As audiences, we often wonder how filmmakers produce such larger than life screenplays and amuse us with many jaws dropping moments in their movies.
Movie production isn’t a cakewalk. The filmmakers do many things at once to build a strong foundation for the shoot.
Film producers like Ivan Reitman and Bardya Ziaian have created successful feature film comedies.
Whether it is a small budget film or a magnum opus, every filmmaker goes through these five film production stages.
Development
This stage is about creating, writing, and planning of a film shoot. The producers decide the budget of the film and finalize the casts and crew members. At this stage, the filmmakers conceptualize the script and work on logistics. But, the film may or may not move ahead from this stage.
The most challenging part of the development stage is to find a producer to finance the film. There are many legal formalities to be fulfilled. If everything falls into place, the film moves to the pre-production stage.
Pre-Production
The cameras don’t start rolling yet. At this stage, the filmmakers finalize the dates and location of their shoot, their casts and crew’s availability, the sets and costumes and any changes required to fit the estimated budget.
An experienced filmmaker can wrap up the pre-production stage quicker than others. They know the challenges and bottlenecks that may arise during film production and prepare backup plans to accommodate last-minute changes.
Production
Here comes the stage for ‘Light, Camera and Action’. The production stage is mostly the shortest phase of film production, provided there aren’t many location changes, travelling, and the cast is available during the production period. But, it is as challenging as the first two phases of film making.
There are chances of the film budget crossing its estimates, shoot conflicts, a sudden change in government regulations, leads throwing tantrums on set, and many other issue resulting in a rocky production.
It can be quite stressful for filmmakers to carry the movie shoot smoothly as planned.
Successful production requires clear communication. Every member of the film team should be clear about the vision and work collaboratively to produce a blockbuster.
Bardya Ziaian is a Toronto-based executive, film producer and entrepreneur who has written and produce the comedy thriller ‘Super Dicks’.
Post-Production
At this stage, the raw gets refined. The post-production team edits the first cut of the blockbuster, adds visual effects, compose music and finalize the titles.
Editing is the most significant part of film production. If we see a rough cut of a movie with no editing or post-production work on it, we won’t find it appealing.
Post-production happens simultaneously with production. It helps them in finding out mistakes and issues in the filming of the scene.
At this stage, the filmmakers know that their movie is soon going to be in theatres.
Distribution
It is the stage where the film starts making profits. Nonetheless, with so many visual mediums such as movie theatres, television, OTT, and streaming available; it gets challenging for a movie to win the most profitable spot. The kind of distribution a movie gets depends on its quality and the filmmaker’s approach.
