Understanding Film making

Scene 1 - The idea

Shot 1 source of inspiration 
Real life events
Quite a few films that are made are based on true events, such as Schindler's List. Producers and film makers are always looking out for real life events and true stories to try and base there film around, some examples of this are stories in magazines and newspapers also in biography's. Having a good eye is a very important skill for a film maker.

Remakes - Remakes of older films from the past are becoming very popular in the film making industry. Remaking a movie gives the producer of the film a safe foundation as it is alot easier to film and produce. Examples of re-made films are Total recall, Dredd and the Italian Job.

Original Ideas - Original ideas come from a spark of inspiration from the director at anytime or from a dream. Original ideas could be worth millions and be a big hit or they could easily crumble and fail. Film producers go out of there way to product there ideas with things like copyright to prevent other producers from stealing there idea. Examples of an original idea is Star Wars and Inception.

Adaptations - Alot of successful movies had been based on or based around books that people have wrote, by writing the book or making he movie it can create alot of publicity for the other product. Examples of adaptations are movies Lord of the Rings and Percy Jackson.

Shot 2 The producer

A producer is always keeping his eye for a film idea. They are always thinking of ideas to attract audiences to there movies. When they see other movies produced they have a good idea wether it will be a succesful film or not. a lot of things can go wrong due to people changing the minds about movies very before the movie is created. When the producer has an idea they will try there best to create it, they handle the financial side and the creating side of the movie. The main problem is finance when producing a movie. The main thing that attracts people to watch your movie is a great idea.

Shot 3 The director

The director is involved heavily on making the film. Sometimes when the director has an idea he will go up to the producer and see if he can fit it into the film. But most of the time it is the producer who brings the director on board. Sometime is the director is well known it will help the movie make profit and attract more people. A lot of directors have agents that get them the best movie, the agent gets a percentage cut.

Shot 4 The Writer

A very important triangle in the film making business is the relationship between the producer, the writer and the director. In the state of UK script writing, Chris Clark outlines what some of the producer and developers are looking for.

Shot 5 The Treatment

The treatment is about a page long description of the plot of the film and what characters and involved E.g Rick Riordon writes the treatment for Percy Jackson and the lightning theif.

Shot 6 The Pitch

The Pitch is the thing that will have all the details and information so that they will be able to sell and commission the script they have wrote.

Scene 2 Developing Finance

Pitching the project

For the script to be developed they will need financial help. The producers get this financial help by using the treatment and pitch they have used to persuade people to help develop the script.

Production Companies

To get help form the film production companies the producers of the film would need to persuade them that the film they are producing is going to make them money, so then the production companies will help with funding and developing the script.

Sales Distributions and Broadcasts

Another way for the producer to get funding to develop the script is by offering the sales and broadcasting rights.

Public Investment

Another way that a producer can got support for the film there making is by pitching it to private investors. Most public bodies will on support your production only if they feel that your production has an audience.

Tying down the writer

he producer of the film can tie down the writer by using the development funding. The writer will now create a lot of drafts for the producer to see.

Scene 3 Script development

Synopsis

This were the writer and the producer are working very closely so that they can decide about very important decisions such as certain key themes in the movie, genre of the movie and what audience it is going to appeal to and also things like the budget.

Step Outline

The step outline is a all the little brief descriptions of the movie combined which then turns into the script. Each step describes the plot of the movie and important evens that happen throughout. Writers will often set out steps on cards or post it notes.

Drafts

The first or final drafts don't just contain dialogue but also things like transitions and action events in the movie. Screen writers are at the top of there profession ad are called upon a lot to save directors and producers if they can afford it.

Revisions

When the writer and producer have red the draft and are happy with it they then send it off to the financiers who will all have there own idea

Final Draft

When everyone has read and is happy with the script, it gets sent of to become the final draft. After this process is done the writer finally gets paid.

The Sales treatment

A sales treaty is a synopsis designed to sell the film to potential financiers. It is an advert for the script and uses more emotive language than the writers original synopsis.

Scene 4 Packaging

What is packaging?

The producer and the director must now package the script into a full commercial proposition ready for financial.

The Cast

One common way to make the production more commercial is by attaching well known stars to the scripts.

The heads of department

Respected commercial successful heads of department carry considerable clout with knowledge financiers.

Detailed budget and production schedule

To turn the film into a proper business propostion, the producer must know how much it will actually cost to make.

Finance plan and recoupment schedule

Potential investors will want to know how the producer plans to make money. And how He/She pays them back.

The Complete Package

The producer has packaged the film into a viable commercial proposition. Now its time to see what people think of it.

Scene 5 Financing 

The market

Financiers can be found anywhere in the world. To secure the investors she needs to make the film. The producer must travel.

Investment

Private individual production companies and public bodies all invest in films. The producers lawyer creates a contract to seal the deal.

Pre-sales 

The producer can also make money from pre-sales, selling the rights of the film before it has even been made.

Banks and Gap Funding

There are departments of banks that specialise in films finance they invest in commercial projects and also offer loans. 

Bonds

Most financiers insist that a completion bond is in a place before they agree to invest. This is insurance for the production.

Green Light

Once the essential funding and insurance is secured, the film gets the green light, then the producer get drunk.

Scene 6

Once all of the heads of departments are hired. The shooting scripts are circulated. and preproduction begins earnest.

The Casting director with the director and producer begins the long process of identifying and casting the actors

The story board is the blue prints of the film. Where every shot is planned in advance by the director and the DOP.

The production design plans every aspect of how the film will look and hires people to design and build each part.

Effect shot are planned in much more detail than normal shots and can take months to design and build.

The 1st AD. The line producer and the production manager make up the key logistics triangle of the production.

Scene 7

This is the key moment in the film production where the shooting begins funding is released, and the producer breathes a huge sigh of relief.

The camera department is responsible for getting all the footage that the director and editor need to tell the story

Once the lighting and sound arer set up and hair and make up have checked The shot can begin.

in the midst of all the commotion the actors must create an emotiona; world and draw the audience into it.

Every special effect is carefully constructed and must be filmed with minimum risk of injury to cast and crew.

Film productions are run with military precision if they fall behind schedule the financiers and insurers may step in.

Scene 8

As the processed footage comes in the editor assembles it into scenes and creates a narrative sequence for the film.

Once the picture is locked the sound department working on the audio track laying creating and editing every sound

Digital effects are added by specialist effects compositors and titles and credits are added in a compositing suite.

The final stage of the picture edit is to adjust the colour and established the fine aesthetic of the film.

After picture lock, the rough sound mix goes to a dubbing theatre where the sound mixer sets the final levels.

After the final cut the film reaches full lock it is now finished and ready for duplication but who gets the final cut

Scene 9

To help her sell the film to distributors the producers secures the serviices of a sales agent a specialist in the film sales.

To help sell the film a trailer is made to show busy film buyers the most market aspects of the film.

The producer and the sales agent collect everything they will need to sell the film to distributors

The market is saturated with films so the producer must go to great lengths to attract attention for her product]

A high profile screening at one of the top film festivals can be for a generating heat around a film

The producer now has a hot product and can negotiate good deals with distributors around the world

Scene 10

To help her sell the film