine? How are you going to handle this crucial meeting? Agree to anything to get the programme? Refuse to move from the original figures? Agree to make a sub standard programme for the figure you are offered? What are you prepared to negotiate?
Now imagine you are Mr Hermandes. How are you going to get the programme outlined in the treatment at a reduced cost? What are you prepared to compromise over? It often helps at this stage if you practice conducting meetings with a friend. You have enough information about this programme now to try it out. You role-play Elaine while your friend plays Mr Hermandes, swap over roles and do it again. What did you learn from this exercise? Do you now feel more confident about negotiating? Personal presentation and communication skills are key to succeeding in this business. Do you have them?
Mr Hermandes and Elaine have sat down and Mr Hermandes starts by saying ‘I will be honest with you, Elaine, we like the programme treatment and the music very much. We have had the chance to see other suggestions and would like to come down in favour of yours, the sticking point is the money. So where do we go from here?’
Now what? The ball is very firmly in Elaine’s court. They want her programme, but they can’t afford it. This is not about ‘how do we convince him our programme is best’, this is about ‘how do we agree a figure’.
It is not a good idea to go straight in and say ‘how much will you pay’. This is negotiation, not confrontation! Let’s see what Elaine comes up with.
‘I’m pleased that you like the programme. We spent a lot of time thinking about how to do it in an exciting and effective way. You haven’t said which music you like, but I hope it is the piece we can have done specially for you, Julian is very good and we use him for a lot of our programmes.
Simon has highlighted the areas in which we could make savings by cutting the catwalk sequences, the voice-over or the special effects with your logo. I think this would detract from the programme. Maybe we should look at other areas first.
I am sure you will realize that we can only spend so much time on developing a programme before it becomes an untenable cost to us. Can I ask what your top figure is and then we can see how close we can get?’
This is a good start. Elaine has subtlety suggested they could have a unique theme tune, and to tinker too much with the programme will leave them less than satisfied. She has also made it clear that they are not going to be able to waste any more time (and, therefore, their money) on taking this any further without some payment.
We won’t follow the whole conversation. If you look back at the notes Elaine made for the meeting you will see what she is hoping for.
The negotiations are resolved by Mr Hermandes saying that they cannot pay a penny more than £8000, which is more than they originally budgeted for, but that figure would only be available for the programme outlined in the treatment. He has agreed to a simplified storyboard. He does want Julian’s music. He will discuss the prompt staged payments with the sales department. He has offered £250 for a storyboard and breakdown budget within seven days provided Elaine can assure him that the programme will be completed for the first trade show on October 16th.
For her part Elaine has decided not to mention the retail outlet programme or the seasonal tweaks. She feels that the offer of £8000 top figure is probably all that is on offer and to suggest they pay more for additional work is not wise at this stage. She has accepted the £250 for the storyboard and budget, provided that she is given a firm yes or no within three days of submitting them. Time, she knows, is the enemy and if this drags on much longer they cannot have a realistic time to produce the programme. She has asked if Simon can have a tour of the design studio and factory within the next couple of days so they can start to plan the location shoots. This has been agreed. Mr Hermandes will be their contact and make the arrangements.
Both parties have given (and taken!) some ground. Negotiation is based on both of you getting the best deal. It is not based on either one of you giving in, or becoming confrontational! It is a difficult, but necessary, communication skill which your course should give you plenty of time to practise. The secret is to remain professional, listen to what the other person has to say and then decide whether that is acceptable, or whether you are prepared to go part way towards their viewpoint if they will move a little way towards yours.
This meeting will have to be written up very carefully for the production file because parts of it contain a verbal contract. We will look at contracts in more detail later, but for the moment you should be aware that if two parties agree to something verbally, what was said forms a contract which can be argued in court if one party defaults on the agreement.
At the end of the meeting Elaine says that she would like to check that she has understood the current position and reads her written notes to Mr Hermandes.
Mr Hermandes agrees with this and Elaine leaves to put this very important bit of paper in the production diary. She will file it under ‘Meetings’, but cross reference it to ‘Contracts’.
You will often find that one piece of information should really be stored in two places in the production diary. There are two ways of doing this, either cross reference it in the index for each section or, perhaps simpler and quicker to find, copy the original and store the copy in the second location.
Production Meetings
Video production involves teamwork and a very high degree of organization. Whatever the part in the whole process it should be done only once, and done by the person allocated to do it. To avoid repetition or, much worse, omission, it is necessary to have team meetings to keep everybody informed and decide on a strategy for the next stage.
The meeting must have one person in charge (the chair person), and that person is responsible for the content, which is written down as an agenda. The meeting should last for a specified time. This avoids irrelevant discussion or the meeting developing into a ‘friendly chat’. These meetings should be conducted professionally, with a proper agenda, notes taken and then written up for the production diary. Time is money and the agenda will ensure that the meeting only involves the people concerned and covers only the points needed at this time. The people involved should be given an agenda before the meeting so that they can be properly informed and prepared.
Even if you are working in a very small team, as is the case with Elaine and Simon, you must schedule a meeting for a specific time, with an agenda, and it must last for the minimum time needed to complete that agenda. Production meetings are not about friendly chats, they are about details concerning who does what and by when.
Enthusiasm may well tempt you into popping down to the pub for a meeting. Let me assure you that it will not work, it creates the wrong atmosphere, notes are forgotten about or, at best, are sketchy and you will be deflected from the issue at hand by trying to decide whose round it is next, and by what is going on around you!
Elaine is going to schedule a meeting with Simon for 10 a.m. the next morning. She checks that he will be free and then draws up her agenda.
You will see that item 9 is ‘AOB’. This is shorthand for any other business. It is always the item on an agenda after the main body of the meeting has been dealt with. It is designed to allow for any points that may have come up to be covered more fully, or anything that might have been forgotten to be raised. The chair person is responsible for making sure that the matter is pertinent and relevant to this meeting, and may decide to incorporate one, or more, of the points arising as a separate item in the next meeting.
If it is appropriate you may see ‘Date/time of next meeting’ as the final item on the agenda. This will ensure that everybody present can agree dates and times now, which avoids the time wasting of checking everybody’s diary at a later stage.
Notice, also, that Elaine has allowed 40 minutes for this meeting. It isn’t always necessary to state a time, but it does help to focus the mind on the business in hand if someone is watching the clock!
This is a formal meeting and Elaine and Simon cannot be disturbed. Elaine has put a message on the answer machine which says ‘Thank you for calling Ace Productions. We are sorry that we cannot take your call until 11 a.m. Please leave a message or call back later.’ This is polite and honest, the two ingredients of good company communications.
What is discussed at this meeting must go into the production diary, so Elaine will take notes which will be filed with the agenda.
You will notice that Item 1 (review of meeting with Mr Hermandes) has a bracketed ‘notes attached’. This means that when Simon received his copy of the agenda he also got Elaine’s notes from that meeting. This saves time and allows Simon to be up to speed before the meeting.
Elaine explains why she had no choice but to agree a top price of £8000, which includes Julian’s music but a simplified storyboard. Simon agrees that there is probably enough movement in the ‘guessed’ figures to bring the final figure down. He is not happy that it has to come down that far.
Elaine steers Simon away from a long discussion by pointing out that Items 3, 4, 5 and 6 cover most of what he wants to discuss now! This is the role of the chair person. If the agenda has been drawn up properly, time can be saved by directing the participants of the meeting to cover the item under discussion and not go off at a tangent, wasting time.
If the agenda had only one item ‘ Discuss what has happened so far’, for example, there would be no control or order to the meeting and it would be difficult to make relevant notes.
They move to Item 2. Simon agrees that he will contact Mr Hermandes after the meeting to arrange visits to the studio and factory. Elaine is fairly confident that they will get the programme if Simon can reduce the budget, so they decide that to save time Simon will use the opportunity to do a proper recce of both these locations. This will take longer, but will save time later.
Items 3 and 4 are discussed and Simon agrees to do these as soon as possible. He knows that Julian is not the most reliable composer in the world. He will inform him of the progress so far and ask if he is certain he can deliver the music within a couple of weeks. He will not commission him to write it for a few days, the programme has not yet been given to Ace Productions, and they don’t want to pay for something they may not want.
Similarly with the college. Simon will telephone Mr Martin and explain the situation. He wants to explore the possibility of using their theatre, and the cost. This might cut out an expensive studio shoot. Ideally he needs to go and have a look at the facilities.
Elaine agrees to do the storyboard.
Simon will draw up a proper budget, together with the invoice for £250.
Elaine, being the chair person, suggests that they hold over Item 8 (Schedule) until a later meeting, when they know whether or not they have got the programme. This is perfectly normal in meetings. There is no point in doing any more than spending a couple of minutes agreeing that the schedule will be tight, but manageable, and agreeing to discuss it at another meeting.
Under AOB Simon suggests they hire in a temp if they get the programme because of the amount of work that will need to be done in a short time. Elaine suggests Simon costs it out and works out if it can be fitted into the budget.
Elaine moves quickly to Item 10, by saying ‘are you OK for 10 a.m. on the 10th?’ Simon looks at his diary. He has pencilled in the factory, designers and college for the 9th and 10th, so suggests the 11th and adds that, as Mr H wants the budget and storyboard by the 12th, 8 a.m. might be a better time. Elaine agrees and they both put it in their diaries.
The meeting is concluded at 10.35 a.m., five minutes ahead of schedule. The official record of the proceedings of this meeting is known as the minutes of the meeting. They will have to go into the production diary, along with the agenda. Elaine uses her notes to type up the minutes, while Simon goes off to make his phone calls.
A Business Caveat
Quite a lot has happened in a short space of time. Let’s review what we have got so far.
Ace Productions got a request for a programme by letter. Nothing much happened for about two weeks. This is quite normal, but where does the money come from while you are sitting around in the office? Things then started to happen quite quickly. There is only a week to prepare an accurate budget and do a storyboard. This seven day period involves a weekend. Do you mind working weekends?
Before the budget can be done there are people to contact and arrangements have to be made to do a recce at two locations. There is also the problem of delivery in two months. No crew or performers have
been booked, neither has the post production. You cannot deliver the programme on the last possible day, the client might want some late changes. Can you work under this pressure? How good are your organizational and time management skills?
This whole project will take nearly four months to complete. If you are a small outfit (as with Ace Productions), does this mean you can only do three programmes a year? Can you make enough money out of three programmes to support two people and an office? What do you do if you can’t?
Part of deciding if you want to start your own company comes from thinking about these questions. Are you happy earning £3000 to £5000 a year and telling your friends you own a video company? What are you going to do if you want more money? Are you prepared to take a part time job, or work evenings at a fast food restaurant? This is the reality of just starting up in business.
Apart from the video production skills do you have business and communication skills? As I asked right at the beginning, are you thinking of making this a part time hobby or a job?
How do Elaine and Simon make money?
Elaine and Simon work mainly in the corporate sector producing short videos for small to medium sized companies. They have built up a nucleus of companies that are constantly wanting their sales and promotional programmes updated. They have all the completed production diaries and, because they know the companies, and the locations, they can do these updates in about a week. This brings in a steady stream of small, but lucrative, work.
Elaine has built up a reputation for her scripts and storyboards, Simon is known for the accuracy of his location recces and production management skills. Quite often one or other of them is called in by another company to do freelance work. Elaine often works as a waitress in the evenings and Simon drives a taxi part time. Both are earning money, not a fortune but enough. The thing that they will both tell you is that they thrive on the hard, pressured work and the creativity they put into it. They haven’t found the creation of all the production diaries fun, or exciting, but they compile them meticulously and it pays off when they do repeat business. They have chosen this work. They both agree that they could not work 9 to 5, five days a week!
