Above-the-line (filmmaking)
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Above-the-line (filmmaking)
"Above-the-line" refers to the list of individuals who guide and influence the creative direction, process, and voice of a given narrative in a film and related expenditures. These roles include but are not limited to the screenwriter, producer, director, and actors. Often, the term is used for matters related to the film's production budget. Above-the-line expenditures reflect the expected line item compensation for an official above-the-line member's role in a given film project. These expenditures are usually set, negotiated, spent and/or promised before principal photography begins. They include rights to secure the material on which the screenplay is based, production rights to the screenplay, compensation for the screenwriter, producer, director, principal actors and other cost-related line items such as assistants for the producers, director or actors. The distinction originates from the early studio days when the budget top-sheet would literally have a line separating ...
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Screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. Terminology In the silent era, writers now considered screenwriters were denoted by terms such as photoplaywright, photoplay writer, photoplay dramatist and screen playwright.Steven Maras. ''Screenwriting: History, Theory and Practice.'' Wallflower Press, 2009. pp. 82–85. Screenwriting historian Steven Maras notes that these early writers were often understood as being the authors of the films as shown and argues that they cannot be precisely equated with present-day screenwriters because they were responsible for a technical product, a brief "scenario", "treatment", or "synopsis" that is a written synopsis of what is to be filmed. Profession Screenwriting is a freelance profession. No education is required to be a professional scree ...
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Film Producer
A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, directing, editing, and arranging financing. The producer is responsible for finding and selecting promising material for development. Unless the film is based on an existing script, the producer hires a screenwriter and oversees the script's development. These activities culminate with the pitch, led by the producer, to secure the financial backing that enables production to begin. If all succeeds, the project is "greenlighted". The producer also supervises the pre-production, principal photography and post-production stages of filmmaking. A producer is also responsible for hiring a director for the film, as well as other key crew members. Whereas the director makes the creative decisions during the production, the producer typically ma ...
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Film Director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design and all the creative aspects of filmmaking. The film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions and stay within the budget. There are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, producers, film editors or actors. Other film directors have attended a film school. Directors use different approaches. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors improvise dialogue, while others control every aspect and demand that the actors and crew follow instructions precisely. Some directors also write thei ...
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Principal Photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actors, director, cinematographer or sound engineer and their respective assistants ( assistant director, camera assistant, boom operator), the unit production manager plays a decisive role in principal photography. They are responsible for the daily implementation of the shoot, managing the daily call sheet, the location barriers, transportation, and catering. In addition, there are numerous roles that serve the organization and the orderly sequence of the production, such as grips or gaffers. Other roles are related with the preparation of a daily production report, which shows the progress of the production compared to the schedule and contains further reports. This includes the storyboard with instructions for the copier and the editing ...
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Screenplay
''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, feature length filmed dramas, including ''ScreenPlay''. Various writers and directors were utilized on the series. Writer Jimmy McGovern was hired by producer George Faber to pen a series five episode based upon the Merseyside needle exchange programme of the 1980s. The episode, directed by Gillies MacKinnon, was entitled ''Needle'' and featured Sean McKee, Emma Bird, and Pete Postlethwaite''.'' The last episode of the series was titled "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" and featured Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson, who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie. Some scenes were shot a ...
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Film Producer
A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, directing, editing, and arranging financing. The producer is responsible for finding and selecting promising material for development. Unless the film is based on an existing script, the producer hires a screenwriter and oversees the script's development. These activities culminate with the pitch, led by the producer, to secure the financial backing that enables production to begin. If all succeeds, the project is "greenlighted". The producer also supervises the pre-production, principal photography and post-production stages of filmmaking. A producer is also responsible for hiring a director for the film, as well as other key crew members. Whereas the director makes the creative decisions during the production, the producer typically ma ...
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Director (film)
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role in choosing the Casting (performing arts), cast members, production design and all the creative aspects of filmmaking. The film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions and stay within the budget. There are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, Film producer, producers, Film editing, film editors or actors. Other film directors have attended a film school. Directors use different approaches. Some Outline (list), outline a general plotline and let the actors improvise dialogue, while others control every aspect and demand that the actors ...
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Budget
A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions, other impacts, assets, liabilities and cash flows. Companies, governments, families, and other organizations use budgets to express strategic plans of activities in measurable terms. A budget expresses intended expenditures along with proposals for how to meet them with resources. A budget may express a surplus, providing resources for use at a future time, or a deficit in which expenditures exceed income or other resources. Government The budget of a government is a summary or plan of the anticipated resources (often but not always from taxes) and expenditures of that government. There are three types of government budget: the operating or current budget, the capital or investment budget, a ...
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Below The Line (filmmaking)
"Below-the-line" is a term derived from the top sheet of a film budgeting, film budget for film, motion pictures, television programs, Sponsored film, industrial films, independent films, student films and Documentary film, documentaries as well as Advertisement film, commercials. The "line" in "below-the-line" refers to the separation of production costs between Screenwriter, script and story writers, Film producer, producers, Film director, directors, actors, and Casting (performing arts), casting (Above-the-line (filmmaking), "above the-line") and the rest of the crew, or production team. The top sheet of any creative project's budget serves only as an at-a-glance reference to a fully detailed and attached main budget document, which features total expenses including federal, state and local taxes, as well as insurance within the entire production, and or Movie production incentives in the United States, production incentives. This painstaking task is usually assigned to the Prod ...
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Below-the-line (filmmaking)
"Below-the-line" is a term derived from the top sheet of a film budget for motion pictures, television programs, industrial films, independent films, student films and documentaries as well as commercials. The "line" in "below-the-line" refers to the separation of production costs between script and story writers, producers, directors, actors, and casting ( "above the-line") and the rest of the crew, or production team. The top sheet of any creative project's budget serves only as an at-a-glance reference to a fully detailed and attached main budget document, which features total expenses including federal, state and local taxes, as well as insurance within the entire production, and or production incentives. This painstaking task is usually assigned to the Production Manager or UPM of a production and should be completed before principal photography begins for any project. Below-the-line crew Some below-the-line film and television film crews operate in pre-production, prod ...
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Billing (performing Arts)
Billing is a performing arts term used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television, or other creative works. Information given in billing usually consists of the companies, actors, directors, producers, and other crew members. Films History From the beginning of motion pictures in the 1900s to the early 1920s, the moguls that owned or managed big film studios did not want to bill the actors appearing in their films because they did not want to recreate the star system that was prevalent on Broadway at that time. They also feared that, once actors were billed on film, they would be more popular and would seek large salaries. Actors themselves did not want to reveal their film careers to their stage counterparts via billing on film, because at that time working in the movies was unacceptable to stage actors. As late as the 1910s, stars as famous as Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin were not known by name to moviegoers. Acc ...
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Film Budgeting
Film budgeting refers to the process by which a line producer, unit production manager, or production accountant prepares a budget for a film production. This document, which could be over 130 pages long, is used to secure financing for and lead to pre-production and production of the film. Multiple drafts of the budget may be required to whittle down costs. A budget is typically divided into four sections: '' above the line'' (creative talent), '' below the line'' (direct production costs), ''post-production'' (editing, visual effects, etc.), and ''other'' (insurance, completion bond, etc.). The budget excludes film promotion and marketing, which is the responsibility of the film distributor. Film financing can be acquired from a private investor, sponsor, product placement, film studio, entertainment company, and/or out-of-pocket funds. When it comes to reporting the budget of a film, the amount of the budget represents the gross budget, which is the grand total of actual spendi ...
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