Oftentimes in an indie film production (or even for a more mainstream film for that matter), the line between “development” and “pre-production” can be a nebulous one.
To me, pre-production starts when the project is no longer a concept, but when we’re attaching actual elements (people, places, things) to a specific timeline.
Or when we’ve officially turned on the ignition switch, and the engine of production has began to warm up and rumble.
This last week was such a milestone – we did another table read with the actors, trying to finalize actual days and dates of shooting, breaking down the script (disassembling it into a million bits and pieces to slot into specific dates based on actor availability, locations, day/night scenes, maximizing the value of equipment rental rates based on weekdays/weekend rates, and a billion other inter-dependencies that can be maddening at times), evaluating camera/equipment choices, and bringing on some more talented key creative heads, whose bios will be up on the website soon (or by the time you read this they may already be up there).
We still have a few more pieces to put together, but right now, we are a tight knit, small and experienced group of crew and actors who are looking to collaborate on a story we all believe in. If most film sets are like an orchestra (or an ensemble trying to sound like an orchestra), our film is more like a garage band and unapologetically so!