What is Film Production All About?

What Happens During Production?

On a studio film, the team that makes up production is large. You have camera and electrical, sound, art, wardrobe, craft services, producers, actors, trailers…It takes a single glimpse of a studio set to understand why movies cost so much to make!

Dial this back to an independent film set and the person count drops significantly. On the extreme, some sets will have only a director and an actor. Might sound impossible, but it happens. It’s called ultra low budget film where the director is lights the set, runs sound, camera and directs the actor. It’s a lot of work, but this is how many directors start out when they can’t hire crew and don’t want to wait on favors.

Let’s breakdown a few of the heavy-hitting departments that will exist on any film whether it’s a single location thriller of a big budget film from DC:

Camera & Electrical

These departments report to the Director of Photography (DP). Camera is obviously all about camera. Operation, lenses, etc. Electrical is run by the Gaffer and is responsible for all lighting and power on set. This could be as simple as a couple lights on c-stands to complicated setups with many lights, large diffusion, generators and cables winding like giant spaghetti. If you’ve heard the term “grip” these are the worker-bees of the electrical department, and there are specialized tasks like a dolly grip, etc.

Production Sound

Many beginning filmmakers overlook the importance of production sound and weep bitter tears in post. The great news is that capturing clean audio is not rocket science. But you need a basic understanding of what gear to get and how to do it right. At a minimum, production audio gear is made up of a mic (often a shotgun mic) field recorder, boom and XLR cable.

On a film set you have the production sound mixer who heads up the department. Then you have the boom operator (also called 1st assistant sound) and Sound Utility which is the person who helps with cables, etc. On indie sets with no crew, you typically have a director setting up a field recorder in 32-bit float mode and going for it!

Production Design / Art Department

Lights are responsible for so much when it comes to the look of a scene. But the art department, headed up by the Production Designer, is where it’s at for crafting the world of the film. From the interior of a 19th century cabin to a royal ball to a space station. This is one of the remaining areas where independent film struggles to meet the elaborate sets studios can nuke millions on.

Wardrobe & Makeup

Another crucial department that changes drastically based on the type of production. Is it a current day romantic comedy a 19th century drama or the next Pirates of the Caribbean? Imagine the responsibility of making sure every actor and actress has the clothing and makeup needed for each scene of a film. It’s a huge undertaking, and planned for in detail during pre-production. The costume designer and key makeup artist report to both the production designer and the director.

And we’re just getting started…

The Director’s Film School

If you’re just starting out as a director, understanding film production is paramount. But so is a knowledge of development, pre-production and post production. Modern directors trying to break into the industry must know it all or they’ll lose years relying on technical people.

The Write & Direct online film school teaches film production along with the other phases of filmmaking. It’s a self-paced school with an attached private community that start you out right as a filmmaker. Change your stars and enroll today!