If you are on a general introductory level course you will be given the opportunity to try all the roles that go into a production. You will learn communication skills, computer skills, organization and management as well as camera, sound and lighting.
You may choose to concentrate on camera operating, or sound recording. Whatever you finally decide you will have a good grounding in all the areas. This is a team game business. Are you improving your team skills?
Elaine and Simon are different, they decided to set up on their own soon after their course. They found it very hard. Most people will become freelance in one area and then gradually get to meet other freelancers in different areas. They may then all get together and form a small company whilst still doing their own freelance work.
Learning is one thing, doing is another. Doing it for lots of money is a quite different ball game!
Let’s go back and see what is happening at Ace Productions.
Production Planning
Life is about to get very busy. We need a plan to work to. There are lots of ways of looking at production planning and different people will tell you different things. Production planning is not the same as scheduling. It is the planning of the stages of the production, whether it be when to make phone calls, when to book crew or when to go on a location recce. Although both need your time management skills, the simple way of understanding the difference between production planning and scheduling is to think that the production is planned during the pre production stage and then a schedule is drawn up for the actual shooting and post production.
The importance of planning and scheduling is to make sure that you maximize your time by doing things at the right time and in the right order.
Ace Productions build their plan in small bursts when they have lots to do in a short space of time. By writing down the things that need doing nothing gets forgotten. It also helps with their time management. They prioritize things so that they don’t do anything twice or have to come back to them because pieces of the jigsaw are missing. Here is Simon’s plan.
The first thing that you will notice is, yet again, there is no right or wrong way of doing things. Simon finds it easy to have his plan with him whilst he is doing things, it becomes a sort of notebook. He has a column reminding him whether this is a phone call, letter, visit or task (P.L.V.T.). If it is a phone call he writes in the number. If he has the contact name that is written in too, otherwise it has a question mark reminding him to get it. D/T is date or time (or both). If he makes a phone call he writes down the date, this can be referred back to later if it is needed to be included in a letter, for instance. Lastly he has a Results column.
Some people will say it is sufficient to write down what you did and what happened. Some will say you should make a list of what you have to do, and then prioritize it into high, medium or low priority.
My advice is do what works for you. It is your list! You have the time pressure. How is it easiest for you to handle?
Simon decides he will make all the phone calls first. He cannot visit the factory, design studio, or college until he has arranged times and dates, and it is sensible to ring Julian (music) and Bob to put a crew on standby and check the prices.
Starting the budget and doing the invoice depends on when he can arrange his visits.
He makes notes for his phone calls, because he cannot spare the time to keep ringing back if he has forgotten something, and he needs records of the phone calls for the production diary.
You will see that planning and preparation is everything. A few minutes spent thinking about what you need to do and ask will save time (and therefore money) in two main ways. You are focused on what you are going to do, increasing your self confidence and putting yourself in the right professional frame of mind, and you can keep the conversation on track and as short as possible. Other people are busy too, they don’t want long friendly chats on the phone. They will respond to a professional, well thought out phone call.
We said that everything goes into the production diary. Already we have sections for requests for the programme, letters, phone calls, meetings, contacts, treatment, budgets, and music. Now we are going to open new sections for locations and storyboard.
Already our indexes are becoming complex with cross references. Our heads are beginning to fill up with all the information about the process of production. You can see why it is essential that everything is properly thought out, covered and filed. The result of these phone calls will become part of a contract with the people Simon rings. A verbal contract is very shortly not going to be sufficient. The notes of what Simon wants to say, and the answers he gets back, will be documented.
Imagine how you would feel if you were dealing with someone as unreliable as Julian, if you had done no planning or preparation. You ring up, not really knowing what to say except ‘we need some music soon’. You agree to meet for a drink tonight and talk it over. The conversation drifts off to your favourite football teams, and nothing happens until you realize you have no music to play while you are shooting the catwalk scenes. Julian says you didn’t give him a date, you say you thought he could work it out, the shoot does not go well, everybody is amazed as what an unprofessional director you are!
Imagine you are Simon. You are going to ring Mr Hermandes. Simon wants to arrange a date and time to visit the factory. He needs the addresses, contact names and phone numbers, and the parking arrangements. He wants to take the office camcorder. Has he left anything out? What would you also need to know? Why does he want to take the camcorder? Why ask Mr Hermandes if he can? Didn’t he tell Elaine that he couldn’t make a meeting on the 10th because he had pencilled in visits for the 9th and 10th? Did you and Simon forget that the note shouldn’t say ‘when’, but ‘9th or 10th’? Is there a danger that Mr Hermandes will agree dates and times without asking the other people involved? Should there be a note saying ‘ring to confirm the arrangements’?
Now look at the notes for Mr Martin, Julian and Bob (who will arrange his crew). What has been left out? What problems could that throw up? Are you and Simon going to spend the next couple of days on the phone tidying up the loose ends? Is that a good example of time management? Does it look professional?
What have the facilities and the girls got to do with a visit to a head of drama? Why the camcorder, again? What has been left out? Didn’t Joe originally suggest evenings only?
Why ask Julian for five minutes with cutting points? Why is there a note that says ‘contract’ when none of the other phone calls say that?
Why ask Bob for two cameras on location? Isn’t location video one camera? What is ‘VHS copy BITC’ if we are shooting Beta? If Bob supplies crew why ask about edit and post production? Is there anything else you would ask? Would you expect to get all the answers to your questions? What happens if you don’t? Should there be a note saying ‘send quote’?
Did you think that these are just two or three simple phone calls? Are you beginning to realize the amount of planning and organization that goes with the business you have chosen as a career? Are you beginning to understand why I said at the beginning ‘do you just want an expensive hobby’? The business you have decided to enter is mostly planning and preparation with a little bit of shooting, a lot of creativity and endless quantities of ‘midnight oil’!
Let’s think about some of the questions. Simon wants to take the camcorder because whenever he visits locations he likes to bring back pictures of the location, try out shots to see if the angle or height he wants is possible, hear what the background sound level is and look for dangers that might involve health and safety issues.
If he is planning to use the client’s staff in some of the shots it is courtesy to take a couple of minutes to ask if this is OK. That way he can say ‘I have permission to take a few sample shots, does anybody object to being in the final video?’ You do not want to tie up crew (time and money!) while you try to negotiate with staff.
With the college visit, he is keeping options open that he may use their facilities for the catwalk sequence, instead of a studio. He wants to see if these facilities are suitable and he wants to know how much they will cost. That gives him a comparison for his budget (which has to be done by the 12th!). He wants to see the girls for the same reason as Mr Hermandes’ staff. Are they suitable? Do they want to take part? Can he shoot during the day? Evenings will be double time for the crew.
For Julian he remembers his unreliability. You will remember that he did ask last time for, not only a sample cassette, but the approximate cost. He didn’t get it. He is going to remind him that, if they get the programme, he will be sent a contract. He wants five minutes, with cutting points, because he doesn’t know the precise running time. The cutting points will allow him to extend the five minutes to any length he wants, without noticeable ‘jumps’ in the music.
Bob will be asked to quote for two cameras on location because this will probably save time, but will cost more. The balance here is whether the time (and money) saved (say a day shooting) outweighs the extra cost. He is working with amateur performers. They will need rehearsing and will not want to do the same things over and over again.
He plans to use one camera for long shots and the other for mid shots and close ups. He has asked for VHS BITC because he will use the office editing suite to do rough cuts. BITC stands for burnt in time code. The actual time code on the original tapes will be displayed within the picture area, helping him to get accurate cutting points.
He needs to ask Bob if he can provide lighting and sound, if not Simon has to arrange it himself. Bob works in the production side of the business. He is the most likely person to know of fairly priced, good editing and post production facilities. Better to say ‘Bob recommended you’, on the phone, rather than trawl through hours of rate cards.
Let’s revise Simon’s notes. If you look carefully he has revised the order he wants to say things, to make it more logical. He has also included the telephone numbers. Did you notice they were missing? He will ask Bob if he can come to a meeting. This meeting will be set up before the shoot and they can go through Simon’s video of the locations and the storyboard. This means Bob will not be working blind for the shoot nor have any nasty surprises. He will know what shooting, lighting and sound problems there are. Bob may charge Simon to come to this meeting, but it will save time (time is money!) later. Did you think of that? Has Simon left anything out this time? If he rings Mr Hermandes and the phone is engaged, what does he do? If Mr Martin isn’t available, or Bob is on a shoot, what now?
Part of your logical planning will provide the answers, I hope you didn’t say ‘have a coffee and try later!’ We have a busy office to run now. There is a budget to do, as well as the phone calls, and that won’t take five minutes.
We have talked about how to conduct yourself during phone calls, so let’s précis the result of Simon’s.
Mr Hermandes was in a meeting. The secretary asked if she could take a message. Simon viewed this situation as ideal, rather than frustrating, because it gave him the opportunity to ask if Mr Hermandes could make the arrangements for his visits. He asked if Mr Hermandes could ring back confirming which of the two dates would be suitable and what times. He took the opportunity of asking the secretary for the addresses and phone numbers, but didn’t mention the video, contact names or if anyone would object to being in the video. Why do you think he left them out? Do you think it was because it is none of the secretary’s business or because he wants to keep something secret? Would you have mentioned them anyway?
It is not wrong if you say you would have gone through everything on the list, just different to the way Simon did it. He felt that Mr Hermandes would be the person who knew who to contact, not the secretary, he wanted to discuss bringing the video personally because the reason for it is to do a recce. Ace Productions still have not got this programme, remember. As we have said before, when Elaine enclosed some music samples with the original treatment, it pays to show the client that you are working on the programme even though you haven’t got it. Similarly with the employees, it may be that Mr Hermandes has an idea which people he would like to see in the video. Discuss it with him!
The Joe Martin call was similar. He was holding a seminar. Could the secretary take a message. Simon had the production diary in front of him so that he could update it with his notes. He quickly flicked through ‘Letters’, saw that Joe Martin had to check with Sally Beagle, so asked if she was free. This is a classic use of the production diary being used to save time. Joe Martin would say ‘I will have to talk to Sally Beagle about this’. Why not do it the other way round. Explain to Sally and let her discuss it with Joe. She was available, Simon was very careful to say that he couldn’t promise anything, but was very hopeful, and thanked her for all their interest and co-operation so far. She thought that Monday evening would be a good time, because she was teaching the group they thought would benefit most in the theatre. This would combine looking at the facilities and talking to the girls. She thought the video could be worked into a course day, she knows that theatre and video are different mediums to work in, and the girls would benefit from the experience. Parking at the theatre building is never a problem. Obviously she has no idea of cost, but she will discuss it all with Joe and he will then ring back. She sounds very enthusiastic and offers Simon her extension number and directions to her office.
Julian, inevitably, isn’t answering his phone. Simon is very direct in the message he leaves, starting by saying ‘Julian, if you are serious about doing this project, ring me urgently.’ He then outlines the running time and the need for cutting points. Simon has dealt with Julian often. The best approach is to be firm, but polite, not show any frustration, but make sure Julian knows exactly what is wanted.
Bob is in and very helpful as usual. He doesn’t need to look at his rate card, he knows it by heart. This is a small corporate production and he always makes allowances for this. Some hire companies do this. They charge more for large or broadcast work, but are prepared to charge less for smaller companies. Some will quote smaller companies the same, because they don’t really want the work. There are a few who only have low end equipment and are small themselves and are considerably cheaper. Simon uses Bob because Ace Productions have worked up a good relationship with them and Bob will always provide people who have worked for them before.
