The Complete Film Production Handbook

The Complete Film Production Handbook

Fourth Edition

Eve Light Honthaner

AMSTERDAM ? BOSTON ? HEIDELBERG ? LONDON ? NEW YORK ? OXFORD PARIS ? SAN DIEGO ? SAN FRANCISCO ? SINGAPORE ? SYDNEY ? TOKYO Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Honthaner, Eve Light, 1950-

The complete film production handbook / Eve Light Honthaner. ? 4th ed. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-240-81150-5 (alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures?Production and direction?Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. PN1995.9.P7H66 2010 791.4302'32?dc22

2009052974

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-0-240-81150-5

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This book is for my mom

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It's also lovingly dedicated to the memory of Peter ? my smart, gentle, compassionate, story-telling, bowtie-wearing, Cubs-loving,

big-hearted brother

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Find editable versions of the forms from this book by visiting the companion website: Please use passcode HON3XY88AV54 to login.

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Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii Forms in the book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii

Chapter 1: The Production Team and Who Does What

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Executive Producer . . . . . . . . . 2 Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Co-Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Line Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Post Production Producer . . . . . 3 Associate Producer . . . . . . . . . 3 Production Management . . . . . . . 3 Unit Production Manager . . . . . 3 First Assistant Director . . . . . . . 4 Second Assistant Director . . . . . 4 Production Supervisor . . . . . . . 4 Production Coordinator . . . . . . 4

Chapter 2: The Production Office

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Office Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Setting Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Phone Systems . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Traveling Production Kit . . . . 16 Answering the Phone . . . . . . . . 18 Confidentiality . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Shredding . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Watermarking . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Production Assistants . . . . . . . . 19 Interns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Ain't Technology Great? . . . . . . 22 Techie Wanted . . . . . . . . . . 22 Employees Driving Their Own Vehicles for Business Purposes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Staff Scheduling and Assignment of Duties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Staff Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Office Lunches . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Time Management . . . . . . . . . 24 Office Inventories, Logs, and Sign-Out Sheets . . . . . . . . . 25

Chapter 3: Chapter 4:

The Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Files of Blank Forms . . . . . . . 26 Files for Features, Movies for Television, Cable or Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Series Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Day Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Forms in This Chapter . . . . . . . 28

Basic Accounting

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The Production Accountant . . . . 33 The Accounting Department . . . . 34 Handling Payroll . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Payroll Companies . . . . . . . . . 35 Accounting Guidelines . . . . . . . 36

Start Paperwork Packets . . . . . 36 Payroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Box Rentals . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Vendor Accounts . . . . . . . . . 37 Competitive Bids . . . . . . . . . 38 Purchase Orders . . . . . . . . . 38 Check Requests . . . . . . . . . . 39 Petty Cash . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Online Purchases . . . . . . . . . 41 Cell Phone

Reimbursement . . . . . . . . . 41 Auto Allowances . . . . . . . . . 41 Mileage Reimbursement . . . . . 42 Drive-To . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Per Diem and Living

Allowance . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Invoicing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Additional Taxable

Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 The Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Tracking Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 The Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Forms in This Chapter . . . . . . . 47

From Script to Schedule

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 It All Starts with a Script . . . . . . 79

Script Revisions . . . . . . . . . . 79 The Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . 81

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