The Five Stages of Making a Film

We finally finished the short film Traveling Mercies that I mentioned in my last post (yay!). It took us ten months from shooting until completion (longer, if you count pre-production and the writing process). If that seems like a long time to make a 14-minute film, it is! But it’s also not out of the ordinary. That’s because of all the factors that go into making a film. Since most people don’t know what’s entailed, I thought I’d briefly break down the five major stages [for the purposes of this post, I’m referring to narrative films, but in essence these five stages apply to documentary too].

1 – Writing

Generally speaking, without a script (or a very detailed treatment), you can’t make a film. I mean, you can try, but chances are, if you’re trying to tell a specific story, you’re going to run into trouble at some point if it’s not written down.

The script is to a filmmaker what a blueprint is to an architect. It is The Plan. Even if you’re Mike Leigh and your film is mostly improvised, you need a plan to begin with and to guide you.

Mike Leigh with actors

It’s more than having the story, structure, characters, and dialogue laid out. The script is also what producers use to make the schedule and the budget. All the department heads use it to get a sense of the characters, the story, how the film should look, what the locations are, what the sets should look like, the costumes, and so on. The script allows everyone to get on the same page, literally and figuratively.

Writing the script involves developing the idea, researching, outlining, writing, rewriting, receiving feedback, more rewriting… it can take weeks, months, or years. Every project is different. [This entertaining Reddit thread about John Hughes writing The Breakfast Club in two days shows how much work goes into such a feat before the writing begins, and after the first draft is written.]

Sometimes a producer or director will find a script that’s already written and most of that work will have already happened. But most likely it will still need more changes before it can go out to actors or be filmed. Often scripts are tweaked during subsequent phases as well, even during production. In any case, you can’t move to the next stage without a finished screenplay.

2 – Financing

Films are expensive. There are exceptions (there are always exceptions). A friend just saw an independent feature film in Los Angeles that was made for $15,000!

Still, unless you already have all the money you need in your bank account – or you’re working with someone who does – you gotta either find the money or get permission from whoever has the money to make it.

Most of us don’t have that kind of money. Or any money. So, we’re not only trying to find money to make the film, but also money to live on while making the film.

Suffice it to say, other than winning the lottery, finding the money can be a long and challenging process. Often, you need money to find money. For example… with feature films you usually need a “star” attached to attract investors, but you need some kind of money to offer the star to get them (or their reps) to read the script! This is why producers who know how to raise money, or have access to money, are so coveted and can be quite powerful. I’m still learning how to finance films, honestly.

But the good news is… once you have the money and are what they call “greenlit,” you can move on to making the film.

3 – Pre-Production

Around this time in the process, the film starts to feel like it might really happen. Ideally, there is now a production office and a small crew of folks working with you, and you’re all getting paid a little something. Your Assistant Director will have broken down the script scene by scene, made all kinds of reports and a shooting schedule that you will discuss – and probably change – umpteen times before filming begins. Every scene is analyzed for cast, number of extras, set design, locations, props, costumes, equipment needed, special effects, stunts, shots, number of set-ups, company moves, and more.

It might surprise people to know that most of the decisions on a film are made during this phase. In addition to all of the above details that you discuss with your department heads, this is when you cast all the roles. If you’re lucky, you will have some rehearsal time with the actors. At some point, you will schedule a reading of the script with the entire cast and heads of department, ideally all of you in the same physical space.

One of my favorite activities during pre-production is location scouting, which is like casting but for physical spaces. I could write a whole post on this process (and maybe I will!) because locations are crucial to a film and a lot of factors go into choosing them (here’s a few of them).

The infamous stairs from William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, located in Washington DC’s Georgetown

Sometimes financing is still happening during pre-production; often the writer is tweaking the script based on input from actors, or ideas that come up in rehearsals, or possibly to accommodate a specific location, or change in the schedule. And sometimes both continue even during production and post-production.

Ideally, however, everything is in place – and every (or almost every) detail is worked out – before you start shooting.

4 – Production

Let me tell you, there is nothing like the feeling of walking onto the set of your own film for the first time on the first day of production. It’s similar to when a team walks onto the field before a big game… or a conductor walks up to the podium… or the generals of old used to ride into battle. You are filled with hope, determination, butterflies in your stomach, and courage in your heart. You feel like you are fulfilling your destiny and maybe, just maybe, about to accomplish something amazing.

Ridley Scott's Napoleon... riding into battle.

