Film Production: The Seven Stages of Filmmaking

The world’s finest moves that turn out to be blockbusters are created with meticulous planning. From the very first step to the release, every single phase is thoroughly planned.

Curious to know what are the steps involved in the production of a film? In this article, I’m going to walk you through all the major steps involved in the filmmaking process in detail.

1. Financing

Having an idea for a movie isn’t enough. You need significant investment to get things rolling. From hiring professionals to buying filmmaking equipment, you can’t finance everything on your own unless you are a billionaire.

Film producers meet with potential investors to raise the initial investment. Producers that have already made a name in the filmmaking industry traveling to events, and festivals, and even organizing events specifically for attracting financers.

Sometimes the idea is so compelling and the producers of the movie are so successful that financers themselves come to invest without any such effort by the production team.

2. Development

Once you have got the cash to bear the finances, the next step is the development phase. You have some rough ideas about the film’s story, it’s still unclear who will play the major roles, and what kind of equipment would be required to shoot the movie.

During this phase, the director and producers sit together to plan the upcoming stages of filmmaking. The most important part is script development.

A script may go through major changes in the development phase until all the stakeholders on board agree on the theme and essence of the movie. Producers also plan ahead if there’s going to be a sequel to the movie in the future or not.

3. Pre-Production

During the pre-production phase of the movie making process, producers and directors select the cast, crew, and location of the shoot. If it involves shooting in cities abroad, the stakeholders will also look into the crew’s accommodation and travel arrangements.

The pre-production phase is quite long as getting visas approved for abroad travel or even making accommodation arrangements in the same country can be quite challenging.

Additionally, the producers and director plan ahead for the potential hurdles involved in the shooting and take appropriate measures to overcome them in the future.

4. Production

Production comes in the middle of all filming stages and is the most important part because all the action takes place at this stage. The script which the writers, directors, and producers worked on is executed now.

All the main and supporting actors assigned different roles will fulfill those in this stage. The production phase begins after days and months of rehearsing. The whole production crew including the cameraman and stunt performers rehearse before they put things into action.

The final production of a movie is the result of sheer hard work in the pre-production and production phase; the final film you see may look quite simple because the complexities involved in the background are rarely disclosed.

5. Post Production

Once you have shot a movie, the next stage is to improve it. Just like content creators don’t put out a raw clip on their social media, you can’t put a raw movie in front of an exciting audience expecting your movie to turn out to be a blockbuster.

There’s a possibility that a certain scene contains unnecessary and undesired objects, for example, a flying bird. So the editor will use a video editing tool to remove this bird from the scene.

Or it could be that a certain part of the movie feels more engaging with slight changes in the background; this too will be sorted in the post-production phase. In the makings of movies, the post-production phase holds immense importance.

6. Marketing

Every media production house creating a film has to set up a decent budget for marketing the film. Nowadays producers spend heavily on creating hype for the movie, so at the time of release, more people rush to the cinemas and make the movie a hit.

Marketing is an important phase. For short films, people rely on social media and digital marketing to promote the movie. While for bigger movies, like Hollywood movies, producers spend on digital marketing, offline marketing, and other means of promotion to achieve success.

7. Distribution

And the final step in movie post production Dubai is the distribution of the film. The theatrical distribution of a movie involves reaching out to local and international theaters and streaming platforms.

Nowadays streaming is quite popular, so filmmakers reach out to platforms like Amazon, Video, Hulu, and Netflix to crack lucrative deals and earn a handsome amount in exchange for streaming rights.

To create a memorable film that not only gets popular but also turns out to be a huge monetary success, you must nail every stage of the filmmaking process.