Filmmakers Talk #7 - "This has to be delivered now"

This one is dedicated to all the Agency & Client folk who wake up just before the deadline and go "This has to be delivered now.."

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks:

FT#6 - Brief to casting

FT#5 - Dedicated to clients

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, quotes, places and incidents mentioned, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, from the film industry or outside the film industry is entirely coincidental.

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"It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends."  –Dumbledore, Harry Potter

How to prepare a good presentation document - The PPM Docket

If you’re the D.A. or the assistant that is given the responsibility to compile the material for the pre production meeting (PPM) with the agency and client, read on to get some tips on how you can do so quickly and efficiently. While this is just some very basic tips which most of you might already know, there may still be somethings that you could pick up from it.

Do you have good content?

Well for a starters a good presentation will always be excellent if the contents are good and that in turn will depend on your referenced material and how much of the director's vision goes into it. While it is the entire team's responsibility to collect various references and even actual material at times, it is the D.A.’s job to collect all these and combine it so that all is easily presented. The best way to avoid late nights before the PPM would be to start work on the docket right from the time the project has been given a go-ahead. Make sure that all material gets collected in one place, at least all the reference material that’s digitally collected and neatly separated into different folders like key props, location, costume, etc, within which don’t forget to have subfolders of approved and rejected. (This is of course the director’s decision) Never delete rejected material till at least the ppm is over and mainly don’t forget to backup material regularly on a hard disk or a second computer, you don’t want to be stuck in case at the last min your computer decides to act up. (Tends to happen) Do not forget the content of the non-digital kinds, like a miniature set, shade card for colour references, material pieces for costumes or key props that have to be approved by showing the actual product. Make sure that you have all these collected and ready much before the PPM.

What is the Final Output?

Before you start making the final docket the first question to answer is what is the final output going to be, is it going to be projected, printed and filed, direct of the laptop, or a combination. That will lead to how do you want to make your presentation appear, mainly landscape or portrait.  

   

Pic -1

Usually for projections, you would go for Landscape as that would fill up the entire screen, Print’s usually are better handled in Portrait, however, if you have a docket that has to be projected and printed you can always work in Landscape and print it in Landscape as well, just have it bound on the top side so that the pages turn upwards. If you are printing your docket remember to leave some space on the side or top for binding. There is another method, where a folder with plastic sleeves are used during prep and as and when one finds references they are printed and put into it, this includes a Title page and an Index this way the director can show the references at all meetings during the prep also changes during this time means one page gets added in or one comes off or replaced. The other benefit of this method is that you save paper as there is only one file, which could be a problem at the meeting where there are a lot of people present as its difficult for all to look at that one file.

TIP – 

You will find Landscape and Portrait option under 

Word - Page layout – Orientation, 

PPT – Design – Slide Orientation, 

Photoshop – File – New – International Paper – A4 (then flip the values if you want it to be Landscape.)

What is the best Software to use?

What is the software you want to use to compile your digital data would depend on how comfortable you are with the software and also what is it that the production house and director are comfortable with? It is best as a D.A. to know most of the software’s, the reason being while some directors only look at docket and suggest the changes, which leaves you to control the entire way you make it, however, there will be most of the directors who would actually work on the docket themselves, (not necessary to complete it but in parts at least) it’s for the later that you should know what software is most comfortable with them. The software that mostly goes into the making of a PPM docket are Word, PowerPoint Presentation (PPT), Photoshop and even Corel draw sometimes. Of this personally, I found Word to be the worst way of making a presentation as every little shift or change of material has a corresponding effect to whatever is below it and even though you can control that* to some extent, it just a lot more painful to deal with. I find PPT to be the quickest and most controlled way of preparing your presentation material. The biggest benefit is that this software is the one that is mostly used and is also easily worked on by others. You can control what goes on each and every individual page (or slide as it is known in PPT) and therefore don’t have to worry how other slides get affected by changes done to any material on it. You can also quickly move slides or even multiple slides up and down in the presentation**. Photoshop  & Corel Draw does help in making the presentation look good but does not help in making quick changes. It also does not make it easy for transfer to other work stations and the file sizes generally get very large. Remember that photoshop and Corel draw can be used only if the files are going to be printed only, as projecting them will be a huge hassle*** However you can make your material like images, etc look good in Photoshop before inserting it in PPT.          