Bob is also very fair. He tells Simon that what he could do with one camera in three days, could probably be done in a day and a half with two for this particular shoot. He also points out the fact that it sounds as if Simon is looking at a three-machine edit, in which case he will need two rolls of different masters to get the effects he wants. The alternative is non-linear. He knows some good post production people and will discuss it at the meeting. Simon needs a figure for his budget, but decides to guess from his rate cards. Bob will probably come up with something less expensive, anyway.
He thinks ‘an off the top of my head figure’, without having a proper brief, three locations, two Beta SPs with operators for a day and a half would be £750. Stock would be extra as would meals and transport. Lighting and sound would not be a problem, but would add £200 per person for the day and a half. He would, of course supply the lights and sound equipment, but not the stock, meals or transport. All the prices are based on a 30 day invoice.
He would like to come to a meeting to get the feel of the programme and, if it was late afternoon and a promise of some refreshment afterwards, he wouldn’t charge.
Simon looks at his watch and is quite pleased with this. It has only taken just over an hour and he has got a lot of answers. He now goes back to the Production Plan on his desk and starts to fill it in.
The Storyboard
You will hear and read different things about the storyboard. With drama, particularly, the story may already exist. It is then turned into a screenplay, which has a format similar to a normal play. The director then plans, with the visualization department, how this will be interpreted visually. This is drawn up as the storyboard.
For our purposes the normal sequence of events is to offer the client your treatment and discuss it. Often the treatment will have the sort of images you imagine written into it. Once the treatment has been agreed the next stage is to do the visualization. This becomes the storyboard and has a series of still images drawn in boxes in the video format that the programme will use, this is normally 4:3, but there is a growing tendency towards wide screen format (16:9). Additionally normally at the side, but sometimes underneath, these boxes will be an area for the script.
The boxes will be numbered and these numbers refer to the shot number. The still images are the pictures of the opening shot referring to the shot number, if a shot develops (pans or zooms for example), an instruction to that effect will be written in. Only when the shot changes do we need to draw another image. Sometimes the script is only written as the first and last line, but in this case there should be a full script kept separately, more normally the whole script is written beside each shot, it is often the script which dictates a change of shot. Any music or sound effects are put in a separate column after the script.
The storyboard is the first time that the actual sound and pictures are put together in visual form. It is also the last time, because other documents will now be used that give only sound information or only picture information in the form of a script or camera cards. The storyboard is the last check the client will have before being committed to the expensive process of production.
The storyboard marks a very important stage in the pre production stage. It is not only at this stage that a representation of the actual programme can be seen, but is often the stage at which the client will be expected to pay part of the programme fee.
Minor changes may be made to the programme once the storyboard has been approved, but anything major will involve the client in more money. For this reason alone the storyboard must be an accurate representation of precisely what is going to be seen and heard.
The storyboard is the responsibility of the scriptwriters who will have visualization artists working with them. Very often, because of the obvious differences between a theatre production and a television production, the scriptwriter is known as the screenwriter. Whichever title they use it is important that they are fully aware of the television process and what is, and is not, possible with cameras and, particularly, when to use which size of shot. Although the final decision during production is the director’s, the whole programme has to be conceived at this stage as accurately as possible to its finished form.
Obviously a storyboard drawn in full colour with a large number of shots, some representing complex animation and effects, will take artists a considerable time to originate. This will be reflected in the cost. Even a computer graphics generated storyboard takes time, although it is now easier for lesser artists to make the result look like a professional work of art! Some companies use a combination of computer generated artwork, ‘real drawings’ and even photographs. What you must do with your storyboard is what you think is appropriate and what you can negotiate with the client. Never think you can get away with a few squiggles and a bit of ‘Mid shot of Sally’ unless you have negotiated this with the client, as Elaine did.
Ace Productions cannot justify the expense, or time, for a fully visualized colour storyboard for this short continuous programme where there is no beginning or end, and therefore no continuous story line. Elaine has agreed with Mr Hermandes that she will do a simplified storyboard. There are degrees of simplification and in this case she has suggested that the sequence of shots will be followed accurately, but she will describe them in words, with the odd ‘pin-men’ diagram to illustrate a particular point. £250 is a fair price for this and Simon’s budget which will take him a couple of hours.
This is one type of storyboard. These can be purchased in A3 size pad form, which saves making your own template. The small disadvantage is that they will need to be folded to go into your production diary.
The other type is simply an A4 sheet with a suitable storyboard grid marked on it. This is the one that Ace Productions uses. There are two reasons; this blank sheet can be stored as a template on their computer so that they can computer generate part, or all, of their storyboard using A4 paper that is already in the printer and it will fit neatly in the production diary in a form where it can be viewed easily through its A4 pocket. Which you use is a matter of preference. As always there is never a right or wrong, merely a ‘different’.
We can see how Elaine is getting on by looking at one of her pages. She has to storyboard the programme from beginning to end because it is, in reality, simply a ‘normal’ programme. What makes it different as a programme is the way the viewer will see it. She agreed the treatment with Mr Hermandes which takes short cameos of the process from design through production to product, with a voice-over used as a link and to reinforce the processes. Because the viewer could pass at any time during these three processes it must be possible to pick up the storyboard at any page and follow say 10 or 15 shots that will show these stages.
You will probably have been given guidelines for shot length and type. Again, with this programme, we will have to break the rules. Elaine will use developing shots that have movement and shot movement, for example she may zoom in slowly to a designer working on a pair of slacks and mix whilst the shot is still zooming in to a zoom out of a model on the catwalk wearing the slacks. This type of shot is used in pop videos but is considered very unconventional in ‘normal’ programmes.
Editing would be impossible if shots were just cut together in a random order, which is what makes this programme difficult. There has to be some logical sequence to hold the attention of the viewer as long as possible, certainly long enough for them to see all the stages.
You will see that Elaine has got as far as page 6, while Simon was making his phone calls. She has nearly finished. We can see from these six shots that she is staying with the treatment and mixing design with manufacture and the catwalk. She has followed this sequence throughout but, as you will see this sequence goes ‘designer, catwalk, manufacture’, then back to the catwalk for a different product. She is changing the order to avoid repetition.
You will also notice that she is using the voice-over to link the shots. As agreed in the treatment she is using the company logo as often as possible and is including a small caption for each girl.
This book is about the production diary; you will be taught how to produce a storyboard, so look at the layout Elaine has used. No rights or wrongs, do’s or don’ts, Ace Productions use a different typeface for the voice-over and directions, because they are in the same column. This is a simplified storyboard so the shots are not visualized but described. Where she needs to, Elaine has drawn simple pictures, the Fashions for You logo has been changed for visual effect. It may be changed back by the client.
However you decide to do your storyboard it is the final document that will be presented to the client. It can be called upon as a contract, and the programme must follow it. You must keep a copy in the production diary, you must agree it with the client and, to that end, you would be wise to get a signature from the client to say it has been agreed.
It is now nearly half past seven on a Friday night. Elaine is finishing off her storyboard and Simon has been busy starting his budget.
Mr Hermandes rang back to say he had arranged for Simon to meet the designers at Gothic Road on Tuesday morning. The sales director would like to meet him first so it was suggested that they all meet at Mr Hermandes office at 9 o’clock. They could then go on to the factory. The video was no problem, but it would be sensible to chat to the designers and factory staff individually about their ‘cameo performance’.
Joe Martin rang back to say the arrangements for Monday night were OK. He would be on duty that evening, and would get some figures by then.
Julian has not rung back.
All of these phone calls are written up on Simon’s production plan and the notes he made whilst on the phone are filed with the original phone call notes.
Although he has started thinking about the budget, Simon thinks it would be better to start afresh in the morning, he chats with Elaine and they agree to meet at the office at 8.30 in the morning. Are you prepared to do a hard week’s work, finish late on Friday and then come in on Saturday? This is the profession you are thinking of choosing. This is the way it is!
Saturday morning comes and Elaine is going to collate and organize the bits of paper that are accumulating, index, cross reference and copy them to organize the production diary. Simon is starting to get serious about the budget.
We have already said there are really three budgets. The client budget is, initially, often a guess based on experience but needs to be derived from the predicted budget when commissioning becomes a reality. The actual budget is made up of the final figures, what the production really cost, which will tell us whether we made a profit (and how much) or not.
As with everything there is no one way of doing a budget. There are several accepted methods which largely depend on the scale of the production. Large production companies will use a specially designed software package, smaller companies will use a simple spreadsheet programme. There are also many layouts that can be adopted and it is essential that you know what needs to be costed. The answer, of course, is everything!
The most commonly used methods section the budget into natural elements of the production. Major productions use headings of ‘above the line costs’, ‘below the line costs’ and ‘indirect costs’. There are different schools of thought about what is ‘above the line’ and what is ‘below the line’. One suggests that the writing, performing and production elements are ‘above the line’. These will include all the costs involving the production personnel (people like the director, scriptwriter, cast and music composer). ‘Below the line’ are the physical elements involved, things like the technical elements of studio and crew, set designers, transport, sound, lighting, and editing for example.
Another method uses basically the same format but puts the cast ‘below the line’ and keeps only the key writing and production personnel of producer, director and scriptwriter ‘above the line’.
Both suggest that ‘indirect costs’ are items like legal and insurance fees and overheads. ‘Overheads’ is often used as a ‘catch all’ figure. You may decide to put in a figure for contingency purposes, or use it for rent, rates, electricity etc. for your office.
There are situations where a producer will dream up an idea for a drama or soap, for example, or they may find a novel that they think would make a good film or TV programme. This is a very different situation to the small corporate ‘Fashions for You’ programme we are concerned with. These large scale productions follow a different early pre production stage to the one we are looking at. The first stage on from the idea that ‘this would make a good video’ is to think about what target audience it would appeal to and the likely cost. The next stage would be to draw up an outline proposal which consists of a development of the idea to sample script level, the target audience and a simplified budget. Rather like Elaine and Simon put in some time (time is money!), as a result of a request for a programme, this large scale production starts life as an idea which then has to be sold to a client. It costs considerably more to get it to the proposal stage, because it involves more specialist staff, and then the producer will go out and ‘sell’ it to a client, perhaps a commercial TV station.
Some TV stations can be approached directly at the idea stage and will offer development money with no other guarantees. This is similar to Mr Hermandes agreeing to pay for the storyboard and budget. If you decide to use a standard computer model that follows this complex budget, the client will still require a summary sheet similar to the one shown here for ‘My idea’.
You may think that it is very complicated, particularly as all the sections will be individually broken down on separate sheets listing each person or item by hours needed and cost per hour. Nothing can be left out. Even a cup of coffee has a price, and if it is not costed in to the budget you will either have to pay for it yourself, or enter into some very tricky and embarrassing negotiations with the financial backers, or client, because you have gone ‘over budget’.
Simon needs a model that is more suitable for small scale productions (like the Fashions for You video), and he will use the three areas of pre production, production and post production plus a sheet for indirect costs. The methodology is still the same; there will be four areas on the summary sheet that will be given to the client. Each of these areas will then have its own sheet which is the complete breakdown for that area.
We said that there are really three budgets, the client budget, the predicted budget and the actual budget. Now you can see how these are derived; the client budget is the summary sheet. Originally, as an indication of costs, Simon used his experience and a bit of guess work to come up with a breakdown which went with the treatment. Now he will work out accurately three separate sheets for pre production, production and post production and include one for the indirect costs. These will then be merged into the summary sheet.
To keep track of the budget, so that it does not go over budget, Simon has a separate column for the actual figures next to the predicted figures. It is then simple to see that he might have overestimated one item which gives him a bit of leeway if he has underestimated another.
