Pre-production of Crossroads began with the script. The script was written in November 2013 but by then it was only a first white draft. The draft went through six major changes before it became a shooting script just weeks before the scheduled film. Throughout the Crossroads pre-production stage, the first thing that started the whole Crossroads journey, was the storyboard. Katie and Simon (The Storyboard artist) got together and discussed the shots, the vision and the idea to help pre-visualise the film and bring the film together.
After storyboarding, Katie and Gloria (the Producer and 1st AD) began working on the crowd-funding campaign to raise money to fund the shoot. As an independent film, there wasn't a set budget or unlimited funds so the Crossroads team worked out how much (as an estimate) the production would cost and so a budget was created, and it was just over £1200. This money was planned to go towards the overall production including expenses and catering for both the crew and cast.
The campaign was set by a website called Indiegogo and overall, the process to set up the campaign was easy and fun to do. The Crossroads team created a video which can be shown here and was created just to allow the Director to talk about who the team was and why Crossroads was so adamant to be made. Gradually, the Crossroads team progressively made their target and they even went over the target by a small amount but we were flooded with e-mails of appreciation and good lucks - it seemed Crossroads was on to a good start!! The budget was small but the idea was big so the determination from the crew was imperative to the success of Crossroads.
The Crossroads team, by then, had the majority of their cast and crew finalised. This crew was hugely dedicated to sharing and promoting the Crossroads campaign. The campaign went through a series of stages and had just over a month to reach its target. As the weeks went by, Katie the director and Anthony the DoP spent weeks on end constructing the shot lists and editing the script to make it as punchy as possible. Next, they began focusing on the breakdown sheets for the scenes which were given out on set. This included a detailed anaylsis of the scenes and notes of the broken down script to help with the filming process.
The shot list went through a series of changes depending on the scenes and as each scene went through small changes, so did the shot list. Katie and Anthony worked extremely hard to make sure that each shot could be done in the small time-frame which was three days for shooting. Once the shot list was complete, the schedule was then made.
The schedule went through a variety of changes because they had to get permission to shoot on the beach and liability insurance which meant that, time wise, they had to work quickly. The beach scene was the most difficult to schedule because it wasn't a case of making more time should they need to, it was because they had to film when the tide was out and the sun was rising so their time was very limited. Scheduling this was a difficult process and as it was the last day of the shoot, it meant an early start and long hours.
Crossroads wrapped in May 2014 but we needed pick-up shots and a couple of extra shots to add to a scene in the film, so in September 2014 some of the Crossroads team got together to do the pick-ups. This time we used not only the BMCC but also the BMPCC which was a fantastic piece of equipment to use for handheld shots. These pick-ups were absolutely imperative to the success of the Crossroads film and because they were pick-ups, it gave the actors more time to make certain scenes more compelling and grasping.
Below you can see some images from the pre-production stage. Pre-production is a hugely long and very time-consuming period but it is the most important for the success of a film. During this period, it can be very stressful but it is also a hugely fun time because it is the start of an entire journey coming together. No film can be made successfully without extensive planning, and because of this planning, it meant that Crossroads came together successfully.
After storyboarding, Katie and Gloria (the Producer and 1st AD) began working on the crowd-funding campaign to raise money to fund the shoot. As an independent film, there wasn't a set budget or unlimited funds so the Crossroads team worked out how much (as an estimate) the production would cost and so a budget was created, and it was just over £1200. This money was planned to go towards the overall production including expenses and catering for both the crew and cast.
The campaign was set by a website called Indiegogo and overall, the process to set up the campaign was easy and fun to do. The Crossroads team created a video which can be shown here and was created just to allow the Director to talk about who the team was and why Crossroads was so adamant to be made. Gradually, the Crossroads team progressively made their target and they even went over the target by a small amount but we were flooded with e-mails of appreciation and good lucks - it seemed Crossroads was on to a good start!! The budget was small but the idea was big so the determination from the crew was imperative to the success of Crossroads.
The Crossroads team, by then, had the majority of their cast and crew finalised. This crew was hugely dedicated to sharing and promoting the Crossroads campaign. The campaign went through a series of stages and had just over a month to reach its target. As the weeks went by, Katie the director and Anthony the DoP spent weeks on end constructing the shot lists and editing the script to make it as punchy as possible. Next, they began focusing on the breakdown sheets for the scenes which were given out on set. This included a detailed anaylsis of the scenes and notes of the broken down script to help with the filming process.
The shot list went through a series of changes depending on the scenes and as each scene went through small changes, so did the shot list. Katie and Anthony worked extremely hard to make sure that each shot could be done in the small time-frame which was three days for shooting. Once the shot list was complete, the schedule was then made.
The schedule went through a variety of changes because they had to get permission to shoot on the beach and liability insurance which meant that, time wise, they had to work quickly. The beach scene was the most difficult to schedule because it wasn't a case of making more time should they need to, it was because they had to film when the tide was out and the sun was rising so their time was very limited. Scheduling this was a difficult process and as it was the last day of the shoot, it meant an early start and long hours.
Crossroads wrapped in May 2014 but we needed pick-up shots and a couple of extra shots to add to a scene in the film, so in September 2014 some of the Crossroads team got together to do the pick-ups. This time we used not only the BMCC but also the BMPCC which was a fantastic piece of equipment to use for handheld shots. These pick-ups were absolutely imperative to the success of the Crossroads film and because they were pick-ups, it gave the actors more time to make certain scenes more compelling and grasping.
Below you can see some images from the pre-production stage. Pre-production is a hugely long and very time-consuming period but it is the most important for the success of a film. During this period, it can be very stressful but it is also a hugely fun time because it is the start of an entire journey coming together. No film can be made successfully without extensive planning, and because of this planning, it meant that Crossroads came together successfully.