Everything that is made needs a starting point, for a film there needs to be an inspiration which stems into an idea, this becomes the starting point for a film. To make the idea reality, you need the Producer, Director and Writer to clarify the idea and make it happen. A treatment will be written by the writer, which is a main description of the story and characters in the film, i will be writing a treatment for my product. The pitch will be written with all the information needed in order to sell the idea to financers in order to write a script.
The producer uses their own persuasion along with the Treatment and Pitch to get money for the script, the producer can apply to a funding body such as 'The UK Film Council" for a development grant, or go to big film producers, but they could be busy with their own developments.
Once development finance is secured, it is down to the writer to develop the script to give the producer and financers something new and special. There will be main ideas, a step outline and the hardest part of all, drafts which can take a long time to write up. The producer and writer both have to be happy for the script to then be sent off to the financers who may add their own ideas. Finally, there will be a final draft. At this stage i will have to be 100% sure with my own ideas.
With the script set there needs to be actors to play in the film, obviously a good way to make the film popular is include well known actors and actresses. Everything needs to be planned carefully and you need to know everything is possible before beginning the production, therefore a detailed budget is set out with heads of department and then a production schedule is made. Potential investors will want to know how the film will raise money and be payed back, this is a Recoupment schedule which will list estimates of likely sources such as cinema, DVD, broadcast and merchandise.
All essential funding and insurance must be complete and secured before the producer can start the main part of film making. The producer can make money from 'pre-sales', selling rights to the film before it is even made. Banks can specialise in film finiance and they invest in commercial projects and even offer loans. The financer may insist on having a completion bond, therefore if the production runs out of money the insurance company supplies necessary funds in order to complete the film. Sorting the insurance can be a very difficult part of the production, aslong as everyone knows there will be a finished product in the end there will be a deal made.
Then comes pre-production, consisting of casting, story-boarding, production design and special effects planning. During these stages more people will be hired to plan out and build each aspect on how the film will look.
It is now up to the camera department to shoot everything needed for the story to work. Lighting and sound need to be set up, and actors fully ready and the shot can begin. The actors have to be good enough to draw the audience in. The production can involve hundreds of people and there may be a struggle to keep everything on schedule and in budget, financers and insurers may have to step in.
Post production may start while shooting is still going on, the editor assembles the footage into the story for the film. The sound will be added carefully choosing every piece in detail to create the perfect effect. Digital effects and titles are added by specialist effects compositiors. The fine asthetics will be edited to establish and hilight every detail needed. Everything will be finalised and there will be a final cut.
To sell the film to distributors the producer will secure the services of a sales agent - a specialist in film sales. A trailer will be made to show the most markatable aspects of the film, this is important to me as i know i will have to only have the best of ideas for the trailer to look good, only the best bits are shown in a trailer, but it all still has to make sense, for the film to be real. The film will have to be taken to the market and the producer will have to go to great lengths to attract attention for her product. The producer could travel around and negotiate deals with distributors around the world, increasing the success of the film.
Tests will be run with audiences to see how the film is being recieved and marketing methods are thought up, posters, tv spots, television, radio all help create hopefully a positive word of mouth about the film. The distributors must make an agreement with the cinemas to screen the product.
Then comes the Premire and many many cinema screenings. Once the distributors have been paid the financiers recover investments as earlier laid out in the recoupment schedule.
1 comment:
Tell me about each of theses stages...how will they apply to your production? what skills will you need to have at each stage?
What about print?
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