You cannot allow a situation to develop whereby you get to the end of the production, having never looked at the budget during the programme, only to find you are £1000 over budget. Equally it is very unprofessional to celebrate if you are £1000 under budget. This sort of error means that another producer could have done exactly the same programme for £1000 less. This will, sooner or later, lead to you losing work because you are too expensive.
Yes, budgets are hard and not very interesting but you must treat them with the same respect and diligence as the rest of your programme. Do you still want to be a producer, or would you rather do lighting or camera?
It is Saturday morning. Elaine and Simon are in the office. Elaine is going to check and organize the production diary. Simon is going to start on the draft budget. He hasn’t got all the figures he needs, but, working with a spreadsheet program, that doesn’t matter, he will guess some of the figures and replace them later.
Julian still hasn’t rung back. Elaine will try to get hold of him, or write him a recorded delivery letter.
To arrive at the summary budget sheet for Mr Hermandes, Simon must first work out the cost of each of the elements. He starts with pre production.
Budgets and schedules tend to go hand in hand. If the schedule allows for one day of shooting then the budget will show a cost for that one day. If the shoot isn’t completed in a day, time has to be found as well as more money which wasn’t allowed for. We will look at schedules later, but notice that there is a ‘Days’ column in the budget.
The ‘Rate’ is the day rate or the item cost. You will see the two columns of ‘Estimate’ and ‘Actual’ followed by a column for ‘Diff’ (difference). Simon uses Estimate instead of Predicted. They are the same and which you use is up to you! The Difference column is where he checks if the budget is staying accurate. If, for example, the research takes a whole day, rather than the half day allotted, the actual figure would change to £80 and the difference figure would show up in red (debt) as £40. Savings of £40 now have to be found somewhere to avoid going over budget.
This is not a simple situation. It would be lovely if the savings could be made in the pre production stage, but in reality it may come from post production or have to come out of contingency. The important thing is that you are aware of the situation as it occurs and don’t wait till the end of the programme before you fill in the ‘Actual’ column.
A little like computers crash when you least want them to, budgets will go over when you least expect it! You back up your work on the computer, so take similar care with your budget over (or under) shoots.
Notice something else that is interesting. Both Simon and Elaine (production manager and producer) have charged their time at £100 per day and Simon has allowed ten days of pre production for both of them with a day and a half extra for his location recce. I said earlier that how much you charge is up to you, if you are just starting out it would not be wise to try charging Hollywood money! My experience is that people tend to be famous and then rich, rather than rich and famous.
Further examination shows that the storyboard and budget have both been charged at half a day each, at a day rate of £80. Mr Hermandes will be invoiced £250. Has Simon made a mistake? What Simon has shown is that the storyboard and budget cost £40 each. Someone has got to take the time to construct them. In this case it is Simon and Elaine, who are charging £80 per day for this work, instead of their normal £100. The treatment is the £60 ‘Research’ and ‘Script’ which has been subtly added in totalling £140. This leaves £110 to cover some of the very early work, and a little profit. The company has to make money too!
Notice, also, that as agreed at the production meeting, Simon has costed in two days for a PA. It may be that the PA will have to go if the budget comes to more than the £8000 Mr Hermandes says he will pay. This is Simon’s working sheet. Mr Hermandes will not be given the breakdown, only the final figure for pre production of £2590.
Giving the client the breakdown is very silly! Do you want him to say he’s not paying £125 for sandwiches for 10 days? Do you want him to know you are charging £60 for transport? Is there anything you would have added, or taken out? Do you think it is fair? Is this a good system to use, or have you got a better one? Nothing is right or wrong – only different.
For the Production breakdown, Simon has allowed 2 days, and has costed in the PA.
You will remember that he does not know what Joe Martin will charge for the use of the facilities, or the girls. He will not know until Monday night, and possibly not then. What he has done is gone back to the last production diary, which involved a day in studio. He sees from the budget sheets that the actual studio cost was just over £2000 for the day. That included all the crew, except make-up, wardrobe, and equipment. The staging and props had to be made and brought in.
If he can use the Genie College theatre facilities they must cost him less. Studio is a controlled environment, and he would save more money by not needing Bob for two days. The break down this sheet shows is that he could afford to pay Joe a maximum of £400 for the facilities and £150 for the girls. He gets this figure by knowing he cannot risk half a day shoot with unknown artists in the uncontrolled environment of Genie College. He will have to ask Bob to supply crew for 2 days, rather than 11⁄2, which will come to £1500. That leaves him £550 as the difference from the studio hire cost.
His last production budget showed that he paid the figures shown for props, staging, wardrobe and make-up so he has simply repeated them. Do you see how useful a previous production diary has been? Simon can be confident that the most he will pay is just over £2000, so if Joe Martin does not come up with figures that match the estimated budget, he goes to studio. If the figures are lower, he can get the overall figure down. He already has that uncomfortable feeling that this is going to work out at more than the £8000 Mr Hermandes will pay!
Now look at Simon’s estimate for post production. You will notice that he has allowed 4 days for himself, Elaine and a PA. He has also put in the voice-over costs. You may think that this should be in production, and you may be right!
Simon prefers to get the voice done last. This is because it is not an ‘on camera’ artist, but a voice-over that needs to record specific sentences to go with specific pictures. Simon finds that it is easier for the voice-over artist to get the right feel and timing if he is actually recording them whilst watching the pictures. Therefore he does it at the audio dub stage. It is possible to get the script recorded and then try and cut it up and fit it to the right pictures, it just seems to Simon that it is a bit like hard work.
You will see that he has costed off line at £200 a day for 2 days. He has decided that he will do the off line at Ace Productions using the BITC VHS copy. The edit suite cost money and it must earn its money, therefore it is charging for its services!
How does Simon know what the costs are? He hasn’t any prices yet. You guessed! He went back to his old production diaries and looked up what he has paid in the past for similar programmes. You can now understand the purpose of keeping accurate diaries and of keeping all the old ones.
Has Simon left anything out? He already has a nasty feeling that this will cost more than the client has money for. Maybe the PA will have to go, or maybe there are savings elsewhere. Because this is a spreadsheet program, the figures can be tinkered with and the overall figure reduced. Before this can happen, Simon must have all the figures entered as accurately as possible, he cannot wait for the college or Bob to tell him how much the final figures will be.
Before we look at the summary sheet there is one final sheet that Simon needs to do. This is the indirect costs sheet. Whether you do one for your programmes or not, look at the headings.
Somewhere in your budget you will have to account for insurance. We will talk about that later; for now believe me that you would be totally insane to consider doing a programme without insurance. Simon’s old production diaries show that he normally pays £250 for this and provides the name, address and contact he needs to arrange it.
Similarly Ace Productions will start to issue contracts soon. Although the forms have been originated with the help of their lawyer, Simon automatically sends a copy to be checked. The lawyer only charges £100 to look at them and it is money well spent.
Duplicating, arguably, could go into post production. Simon thinks it is actually something that happens after post production. He always sends the client three copies and whether they realize it or not, they pay for them!
Simon is realizing that he is going to find it very hard to make the £8000 final figure, so he cuts back on his contingency. This is a sort of ‘just in case’ fund. If the programme does start to go over budget and cannot be brought back, this is the final safety net before you start to pay yourself. A guide would be around 20 per cent of the production cost, which works out at about 12 per cent of the total figure. What you decide to put in is up to you. Your quote will be cheaper if you don’t allow anything, but it is a big risk. If you put in silly amounts, in the hope of putting it towards the profit, you will make the budget look very expensive compared with other producers, probably losing the programme. Simon has left out a heading for ‘Financial’. Normally he would put £300 down for that because a little of each programme cost goes towards the accountant who does the annual books. This time he knows he cannot afford it.
The final page of Simon’s draft budget is the summary sheet that will go to Mr H.
On here are the sub totals of the three elements (or stages) of the production and the indirect costs. It is now, when they are all added up, that Simon has confirmation of his fears.
The budget is over £9500 against a promise from Mr Hermandes of £8000. Somewhere Simon needs to cut back by £1500. There is a delicate balance here, a bit like a poker game; does he submit the final figure in the hope that the client really does want the programme and is now committed because of the shortage of time? Can he risk the fact that another producer may have been offered £250 for a storyboard and budget by Thursday, as well? If he does say he can’t cut it down and Mr Hermandes reluctantly has to accept it, what does that do for Ace Productions’ reputation of ‘On Budget and on Time’?
I suggest you try to help Simon go through the options – this could be your budget worry next! If they don’t hire a PA that would save £320, but would put extra pressure on himself and Elaine. He cannot cut back on the contingency any more, £300 is less than the PA and really not enough. He cannot cut the insurance. To not offer catering would cause another problem, the crew and cast will simply wander off to the pub, probably never to return!
The solution seems to be in cutting back on his and Elaine’s salary. The spreadsheet program is used to recalculate the figures if they charged £75 per day. He has allowed 16 days each, saving £400 each. This brings the figure down by £800 to £8850. Not enough, and they want to be paid for all their hard work. Simon still has a top figure he will accept from the college in his head, but he won’t know the final figure until Monday night, and maybe not then.
We will leave you to solve the budget while Elaine studies the script!
The Audio Script
Elaine has been having a busy day. She has spent some time organizing the production diary into sections, updating the indexes and making photocopies of items that need cross-referencing.
She finally managed to get hold of Julian. He was very contrite and suggested coming into the office on Monday morning to look at the storyboard and discuss the programme. That way he will be able to arrange the price at the same time. Elaine looks at the diary section of the production diary and sees that both she and Simon are free so suggests 10.00 a.m.
When doing the storyboard yesterday she started to rough out the script. Now she gets the storyboard out of its file in the production diary and lays it out on the table so that she can see all the sheets in the right order. She is familiarizing herself with the programme. Does it look as good in the cold light of day? Are there changes she wants to make to the order or content? Does it flow properly? She moves the last sheet and puts it in front of the first sheet. This will be a continuous programme; does the end join to the beginning? Now she starts at Page 4 and continues through. Does it make sense?
She turns her attention to the script. There are rules about a script and some guidelines. It is most important to realize that the script is complementary to the picture. This is not radio, the pictures show the story, and the locations and script should fill in the detail. Neither is video a book. Long descriptions and details cannot be reread; the script should consist of short phrases or sentences that add to the picture, helping the mood or theme that is being portrayed. What makes home movies so boring is the total lack of understanding of this basic concept, and a constant desire to fill every shot with as many words as possible. It is for good reason that there is a famous expression that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’!
To give you an example of how bad it can get, look back at the storyboard diagram on page 73. Look at shot 35 and at the script Elaine has suggested to cover this shot.
Now imagine the same shot and the voice-over saying ‘here we can see Linda walking down the catwalk in a shirt, as she turns you will notice how nice she looks’. Both sentences take the same time to say, both would cover the shot. The picture is showing a girl in a mid shot, deliberately chosen to accent the shirt. A caption fades in to credit Linda, and who cares what she looks like – you are supposed to be looking at the shirt! Elaine chose a much more punchy sales line of ‘the latest shirt design is one of Fashions for You best sellers, and you can see why!’ This complements the picture and reinforces the Fashions for You name, coupling it with a ‘must have’ feeling (it is one of their best sellers).
Script writing is an art. Specialists make a very healthy living. Maybe you would like to be a scriptwriter? You certainly need to know the whole process of television to succeed. Elaine chose what she wanted to do while doing an English degree and becoming interested in television. Now, having been on a course similar to yours, she prefers the creative side of treatments, writing, storyboards and directing to ‘all that technical stuff’.
Simon did a business studies course and then went on the television course; he likes playing with budgets and doing recces and editing. He can’t see himself as a director and doesn’t have much interest in cameras, sound or lighting, so he is going down the production manager route. He still needs all the skills the course taught him, to understand how video fits together. You will have your favourite sections of your course. You cannot be a one-man band in video – it is a team game. Choose to specialize in what you enjoy most.
