How to Prep Your First Film; helping first-time directors walk onto set ready

How to Prep Your First Film is a self-paced course for people about to direct their first film. Thirteen steps take you from a finished script to the prep a working director carries on set: a directing idea, sequence and scene breakdowns, performance notes, a casting and rehearsal plan, a tone document, a lookbook, a shot list, a coverage plan, scout notes and a day packet. It works for a short film or a feature. Each step has a short read, a Don’t skip box with the part first-time directors miss, a worked example from an invented film, and questions. You write the answers, in order, and the answers become your prep. Included: the How to Prep Your First Film workbook, a file that opens in your web browser and saves as you type, plus a printable worksheet for every step, blank shot cards with a 16:9 frame, a lens and framing card, a Don’t Forget sheet, a day shot list and a scene deep dive page. The workbook compiles your answers into one printable director’s prep packet at the end. Self-paced, at your own speed. There are no videos, no live sessions and nobody reading your pages. When the creative prep is done, the movie has to fit a schedule and a budget, and that’s the work Goldsmith Production Services does.