Filmmaking Process

The filmmaking process is an extremely important, long, and complicated process. It usually takes between several months and several years. A film always starts with an original story idea, then a screenplay gets written, and then they shoot it. After that they edit the film and direct it. Then they distribute the film to its intended audience. There are also many people involved in the filmmaking process, from the directors to the cast, to the stage crew. The first step is coming up with the concept of the film, which is the idea. It could be an original story, or a remake. It could be part of a series. It could also come from a book or a play. Then they have to make an outline which describes the dramatic structure in each scene, called a step outline. This tells who will be where, what’s going to be said, and pretty much everything that happens in the film. They also set up all the scenes in the correct order. Then they make a twenty five to thirty five page paper describing the characters of the story and the mood. This is called a treatment. It contains stage direction and a little dialogue. It also has pictures so they have something to look at showing what the movies are going to do. This is the first step of the filmmaking process and really helps when it comes time to develop the screenplay. After this they start the screenplay. Writing the screenplay can take several months. They usually have to rewrite to improve things the dialogue, dramatization, characthers, structure, style, and to make it more clear. They develop screenplays in which the investers and other interested parties assess a process called script coverage. They have a film distributor look at it, and depending on how promising it looks, they guess how much financial help the film needs and how much it will get. Then they figure out the genre of the film, the target audience, success of films that were similar, and the success of the actors, actresses, and directors in