Logistics: Deadlines

Logistics: Deadlines

Deadlines are a very common thing to encounter during the process of a film project. Directors will experience deadlines before they even get to the production phase of producing a film, there will be deadlines in pre-production. If deadlines are not met this could cause serious problems for the film and the director.

What are the key deadlines in film?

There are many deadlines that have to be met in all parts of production including pre-production, production and post production. In pre-production a major deadline is casting and finish the final version of the script. Without these two deadlines met it would be impossible to continue to production. The most important deadline in production is finishing filming, this deadlines covers the whole of the deadlines in production including equipment deadlines, location deadlines etc. The final deadline in film is in post-production and it is finishing editing and rendering the final cut. If this deadline is not met the release date of the product would have to be pushed back and the editing team would have to work overtime. It will also affect the reputation of the director in the film industry. This can have a negative impact on their future projects and it could make it harder for them to get backing. An example of a film that had a delayed release was Romance and Ciggarets 

What happens if a director misses a deadline?

Depending on what the deadline is for the problems it can cause vary. For example it could be hiring a piece of camera equipment for a certain shot in a scene like a crane. If you go over the deadline without finishing shooting the scene you will have to cut the entire scene from the final cut or film it in a different way. If this happens it means that everyone who worked on the scene had wasted their time and the budget spent on it was also wasted. Another example of missing a deadline is during pre-production, when you come up with a concept for a new project to actually start production you need funding. To get funded you need to pitch your concept for the new project, a normal way to pitch your idea is by creating a trailer with a storyboard to give the organisation a good idea of what they will be funding. If the trailer and storyboard is not finished by the time of pitching the project idea you won't even get funded and wouldn't even reach production.

What is the worse case scenario?

The worse case scenario of missing deadlines is the project being cancelled. If there are constant deadlines missed in production the funding organisation might back out of the project. If this happens whilst production is still going on there will be no budget to continue so the project will have to be cancelled. Not only does it affect the directors current work it will also affect their future projects. If the directors name is big in the film industry the news that their project was cancelled would spread. Funding organisations would be hesitant to work with them on any future projects if a previous one was cancelled. Missing deadlines can be career ending.

How can you avoid missing deadlines?

The best way to avoid missing deadlines is to plan. If you plan well it is less likely that deadlines will be missed because the director would have made sure there was enough time to complete the task before going over the deadline.