Making a Film

So you’ve recently seen some terrible movie and thought to yourself I could make a better movie than that. Well, it’s nice to see you put your money where your mouth is but do you even know how to make a film, the steps involved in making a film or where to even begin? No, I thought not, Spielberg, but don’t worry because I’m here to help and I’ll be here every step of the way all for the low, low price of 30% of how much your movie makes at the box office…but we can’t talk business later, for now let’s just try to create this film of yours.

Production:

We’re going to start off with production since it is the most important part to making any film and because it is so important it is usually the longest part to making a film. What with production being the largest phase we’ll split it up into 3 simple stages: development, pre-production and production, all of which I will go into detail as we progress.

Development is our first step. This is where the idea for the film is formed and a script is written, the more time invested at this stage the easier the rest of will production will be. All movies require money to be created, so unless you plan on paying for it with your own money, you’re probably going to need a studio to invest into your film. Once they’ve read your script and hopefully enjoyed it you’ll get the financial backing you need. Congratulations, you’ve just passed the development stage; most movies never even get this far and usually die because of a lack of funding.

Okay, so now we’re on the pre-production stage, this is where we’ll be doing all the planning and spending most of the budget. Now we can‘t just plan and spend on our own, we’re going to need to hire a crew; the type of crew you have differs depending on the movie, some movies have a small crew with people taking multiple roles in the project while others have larger army-like crews. The director, assistant director, art director, choreographer, cinematographer, music composer, music director are just a few of the people you’ll need to hire. With your crew you’ll be spending a large amount of time in pre-production planning out every scene, every shot and every logistical detail. Again, the more time invested at this stage the easier the rest of production will be.

Next is the fun part: the production stage where the film is shot and edited. There really isn’t much to say about this part…so I’m just going to awkwardly move along…

Distribution:

Your film is probably now complete. You’ve filmed, edited and watched it multiple times, now unless you went through all this to show the movie only to your mother you’re probably going to want it played at the cinema so people can “admire” your work. How would I go about doing this, you say? Well, guess who’s a professional film director? Not me, but I know a guy who knows a guy, etc. Anyway to get your film on the big screen you’re going to need distributors, they’ll make copies of your film, distribute it to theatres and take a chunk of your profit because they too have kids to feed. You can also distribute your film online via streaming services such as Netflix, ITunes, LoveFilm or go straight to video but be warned as it will make it quite difficult for your film to reach consumers.

Marketing:

Your film “could” be the greatest film of all time and cure every single disease known to man but without any marketing no one will see it causing it to do terribly at the box office. So, hoping you haven’t completely wasted your budget on pretty actors and unnecessary CGI you’re going to have to spend whatever you have left on marketing.

The first and most important part of marketing is knowing your audience; if you fail at this step the other steps are just useless. It is crucial that you understand who your target audience is and then look at the world from their point of view. There are plenty of ways to advertise a film but which would reach your target audience best?

- Social Media Sites

- Billboards

- Buses

- Television

- Cinemas

Most studios advertise their film similarly so try to think outside of the box: stage publicity stunts, hold a premiere or work with sponsors. Your task is to hook your audience anyway you can and have them watch your film so you can make money and finally buy that Jacuzzi you’ve always wanted.

~ Ali Jarjis