TIPS- 

If it’s your first time doing the job, or if your first time with the production house then a good idea would be to look at a previous docket of the production house you will get an idea of what their style generally is, also its easier to lift of templates, production house logo etc from there.

* In Word – Click CTR and ENTER for things that you always want to start on a new page, that way each time you enter some new the material above, this page will continue to begin at the top of the next page.

**PPT – VIEW – SLIDE SORTER (you can switch using the shortcut button for SLIDE SORTER, NORMAL and SLIDE SHOW which you will find at the bottom right of the software) This lets u see most of the slides in one go making it easier to move pages around or a quick review of the entire project. (If you want to move a section up or down just select those slides and move it by just dragging it or use the cut-paste method)

Slide Sorter

***Photoshop & Corel Draw - you can present from these software's by saving each page as jpeg's, then numbering them in the order that you want and using a basic jpeg software to present on full screen, (not recommended at all) alternatively you can paste these finished images in PPT which then makes it easier to project. You can also custom design your template here before using in PPT.   

What is the content that goes into the docket?

Following is the list of things that go into making of a docket for the PPM. 

1.   Title page - Name or Logo's of Product, Client, Agency, Production House, Date etc

2.   Index - Headers of each section's with page numbers if possible
3.   Agency Script - Unedited if there was one sent.
4.   Agency Storyboard -  Unedited if there was one sent.
5.   Directors Treatment Note
6.   Directors Storyboard - would include edits if required.
7.   Look and Feel
8.   Costume References
9.   Hair and Makeup References

10. Location Pictures / Set Design or References of look

11. Art References – Key Props, furniture or important stuff that go into the making of a set/location.

12. Cast Options - Images or Names with character name and Video's

13. Music References - If any
14. Video References - If any which includes special effects references or just for the style of shooting or edit.
15. Schedule - from PPM to Final Presentation
16. Contact Sheet / Crew Sheet – if required
17. Notes – blank page left to make notes (if the docket is being printed)

While not all of the above, would be present or required in all dockets and the order of appearance would depend on what the priority to that project would be. Video and audio references can be linked to the PPT but remember to keep all these in the same folder especially if the material is being transferred from computer to computer. (links break if the location of the file has changed) Thus it's best to have all the final material in one folder called the PPM, so that each time you have to share all is ready in just one folder. Another option is to make a separate CD / DVD for the video files/audio files and just mention a note on the PPT like "refer to CD / DVD or Video". The same applies with other materials like miniature set or fabric for costume etc.

Proper Finishing

Proper finishing is a must in any presentation, while having good content is all-important, presenting it the right way helps a lot in getting the job done a lot more smoother. No one wants to see jumbled up information. Here are some pointers that could help you make your presentation look good.

   1. Make sure all the images you place on each slide look good, use box borders if required* to make these look neat. If the images are of the same kind (like storyboard images) then make sure they are of the same size and the same position on the slides. (like in the same line next to each other or one below each other, same with text.)  

Borders

      2.  Don’t overcrowd the page with too much information at the same time don’t keep it so less that you have to go through a lot of pages to get the information. eg. you can have 2 or 4 images of the storyboard per slide. (see pic - 1 above)

      3.  Remember to use page nos** especially in documents that run into a lot of pages. Do not forget to enter these at the Index page, but do so only last after the order and all material has been inserted into the docket.

      4.  You can custom the look you want for the entire presentation under VIEW – SLIDE MASTER. Here you can set a colour, font, design, image, etc for your background. Basically what you set here is what will happen automatically when you say NEW SLIDE so you don't have to keep redesigning it. 

Slide Master

     5. Look under Background styles and Themes for ready choices. You can use the preset options for header and footer or you can even custom the positions and sizes. You can also custom your background design in Photoshop and use that by pasting the image here. (Master Slide) just make sure that this does not interfere with the content on each slide. 

Background Styles & Themes

      6.  Use the header & footer (if you want) to put the names/logo's of client, agency, and production house, make sure that these look like watermarks so that they are not disturbing the content on the pages keep them as tiny as possible.

