Unit 1- Personal Pre-Production Roles

Within pre-production the roles that people have to consult are all significant for the production to develop and come up with a film/show which fulfils the needs and standards of the target audience. The process before the production is a collaborative team effort and this is what makes film/television such an interesting industry as a whole, without every individual you wouldn’t get the end result.

The film I will be looking at for the pre-production job roles is the film ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008). I personally am interesting in this films because of the prosthetics and makeup that we see on most of the characters and the memorable makeup on one of the leading actor (Heath Ledger) who played the joker.

The pre-production roles in this film included the main body, the Director who was Christopher Nolan, one of the most famous and recognized directors for his directing of many successful films. The directors role within pre-production is to control a film’s artistic and dramatic aspects. Has a key role in choosing the cast alongside the casting director, production design and creative aspects of filmmaking.

Next in line is the Producer who was Emma Thomas, her work would involve overseeing projects from conception to completion, also being involved with the marketing and distribution process. Producers work closely with directors and other production staff. There can often be more than one producer, the other producer for this production was Charles Roven.

An Executive Producer will often oversee the work of the producer on behalf of the studio , the financiers or the distributors. They will also ensure the film is completed within time and budget and to the agreed artistic and technical standards.There are often more than one executive producer working together with the producer. The executive producers for The Dark Knight were, Michael Uslan and Thomas Tull.

The Production Designer is responsible for the visual concept of the film. The production designer here was Nathan Crowley. He would have needed to identify a design style for locations, graphics, props, lighting , camera angles and cost times. Whilst working closely with the Director and producer.

The Cast of a production are probably the most important part of the whole film making process, this is simply because without them you cannot practically do anything, even if you have equipment/props etc. The main actors in The Dark Knight , were ; Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Their role is to play the character in which they are acting as. Most successful actors/actresses will cast in blockbuster films.

The Cinematographer or in other words, the camera man/women, is in charge of the camera on a film set, depending on the camera they have they will try to achieve various shots,angles and movement in order to tell the story effectively. They work quite closely with the Director on set and will often be in conversation with the editor.

For my production I needed the following equipment;

• Camera - This is very important not only for achieving the camera language which helps to tell the story line but also it in itself is the basis for a production otherwise it would be pointless and achievable
• . The second piece of equipment we needed was a tripod, this was essential because it meant that we were able to get a steady shot and the movement was controlled, if we didn't have this piece of equipment then the camera shots and even angles were going to be shifty and jerky which isn't particularly good if we want the audience to concentrate on whats on their screen.
• We also need editing software in order to edit and cut each scene together, for this we used 'Final Cut Pro' on the Mac's provided in school. This is also essential for our production because as well as the initial story / narrative the editing stage also helps massively with engaging the viewer and through the editing techniques the audience are also told the story.
• We also used my phone voice recorder to record our characters narrations, this is because the film is silent and we needed a voice over to go on top of this to guide our viewer.