Production
The production process refers to the stages to completing a media product; from the idea to the final master copy.
1. Pre-production refers to the tasks done before the whole production begins.
For a small video company, pre-production refers to everything that happens before shooting begins, for example, meeting with the client, research, storyboarding, location planning, etc.
For feature films, pre-production is more specific and only begins when other things have been met such as financing, screenplay and casting. In this case pre-production includes:
•Location scouting
•Prop and wardrobe identification and preparation
•Special effects identification and preparation
•Production schedule
•Set construction
•Script-locking (semi-finalisation of the script)
•Script read-through with cast and director
2. Production is where the footage is recorded. The production phase is also known as principal photography.
In large feature films the beginning of the production phase marks the "point of no return", i.e. the point at which it is no longer financially viable to cancel the project. At this point it is almost always cheaper to continue until the project is finished than to deal with the financial fall-out of cancelling.
The goal of principal photography is obviously to record all required shots; however it is fairly common to shoot "pick-up" shots in post-production. Pick-up shots may be required when a mistake is noticed or even if a performance is thought to be unsatisfactory.
3. Post-production is referred to simply as post, e.g. "We can sort that out in post".
There are many things which can happen in post-production. Common tasks include:
•Editing video footage
•Editing the soundtrack, adding sound effects, music, etc.
•Adding titles and graphics
•Colour and exposure correction
•Adding special effects
•Re-shooting certain scenes if required ("pick-up" shots)
Distribution
A film distributor may be contacted at an early stage to assess the likely market and potential financial success of the film. Hollywood distributors adopt a hard-headed business approach and consider factors such as the film genre, the target audience, the historical success of similar films, the actors who might appear in the film, and potential directors. Not all films make a profit from the theatrical release alone, so film companies take DVD sales and worldwide distribution rights into account.
Other ways films are distributed to the audience are through film festivals. Film festivals are an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie screening venues.
Marketing
Trailers are often the first chance to promote a movie to its target audience. Starting up to a year before the release of a major studio movie, distributors run movie trailers. The purpose is to give moviegoers a taste of what the upcoming film is going to be like, while leaving them wanting more.
About the same time that the first trailers hit the cinemas, the movie studio will unveil an official Web site for the film. Typical movie Web sites allow visitors to view multiple versions of the trailer, watch behind-the-scenes interviews and mini-documentaries, read plot synopses, download cell-phone ringtones and desktop wallpaper, play games, and chat in forums and even pre-order tickets.
As the release date of the film draws closer, movie marketers try to get early press coverages in newspapers, magazines and on TV. The main movie publicity tactic is something called a press junket. At a press junket, journalists, entertainment reporters and movie critics are flown out to a special location for a day or weekend of interviews with the stars and creators of the film. The actors, directors and screenwriters sit in separate rooms and the reporters are brought in one by one to ask their questions.
Weeks before the movie opens nationwide, the promotions department starts an all-out publicity blitz. The idea is to bombard the public with so many images and promos for the movie that it becomes a "can't miss" event. Movie marketers will plaster the sides of buses with huge ads, place billboards all around the city, run tons of teaser trailers on TV, place full-page ads in major newspapers and magazines, and the movie's stars will show up on all of the major talk shows.
Exhibition
Exhibition is the retail branch of the film industry - It involves the public screening. Exhibitors are the companies that house the films e.g. Cineworld, Art Houses such as Cambridge Picture House, Odeon and Empire. What the exhibitor sells is the experience of a film. Because exhibitors to some extent control how films are programmed, promoted, and presented to the public, they have considerable influence over the box-office success and the reception of films.
