Pre-production: Pete Beard

In September myself Jemma and Gavin went the the RTS Futures talk where we were able to ask questions to industry professionals, one of these was Pete Beard.

Peter Beard is a Producer/Director who has gained national praise for his stylish camera work and approach to story telling. His recent credits include Camera on The Murder Detectives, Producer/Director on 24 Hours in Custody and most recently Director of the critically acclaimed My Son The Jihadi for Channel 4. - Sheffield Docfest 

I asked him questions about the documentary series Bedlam. 
Bedlam is a 4 part observational documentary series that looks at mental health in Britain today. It has access to services, patients and staff. The aim was to show the reality of providing mental health services in the 21st century and what it's like receiving care and treatment. With an overall goal to challenging stigmas and discrimination as well as promoting better awareness and understanding.

These were the questions I asked:

1. How often were you as producer in contact with contributors?

Every day!

2. Were there back up plans if someone dropped out?

Yes, we over shot so there were either more characters we could have used, or more scenes with the ones we had.

3. How did you involve yourself creatively in an idea in all stages of the production?

I produced and filmed Bedlam so I was very involved with setting the visual style. Very early on we shared some footage with the editor who cut some sequences so we could really discuss stylistic approach, what we could push further and what wasn’t working. Dave Nath the series director was very collaborative when it came to how we were creatively approaching each scene, he liked to discuss it a lot.

4. How did you stay within budget/compromise if things were too expensive?

The biggest issues we had was the length of schedule, in a series like Bedlam there are lots of variables (gaining access, building trust, people’s wellness, the bureaucracy of the NHS) that can make you over run. In the end we made the budget stretch to the schedule by a combination working part time and spacing things out with other projects, and getting a bit more money from C4.

5. Do you have advice on building trust with contributors?

Be honest, be genuine, spend lots of time with them, try and find contributors you genuinely like - it really helps!

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From this I have learnt how a producer can work with the director creatively to come up with the end product. How the length of the schedule can negatively impact the budget and to keep in mind any variables that might not have been thought of that would affect the budget. Plan over shoot times to allow for the possibility of someone dropping out.