      7. Make sure your entire docket is in the same font and size unless intended otherwise.

   TIP -

* Use of boxes can be found under format, don’t forget to check options of shape, shadow, color, and other effects that can be done to each image to make them look better and neater. Use the height and width shortcut for maintaining image size (images from the same source at least) this also helps when the image is large and helps in quick reduction. (see green arrow in the pic- 2 below)

** You will find slide no’s under Insert – Header, Footer – Page no, Do not forget to select the – “don’t show on title slide” option if you want your title pages not to have a number. 

SOME SHORTCUTS AND TIPS

1. Sart the work on your presentation docket right from day one, add or change material as and when things get finalised, this way you save on a lot of time right at the end which otherwise results in working till the very last minute before the presentation. This also gives you enough time to work and rework a design/template which best suits that presentation.

2. If one has to email the docket and the file size is too big, because it contains large images etc you can compress the docket going under FORMAT – COMPRESS PICTURES - OPTIONS, select the options that suit your needs, this reduces file size quite drastically, Once this is done it can’t be undone, so remember to do a “save as” and apply your settings on the copy. For prints and presenting of the computer make use of the original file.

Pic -2

3. If you don’t want the people receiving the file to make changes or don’t want a loss of font due to default in some computers, remember to convert it to a PDF file before emailing it out. (Can do so after reducing file size)

4. If you want your title pages not to have numbers then just select the option – don’t show on ‘Title Slide’ when you use to insert the page numbers. To control the design of the title slide it is the 2^nd slide under slide master. (See Image -slide master above)

5. Remember your docket can have multiple title slides, like a header to a section, eg storyboards or costume references. You can also quickly choose the design that you want by using the drop-down menu.

Title Slide design options

   6. You can make some logos transparent, though this does not work always but if the logo has a decent amount of solid color it can be made transparent. The benefit of which is you can merge your logos into the backgrounds that you design. FORMAT - RECOLOUR - SET TRANSPARENT COLOUR

Remove solid colour

7. If you are using multiple images one top of the other or one a slide you can use the group option to avoid it from moving around once you have fixed the positions. You can also group images and text boxes together.  

8. Make sure the final copy is checked by the director or producer before it goes for printing and the presentation. A final check of the entire docket is a must.

    PRINTING OF THE DOCKET

9. If you are printing your docket, you have 2 options, print the first color copy in the office its self so that it could be proof read before colour photocopies are taken of it. OR have it printed at the printers but make sure the 1st copy is checked before copies are made. Check the page order, font change, shape and size change, etc. Its best to take a pdf file to the printer so that mistakes like loss of fonts etc are avoided. Do not forget to check if the page nos on the INDEX that you have entered actually match with the final docket 

10. One print and rest as colour photocopies saves money as opposed to all prints. Unless you get a deal otherwise from your printer.

11. Know how many copies you have to get made in advance and therefore how much it would cost you, cause most of the time by the time you are going to the printer the accounts department would have shut for the day. So get your advance money so that you are not stuck at the last minute. 

12. If the production house has a deal with the printer to be paid later, in such cases make sure you have kept a note of how many dockets and pages etc you have gotten printed, ideally sign a receipt at the printer mentioning the name of the project.

13. Make sure when the copies are getting bound that the binding material does not overlap any of the content on it. Try and use the same colour cover sheets on all dockets to maintain uniformity.

14. Know how long the entire process of printing takes, so that you are there at the printer much in advance not be late for the PPM. You could call and book some time in advance at the printers also asking that they would be open in case you are going to be done beyond closing time. 

 The more you work on it the better and faster you get. So all the best in making your docket and your director look good.

Auggieism:- What do you say when Auggie is crawling on 4's... . 

Ans:- Doggie..

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"I see dead people."  - The Sixth Sense (1999)

How to plan a shoot in 10 easy steps.

You have worked enough as a second A.D. and D.A. and you think you are now ready to be the first Asst Director but you are still lacking confidence on how to plan the shoot read on to find out how to plan a shoot in 10 easy steps. 

