in 99 Free Templates" width="1245" height="700" />in 99 Free Templates" width="1245" height="700" />
[Editor's Note: No Film School asked Adrijana Lazarevic to collect these 99 templates because of her expertise working with filmmakers at Filestage.io.]
No one really feels like doing paperwork, but let’s be honest: no good film comes without organization and planning.
That’s where templates can help you out. I work at a startup that creates software for filmmakers, and we see how busy you are every day, so we collected the most helpful templates, guides, and checklists out there to make your life a little easier.
They really help save time for what matters most: letting your creativity flow and producing breathtaking movies that won’t be forgotten. We've also covered the topic of free filmmaker documents before, as well as how you can use free templates for production reports.
The categories covered in this list are: Script Prep/Pre-production, Storyboard/Mood Board Templates, Shot List Templates, Script Breakdown Sheets, Budgeting, Accounting, Personnel/Cast Forms, Insurance Forms, Equipment Documents, Production/Shooting, and Music Releases.
Much of your planning happens well before production, including trying to get investors on board and starting to determine who your audience will be. Here are some templates for early steps, including a form for "optioning" a story that you want to produce, and a director's worksheet that lays out what you'd like to see happen in each scene.
Storyboarding is a cornerstone of the filmmaking process. A storyboard is a sequence of drawings that paint a picture of the your storyline, showing the structure of, and vision for, key scenes. We've also included a moodboard sheet for establishing the visual style of your film.
Organization is the key to a successful shoot. With the help of a shot list, you can easily arrange single shots within any given scene. You can determine, for example, the number of shots necessary to capture a particular action most effectively. Give it a try with one of these practical templates.
Here you can find helpful templates providing detailed descriptions of scenes, and the equipment and personnel assigned to each one. This way, you never lose sight, and can make sure everything is going according to plan.
While making a film, you or your producer have to keep a lot of things in mind and, before you know it, you can easily go over budget. This compilation of templates will help make sure that you don't lose sight of your financial statements. Some of them additionally provide examples of budgeting.
Once you have a budget, you have to actually do the accounting. Maintaining an overview of your finances and money flow is crucial. Check your financial resources by making notes of their movement. These forms will help you keep track.
From general contracts and agreements to crew templates, many of these forms are necessary to lay out a foundation for the business behind your film and get a good team on board.
So you found the most suitable locations to portray your vision. Now, as with everything else, you need to do the paperwork and take care of business These templates have you covered. But also don't forget to read our primer on locations in the first place!
Keep in mind that life doesn’t always have a bright side. Especially when it comes to accidents or health problems. Therefore, always insure your crew, yourself and the equipment. These templates will get you started.
A movie is usually not made by a smartphone in one hand and a music player in the other. You need a whole bunch of stuff, plus, you have to deal with it. Cameras, recorders, lights, a whole set, and so on; all this has its price and needs to be paid attention to. These forms can help.
You've got your cast & crew, locations, and equipment and now you're onto the shoot: the time when staying organized is most crucial. To avoid slip-ups, interruptions or any other negative factors that make your life as director harder than it should be, use these forms. This list includes call sheets, your essential tool for communicating requirements with everyone on set.
Imagine movies without any music—unthinkable! Music is an essential part of a film experience. But, just as films have their patents and rights of use and enjoyment, sounds and music do too. And the legal use of music can be complicated. Here are some of the papers that help you do things right.
Filestage is a web app for filmmakers to share, review and approve videos efficiently. Clients and co-workers comment directly in your videos and design-frames accurately. All visual projects can be managed at ease.
From Your Site Articles
There's nothing better than the adrenaline-pumping action sequence or set piece to build momentum in your screenplay. Since the dawn of filmmaking, we've had great fight scenes captured for us to enjoy.
The best ones are like a roller coaster. Ups. Downs. and lots of twists and turns. In honor of John Wick's fifth anniversary this week, let's highlight the best action sequences that didn't have any guns in them. Just two combatants using their fists, knives, swords, or trash cans to beat the crap out of each other.
Each of these scenes also advances the plot in new and intriguing ways as well. So strap on your brass knuckles, and let's beat some asses.
Before we jump into the main event, I wanted to peak at three honorable mentions.
First up, we have to herald John Wick 3. While the franchise holds some of the best gunfights in history, it also does so much for epic movie fisticuffs.
