From Conception to Completion: Development and Pre-Production
“The Big Day” Feature Film: How We Took The Project From Conception to Completion
The process of making The Big Day was probably not dissimilar to that of most independent films. From conception to completion, we relied heavily on passion and the support of a strong network of friends and family. For myself and the director, Arian Harandi, choosing to “drop everything” and make the film was ultimately a huge leap of faith, and the actual production process was probably one of the most stressful, terrifying, and most exciting times of our lives. We’ve poured a lot of ourselves into the project, and we hope that everyone enjoys the final film as much as we enjoyed making it.
Below you’ll find an account of the entire process, which includes not only the details of “how we did it” but also a myriad of lessons that we learned along the way. Hopefully, the insights gleaned from this experience will help other filmmakers see their own passion project come to fruition.
Development and Pre-production
When we were writing the script, both Arian and myself were balancing full-time jobs and developing The Big Day with whatever spare time we could scrape together. In total, it took about two years to take the project from conception to the final shooting script. It’s important to note, that as first time filmmakers, we knew that even if we were able to garner the support of investors, we wouldn’t be able to raise the type of capital that most films require. With that in mind, we frequently referenced the advice of our indie film idols — Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez — and deliberately wrote the film to be cheap to produce.
When it came time to “pitching” the film, we were told constantly to shoot the film in two weeks, on a 10+ page per day schedule. Although we realized that this type of schedule is becoming increasingly commonplace, we didn’t feel it was the right choice for our film. We stuck to our guns, and were determined to scrape together enough money to shoot the film in 28 days. This was definitely the right decision for our film, and I would encourage every other filmmaker to push for a similar schedule for their first film. Making a high quality film, with a limited crew, at 10 pages a day is, in my opinion, simply impossible.
One of the biggest pieces of advice I can offer to any filmmaker in the development and/or pre-production stages of a project is to set hard deadlines. Both myself and director, Arian Harandi, had a drop dead date — no matter what happened, we would quit our comfortable full time jobs in May 2015 and begin principle photography in August. Without hard deadlines, it’s incredibly easy to be swayed by small roadblocks along the way. Setting hard deadlines forces you to overcome these challenges in order to bring your project to life.
If you have any other questions about film development/pre-production or just want to talk movies, feel free to reach out to me directly via the “Contact” page on this website. I’d also be eternally grateful if you’d check out my latest film The Big Day on our Official Facebook Page.
About Melissa Izbicki
Melissa Izbicki is a narrative and commercial film producer located in Los Angeles, California. Izbicki graduated from Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts with an emphasis in producing and is currently an MBA candidate at Chapman University’s Argyros School of Business and Economics. Her latest feature film, The Big Day, is scheduled for release in late 2016. For more details, visit www.TheBigDayMovie.com
Follow Melissa on Twitter @MelissaIzbicki