Roles and Responsibilities

How are films made? Well without a crew of film makers and each one of them not having a role in their job then not much will be created. This is why everyone in the film industry each has a role and responsibility in building up to the stages of film production and making. The movie - making process consists of five phases they are: 

1. Development

2. Pre-Production

3. Production

4. Post Production

5. Distribution

Within development script writing, viability testing and gathering resources are a main part of this phase. Script writing is vital for film making without this there wouldn't be a film to make in the first place. Pre-production is a fairly loose term which refers to the tasks undertaken before production begins. For feature films, pre-production is more specific and only begins when other milestones have been met such as financing, screenplay, casting and major staffing. In this case pre-production will include: Location scouting, Prop and wardrobe/special effects identification and preparation, production schedule, Set construction, Script locking. Now all these roles will most likely to come under that of a movie producer, a movie producer is a person responsible for making sure an appealing, high quality is produced on time and within budget. That means supervising and packaging the project from conception to distribution to theatres, while interfacing with the studio and managing the work of hundreds of individuals.

We then move onto the next stage which is production. In production the film is created and shot. More crew will be recruited at this stage such as property master, script supervisor, assistant director etc. These are just the common role in film making; the production office will be free to create any unique blend of roles to suit the various responsibilities during the production of a film.

The third and final major phase of the production process is Post-production. It is often referred to as simply as post, e.g. "We can sort that out in post.” There are many things which can happen in post-production. Common tasks include:

• Editing video footage 
• Editing the soundtrack, adding sound effects, music etc. 
• Adding titles and graphics
• Colour and exposure correction 
• Adding special effects

In some cases post-production is relatively straightforward, consisting of choosing and arranging footage in the correct sequence. In most cases however, post-production is a time consuming job taking longer than the actual production phase. This is the final stage, where the film is released to cinemas or occasionally to consumer media or direct download from a provider. 

The final phase of film making is distribution. The film is duplicated as required for distribution to cinemas. Press kits, posters and other advertising materials are published and the film is advertised and promoted. Film distributors usually release a film with launch party, press releases, press preview screenings and film festival screenings. The film plays at selected cinemas and the DVD is released a few months later. The distribution rights for the film and DVD are also usually sold for worldwide distribution.

Audience consumption is very important to films as we would like to know what they think about the film right? Without their opinions and reviews a film will not go on to continue to show at cinemas and not much profit will be made out of it. The film will be given a bad name and will then have to be taken off screens.