So while you may consider the director to be a conductor of the orchestra, the first A.D. is like the traffic police at a junction. During the shoot, the director concentrates on performances, shots, and the edit as well sometimes, the first AD has to make sure that everything runs clockwork. The first A.D. has to be aware of everything that is happening on and off the set and in all departments, he has to make sure that all departments deliver on time and come up with alternative plans in case something goes wrong, a lot of thinking on the feet and man-management has to happen.  

So how to go about planning a shoot,

1. Read all the material possible namely the script, treatment note, references, storyboard’s etc. (all material in the PPM docket if there is one.) Understand what is the key driver to the shoot. (is it action-based, or drama or product-driven in case of commercials)
   
   
2. Get the breakdown done based on the script/storyboard of all the requirements and divided into each individual department. Make sure all is covered.
   
   
3. Meet and understand the director’s perspective. Understand his style of working and what he is looking for in that project.
   
   
4. Meet the head of all departments more than once if possible, share all the requirements from each department. Make sure that there is no overlap of responsibilities or assumption that someone will do it. Give a written list so that there is no confusion as to who is doing what. (eg. when art assumes that production is getting a prop or vice versa) Do follow up’s with all to check the progress.
   
   
5. Get timelines from each department, like how long for art to prep, how long to get the artist ready from makeup hair and costume, distance and time it will take between locations (especially if you are shooting 2 or more locations on the same day) etc.
   
   
6. Go for a recce, not just to see locations but to plan the entire shoot, to figure out problems that may arise at the final shoot day. Go for more than one recce at times if possible, if not then a final tech recce with the main required people where all details are discussed is a must.
   
   
7. Plan the shooting schedule and shoot order. (this could be done before or after a recce depending on the situation, although the A.D. should go for a recce with a plan in mind so that they can figure if the plan is possible or not) Keep in mind the director and DOP’s preferences in order of shoot. Confirm with all required that the shoot order is fine. (Done after confirming with the director)
   
   
8. Prep the call sheet, here all the requirements, call time for each department and artists, etc, don’t forget to include weather, tide and all other details that may apply to that project. Make sure that call times are given to all and follow up and pickups arranged with the help of production and your assistants.
   
   
9. Have a final meeting with production and other departments if possible telling them the final plan, or just production and passing information to all departments making sure that all are on the same page.
   
   
10. Shoot. Communicate on Shoot, make sure that your assistants are passing on all the relevant information, make sure all departments are working to clockwork precision. Don’t forget to plan the next day’s shoot while the shoot is going on.
    

Lastly, enjoy your shoot and try and maintain a friendly atmosphere throughout.    

These 10 points just give a quick overview of what needs to be done. In the following blogs, I will put down the 1^st AD’s perspective into each department.

Auggieism:- What do you call a hard-working Auggie... . 

Ans:- Sloggie..

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PPM – Pre Production Meeting

“Elementary, my dear Watson”, Sherlock Holmes”  - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, (1939) 

PPM

A PPM – Pre Production Meeting which exits in advertising is a meeting of the Client, (which includes the brand team), the agency (which includes creative and client servicing) and the production house (which is represented by the director and producer and rarely the DA as well) So what happens at a PPM? And when does a PPM happen? This meeting is organised so that all parties involved are happy with the direction the AD film or Campaign is headed. This meeting happens ideally a few days before the commercial is shot so that there is enough time in case changes are required to be made and checked before the film gets shot. Sometimes because of lack of time, (because of deadline or non-availability of important people’s times) these meetings also happen the night before the shoot but those times it’s very difficult to make large changes.  There are also sometimes a Pre PPM which has the agency creative and the director meeting to see if the progress is being liked creatively. There are at the time also 2 or more than 2 PPM held if the client wants to see the changes before the ad film goes on the floor.      

So what gets discussed at the PPM, almost always it’s everything that you can think of. Only rarely the client is happy going over only a few things as he trusts the agency and the director to make the right decisions for the brand. The contents of a PPM are agency script and storyboard (if any), director’s treatment note, director’s storyboard, location options, references of costume, hair and makeup, art (set and props), style, look n feel, colour palette, etc. computer graphics references (if there is any style or technique that needs clarification on) The cast, (along with options) the crew, and the schedule. Not all these are present always but depending on the ad they are included or not.

