What is pre-production?

I would say that pre-production is everything that is done before filming begins. For instance with film, pre-production would be everything that is done prior to the producers being ready to film scenes. So this would include the idea first being thought out, story boarding, budget being set for the film, doing some audience research to have an idea of what people would want to see, story boarding, sourcing script writers, casting and deciding locations for where scenes will be filmed. Time planning must be essential to meet deadlines so things like a gantt chart would be used as a production schedule so that everyone working on this film keeps on track. Another example would be a music video. Before the music video would be filmed, the artist would have the idea and find a production team to help story board. The pre production of a music video would also include sourcing props, location scouting and finding background dancers. Essentially, pre-production is putting the pieces in place and laying down the foundations before the final product begins to be made.