FILM PIPELINE

By Stephan Vladimir Bugaj

PART 1 - Pre-Production (click for full article)

"Preproduction is the most overlooked, downplayed, and underappreciated part of filmmaking. That’s because it is actually the most essential step in making a film, yet people generally want to skip most or all of it.  Without sufficient preproduction, you’re going into production and postproduction with no real idea of what you’re doing."

Topics:
- Casting Crew Leads and Actors
-
Script Breakdown
-
Budgeting and Scheduling, Financing and Legal
-
Script Revisions, Storyboarding, Production Design and Previsualization
-
Camera Tests, Location Scouting and related work
-
Iterate

 

PART 2A - Production Phase 1 (click for full article)

"If you find yourself continually making major changes throughout late prepro / early production, maybe your film isn’t really ready for production. And if your film isn’t actually ready for production, why is it in production in the first place? If more executives (and producers, directors, etc.) asked themselves this question seriously there would be more quality films coming in on-time and on-budget."

Topics:
- Casting, Wardrobe, Make-Up Tests, Rehearsals, Camera Tests with Talent
-
Crew Casting
- Lock Locations, Build Sets, Get Props
-
Finally, you need to just stop getting ready at some point.

PART 2B - On-Set Production (click for full article)

"In part 2A of the film pipeline overview, I discussed the final aspects of production before going on-set. Once you’re on set, however, the character of production changes.  It becomes much more intense, as there’s always a ticking clock."

Topics:
- Crew Call; Location, Grip and Lighting Work
-
Script and Storyboard Revisions
-
Cast Call and Cast-Director Check-in
-
Wardrobe, Hair and Make-Up
-
Actual Shooting


PART 3 - Post Production (click for full article)

"At last, we get to the end of the film pipeline.  Postproduction is everything that comes after shooting has finished."

Topics:
-
Acquisition
-
Visual Effects and Effects Editing
-
Editing, Sound (Editing, Design, Foley, Dialog Editing and A.D.R.) and Music (Scoring)
- Job Descriptions for Post-Prod Jobs
-
Sound Mix
-
Color Grading / Timing and “D.I.“
-
Print It!