Principal photography

Principal photography can take place in a studio or in an actual setting, and the choice of location depends on artistic and economic aspects.

While shooting in a sound stage offers more accurate planning, constructing sets may be expensive.

Costs and artistic reasons (see French New Wave and Dogme 95) are the main drives behind filming on location.

Once the locations have been set, the screenplay is summarized in a script breakdown with all information relevant to the shooting.

At the same time, the call sheets provides information about the scene numbers, script pages and locations relevant for each day, as well as the necessary equipment.

[7] Principal photography is typically the most expensive phase of film production, due to actor, director, and set crew salaries, as well as the costs of certain shots, props, and on-set special effects.

[1][8] When filming begins, the preparation time is over: the final version of the script is done, the cast has been selected, and the buildings and structures on set have largely been completed.

[8] While it is common for a film to lose its greenlight status during the pre-production phase – for example, when an essential cast member drops out or unexpectedly dies, or some scandal engulfs the studio or an actor – it is rare for a film to lose financing once principal photography has begun.

Most American productions follow a specific procedure: The assistant director (AD) calls "picture is up!"

Because of breaks in recording and subsequent shoots that are difficult to calculate, the principal photography is usually planned longer than actually necessary.

During post-production, it may become apparent that some shots or sequences are missing or incomplete and are required to complete the film, or that a particular scene is not playing as expected, or that a performer needs to be replaced entirely.

When using analog cameras, the exposed photographic film from a day of shooting is rushed to a photographic processing lab for development overnight, and then the developed raw footage is viewed by the director, cinematographer and producer the next day to determine whether reshooting is needed.