Elaine settles down with the computer and starts work using her script template. She finds that it helps to think in sound and picture while she is doing the storyboard, so there are ideas of script written on it. Now she has familiarized herself with the whole story in pictures and word ideas she will look at the storyboard in the right order and try to refine the script.
This will then be transferred to the final storyboard. You may just do the storyboard, and then write the script, or spend ages doing the storyboard in pictures and final script. Elaine finds it easier to use her creativity to think up the sort of pictures and words that make up this draft version and then concentrate on getting it right.
You will see that Elaine has four columns for Shot number, Script, Instructions and Music/SFX (sound effects).
You will notice that she often uses the script to cover a shot transition; this helps the programme to flow. It looks and sounds very odd to have a few words with a picture, a change of picture and a few more words, and so on. This is another ‘home movies’ fault!
Notice also how she has picked up the Fashions for You key selling points, and tried to use phrases that will help to stop buyers walking straight past. The pictures are going to be busy and fast moving, the script is quietly filling in the gaps, pointing out details and suggesting this is a designer range the buyer must have.
While Elaine has been altering her script, she has been looking at the shots on the storyboard; she is imagining the length and content and ‘hearing’ the sound that will go with them. She has only slightly changed her original script, a word here, a change of order there.
Remember that Elaine will direct this programme. The more she runs through it now, on paper, and the more she can become familiar with the visualization, the easier it will be for her to get the shots she needs. This will save time and avoid the need for reshoots. She is already learning the programme so she will know what will cut with what when they get to the shooting stage.
Let’s see what has happened so far. Ace Productions got a request for a programme by letter on July 8. This resulted in a client meeting, a treatment and an outline budget, some hard negotiating, lots of phone calls, a full storyboard and a full draft budget. It is now August 7.
In the month that this programme has taken so far, the production diary is filling up nicely, which has taken time and a lot of care. All of this for an agreed fee of £250, split between two people and an expensive office.
All of this development work has not been charged because that is the way it is done with small companies trying to get as much work as possible to survive. Realistically Ace Productions has done well to get this far. Other companies were asked to supply treatments and outline budgets only to be sent away with nothing. This is the reality of business. Ace Productions will not know until next week whether they have got this programme or not. Before that they have arranged three location recces and a meeting with their musician. There must be easier ways of making money! You need to really want to work in this business; you will have long hours, a terrible social life and no money until you become established. Remember ‘famous then rich’!
While Simon and Elaine take Sunday off, we can look at health and safety matters. Working in the media business means working in a potentially very dangerous place. Lights have exploded or fallen on people. Many a trailing cable has led to a spell on crutches. Scenery has fallen on performers. Electricians have been electrocuted. The list is endless.
All these accidents are treated as ‘incidents’ by the legal profession and companies do get sued, sometimes for large amounts of money.
All of this has led to many governments around the world passing laws relating to health and safety, meaning that there is a strong possibility that, as well as getting sued, you risk breaking the law and ending up in court.
I am not going to outline the various laws and their implications, but I am going to try to simplify it all and keep it to the practical things that you can do to keep out of trouble.
The legislation applies equally to all employers and employees. Employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthy working environment. This means that equipment must be safe, or have notices attached warning of potential dangers. This ‘equipment’ includes trailing cables leading from it. There must be adequate, well marked, fire exits with a totally clear safety lane leading to them. The exits and safety lane must be lit at all times and stay alight in the event of electrical failure.
Employers are also responsible for the health and welfare of their staff. This means that if a member of your crew is unfit through illness, flu for example, it is your responsibility to replace them. Welfare includes things like providing sensible working hours with scheduled breaks for meals.
Gone are the days when you can drag the cameraperson out of hospital and work them for 24 hours with no break!
It is the duty of employees to take reasonable care of their own health and safety and other people who may be affected by their actions. To take a simple example, an employer has to make sure that the ladder and support system for a suspended light are safe and pose no risk to a qualified electrician. The qualified electrician who fits the light is responsible for ensuring that it is safe and secure and neither it, nor its connections and cables, pose any risk to anybody, including members of the public.
In a short sentence, everybody has a duty of care to themselves and everybody else.
Companies, by law, have to draw up a health and safety at work policy, have health and safety committees and have regular training for staff, in addition they must keep an accident book that is open to inspection by the Health and Safety at Work inspectors. They must also carry out regular risk assessment to highlight the areas of risk and the degree of risk involved. Health and safety is a very serious matter.
Generally speaking it is the production manager who is responsible for the health and safety aspects of the production. Simon does this job for Ace Productions and he likes to do a risk assessment when he does his recce. This means that he will look for potential or actual dangers that may become an issue when shooting starts. This could include something as simple as noticing a container of cleaning fluid that could be knocked off a shelf, or as complicated as checking that there is enough power in the building to drive all the equipment he needs.
I am not going to start an electricity lesson, but suffice it to say that four 13 amp sockets in one room does not necessarily mean that you have 52 amps to play with, nor does it mean that you can ‘Christmas tree’ a socket with lots of multiple adapters.
Monday morning has arrived. Elaine and Simon have an impromptu production meeting over their first cup of coffee. This does not need to be minuted and go into the production diary, because Elaine is checking the stage they are at and is going to draw up an agenda for the Wednesday morning meeting. They look at the storyboard and draft budget, realize that they have problems, but agree to talk about it at the meeting. They will both see Julian at 10.00 a.m. after which Simon will check the video camera and the paperwork he needs to take to Genie College tonight.
Julian arrives late, bringing an extended piece of music with him as a sort of offer of apology. He agrees that he isn’t very reliable but assures them that the music will definitely be done within a week of them commissioning him. He studies the storyboard and is impressed. He, too, now has a feel for the programme and that helps him. They play the music while watching the shots and agree it would definitely enhance the programme. He thinks about £200 would be a good guess. Simon says a guess is not good enough because the figure will go into the contract. Julian says he will settle for £200.
Recce is the industry shorthand for reconnoitre. This involves thoroughly examining the location, drawing up plans and checking what facilities are available. It helps if an electrician can be present, perhaps a member of the lighting team, if you are unsure of power supplies and loading. Apart from suitability, one purpose of the recce is to find out what problems may occur whilst actually shooting at this location.
The questions that need answering fall into two categories: physical and physiological. The physical questions that need answers should be drawn up as a scale plan. What is needed is a set of diagrams similar to studio plans, but they must be created for each location. A few typical questions that will help provide the details are: How big is the space? How high is the ceiling? Where are the doors/windows? Which direction does the window face? What colour is the wall/ceiling? What is the available light? From where? How many power sockets are there? What sort are they and how much current is available? What obstructions are there? (A large signpost, or a parking meter, may need to be ‘camouflaged’ by a horse and cart in a period drama, or a removal van in modern settings.) What access is available for people, vehicles and equipment? Particularly helpful to the sound team will be, what is the level of ambient noise? What type of noise? (Obvious disasters occur when nobody noticed the church clock that strikes on the quarter hour, or the fact that the room is immediately opposite the fire station.) Where are the fire exits and is the safety lane clearly marked?
Some physiological questions concern the well being of the crew and performers. Again, examples would be: Is there somewhere discreet for performers to change/make-up? Where are the nearest toilets? Where is the nearest place for refreshments (or do you need to make arrangements for location catering)? Where is the nearest telephone? How do crew/ performers get to the location (draw them a map, or arrange transport)? What are the contact name and telephone number?
It is from these recce plans and notes that the director and crew can work out shots, camera positions, types and number of lights and lighting positions, the sound requirements and foresee any problems that may occur. With small scale programmes, notes and plans may be sufficient. For larger scale programmes, photographs or actual video footage often supplement the notes and plans. Simon always takes his Hi8 for just this purpose; it allows him to try out actual shots and angles.
An example of bad management would be if you decide to take a crew on a shoot in the park, that you think you know because that is where you have your lunch, without thoroughly researching it. Everybody will have a lovely time running about waving a video camera at anything that moves until your time, or the tape, runs out!
Simon has a checklist that he always takes with him so that he doesn’t forget anything. He supplements this with shots on his Hi8 that give an overall impression of the location and shots of any particular problems he has noticed. He uses the soundtrack as a useful voice memo pad. This gives him a chance to note things that he might otherwise forget and also gives an impression of the acoustic quality of the location. He makes sure that he leaves some time as ‘silence’ to judge the ambient sound level and type.
You may benefit from the lesson learnt by Ace Productions about a year ago. They had done a programme for a company and were now doing a six month update. Simon got all the recce notes and plans out of the original production diary and copied them into the new one. When they turned up at the location the walls had been painted a lurid green, the office had become open plan, and they had built on the car park! Never trust anything, go and see for yourself.
Simon has called up his recce template off the computer and is printing it out.
This is not the definitive recce sheet – it is the one Ace Productions use. You may have a completely different one. What you will find interesting is the content. Apart from the usual client and contact names, addresses and phone numbers, you will see a reference to the shots the location will be used for. Simon does this because he will have to look at the storyboard to find the answer and this will familiarize him with the type and content of the shot. He will go to the location with an idea of what he needs in his head.
Videos frequently start with a long shot so that we have a clear perspective of where we are and where everybody is. Simon has a line for ‘first impressions’. This is his long shot view before he starts to examine the location in detail. He may think ‘this is going to be impossible’, or ‘that column in the middle of the room is a problem’.
Where the doors are will be on the plan he will draw. Crucial, though, is can the equipment be brought through the door, hence ‘Door access size’ and ‘problems’.
The wall and ceiling colour may affect the shots. Predominantly blue or green will make them look cold or nauseous. Pink or red will warm them up a little. This will affect the number and type of lights and probably the position of the performers.
With health, safety and welfare in mind he will check the fire exits and safety lane, the toilet facilities, if there is a separate area for breaks, and what the arrangements are for changing and make-up.
Finally you will note that Simon knows the more recces you do the easier is it to forget something. He always puts the question ‘what have I forgotten’ next to his signature. He knows it takes a couple of minutes to have a final look around, but might take two hours on shoot day to put something right he forgot.
We will see a completed form when he gets back from his three recces. Simon now prepares his location checklist. Again he has a prepared template on the computer. To appear relaxed and professional when you are meeting people for the first time, you must be well prepared. It is not good news to say ‘have you got a pen I could borrow’, or start writing notes on the back of a cigarette packet. Pilots take off many times a week, but they still have a checklist that they work through before they do it. It isn’t they can’t remember, it is that they do it so often they could easily leave something out. So could you and Simon.
You will see that Simon has been able to fill in some of his checklist. You will notice that the Ace Productions standards of professionalism are carried though to everything. The car must be clean and tidy, as must Simon. He will take two recce forms, pens and pencils, just in case. He will take spares for the Hi8.
You will also have spotted Simon’s personal trick of making himself double check everything. He has put ‘what have I forgotten’ after his signature completing the list.
You may think that all of this preparation is a little unnecessary. You may be right. This is the way Ace Productions does it; it is not the way everybody does it. Simon and Elaine have learnt the hard way that only if you have everything covered will it ensure that everything goes smoothly. The last thing you need when you come to the actual shooting is problems that will cost time and money. The pre production side is key to the whole programme. That is why it takes so long, and must be done thoroughly.
Are you beginning to realize that if you want to just go out and have a lovely time waving a camera about, you are committing yourself to a very expensive hobby and will never work in the video business?
