Preproduction is everything from thinking about a movie all the way to writing a script.

You first come up with an idea of what you want. It could be simply to record a family vacation, or it could be to create a school project on the Civil War. Either way, some forethought should go into every production. At the very least, you should jot down what things you want to have in the production.

Take, for example, a family vacation. It is a good idea to think about the things you will do on that vacation and make sure that you have a little footage of each important event. Planning ahead helps you not forget some critical piece of the movie. For this type of preplanning, a shot list comes in handy. Here you simply list the shots you want to have and check them off as you get them. You can always add footage to the list, but thinking about the core elements of your film ahead of time is always helpful.

For more formal productions involving many people, you may want to prepare a script. A script will put all the members of a production on the same page, so to speak. The two column script is most useful for video productions because it tells the actors what to say, the camera operators what and how they should shoot, and the editors how they should put it together. In the column on the left are all the visual directions, like fade-in from black and extreme close-up (XCU). In the column to the right are the directions for what the talent should say. If you are a teacher asking your students to produce a video, having your students turn in a script before they begin production is a very good idea.

The ultimate in preplanning is the use of storyboards. Here you draw every shot and also list camera movements, talent directions, and lines. Nothing is left to chance with storyboards. If you are an elementary teacher and want your students to produce a movie, the use of storyboards can be very effective at getting younger students to the point where they are ready to shoot footage and put a movie together.

If you are a teacher who wants to have students produce a video for a project, the Student Video Project Proposal Form is an excellent way to get students to do a certain amount of preplanning and let you know what they are thinking. Have your students fill in this form to help them organize what can be a complicated process.

From Adobe, Inc.

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