The Stages of Film Production

Pre-Production relates to all stages of production before the shooting of a film, all the planning and preparatory stages necessary to achieve a smooth, cost-effective, and artistically successful final product. This involves the development of the “idea” into a story, treatment, or scenario that can be converted into a screenplay, with enough dialogue and description to give a clear idea of the production values of the proposed film. It is common for ideas to take years to get going, sometimes because you cannot convince anyone to buy it, sometimes because you cannot figure it out. Although the scale, whether documentary or feature, varies considerably, the principle remains the same for all productions, and budgets are established early in the process, sometimes even before pre-production begins. Intermediate stages are sometimes skipped and the concept taken directly to screenplay stage, but, either way, all the main structural and narrative problems need to be resolved before proceeding further, if expensive adjustments and salvaging operations are to be avoided later.

The key figures in pre-production are the producer, writer, and director, any one of whom may initiate the process. These roles may be combined, but there are recognized advantages in maintaining separate and distinct responsibilities, with the producer in control of the budget, taking responsibility for expenditure and control of the production. The track records of the writer and director, as well as those of the producer and intended lead actors, are important in raising finance, which usually comes, in substantial part, from the distributor, frequently a television company, as well as from other film finance organizations (distributorsare also responsible for making prints of the film and getting them delivered on time).

Once these matters are settled, detailed planning is necessary; contractual arrangements are made with the cast, and with key technical personnel such as the lighting cameraman, the designer, frequently the editor, and sometimes the composer. All stages have to dovetail neatly together—timing needs to be exact, as even a single day wasted can throw the budget of a film hopelessly out. The production manager takes responsibility for organizing the smooth running of the operation. Stars, technicians, equipment, transport, and so on, all have to be at the right place at the right time and the organization is sometimes compared to a military operation. In general, the film is planned in detail at this stage.

Production is a highly collaborative process involving many people. Major players in production can include an executive producer, producer, writer, director, composer, editor, director of photography, and the actors and actresses, of course. Production people are supported by a crew of hundreds of other workers who handle specific details ranging from building the sets to applying makeup to catering meals on location. Shooting is the shortest part of the job and yet, because it is so expensive, it is also very pressured and intensive.

A film is said to be “in production” when it is actually being made, including all the necessary physical preparation. The production manager, assistants, construction artists, lighting technicians, and supporting cast all have to be contracted. The number and range of talents required depends on the scale of the production and can run into hundreds. The credits that accompany any contemporary film are only an indication of the complexity of organisation required. In the period of the large film production companies—the so-called “studio era”—armies of permanently employed staff moved from one production to another and gave films the distinctive character of their studio. Today, with independent production, these people are freelance and are employed on separately negotiated short-term agreements. Locations have to be found, sets constructed, schedules planned, transport arranged, film stock ordered, and tests made. Every minute a film is being shot it is costing money, so studios demand the fastest practical shooting time and the quickest turnaround in editing. Some movies get two crews and two directors to shoot simultaneously. A second unit and second unit director will shoot cars travelling or close ups of people's hands - it's Tim Robbins in the car at the start of "The Shawshank Redemption" but not his hands drawing the gun.

Post-Production covers the part of the film-making process that takes place after completion of the shooting, when the film is assembled and shaped into its final form. It includes sound editing — the addition of sound and effects tracks and their integration with the other sound and dialogue in the film—the editing of the film, and the composition of the film's score. Sometimes post-synchronisation (substituting one voice for another), dubbing (also known as looping, this is when an actor is recalled after shooting to re-record his or her voice, dialogue is always recorded on set but is rarely useable because it is obscured or otherwise affected by extraneous noise), and other techniques are part of the process. In all these aspects, the editor, usually in association with the director and producer, takes the main responsibility.

Only a proportion of the shot film remains in the final product; unsatisfactory takes, ends of reels, and redundant shots are discarded, and the ratio of used to exposed film may be anything from 5:1 to 40:1, depending on circumstances and budget (When James Cameron's "Titanic" finished its unusually long shooting schedule of 163 days on 22 March 1997, Cameron had 1.3 million feet of film to edit and over 500 visual effects to add in. If the final cut seems long to you, this unedited footage ran to 12 whole days!). Frequently, the editor is instructed as to the final length of the film and has to retain the qualities and themes for which the director is searching, while discreetly paring down the film. The “assembly”, which enables continuity to be seen, leads to a “rough cut”, and finally to what is popularly described as the “director's cut”. This, however, is not necessarily the finished film, for the producer or others with financial interests may want changes for commercial, or other, reasons, once they or “preview” audiences have seen the film. Hence, today it is not uncommon to have two versions of a film available, the commercially released version and the “director's cut”. In addition, some territories forbid certain themes, such as divorce or birth control, and special versions may have to be produced for these markets. Thus, there may be many versions of the same film in existence.

Once the last frame of film has been edited, a lot still needs to be done to make a movie successful. Press agents set up interviews for the stars on the morning television talk programs and on the late-night talk shows. Quite often commercial time is purchased on the shows when the star appears to advertise the film around the interview. The interviews may even be part of the contract – the stars have to do them as they are paid to do publicity for a film. If you are the star of a film, you are going to see that movie a lot of times - probably every time it opens in an important territory.

Hollywood knows that anything that gets the word out about a movie and helps to sell tickets is critical. While the stars may generate audience interest in a film, studios will still spend a lot of money on expensive advertising campaigns to ensure that their investments are secure. But that doesn't always guarantee success. For example, in 1995 the marketing budget for the Academy Award-winning best picture of the year Braveheart, was $25 million, even though the film starred box office favourite Mel Gibson. The advertising campaign for Apollo 13 was $20 million. But Sylvester Stallone's action-adventure film Judge Dredd, which was panned by both critics and the public, was a box office bust despite a promotion campaign of nearly $30 million. Though sometimes Hollywood is assisted by bad publicity. The Kevin Costner film Waterworld appeared to be destined for failure because of reports in the media during filming that the production was way over budget and there were many creative differences on the set. However, the negative publicity apparently made people want to see what the talk was all about. Waterworld ended up as one of the top 10 box office hits for the year and had a world-wide gross of more than $250 million.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-21