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Stages of Production

All forms of media production have their distinct differences and their similarities, but one thing common across all specialties is some form of production stages. The most common form of production stages that we hear commonly are related to film, and that is the ones we will focus on today.

The Three Stages

Watch this video, it starts at 20 seconds and you can stop watching at minute 2:30.

Summary

  • Pre-Production: The planning and scheduling phase of a production. Tends to be the make or break phase of production.
  • Production: Boots on the ground and camera's rolling, this is the capture/creation of raw footage and the most expensive phase.
  • Post-Production: Fix it in post? This is where the magic happens, raw footage is processed, edited, manipulated/enhanced, packaged, and published.

Assignment #3

Assignment #3 Production Stages

Directions
Tell me the name of your absolute most favourite movie ever. Then tell me what you think may have happened in the different stages of production during the production of that movie (refer to the video we just watched).
Pre-Production - Find at least two particular things about the movie that had to be set up, planned, and prepared beforehand. Include some links ot videos or websites where you found your information
Production - Pick a scene that you think may have been very difficult or interesting to shoot. Explain exactly why you picked it, why you find it interesting, and what about it would be difficult or complicated to shoot/film. Find a video clip of that scene from YouTube, (if possible) and include it in your assignment.
Post-Production - If your film had complicated CGI and editing they had to do after recording, find some articles talking about that and tell me about it. You can also talk about the original run time and deleted scenes vs the final theatre run time, and how much they shortened from the film. Include some links to videos or websites where you found your information.

Example
Shawshank Redemption
This is my favourite movie because it has a very powerful message and actors that portray that powerful emotion very well. It also has some complicated scenes that really sparked my interest, and Morgan Freeman is one of my favourite actors.

Pre-production
Setting up and booking the Ohio State Reformatory took a lot of planning and communication, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_Z6ePMn8-w

Casting and setting up contracts for big named actors, Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. They had trouble scheduling for Tim Robbins and almost didn't have him as an actor.

Scheduling production scenes would have been tricky because they were recording a lot of dramatic scenes at sunset.

Production
A couple difficult scenes to shoot would be the scene where Andy crawls through a sewer pipe and emerges into freedom. This scene would have been interesting to shoot because of the confined space and then the rain and lighting after his escape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDDpqF_sq9w

Post-production
With a total run time of 142 minutes Shawshank Redemption was considered a dud at the box office in 1994 yet is not one of the top movies in the IMDB lists.
Here is an article explaining the reasons for the shift in popularity. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/09/shawshank-redemption-anniversary-story

Take your time, put some effort and detail into this.