Simon has filled in his checklist for Genie College and goes to meet Joe Martin. If Ace Productions get this programme, which they are confident of doing because it is dependent only on budget and storyboard, Joe Martin will become a supplier. He will provide Simon with services or goods that will be paid for. As such, contracts and model release forms will have to be issued. The health and safety of the college’s girls will be Ace Productions’ responsibility. This visit has two purposes – one is the recce, the other is a supplier meeting.
There has already been a supplier meeting with Julian. Things were agreed, prices were fixed, dates were promised. With Julian that was all relatively simple, they have worked together before, know each other as friends and, apart from Julian’s unreliability, they respect each other professionally. This meeting is different; Simon has never met Joe.
The important thing about this meeting is that Simon has to be in charge. It is his programme; he can shoot it where he likes and use whomever he pleases as performers. It is too easy to allow a programme to be taken over by enthusiasm. Joe obviously wants it shot in his theatre, using his girls. It is good publicity for his department and the college. Simon knows what he is prepared to pay, he doesn’t know if the facilities or the girls are suitable. He will not allow himself to be bullied into doing something he isn’t happy with. He will not commit to an evening shoot because he does not have the budget for crew overtime. If it isn’t right, it isn’t right and that is that.
Simon meets Joe in his office. He explains that they are 99 per cent certain of getting the programme, but that it is dependent on the budget, which is being a bit of a problem at the moment. It is nothing to do with Joe what the budget is, it would be a breach of confidentiality to tell him. Simon simply wants Joe to know that if he is thinking up Hollywood figures for the use of the college, he can forget it. Previous negotiations have taught Simon that if a supplier wants something badly enough he will lower the price to get it.
Joe suggests they look at the facilities and meet the girls. Simon decides that there is no point in doing that unless the price is right. He steers Joe towards a price. ‘Before we move out of the office, can you give me an indication of price? We would need the facilities and the girls for one day in three weeks’ time. I can give you the date when we have scheduled the shooting. Additionally we cannot afford the overtime involved in an evening shoot.’
This is assertive. Simon is showing he is in charge. The price is more important than the facilities, he is paying for it and it will be shot when he says.
Joe tries the ‘how much have you got’, technique, Simon says that he has already mentioned that the budget is tight and that the alternative would be a studio, with all its facilities and advantages. He concedes that the studio would cost him about £1500 in total. That includes the crew, make-up, wardrobe and changing facilities. This is a negotiating ploy of Simon’s, he is now the client, and Joe has to come up with something suitable. You know that Simon allowed £2000 maximum, but he needs to cut the budget and he certainly is not going to offer it. He does, however, have to be fair.
Joe suggests that the principal thinks that £250 for the hire of the theatre for a day would be fair. It would not include lighting, sound or stage people, that is Joe’s responsibility. Simon looks at his notes and sees that he allowed £400 for the cost of the location. He does not show his excitement at this lower figure but continues his negotiations.
‘It would make sense for us to use your lights with our operator, video lighting is different to theatre lighting and time would be critical. We obviously need someone to do make-up and wardrobe, and we would need some staging built and dressed. What would that come to as a package, including the personnel?’
Joe has obviously thought this one out in advance, because he says ‘I have talked to our backstage crew course and they would love to be involved. They could build a stage and catwalk, Sally wants to teach the make-up people the difference between theatre and video make-up and wardrobe would be happy to help the girls. We did put on a fashion show at Christmas for the fashion department so they already have some experience. Would it be possible for the second year people to be the audience? Everybody wants to get involved, you see.’
Simon is beginning to think this is sounding very good. He has yet to see the facilities and he knows he must keep a tight rein on ‘onlookers’. ‘We would need some audience, but we wouldn’t pay them, the fewer people we have, the easier it is to control and we are shooting a professional programme for a client. How much are we talking about for a package with you supplying the facilities, lighting, staging and crew?’
Joe says he has come up with a figure of £450, which would include the facilities, building the sets and the make-up and wardrobe people. That is dependent on Simon allowing as many of the course as practically possible to watch. He also says that he has had a word with the canteen manager who would be happy to provide sandwiches, coffee and juice for the day at what Joe thinks is a very reasonable £60.
Simon asks about the girls. Joe explains that he cannot employ them directly, that would be something that Simon would have to negotiate with them individually. His suggestion is to offer three girls £40 each.
Simon has been very busy writing all this down, it will form part of a contract.
‘Shall we go and have a look at the facilities? I know Sally and the girls are waiting to show you round.’ Joe leads Simon out of the office and down to the theatre. On the way Simon gets permission to try out a few shots on his Hi8.
Simon has conducted this meeting professionally and fairly. He has asserted himself, given nothing away about how much he could actually afford, and consequently he knows he can cut the budget, but will it be enough?
He does his recce, fills in the sheets, draws his plans, does some test shots showing the facilities and he has taken some footage of the girls. He has been very careful to promise nothing to the girls. He has explained that they will need three, he cannot say which three because the client may have ideas about height, size and looks.
It is late; he politely refuses the offer of a quick drink and goes home. Why do you think he refused a drink? Would you have gone? Would you have then compromised your position of being the client and them the supplier? Would you have been trapped into saying or promising too much as the drinks flowed? Can you stay in charge and assertive with your suppliers when you socialize with them? Look what’s happened with Julian. He has become very unreliable and difficult to control because Simon does go for a drink with him.
The Recce (2)
It is 9.00 a.m. on Tuesday morning and Simon, having completed his recce check forms, and got everything with him, is with Mr Hermandes and the sales director, who has been introduced as Naomi Findler.
The sales director hopes that everything is going well, she very much likes the treatment and hopes that the budget can be brought into line with the agreed figure. Simon says that they very much want to do the programme and that he is confident that it will. The sales director explains that it is sales budget that is paying for the programme, Mr Hermandes is overseeing the project from the Fashions for You point of view but she must take any decisions. Now we know whom the client is!
She suggests that, because of the time frame, Elaine should bring the budget and storyboard to her office on Thursday morning at 9 a.m. She can then make a decision while Elaine is there.
Simon explains about the possible use of Genie College and shows them the shots he got last night. The sales director says that she wants a size 10 and two size 12 girls, she also likes the idea of the link with the local college. She will consult her staff and put together a package of the clothes they would like used. She also adds that perhaps the girls would like to keep them, as a thank you for their trouble.
Simon is very encouraged by all this. He has got some important decisions resolved already and he has a feeling that the programme is already theirs, if he can meet the budget.
He and Mr Hermandes go to meet the designers. Simon is worried about the location, he doesn’t tell Mr Hermandes but his first impressions are of a long thin design office surrounded on three sides by glass. The ceiling is no more than 21⁄2 metres and the only good news is that what there is of the walls and ceiling are cream.
There is a fire exit at both ends, but no defined safety lane; you would have to weave your way around desks. There isn’t a fire extinguisher in sight! There are dozens of power points, but he suspects they are on the same ring main.
He asks about the toilets, and whether there is a refreshment area they can use. Mr Hermandes says he will come to see ‘what’s going on’ (probably out of curiosity) while they are shooting, but while they are here Miss Linda Swallow, the chief designer, is in charge. Simon gets the extension number.
Simon paces out the room and measures the door. He suggests they have a quick chat in Miss Swallow’s office. He asks who would like to be in the video and can he try out a few shots.
Miss Swallow has already talked to the designers and several have volunteered. They are invited into the office and Simon explains that he can only use four people. The details have not yet been worked out, but they will be shown working on the designs for the clothes that will be shown being made in the factory. He also asks if it would be possible to group those people together for the shoot, by a window wall. Why do you think he asked that? What difference does it make where they are working? They all have their own desks and drawing boards and they are all the same. Is he being awkward? He explains ‘It will be easier for us, and cause least disruption to you, if the people we use are together. That way we can set up lighting and cameras to cover one small area causing the least disturbance to everyone else. It will save us having to move lights, camera and crew to what would effectively be a new location each time.’ Did you think of that?
He also wants space around them, which may mean moving some of the other desks. He needs this arrangement to allow the crew to set up lights and work in as much space as possible.
He has noticed that one side faces north and the other south. He would prefer it if the group could be on the north side of the room. Why do you think he chose north? Why not in the middle of the room? Are you as thorough as this with the detail when you do your recces, or do you ‘turn up and work it out’ wasting valuable shooting time? Why do a recce if you are going to leave essential details out? Simon has decided to use the available light, rather than try to get rid of it. This shoot will take most of the morning. He has got enough problems already without having to start fighting shadows, and great chunks of moving light as the sun moves from east to south, while they are shooting. Better to use a shadowless north light. Did you think of that?
Miss Swallow will decide who will be used. Meanwhile, Simon starts taking shots with his Hi8. He needs to try the over the shoulder shot. It will mean quite a high angle. He knows that this is the same time of day that they will be shooting; it is an ideal moment to see the problems with the light.
The maintenance supervisor has turned up. He knows about the electrical sockets. He confirms that they are all on a ring main, but that it is a standard industrial 60 amp ring. This solves the lighting problem. Do you know what a ring main is? Do you know why a 60 amp ring is good news? You need to if you are going to do location shoots. This isn’t a book about electricity, so you will have to find out from your lecturer!
Simon and Mr Hermandes go on to the factory. Simon goes through his recce form again. As they leave Simon suggests they go to a local coffee shop. Mr Hermandes agrees. Why does Simon want to take Mr H for a coffee? Can you see the big difference between the college and Mr H? He turned down the offer of a drink with Joe and Sally at the college.
Simon is dealing with a client here, not a supplier. He needs to have a relationship with a client, as well as appearing professional, he needs to see how Mr Hermandes thinks it is all going so far. What better way than an informal chat over a coffee?
Simon will keep the receipt for the petty cash form in the production diary, and enter it in as subsistence. Did you remember that you are supposed to be keeping all the receipts?
Mr Hermandes says he is very impressed with Ace Productions’ thoroughness and commitment. He feels that they have put in an awful lot of work so far, and has been glad to have the opportunity of seeing how every little detail is covered. He lets slip, confidentially, that they have already decided to use Ace Productions, but, no matter how he has tried to argue the case with the director, they cannot let the budget go over by more than £300.
Simon has got what he wants. A client who is impressed, confident with his supplier, and a promise of the programme provided he stays within a £300 margin. All this for the price of a cup of coffee and a bun! Simon and Elaine make a good team don’t they?
By the time he has dropped Mr H back at Gothic Road and got back to the office it is nearly six in the evening. Elaine has been working on the agenda for the meeting at 8 a.m. tomorrow. Bob has agreed to come because Elaine had a phone call from Simon to say he felt they had got the programme. They have a brief chat about the day and agree that Simon will settle down to sort out the budget while Elaine looks through the video to familiarize herself with the locations. She will find the soundtrack with Simon describing them very helpful, as well as the detail in his notes. She will then photocopy them for the meeting in the morning before she files them all carefully in the production diary.
It is going to be a long evening, but it is worth it. It now depends on Simon and his budget. Elaine looks at one of Simon’s recce notes, the factory contact name, address and phone number must be added to the ‘Contacts file’ in the production diary. This is how the diary builds into a logical order. The recce form will be filed in ‘Locations’ but some of the information must be transferred elsewhere.
You will remember that the budget is currently some £1500 over target. Simon has got the final figures, from Julian and the college, and now has to see how he can incorporate them to bring the budget down. Elaine has his notes from his meeting with Joe Martin, to file in the production diary under ‘Meetings’. He gets out his photocopy.
Simon gets to work on his budget spreadsheet. The first thing he will do is to modify the production budget. Having visited the locations with his Hi8 he seriously doubts the need for a sound operator. The whole audio track is music; he has got lots of ambient sound (buzz track is the more usual name). Applause (from a CD) and the buzz track can be mixed in at the post production stage. Let’s see how far he has got.