This threequel's glass wall set piece is one of the most fun and violent action scenes of the franchise. I love how it builds on Wick's lore as a famous badass.
If you've read our take on underrated Soderbergh, then you know Haywire holds a very special place in my heart. Each scene in this movie has a ton of fun with a real-life action star, Gina Carano, beating people up.
But this hotel sequence serves as the best and most realistic fight I've seen in a film.
Rumble in the Bronx was the American introduction to Jackie Chan. While the movie contains lots of jaw-dropping maneuvers by the actor, I wanted to put a different one on this list.
If it were up to mean, Jackie might take all ten spots. But my editor rejected that idea. So here we are.
Sir Ridley Scott is one of our greatest living directors and it is shameful he doesn't have an Academy Award for Best Director. We talk a lot about how cool scenes can be, but this fight services the story so well. It shows that Maximus has become even more powerful than the Emperor and also that he's only human.
This was my first Jason Statham movie. Somehow, it seems as if he hasn't aged since then. But this British badass showcases one of the coolest ideas ever as he uses oil to slip and slide his way into beating a room of thugs.
Not enough people have enjoyed this dark and gritty Cronenberg classic. It's a movie about survival, and there's no better scene about the pure desire to fight to survive than this bathhouse encounter. This is about a man who wants to live and will do anything to make sure that happens. Even if it means fighting naked in a bathhouse. Because reasons.
The 1980s were defined by action films. Most of them were about blowing things up. But They Live was so close and personal. It made you confront the subliminal messages in your own life and when it came to one of the most famous fight scenes of all time, you have to obey and put it on the list. And to think it all starts with a conversation about glasses.
I feel like when I was a kid there was much more crossover between foreign language films and American audiences. Maybe it's because Crouching Tiger got dubbed and thus was easier for mainstream audiences to digest, but I feel like when I saw it it had subtitles? Nevertheless, I love this scene because it takes the old and new guard and aligns them against one another.
Jason Bourne kicks ass in the first two movies, but this scene from the third film raises the bar in terms of tension and choreography. This is the only fight I thought Bourne would lose. It's also the culmination of this threat who has haunted him for the whole story. Greengrass' editing and shooting style doesn't make this feel too shaky, either.
Marvel movies have gotten so huge that things rarely come down to fisticuffs. I was tempted to put the Endgame battle against Thanos, where Cap grabs and wields Thor's hammer, but I am still stunned by the mastery of this all-timer MCU scene. It was our first introduction to what the Russo brothers would imbue on the other films in the Marvel universe. It felt personal, the stakes felt real, and Cap never looked so cool kicking ass.
What's the first Jackie Chan scene you saw that wowed you? Because I think this movie has three or four of them for me. It was hard to choose between this movie, Operation Condor, First Strike, Police Story, and Who Am I, but I am going here because of the sheer amount of jaw drops it instills. This market scene is quintessential Chan. There's an outrageous comedy element, incredible moves, and long takes that make everything look so real.
Sean Connery's second James Bond movie expanded upon the success of the franchise's first film, Dr. No, and doubled-down on the exotic locations and complex Cold War plots. It also started a franchise staple future movies would use as a benchmark: Bond having a long, brutal, and inventive hand-to-hand fight. From Russia With Love's train brawl, with its then-"never-been-done-before" staccato editing style, coupled with the raw fighting style of its two combatants, gave the movie a jarring jolt and audiences one of the most iconic action scenes in all of movie history. It's still the bar to which all future Bond movie fights would measure themselves against, with Spectre making the most obvious attempt to match it.
Look, no action or fight list is complete without TheRaid 2. Everything in this movie is built to excite. So when you get into the movie's epic and iconic kitchen fight scene, you know shit is about to hit the fan. The Raid movies always make the most of their surroundings and have inspired every fight scene that came after them.
You'll never hold a hammer the same way again.
Oldboy is a contemplative, slow-burn revenge drama, where a guy eats an octopus and. I don't want to give away the ending, but it's nasty. And shocking. There are so many disturbing and weird things that happen in this film, and yet the standout is this legendary oner where a guy takes on 20-plus people with a hammer.
Fight scenes might be some of the most exciting to watch, but they're also some of the most complicated to shoot. Capturing a fight for a film requires a lot of carefully executed techniques in order to make it exhilarating, realistic, and safe for all involved.
So learn and do it right!
