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Free Templates for Filmmakers – Part 1: Pre-Production

7 min read

July 6, 2023

Free Preproduction Templates for Filmmakers

Let’s be honest, producing films is fun, but it’s a time-consuming process as well. What most people from outside the business don’t see: Making films involves a lot of planning and paperwork. But: Assets like a film budget template, a shooting schedule template, or a shot list template can save you tons of time and money.

As a startup that creates review and approval software for filmmakers, we work closely with film productions such as yours. We know how busy you are. Therefore, we decided to support you during your production process by listing the most helpful templates, such as storyboard templates, budget sheets, and license agreements.

To provide you with a better overview, we grouped these free templates into Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production.

Our first article in this series is about the best free pre-production templates for filmmakers. I promise it will save you a lot of time and effort dealing with unnecessary paperwork. And trust me when I say, we believe that you should make the most out of the present and really focus on what’s essential: Making great films.

And a big thanks to all these great websites for their permission to mention their extremely helpful templates!

Screenwriting/Scriptwriting

Here are some nice screenwriting examples to fuel your creative fire.

Script Breakdown Template

A script breakdown template is necessary for every kind of film. Take a look at our templates. Maybe they are exactly what you’ve been looking for.

Storyboard Templates

Storyboards are graphic organizers in form of illustrations or images. Kind of a shot list, but in an arty way. Storyboards are sometimes part of the shot list, but you can also separate them.

Shot List Template

Before starting the filming process, you need to structure your processes. One of the tasks: Organize your script into a clear “checklist” filled with detailed information for every shot. A shot list helps you to keep track of all actions and the needed equipment for each of your scenes and shots. Moreover, a shot list will provide your team with clear expectations about the results. Important parts of a shot list are for example scene and shot number, a brief description, involved people, and conversations. I know everyone will have their own way of shot listing. So feel free to get some inspiration by looking at these shot list templates.

Shot List Template

Film Budget Template

A film budget template helps you to manage your shoot expenses and overall budgeting. It doesn’t matter if you want to create a short film, an ad, a music video collaboration, or a movie. Managing your film budget is crucial. But you don’t need to spend a lot of money using complicated software. Often, an easy film budget template is totally sufficient and is half the job.  So take a look at these helpful film budget templates. Some also have examples of budgeting.

Film Budget Template

Personnel Forms

We’ve collected some useful templates from general contracts and agreements to specific crew templates.
Note: This is not our complete list. More crew templates can be found in our Production and Post-Production articles (that will follow soon).

List and Sheet

Memo and Contract

Agreement

Partnership Documents

Almost every filmmaker needs partners, whether it be investors, collaborators or funding corporations. Maybe our templates can help you secure a new partner ;)

Cast Forms

What would a movie be without actors – not a movie at all, with the exception of cartoons of course. Here are several relevant templates, from information sheets and lists to contracts.

List and Sheet

Memo and Contract

Release and Agreement

Location Scouting

Finding the right place to shoot is often easier said than done. Unfortunately, we can not help you there. But, our templates could help you to organize everything else.

List and Sheet

Contract

Release and Agreement

Music Releases

Background music is just as important for the movie as the actors. But you also need agreements to use the tunes. Feel free to take a look at these useful templates.

Insurance Forms

Don’t forget to ensure your equipment, your crew, and yourself for that matter. You never know!

Shooting Schedule Template

Managing your schedule when creating a film is crucial. There are different ways to achieve that. One of them is to use a simple shooting schedule template that helps you to create interactive shooting schedules. 

Shooting Schedule Template

13. Other Templates

Please note that this list is not a guideline. I think everyone in this business knows that the order of production steps are always different, and depend on the film or your personal preference.

NOTE:
If you don’t have time for a personal meeting, but want to discuss an agreement, storyboard or some moodshots, Filestage allows you to do just that. We have developed Filestage in order for you to share and collaborate on files and mark your change request as comments in a document. Our lean dashboard helps you to manage all your media projects on a single platform. You will easily share online different videos, documents and other assets.

As always, let us know if you have further suggestions. We look forward to your feedback.