Simon knows that the production budget is his working document; the client will not see it. To remind him of what he has done, he has used the notes column. You will notice that he has left the days estimated and the day rate alone. This is because, if he comes back to this budget during future programmes he will be able to see how it was modified.
By cutting back on the cast, music, props and subsistence, deciding not to employ a sound person and using Joe’s package he has got the figure down by about £800. Not enough, but a good start.
He wants to leave his and Elaine’s rate alone, if at all possible, and he wants to keep the PA. You might feel that it isn’t worth dropping the PA, just to save £80, but the only way of reducing a budget is to take lots of little bits out. Simon put this budget together with realistic figures, there was no ‘let’s put in £1500 for me’ in this. The figures are what the programme will actually cost. If you modify it recklessly, to bring the overall figure down, you will end up with estimate and actual figures so far apart even contingency won’t cover it!
Simon looks at post production. He will cut the off line cost. We said it is him that is doing it and this is the equipment cost. He doesn’t like it but he cuts it in half to £200.
He is now down to £8615. He cannot cut the last £400 from indirect costs. There is no way this programme is being done without insurance, the lawyer must see the contracts and he has left contingency lower than he would like.
He has to make cuts in pre production. He will have some explaining to do to Elaine; he has no choice but to cut their day rate to £80. That is a loss to them of £200 each, and they are earning precious little already. This is the most difficult decision of all to make with a budget. How badly do you want the programme, balanced against how much do you need to survive? He prepares Mr Hermandes’ budget breakdown sheet.
It is very late. Simon notices that Elaine has laid out the table for tomorrow’s meeting. He picks up the agenda while Elaine photocopies the revised budget.
Wednesday 11th August 1999. 8 a.m. – Pre production meeting
This is the heading on the notepad Elaine is using to compile the notes for the minutes of this meeting. You will see four things that are different to the last agenda.
Items 1 to 8 have got names at the end. This indicates that this item will be introduced by the specified person. The chair person will say ‘can we move to Item 4 – Simon, please’.
After Item 6 there is an italicized ‘Thanks to Bob’. This indicates the point at which Bob (who is a guest at the meeting), is expected to leave. The remaining items are nothing to do with him. He is a supplier and is providing the crew. He has agreed to come to the meeting and discuss the shooting aspect, but items 7 to 13 are not his business. It is polite, and correct, to indicate on the agenda when he is expected to leave.
Item 7 (Budget) does not say ‘attached’. This is because Simon will introduce the budget and hand Elaine the sheets she needs as part of the discussion.
Item 11 is also new. At the last meeting anything that came up was discussed under any other business. This is actually incorrect. AOB should be used to bring up something that has been left off the agenda. Matters arising is the correct agenda item for things that have cropped up during the meeting.
If Elaine was being absolutely correct, Item 1 should be ‘Minutes of last meeting’. This is the opportunity for the members of the meeting to agree that the minutes are ‘a true and accurate record of proceedings’. Something someone said is easily forgotten, or misunderstood, so it is a sensible agenda item for large meetings. Rather than sit in on the meeting for two hours, let’s just read Elaine’s minutes.
You can see that problems have arisen, Bob is none too happy that his original estimate of crew members, days and price have been changed. He wants another £100. He is now going to charge for the stock, probably at a higher price than Ace Productions would normally pay, but will include the transport costs. He has also defined the times of the day rate. In the past there has been a fluid arrangement if the shoot overruns by half an hour or so on one day and under the next. Now he will charge for the overrun at double time.
Elaine is unhappy about the cut in her salary. Simon has made it clear that for Elaine to agree to a figure £2000 less than his estimate was unwise. Maybe she was a little too eager to do this programme. It certainly has caused a lot of grief so far and they still don’t have a guarantee of doing it.
Maybe it is all the pressure of work and the effort that has been put in so far. Meetings can go like this and you should not be despondent if they do, at least they apologized to each other at Item 11!
Simon settles down quietly with a coffee and makes notes before he rings the post production companies.
Has he left anything out? Is there anything else you would like to ask? He still has a voice-over problem because he has yet to book an artist. Some post production companies have good contacts with agencies and will supply a package of artist plus the audio dub. He got the £175 figure from the old production diaries.
You may ask why he is not going to the company he has used before. People do shop around, that way they keep in touch with current prices and facilities. Simon knows what his normal company charges, the prices are on the post production budget. He needs to better them.
Richard at First Post is very helpful, and honest. He is glad to hear that Bob sends his regards and says he has great respect for his camerawork. He has a three-machine SP suite with digital effects, and a graphics generator. He thinks a day and a half is more realistic because, with only a three-machine edit, some of the effects will need to be created and then re-edited. He has a ‘library’ of voice-over artists he uses, so the audio mixing and dubbing is no problem. He can’t see any problems with the effects, he has a sophisticated DVE machine. BITC copies are no problem and, provided there aren’t hundreds of masters he will do them at stock cost as it only requires SP to VHS copies. He would like a little time to come up with prices.
This all seems very satisfactory to Simon and he tries Tim, at Edit All. He seems busy and efficient, rather than friendly, explains that he has a mid range non linear system, agrees it would take a day if the tapes are properly logged. He would need the voice-over on DAT but apart from that there are no problems. He doesn’t want to get involved with BITC copies, but knows someone who would do them. He wants £900 a day for everything including the edit tapes, an SP master and six VHS copies. Simon will ring him back this afternoon.
It may be that you think all this extra work is unnecessary at this stage. It is costing time and money and there is no promise of the programme. Under normal circumstances you would probably be right. Simon is working to an extremely tight budget. He only has £300 contingency and has already cut the salaries. He is investing the time by trying to protect the money.
Richard rings back. He wants £950 for the whole package, including a voice-over artist from his ‘library’. It would be a day and a half, but if it overruns by an hour or so he won’t be too bothered. He needs two edit tapes and would charge £20. The BITC copies will be £5 each. He will provide an SP master and charge £10 per VHS copy. Simon thanks him, explains he needs to look at the budget and will ring back.
Now it is your turn! Look back at the post production budget on page 83 and see which you will choose, and why. Richard seems more expensive because extra salaries will be involved, but is he? How much is the difference? Would you go to Tim because non linear sounds ‘fun’ and anyway ‘it is better’? Can we save anything on the budget, or has it gone over again? If we can save anything what do we do? Offer the client a lower figure? Restore the salaries? Go for a bigger contingency? Is this all a bit boring and you will just go on to read the next page? Why? You will have to juggle budgets one day, why not now?
Simon gets out a sheet of paper. Does yours look like his?
Simon is pretty pleased with this hour’s work. It has shown that his budget prediction is only about £50 over estimated. He has allowed £30 for duplicating in his indirect cost budget which means that he can take £30 off Richard’s duplicating cost. This means Richard is slightly cheaper than Tim, but there is really nothing in it and it would probably go on sandwiches for the second day anyway.
We now have a dilemma. Who do you choose to go to? Why? What happens to the £50 we have saved? Spend it? Give it to the client? It has to be accounted for somewhere.
Simon modifies his post production Budget sheet. He has chosen to go to Richard. Why? Not because he is marginally cheaper on paper, but for two very good reasons. He liked him on the phone, he felt straight away that he could work with him. Video is a team game, the result will always be better, even if it costs a little bit more, if you are working with people you feel happy with. He didn’t feel he could get on as well with Tim.
Richard is also providing a ‘complete service’. He is sorting out the voice artist, doing the BITC copies and looking after the complete edit. Tim didn’t want to get involved in anything other than the edit. Simon didn’t check, but he knows that some of these ‘mid range’ non linear suites are actually off line quality, he would rather preserve SP quality all the way through.
He rings Richard and confirms all the details and prices, and then rings Tim and says that he can’t use him this time, but thanks him for his help. Why did he ring Richard first? What would have happened if he rang Tim first, and cancelled him, only to find that Richard had revised some of his prices upwards? A bit embarrassing to have to go back to a supplier, you have just turned down, and say you have changed your mind, don’t you think? Elaine is preparing for her meeting tomorrow morning. She, too has a checklist.
Because this is a formal meeting, Elaine is going to type a letter to Mr Hermandes saying ‘please find enclosed....’ (storyboard and budget) and ‘we hope you will look favourably on this quotation for this programme, conceptualized to your specification’. She will mention that their reputation is built on ‘on time and on budget’, and that he can be assured the quoted figure will not go up and the programme will be delivered in time for the 16th October trade show.
You know about meetings now so we won’t sit in on this one. Elaine got on very well with Naomi Findler. It took nearly an hour for Naomi and Mr Hermandes to agree it was exactly what they wanted and to agree the price. Naomi said she realized the problems of balancing budgets, it was something she did every day. She offered to build in a small contingency by saying ‘please stick to the figure quoted, but if you do overspend you can go up to £8500 without further reference to me’.
She agreed that if the staged payments were sent to Mr Hermandes, and he approved them as the work had been done, she would pass them to accounts for a seven-day payment. She would not, however, be moved off 25% on signature of contract, 25% at the end of production and the remainder on completion. She gave Elaine back the invoice for the £250 because it would be simpler just to invoice for 25%. She looks forward to working with Ace Productions and will leave Mr Hermandes to make the necessary arrangements.
We’ve got the programme! This book has to go on to production and post production paperwork, and you will have to go on filling in your production file! Fun isn’t it!
Schedules and Deadlines
We have said that schedules and budgets go hand in hand. This is because if you decide that this will be a two-day shoot, then the budget will show the cost of that two days. This is why Simon had to change the post production budget when he decided that the on line edit would become 11⁄2 days.
If you overestimate the schedule then the budget will be higher than necessary, possibly losing you the programme. The reverse is worse. If Simon had merely accepted Richard’s figure without costing in the other half day for director, production manager and PA, who would have paid them? It certainly couldn’t have come out of the budget.
The thing you will notice about this section’s heading is that I have put schedules and deadlines together. They also go hand in hand. The elements that make up the programme must be scheduled to happen on a particular day. Everything that is needed for that day must be done by then. For instance if we are shooting at the college on Friday the staging and catwalk must be finished by Thursday night.
Schedules also go with contracts. We have to arrange for the crew to be there to shoot the catwalk scenes on Friday. This may all seem very logical, but it only wants one mistake or forgotten prop, for instance, to throw the whole schedule out resulting in re-negotiating contracts and yet more money. I have never yet known of a crew who turned up to be told ‘sorry we don’t need you until tomorrow’ and gone away happy, not wanting paying for today! If you are talking £500 a day for crew, that is a lot of money to come out of a £300 contingency, particularly as you are over budget already.
One deadline that cannot be moved is the completion date. However I would suggest that you leave as much of a cushion as possible. Clients do sometimes want a last minute change, for which they will pay a late change fee. This programme has to make a trade fair on 16th October. I would suggest that the programme is handed to the client on the 8th.
The client will be reassured that ‘on budget and on time’, means that you appreciate they have deadlines too, and are more likely to use you again if it has been a relaxing experience for them. Beware, though, the client who sets near impossible deadlines, only to tell you that they moved their deadline forward to cover any eventualities.
It is always best to work up some trust between both of you. Ask when the absolute deadline is and reassure them they will have it a week or two before that.
Simon is working on his schedule.
This is Ace Productions’ schedule. Yours may be different, but the principle will be the same. Simon knows they have got the programme because Elaine phoned to tell him, but nothing is ever promised until it is in writing. It is Thursday. He will now double check the budget so he is totally familiar with it, check the production diary and make sure everything is up to date, particularly the petty cash sheets and receipts.
