Production Processes

Production of a video can usually be divided into three main categories. pre-production, production and post production.

Pre-production

To sum it up, pre-production is all the planing that goes into the making of a film or TV program. he pre production starts of with the development of the initial idea followed by the writing and development of the screenplay. The screenplay is then divided up into scenes and the shot angles sizes and movements are planed out for all of the scenes. The production also includes other planing including equipment required which involves choosing lenses and gear like tracks and steady cams. The location scouts work n this period to find the shooting locations for all the scenes in the film. Casting is also done in pre production along with finding a director, cinematographer and all the other crew involved with the production and post production. One of the most important parts of the pre-production process is the financing side of it. The developed idea and developed screenplay are pitched to the investors and production company’s and then the finance and budget for the film is negotiated and agreed. The last section in the pre-production stage is the planing for the production stage, this involves making call sheets planing all the shoot days and organising crew and equipment for each day. I did pre production my shoot at the national emergency services museum. This involved planing for things like the weather, travel arrangements and shoot locations at the museum. It was really helpful because it meant that I could get the shots I wanted on the shoot day and I know the times i’d be filming, how to get there and if I could shoot outside that day for the external shots.

Production

The production is usually the shortest but the most important stage of the entire production process. Its the most important stage because its where The actual video is shot and this is what the final product will be. The production process includes the organising of the crew and kit on the shoot days and then the director and cinematographers set up and decide on the shots for the scene. The actors then perform. This stage can take place in many locations across the world or can be situated in one single place.

The standard day on a film production can be over 12 hours long, up to 16 hours. The day starts of with the produces, director and other major crew turning up very early, they are then followed by the rest of the crew at there call times, they are briefed about the days schedule. the grip, electric and production design start work first because this stage has to be completed first before the equipment and actors can be brought in. Once completed the rest of the crew move on set to set up the camera equipment and lighting and the grip, electric and production design move onto the next scene so its ready when the filming on the first scene is completed. Whilst the equipment and lighting is being set up the actors will have turned up and be in dressing and makeup. When the actors and crew are ready and set up they practice with the director to get the action how they want it. They will shoot a shot as many times as the director wants to until there happy with it. At the end of the day the call sheets for the next day will be handed out and the director will sit down with other key members of the crew to review the rushes from the days shoot.

When I did the shoot for the national emergency services museum we got call sheets several days before saying when and where to turn up, the weather and my role on the shoot. I turned up at my call time and stayed for a very short production day of about 2 hours. There were no actors or lighting equipment so set up was minimal. We started by scouting out the shoot locations to get an idea of what we were filming then began taking as many shots as we felt necessary. We reviewed the footage the following day.

Post-production

The post production stage can take the a very long time, up to a year on feature films. This stage involves taking the raw media from the production stage and processing it to make the final film. Because of the amount of time required in this process, it can overlap with the production process, this is because the editors can get to work with the first lot of rushes whilst the crew are still working on the rest of the scenes. Post production includes: editing, colour correction and grading, VFX, scoring and other audio processes.

Editing starts with the editor bringing in the rushes, audio and other required media into the bin in there editing platform. They will then review the footage and sort, file and name the shots with the help of the shot list. They will then review the footage and trim down to the rough shots then place them in order into the timeline. The shots are then trimmed down to the final length and the project is transferred to another program where its goes through colour correction and then grading. The audio is then added and the project is sent of to be scored and if applicable the VFX added.

When I edited the vide for the emergency services museum I followed a very similar workflow. Starting of with the import, choosing the shots I wanted and then bringing them into the timeline. The difference is that I didn’t have a narrative to stick too so the shots had no order they had to in. I found this to  be more difficult as theres no structure to follow so one has to be created by grouping similar shots. The video had one song throughout the entire thing so scoring was a simple drag and drop of the song file into the timeline and matching up the vide in time with the music. The was minor colour corrections that had to be done but they were small so I did them in the editing program I used (FCPX).