The PPM is presented with different materials depending mostly on what the director is used to and what is available. Most of the material is put together either on a word docket or PowerPoint slide presentation and sometimes it’s even prepared on photoshop. These are printed into dockets that are distributed at the PPM. These dockets also help the director in showing the rest of the crew what direction he is taking the film. For the rest of the PPM different material is used if possible and as and where it is possible, some of which is explained below.

The agency script and storyboard are kept intact the way it was sent to the production house. As most of the times, these have already been shared with the client.

The Directors Storyboard and treatment note includes his vision for the ad, while talking of the finer details that would be looked into and the style, look and feel or various parts of the ad are mentioned here. The treatment note mostly concentrates on what the director is bringing to the table, and what the main focus would be, casting, or style or look would be talked of more than the rest.

Location options are shown (if there are options) via pictures which were taken at a recce of the place, sometimes video is also shown to understand the geography of a place especially if it’s complicated. If it’s a set then those references fall under art.

References play a big role here in the PPM as the director presents these to show what things would look and feel like. Most of the time images are used to show the references for each section. 

For ART there are miniature models of the set that are carried to the meeting sometimes and also some key props are also presented as lots of times the physical prop is better to judge than images. There are also 3D images of the set showing what the set would look like in scale. Different level drawings and as much as detail required is shown. There are also separate images shown sometimes for what the finish would look like. A sample of floor colour or texture or a colour chart for colour of walls is also shown if these are critical. 

For COSTUMES besides the design drawn there are material pieces and colour choices shown if possible, sometimes the entire outfit is also presented if it’s ready by the PPM. This happens when the costume plays a very important part of the story. There are times when pictures of costume fittings/trials are also presented. 

HAIR n MAKE UP gets a mention and style is stressed upon if it plays a key role. If it is a character look then sometimes pictures of the style or a test is done and presented to the client as to what the final look would be like. This mostly happens in skin or hair products.

LOOK n FEEL,  COLOUR PALETTE, and STYLE are mostly included in the director's treatment note, but sometimes there are images which are presented which helps the director explain what he is looking at to take the film towards. Sometimes it’s just part of the image that might be of interest and therefore an explanation along with it is a must.

CG references are shown if an explanation of how the film is to be shot is shown, this is done as most of the time during a VFX heavy film only the director and the VFX specialist along with a few of the crew understand what’s going on. CG also gets shown for product window sections were it at the most used to display the client's main product. It’s good to have this plan cleared at this stage as that helps in saving precious time and heading in the right direction.

The Cast is presented by DVD’s, CD’s and even though a DV camera connected to a TV. These are mostly auditions of the cast done by a casting director or rarely work done by the actor if they are not available for the audition (in case the director really feels that this actor would work for the film). Images of the cast are also shown sometimes to show what they look like in makeup. Sometimes only the main cast is presented and rest is left to the agency and production house to choose. (mostly done when there are a lot of characters to the film)

Lastly as a formality the key crew is listed out, this mostly happens when a specialised person has been hired to do a specific purpose. Like a hairstylist from abroad or a recognized DP etc. The schedule gets a mention so that deadlines can be clear and people can keep themselves free on dates for presentations. 

On an average PPM’s last for 2 – 3 hours there are times when they do get over much faster if all are happy with the approach and can get longer if debates break out on any topic. So sometimes these discussions are solved by having another PPM at a later date with the changes made. Depending on the situation to the client the more different kinds of materials used could impress and in certain cases, the least amount used can also be impressive. There are sometimes details that are held back like CG in PPM’s as its better to have finished the job and shown what it would look like than trying to explain and losing out a good idea at a discussion stage. The presentation material should definitely have clients name, product name, project, agency, production house names mentioned somewhere on the presentation (mostly at the beginning).

There is also another pre-meeting which in cases is also called a PPM. This involves all the crew who meet up for before shoot. This PPM involves all departments (ideally) at the same time so that the director can brief all in one go and discussions between all happens in one go. Details of this kind of meeting I shall elaborate on later. 

Auggieism:- What do you call a lazy  Auggie who delays his work... . 

Ans:- Slaggie..

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