THE PREMAKE PRODUCTION CONCEPT

Movie - Theatre.

Why don´t movie-makers take a lead from theatre and the performing arts to move away from the notion that each new production is a one-off, a complete finished work and adopt the principle that many versions of a movie can co-exist and that each of them is only one of a potential series of productions?

Right now, ´re-makes´ are the still mildly frowned upon exception rather than the rule and they usually fall into a fairly narrow set of categories - production for a broader market because of language and culture; consolidating a branded franchise, or simply replacing an older production.

Despite the ease with which high quality images can be created and manipulated using low cost digital technology, the gulf between 'high end' film production and the rest of the media is growing apace.

No-one working with modest resources can hope to emulate the perfectionist aspirations possible with large teams of craftspeople and creatives. There are disadvantages for both sides. Big projects take longer and longer to set up, so they lose any chance of feeling contemporary. Low budget movie-makers are tempted to prove their mettle with shorts that eat up meagre resources for little, or no return. Somewhere in the middle are numerous projects that fall by the wayside when producers cannot see a way for them to be funded, so writers and directors get fewer projects finished than they´d like, while performers and technicians have less production experience away from television, commercials, or promotional projects than they aspire to.

'Premake Productions' are intended to create a bridge between independent, or low budget film-making and the 'high end' industry mainstream.

Just as theatre has always mounted new productions of plays, ballets and operas, often beginning with small scale studio, or workshop productions before proceeding to main stage work, so might movies.

What?

A 'Premake Production' will be specifically designated as a minimalist early version of a movie project to distinguish it from existing low/no-budget films, shorts, or technical 'demos'. The production should be sufficiently complete to be enjoyed by an audience, when exhibited as a 'Premake'.

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A Premake Production could adopt many well-known tactics of low budget production, but adapt them as part of a formalised production strategy which might include:

i) A standardised collaborative production agreement paying all concerned a minimal allowance augmented by subsequent taxable income via a profit sharing agreement. The production agreement should enable a single investor or subsidy organisation to provide sufficient funding, to enable the project to proceed without encumbering project participants with tax obligations based on the entirely theoretical 'reinvestment' of deferred income, as is sometimes the case currently.

ii) Work locally with a compressed schedule of shoot days, avoiding night shoots and overtime;

ii) Small crew, working with mid-level, rather than 'high end' equipment;

iii) A small cast concentrating the drama on key characters;

iv) Minimise the number of locations, costumes, sets and props;

v)Reducing 'crowd scenes', 'action sequences' and fully developed graphics and effects to the most basic dramaturgy implied in the script;

vi) Music composed and performed, rather than acquired by licencing existing recordings;

vii) Post-production with limited 'finishing' to HD, rather than DCP standards.

viii) At any stage in the production process, arrangements for a subsequent production might be confirmed, including a contractual assurance that the 'premake' will be completed and made public via a 'pre-make' register and programmed screenings.

Such criteria will ensure that there is a distinct contrast between the 'premake' and subsequent productions, however the potential remains, as in theatre, for the 'premake' to become the preferred 'classic' version of a given project, despite its 'spartan' origins. That success would be reflected in long term profit sharing to project participants.

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Distribution and exhibition

Exhibitors and broadcasters could be encouraged to programme batch screenings of 'premakes' from different producers and distributors, or creating on-line channels for premakes. Festivals and film-markets might make similar provisions;

Screenings using 'kino' blu-rays, or their equivalent, rather than DCPs;

Minimal publicity material from distributors and a low fee for parental guidance ratings by national film registration organisations;

A register of 'premakes' could provide contact information for producers interested in undertaking subsequent versions.

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Why?

The issue is not just a question of production budgets and funding, but the ways in which budgets are defined and the often byzantine complexity of funding arrangements for even the smallest projects.

For a variety of good, but now historic, reasons, movies have aligned themselves with literature and works of art, rather than the performing arts. We are all familiar with the assumption that a movie is a coherent cultural work in itself, or as the Germans might say, a 'unikat', a one-off that will rarely be attempted a second time. This has never been the case in the performing arts, where a succession of new productions gives a work its history.

While top notch directors, performers and writers may be happy to work in theatrical 'workshop' productions, they are almost all extremely wary about an association with 'low budget films'.

These constraints are largely unnecessary, but do require a coherent framework for them to be overcome.

Ironically, a low budget production currently entails a higher commercial risk than its 'high end' equivalent. The contrast in marketing resources and long term project planning from concept to exhibition is extreme, so the likelyhood of small projects achieving their financial goals are slim, unless the production context is redefined.

Over the last twenty or thirty years, the answer to the contrast between 'fully funded' and under-funded production has been to encourage 'tax breaks' for investors, or 'production subsidies' from the public sector. Even modest projects are usually obliged to bring half a dozen or more funding partners together, from 'tax break' investors, tv stations and subsidy organisations, which is an enormous waste of effort for modest, sometimes trivial amounts of money.

This fragmentation of funding also brings risks, which should be entirely unnecessary. Should a producer fail to bring together sufficient partners within a particular timeframe, either their project will become'dated', or fail altogether, whatever its potential as a finished film may have been at the outset. More often than not, producers find their projects fall under the editorial control of television executives, who having provided a proportion of the funding can make demands about the shape of the project. The independent producer is rarely independent in anything more than name.

Premake production has the potential to overcome at least some of these limitations.

The Benefits

The Premake model should ensure a desirable range of developments:

- Commercial risk is reduced;

- The reputation and commercial interests of creative participants will be protected;

- Projects can be refined;

- Craft skills can be developed;

- New talent can be introduced;

- Linking highly experienced practitioners with small scale production;

- Writers in particular will benefit from full length production to explore new work;

- Premake budgets could make online distribution a viable commercial option for producers;

- A wider range of movies will be available to the public;

- Speeding up the time-table of production from concept to completion;

- Enabling a re-examination of the relationship between 'production values' and aesthetic, or cinematic effectiveness;

- Premakes bring a more substantive alternative to 'shorts' and showcase demos for industry newcomers;

- Actors and others will not be 'bought out', so their interest in the project's success is long term;

- Premake Production will enable producers and companies committed to 'high end' projects to broaden their activities without jeopardising their status within the industry.

Make a Premake Production! We did. It´s here