Filmmaking
Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission.
The process is nonlinear, in that the filmmaker typically shoots the script out of sequence, repeats shots as needed, and puts them together through editing later.
[1] Today, filmmaking refers to the process of crafting an audio-visual story commercially for distribution or broadcast.
Each film studio has a yearly retreat where their top creative executives meet and interact on a variety of areas and topics they wish to explore through collaborations with producers and screenwriters, and then ultimately, directors, actors, and actresses.
They choose trending topics from the media and real life, as well as many other sources, to determine their yearly agenda.
Alan Watt, writer-director and Founder of The LA Writer's Lab confirmed that completed original screenplays, referred to as "specs", make big news when they sell, but these make up a very small portion of movies that are ultimately given the green light to be produced by the president of a studio.
This results in a pairing of producers with writers, where they develop a "take", a basic story idea that utilizes the concept given by studio executives.
Production of Unforgiven, which earned Oscars for its Director/Star Clint Eastwood, as well as its screenwriter, David Webb Peoples, required fifteen years.
And most concepts turned into paid screenplays wind up gathering dust on some executive's shelf, never to see production.
Because of this, how the development process proceeds from there and how much detail a writer returns to the studio to divulge before beginning writing can vary greatly.
The screenwriter may rewrite the script several times to improve dramatization, clarity, structure, characters, dialogue, and overall style.
"Coverage" is a way for young screenwriters to be read and their ideas might make their way up to an executive or famous producer and result in "meet and greets" where relations with up-and-comers can be formed.
The studio is the film distributor who at an early stage attempts to choose a slate of concepts that are likely to have market appeal and find potential financial success.
Projects which fail to obtain a green light may have protracted difficulties in making the transition to pre-production and enter a phase referred to as development hell for extended period of time or until developmental turnaround.
Analogous to almost any business venture, financing of a film project deals with the study of filmmaking as the management and procurement of investments.
Communication is key between the location, set, office, production company, distributors and all other parties involved.
The grip, electric and production design crews are typically a step ahead of the camera and sound departments: for efficiency's sake, while a scene is being filmed, they are already preparing the next one.
Most American productions follow a specific procedure: The assistant director (AD) calls "picture is up!"
Later on, the director, producer, other department heads, and, sometimes, the cast, may gather to watch that day or yesterday's footage, called dailies, and review their work.
With workdays often lasting fourteen or eighteen hours in remote locations, film production tends to create a team spirit.
For the production phase on live-action films, synchronizing work schedules of key cast and crew members is very important.
Finally, all sound elements are mixed down into "stems", which are synchronized to the images on the screen, and the film is fully completed ("locked").
For major films, key personnel are often contractually required to participate in promotional tours in which they appear at premieres and festivals and sit for interviews with many TV, print, and online journalists.
The largest productions may require more than one promotional tour, in order to rejuvenate audience demand at each release window.
Since the advent of home video in the late 1970s, most major films have followed a pattern of having several distinct release windows.
As a result, several companies have emerged to assist filmmakers in getting independent movies seen and sold via mainstream internet marketplaces, often adjacent to popular Hollywood titles.
