Film Making

In class we watched a short, ten minute film which told us the basic ins and outs of what has to be taken into consideration when making a film.
First of all, film making is a gamble. You never know if you're going to make the money back or whether you are simply going to lose it. This is the main risk when making a film, will the audience like it? And who will go so see it?
A film next to always starts off with a producer. Their role is to get the money for the film; find a director; find a script writer for their idea; find health and safety officers and they are basically in the middle of all the action. They are the entrepreneur. Once they have chosen their director, the producer must look after their director as they are now in charge of what your film will look like.
In the film, the people said that there were four main parts in creating a film and they are: developing the idea; raising money for the idea; making the idea and producing/selling your idea to the market.
When you find a script writer, their main stimulus for a whole film is an idea or a question. Once they have written their idea, they then redraft their script twelve to fifteen times NORMALLY. That means that sometimes there are more. The script writer, must try and relate the script to the audience so that they feel the issues covered in the film can affect them. The more emotions a film makes the watcher feel, generally, the better the film, so making the script relate to the reader can be quite a vital part. The script must tantalise the director otherwise the director might turn down their script. One of the script writers say that you must have a distinctive beginning, middle and end. They say that a basic format is one that can rarely go wrong. So, how do you know if you have a good/hollywood blockbuster script? Well, apparently, it is a combination of instincts and the market place that you aim your film at.
Once the script it made, they then create screen play. At this point, they then get the director back on board and then they look at the budget together and then look into a cast. This is called "The Package". The cast are vital to the film as it makes the difference as to whether somebody will come and see your film or whether they won't.
The script developer works with the screen writer to look at what is important to them. If it is not good enough, for instance, the team, the film might not get funding and then you're back to square one.
Most film makers get their funding from worldwide or co-production deals. Usually, film makers like to have between 3 and 10 financers because their money is more guaranteed and it is far safer. Of course it is easier to get one funder, but it is a lot higher risk. Obviously, the more your directors, writers and actors cost depends on who you go to for financing.
Then comes the planning for the film. What will be filmed? Where will it be filmed? When will it be filmed? etc. A lot of people in the film industry go for the hardest scene first and then build the rest of the film around it.
For the filming you need a cinematographer. The cinematographer is the directors right hand man - they can turn the script into something amazing.
Budgeting is another key area of the film. To make a film, you must make a finance plan to see where your money will go and when, otherwise you may go over budget, and a lot of the time, you cannot afford to do that. You need a business plan, which is basically an analysis of the script. The business plan shows all of the above the line and below the line costs.
Then, the director must decide where they see the film being played. Clear plans are fundamental as without them, your film cannot work. You must decide whether a $20 million film will have a $20 million audience, if not, you can't afford to make it. As one of the people said, a film must be "definable without being formulaic".
A key area of films which people underestimate the value of in almost every film is the marketing of the film. It is very costly and without advertising, people won't know their film is on. So, marketing decisions are things such as: does it fit into a good sellable genre? Do you have marketable stars? Is your director/producer well-known?
Making a film is not as important as marketing film, because that is where the money comes from.