Emmy Winning Film & Television Production

This Is What We Were Born To Do...

Filmmaking (often referred to in an academic context as film production) is the process of making a film, from an initial story idea or commission, through scriptwriting, shooting, editing, directing and distribution to an audience. Typically, it involves a large number of people, and takes from a few months to several years to complete. Filmmaking takes place all over the world in a huge range of economic, social, and political contexts, and using a variety of technologies and techniques. Technically, the art and science of recording images to film differs significantly from that of recording images to video. Thus, by definition, a "filmmaker" captures images on film, and not video.

 

Development:

In this stage, the project's producer finds a story, which may come from a book, play, another film, a true story, original idea, etc. After identifying a theme or underlying message, the producer works with writers to prepare a synopsis. Next they produce a step outline, which breaks the story down into one-paragraph scenes that concentrate on dramatic structure. Then, they prepare a treatment, a 25 to 30 page description of the story, its mood, and characters. This usually has little dialog and stage direction, but often contains drawings that help visualize key points. Another way is to produce a scriptment once a synopsis is produced.

The producer and screenwriter prepare a film pitch, or treatment, and present it to potential financiers. If the pitch is successful, the film receives a "green light", meaning someone offers financial backing: typically a major film studio, film council, or independent investor. The parties involved negotiate a deal and sign contracts. Once all parties have met and the deal has been set, the film may proceed into the pre-production period. By this stage, the film should have a clearly defined marketing strategy and target audience.

Pre-production:

In pre-production, the film is designed and planned. The production company is created and a production office established. The production is storyboarded and visualized with the help of illustrators and concept artists. A production budget is drawn up to plan expenditures for the film.

The producer hires a crew. The nature of the Film, and the budget, determine the size and type of crew used during filmmaking. Many Hollywood blockbusters employ a cast and crew of hundreds, while a low-budget, independent film may be made by a skeleton crew of eight or nine (or fewer). These are typical crew positions:

    * The director is primarily responsible for the storytelling, creative decisions and acting of the film.
    * The assistant director (AD) manages the shooting schedule and logistics of the production, among other tasks. There are several types of AD, each with different responsibilities.
    * The casting director finds actors to fill the parts in the script. This normally requires that actors audition. Lead actors are carefully chosen, often based on the actor's reputation or "star power."
    * The location manager finds and manages film locations. Most pictures are shot in the controllable environment of a studio sound stage but occasionally, outdoor sequences call for filming on location.
    * The production manager manages the production budget and production schedule. They also report, on behalf of the production office, to the studio executives or financiers of the film.
    * The director of photography (DoP) is the cinematographer who supervises the photography of the entire film
    * The director of audiography (DoA) is the audiographer who supervises the audiography of the entire film. For productions in the Western world this role is also known as either sound designer or supervising sound editor [2].

    * The production sound mixer is the head of the sound department during the production stage of filmmaking. They record and mix the audio on set - dialogue, presence and sound effects in mono and ambience in stereo [3][4]. They work with the boom operator, Director, DoA, DoP, and First AD.

    * The sound designer creates the aural conception of the film[5], working with the supervising sound editor. On some productions the sound designer plays the role of a director of audiography.
    * The composer creates new music for the film. (usually not until post-production)
    * The production designer creates the visual conception of the film, working with the art director[5].
    * The art director manages the art department, which makes production sets
    * The costume designer creates the clothing for the characters in the film working closely with the actors, as well as other departments.
    * The make up and hair designer works closely with the costume designer in addition to create a certain look for a character.
    * The storyboard artist creates visual images to help the director and production designer communicate their ideas to the production team.
    * The choreographer creates and coordinates the movement and dance - typically for musicals. Some films also credit a fight choreographer.

Production:

In production, the film is created and shot. More crew will be recruited at this stage, such as the property master, script supervisor, assistant directors, stills photographer, picture editor, and sound editors. These are just the most common roles in filmmaking; the production office will be free to create any unique blend of roles to suit the various responsibilities possible during the production of a film.

A typical day's shooting begins with the crew arriving on the set/location by their call time. Actors usually have their own separate call times. Since set construction, dressing and lighting can take many hours or even days, they are often set up in advance.
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.