Nothing else will happen until he sees the contract from Fashions for You. He has scheduled the hard work to start on 13th September, but there is much to be done before that. You will see that he has left dates out of the schedule. Some are weekends, some are catch up days, some are just in case anything goes wrong days. It may look a bit unnecessary, but he knows if something can go wrong, it will.
Contracts
A contract is defined as an enforceable agreement between two or more parties. It may be verbal, but that can be difficult to prove in a court of law, or written. Because it is an agreement between parties, often both (or all) parties sign it with a witness present to agree the signatures.
Some contracts run into pages and are full of legal jargon. Some are more simple and just say ‘you agree to do this and I agree to do that’. The IVCA have produced a draft agreement that can be used as a guide. Ace Productions is only involved in small scale productions and has drawn up a couple of simple forms with help from their lawyer.
Unless you are directly employing union staff, or planning a very long (feature length!) programme, you would be best to keep it simple and understandable.
It is Thursday 19th August. Elaine opens her mail.
Elaine studies these documents twice, and it would pay you to do the same. The first is a formal letter asking for the contracts to be signed and requesting the first invoice. It also includes a request that they should select the girls. This should not be ignored. There have been court battles over non payment by a client because of something that was said in a letter. It is possible that it could be read as a contract. They asked, you ignored it, they didn’t like the girls and withheld the final payment.
It also contains a reference to ‘keep me informed’. This would be natural good manners anyway, but is also a form of insurance policy for you. If the client agrees each stage there can be no argument later. Be aware, though, that some clients (particularly project officers!) can become a real nuisance. They want to get out of the office and see how video programmes are made. Before you know where you are they fancy themselves as directors and try to take over, resulting in frustration and loss of time (time is money!). You need to be firm from the outset.
The contract is a straightforward simple affair. It details what you must do and what they agree to do. Note the reference to public liability insurance. We will cover this later but, for now, it is something you must have. Notice too that they are requiring you to abide by their health and safety policy. If you are at all unsure of what that involves, ask to see a copy. All companies are required by law to draw up such a policy.
Now Simon needs to draw up some contracts for the people he will employ. We will look at two different types, rather than watch him fill them all in. The basic format is the same and you may want to make up your own. What must go in is exactly what you want done and exactly what you are offering in return. They must be signed and dated. You must send two copies. One for you, one for them. Never shoot anything until the contract has been signed.
This is the contributor release form that Simon uses for people who ‘contribute’ to the programme. The girls, designers and factory staff will get a similar form. It is basically designed to say ‘I will contribute to your programme (as a musician, model, designer, factory worker) for this amount of money on (or by) this date.
This form must be signed before any shooting takes place. The girls and staff will have to be contacted, before the crew turn up, and agree to appear by signing the form. It is no good turning up and then people say they have had second thoughts. Provided you have a signed agreement absences will be covered under insurance (more later). No signature – you lose money!
There are three interesting things in this form. Even when the form has been signed the contract has a time limit. If the music is not produced by the 8th September the contract expires. Julian gets no money and it leaves time for Simon to go to someone else, there is nothing Julian can do about it no matter how much time he has spent on the project.
Julian is passing all copyright to Ace Productions. That means he no longer owns this piece of music. Some music commissioned as background for adverts has done really well. It is the company, not the musician that gets the royalties! Often musicians will want extra money to sign the rights away.
There is a reference to the Copyright Design and Patents Act. Under this Act the ‘Moral Rights’ of a contributor have to be acknowledged, by way of a credit. Ace Productions have enough trouble with Julian without giving him a credit! If this clause is not put in, you could find the credits last longer than the programme.
Simon is now going to do a contract for Richard.
This form is the one that Simon uses for his suppliers. Richard at First Post, Bob for the crew, and the college. The form is essentially an order form, but the lawyer has made it into a legally binding contract by suggesting the heading at the top, and an acknowledgement of agreement by signature at the bottom. Again this would be used in the event of an insurance claim.
It is important to understand the difference in these forms. The college will get an ‘order’ to supply the services, but not the girls. They are being employed directly by Ace Productions and will get the same form that Julian got.
It may be that your course expects you to design a contract form. You can put anything in it you like, provided it is fair and reasonable. The one rule is that it must be simple, understandable and cover everything you want. It would be no good, for instance, agreeing an SP crew with Bob on the phone, not specifying it on the contract and then moaning when a VHS crew turned up because that was all he had on the day.
Some people may tell you that they trust their suppliers and there is really no need to get them a contract. Try telling me that when you turn up for a shoot miles from home with four very expensive actors, only to find no crew because they forgot to put it in their diary! Never leave anything to chance. The pre production side of the programme will take the longest to do because it has to ensure that nothing is left out or left to chance. That way the creative side of making the programme can go smoothly, on time and on budget.
Elaine, as producer and director, will ring the college and arrange for Mr Hermandes to meet the girls so that he can choose which he wants to use. She will also arrange to go to First Post and listen to the voice-over tapes. She will select two or three and take them to Mr Hermandes for the final choice.
Copyright
This ‘basics’ level of book is not intended to go into all the legal ramifications of copyright law. What we can do is to take a simplified look at the concept and its meaning to you. If you want to go into more depth there are excellent books on the subject or you could buy The Copyright, Design and Patents Act of 1988, which applies to the UK, the principles of which are incorporated in similar laws around the world. Copyright goes hand in hand with ‘permissions’, which we will look at next.
The basics are that everything belongs to someone. This may be complicated by more than one person owning parts of one thing. A song is a good example, the writer owns the words, the singer the lyrics, the performers their performance, the record company the recording. This is why to simplify things a record company may employ these people and contract them to relinquish all rights (as Ace Productions have with Julian). Depending on how famous the people involved are this may involve lots of money or a refusal to give up their rights.
Someone owns the streets, in London the Metropolitan Police have strict rules about what you can and cannot shoot in them. Another example is the London Underground who make a charge, based on what the video will be used for, to shoot on their premises.
There is nothing that you can use without permission from the owner. It does not work to say you own a famous artist’s CD, because you bought it, and therefore you can do what you like with it. The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (in the UK, but international agreements exist), protect the owners of the recording. You are breaking the law if you copy your CD onto cassette to play in the car, and you certainly can’t make a copy for a friend! For similar reasons you cannot play it in public. The Performing Rights Society protects the public performance of works. They will require details of what you are going to do and then arrange a licence for you to do it.
The law has been interpreted in the courts to mean that you own yourself. A case has shown that a member of the public, who was photographed by a newspaper against their wishes, had the right to give, or refuse, permission for the photograph to be taken. Famous people are usually not covered, but there are cases in law where even this has been challenged.
If you want to make sure your contract is watertight you should make reference to copyright somewhere. In Julian’s contract he signed away his rights to the ownership of the music, and his moral rights to be credited. Ace Productions effectively bought the copyright.
The alternatives to contracting a musician to compose a piece of music specially is to buy ‘copyright free’ music (but even this has restrictions placed on its use), or use ‘music library’ compositions which are free to use, but a transfer fee is levied by MCPS. The cost is dependent on the use. Examples of year 2000 costs would be £25 per 30 seconds of use for Simon’s corporate video. It was by looking at the MCPS rate card that Simon worked out that five minutes of library music would cost him £250, therefore he needed to offer Julian less! The same piece of library music would cost £993 per 30 secs if used on a commercial (ITV) advert across the whole broadcast region. There is additionally a small (£8) fee for the issue of the licence.
Permissions
Permissions and copyright are both the subject of various laws. The simple difference is that works of art, photographs and music (for example), belong to the author of that work and you have to pay that person to use it. That is copyright law. Equally buildings, parks, buses, underground trains and the like also belong to some organization. This organization has a right, but not a duty, to charge you to feature it in your video. This means that you need the owner’s permission before you can shoot anything anywhere, unless you own it and give yourself permission! The only exception to this is that it is generally accepted that tourists will video the ‘sights’ for their own personal use. This isn’t always the case and there may be notices posted to say ‘no photographs or filming’.
The two examples of permissions we have in the Fashions for You programme are the Fashions for You premises, and the college. Fashions for You have given (free) permission because it is in their interest to do so. They have put parameters around their permission in their contract where they say ‘on dates to be notified’ and ‘comply with our Health and Safety policy’. You would not have permission if you go on any other date or do not comply with their wishes. The college has charged a fee for ‘the use of their facilities’. They have given permission, but reserved their right to charge. They would not charge their students to make videos on their premises for course work, but might if it was for public broadcast.
Sometimes permissions can be negotiated at a nil or reduced fee. Colleges often arrange with shopping malls or parks for permission for their students to shoot their course work programmes on these premises.
Never assume you can shoot anywhere. At best you will have the videotape confiscated, at worst you will end up in court. Always get permission in writing (you need it for the production diary, anyway!) and take it with you. You will never get away with ‘the person at head office said it was OK’, or ‘my teacher said do it quickly while no one is looking’!
Insurance
Some insurance is required by law (e.g. your car), some is a sensible precaution (e.g. travel insurance). By law you must have liability insurance if you are a company. This covers accidents to your employees. It is sensible to check that they are covered if they are working for you on location, as opposed to your place of work; it is not automatic. You may combine this insurance with public liability insurance (which is voluntary). You would be stupid not to have public liability because if people do fall over, or have accidents, on your premises the certainty is that they will say ‘I’ll sue’ before you can say ‘I’m sorry, can I get you a bandage’.
You will notice that Fashions for You require Ace Productions (in the contract) to be covered for at least £3,000,000.
Beyond these two insurances, you can insure anything else you want to. How much you pay depends on how much risk the insurance company thinks is involved. Famous stars insure the parts of their body that they are famous for (legs, face, voice etc.). It may be that you need to shoot a scene on a sunny day in the park. You have budgeted crew and cast for two days but can’t afford to wait three. Someone will insure you for the loss of money if it rains. How much is dependent on how much risk they think is involved and how much money you want covered. It would obviously cost less in the summer than the winter.
Simon uses the same company each time, they are specialists in video cover, and he insures against cancellation of the shoot, due to crew or performers not turning up or any unforeseen reason (the building burnt down last night!), the loss or destruction of any master or edit tape (up to the cost of a reshoot or redit). He also insures against being let down by a supplier (the edit suite is out of action). This is a special type of insurance because he should sue the supplier, but he has an arrangement with his company that they pay him and they sue the supplier, probably for a lot more than they paid Simon.
The insurance company charge him (as you saw from the budget) £250 per shoot. Larger companies doing more videos per year than Ace Productions would get an annual quote, which would work out cheaper than paying £250 for each production.
You would be advised to think about what you want to insure for your productions; £250 seems a small price to pay if you lost the one-day shoot at the college. Crew, performers, staging, facilities etc. comes to over £1000 and there is only £300 in contingency. £700 is an awful lot of pocket money for you to lose.
Before we finally get to the end of the pre production stage there are some loose ends remaining. One is to get the production diary up to date and do the first invoice to be sent with the signed contract.
Elaine has to set a date for the last pre production meeting with the client, to discuss the schedule and the audition for the girls.
While he waits for the Ace Productions contracts to come back and for Elaine to arrange the audition and meeting, Simon will do the first invoice.
Simon will also do the ‘Actual’ column of the pre production budget to see whether he is over or under at this stage.
You can see that, because all the receipts have been filed in the right places and all the time sheets have been filled in, it has been easy for Simon to extract the information he needs. Elaine actually took longer over the script than she had thought. They spent less on food and petrol, but more on mail and telephone. They have decided not to use the PA until the production and post production stage so have saved her salary. They have come out £77 under budget, which makes this a very good budget estimate.
You will have appreciated by now that the majority of the work that has happened so far has been in getting and developing the programme, and then, by leaving nothing out, ensuring that we have a smooth shoot and edit.