There are so many things that can go wrong and derail the film before getting to this point that, often, this moment can feel like the pinnacle of the whole experience. Watching the trucks arrive, people introduce themselves, grabbing a cup of coffee at the craft service table, visiting the actors in hair and makeup, talking to the A.D. about the day’s flow, while the crew begins setting up, all around you the pleasant hum of many moving parts working together in controlled chaos.

It’s a beautiful feeling of anticipation.

The irony is that, as much as you have planned and designed and tried to anticipate every possibility to the nth degree, trust me, shit will STILL happen unexpectedly. This is normal and happens on every film at some point. And when it does you will have to PIVOT from the original plan, very quickly, so as to not lose money, momentum, and morale, to another plan… on the spot… and under enormous pressure. All without losing your cool.

Believe it or not, this is the fun part of filmmaking! The part when you solve problems creatively. Often the best decisions come out of these extremely difficult, tense, do-or-die moments.

I’ll give you one example from personal experience.

When we shot my second short film Milk and Honey, we scheduled the first and last scenes of the film (which took place in the same location and were daytime exteriors) for the end of the day on the last day of filming. By the time we got to shooting them, however, we were running out of daylight, as the sun was setting.

The DP Sarah Levy and I had designed the first scene with a bunch of shots to cover the following action: a cop car drives up to a car that’s parked on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, the cop gets out and approach the abandoned car, he looks inside, then sees footsteps in the sand that lead him to walk into the desert to try to find whoever owns the car.

Because we were losing light so quickly, the producer Carol Shine told us we didn’t have time to do all those shots. We had to come up with a different plan IMMEDIATELY.

Sarah and I stepped aside for a moment and figured out how we could capture the first and last scenes with only two shots for each scene. Carol told us we would have time (daylight) to do only ONE TAKE of each.

It was a bold move. But we trusted each other and the team. So that’s what we did. Everyone, including the actors, moving as fast and with as much concentration as possible. And not only did we pull it off, but the result was better than the original idea.

Watch it for yourself HERE (the first scene begins at 00:39; the last scene at 20:25).

5 – Post-Production

As the saying goes, a film is written three times: when it’s originally written, when it’s filmed, and when it’s edited.

On big films and television shows, post-production usually overlaps with production; meaning, the editing process begins before the film is finished shooting. The editor will be compiling, syncing, and logging footage and sending ‘dailies’ to the director and producer and cinematographer to view the day’s footage. [One of the more infamous stories about this process is detailed in this New Yorker article about the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece The Godfather. Among other grievances, Paramount Pictures thought his dailies were too dark, Brando was incomprehensible, and Al Pacino was too short!]

James Caan, Marlon Brando, Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, John Cazale

In general, however, by the time you get to post, principal photography is complete, and you are most likely exhausted, if not traumatized. You collapse on the editor’s couch and go through this emotional rollercoaster of facing the reality of what you actually shot. It’s one thing to watch dailies, and a whole other thing to start putting the shots together to make an actual film.

Over the next few weeks or months, you and the editor will obsess over and wrestle with this footage to such an exhaustive extent that you will be able to recite the entire film by heart, you will dream about it, and quite possibly you will lose all perspective.

A lot of people don’t realize what goes into post-production or appreciate how important it is. And how long it can take. It takes many iterations, screenings, and rounds of notes to get to picture lock. And only then can you seriously delve into probably the least understood/appreciated, most overlooked, and most important aspects of film - the SOUND DESIGN.

Often, it’s a film’s sound that ultimately makes it look professional… or amateurish.

The process of getting it to sound good includes cleaning up production sound, adding sound effects to each scene, recording additional dialogue (ADR), recording foley if necessary, placing source music, composing and recording the film score, and editing and mixing the entire soundtrack. It’s A LOT OF WORK.

Traveling Mercies sound recorder, designer, and mixer Gregg Mann

And that’s not all!

When the sound is finished, you still have to color correct and color grade the film, and design and finalize your title sequence and credits. Basically, every edit, sound, color, name, EVERY DETAIL of the film is scrutinized repeatedly until it is right. Post-production is fun, exhausting, exhilarating, frustrating, immensely creative and ultimately hugely satisfying. It is literally the final lap of the marathon.

And once you’re finished, pop that bubbly and celebrate because your film is IN THE CAN and ready to be shared with the public!

By the way, some might say that the sixth stage in making a film is Distribution or getting the film out there. I wouldn’t argue with that. But distribution is not the creative process of making the film, it’s the business side, which I’ll write about in another post.

We are currently submitting to film festivals, so the work is by no means over. But at least the film is finished. I’m so proud. And grateful to everyone who helped make it.