While the crew prepares their equipment, the actors are wardrobed in their costumes and attend the hair and make-up departments. The actors rehearse the script and blocking with the director, and the camera and sound crews rehearse with them and make final tweaks. Finally, the action is shot in as many takes as the director wishes. Most American productions follow a specific procedure:

The assistant director calls "picture is up!" to inform everyone that a take is about to be recorded, and then "quiet, everyone!" Once everyone is ready to shoot, he calls "roll sound" (if the take involves sound), and the production sound mixer will start their equipment, record a verbal slate of the take's information, and announce "sound speed" when they are ready. The AD follows with "roll camera", answered by "speed!" by the camera operator once the camera is recording. The clapper, who is already in front of the camera with the clapperboard, calls "marker!" and slaps it shut. If the take involves extras or background action, the AD will cue them ("action background!"), and last is the director, telling the actors "action!".

A take is over when the director calls "cut!", and camera and sound stop recording. The script supervisor will note any continuity issues and the sound and camera teams log technical notes for the take on their respective report sheets. If the director decides additional takes are required, the whole process repeats. Once satisfied, the crew moves on to the next camera angle or "setup," until the whole scene is "covered." When shooting is finished for the scene, the assistant director declares a "wrap" or "moving on," and the crew will "strike," or dismantle, the set for that scene.

At the end of the day, the director approves the next day's shooting schedule and a daily progress report is sent to the production office. This includes the report sheets from continuity, sound, and camera teams. Call sheets are distributed to the cast and crew to tell them when and where to turn up the next shooting day. 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 14 or 18 hours in remote locations, film production tends to create a team spirit. When the entire film is in the can, or in the completion of the production phase, it is customary for the production office to arrange a wrap party, to thank all the cast and crew for their efforts.

Post-Production:

Here the film is assembled by the film editor. The modern use of video in the filmmaking process has resulted in two workflow variants: one using entirely film, and the other using a mixture of film and video.

In the film work, the original camera film is developed and copied to a one-light workprint (positive) for editing with a mechanical editing machine. An edge code is recorded onto film to locate the position of picture frames. Since the development of non-linear editing systems such as Avid, Quantel or Final Cut Pro, the film workflow is used by very few productions.

In the video workflow, the original camera negative is developed and telecined to video for editing with computer editing software. A timecode is recorded onto video tape to locate the position of picture frames. Production sound is also synced up to the video picture frames during this process.

The first job of the film editor is to build a rough cut taken from sequences (or scenes) based on individual "takes" (shots). The purpose of the rough cut is to select and order the best shots. The director usually works with the editor to ensure the envisioned shots are selected. The next step is to create a fine cut by getting all the shots to flow smoothly in a seamless story. Trimming, the process of shortening scenes by a few seconds, or even frames, is done during this phase. After the fine cut has been screened and approved by the director and producer, the picture is "locked," meaning no further changes are made. Next, the editor creates a negative cut list (using edge code) or an edit decision list (using timecode) either manually or automatically. These edit lists identify the source and the picture frame of each shot in the fine cut.

Once the picture is locked, the film is passed into the hands of the postproduction supervising sound editor of the sound department to build up the sound track. The voice recordings are synchronised and the final sound mix is created by the re-recording mixer. The sound mix combines dialogue, sound effects, atmos, ADR, walla, foleys and music.

The sound track and picture are combined together, resulting in a low quality answer print of the film. There are now two possible workflows to create the high quality release print depending on the recording medium:

   1. In the film workflow, the cut list that describes the film-based answer print is used to cut the original color negative (OCN) and create a color timed copy called the color master positive or interpositive print. For all subsequent steps this effectively becomes the master copy. The next step is to create a one-light copy called the color duplicate negative or internegative. It is from this that many copies of the final theatrical release print are made. Copying from the internegative is much simpler than copying from the interpositive directly because it is a one-light process; it also reduces wear-and-tear on the interpositive print.
   2. In the video workflow, the edit decision list that describes the video-based answer print is used to edit the original color tape (OCT) and create a high quality color master tape. For all subsequent steps this effectively becomes the master copy. The next step uses a film recorder to read the color master tape and copy each video frame directly to film to create the final theatrical release print.

Finally the film is previewed, normally by the target audience, and any feedback may result in further shooting or edits to the film.

There are two ways that film can be put together. One way is linear editing and the other is non-linear editing.

Linear editing uses the film as it is in a continuous film. All of the parts of the film are already in order and need not be moved or any such thing.

Conversely, non-linear editing is not subject to using the film in the order it is taped. Scenes can be moved around or even removed. A better way to see it is that non-linear editing is like a hodgepodge of video.