Six stages of media preduction!

In the film industry there are six stages of media production. They are used to answer any questions people or industries may have regarding the film, it is used to ensure the research and planning for the film is completed correctly so everyone knows what is happening and what each sector are doing.

Here are the six stages:
- negotiating a deal
- pre-production and preparation
- production
- post-production
- distribution and marketing
- exhibition.

Negotiating a deal in contemporary Hollywood

The international film industry is dominated by a handful of major companies, still referred to as 'studios'. A film begins as an idea, it is pitched to a studio. It is conceived as an individual product and put together by a producer as a package of a story, stars and a director and crew. There are a number of ways in which the package can be financed, but for big budget films the deal will nearly always involve one of the major studios.

Here are a few of the major studios!

- Warner Bros
- Sony pictures
- Universal
- Disney
- Paramount
- 20th Century Fox
These are the six majors, which are all part of media conglomerates.








The concept behind a new film could be developed from many sources, but to interest the studios in Hollywood it will probably need to be supported by evidence of previous success associated with the ingredients of the proposal:
-A sequel to a recent box-office hit
-A remake of a European box-office hit
-An adaptation of a best selling book
-An original story by a proven scriptwriter such as Alan Ball.
-An original idea from a successful director/star team
-A new twist on a story from a currently popular genre cycle
-Any combination of the above.
Film producers have to make an educated guess on what will work with audiences a year or more on and they have to gamble with very large sums of money.

Pre-Production

Once the go ahead has been given, the production team have a great deal to do before shooting begins. Parts must be cast, locations chosen, costumes researched, dialogue coaches and wranglers hired, hotel rooms booked etc. All this may take several months, during which time the script will be reworked and the direction of the project may be altered. It is necessary to polish the script and preparing storyboards for action sequences is the key to the high technical quality of the finished product. At this point the producer should have a clear idea of the final budget. This will be used in the monitoring of progress on the shoot. If any costs look like over running, changes to the script may have to be made.

Production

This stage is often called principal photography, and it is likely to be the shortest stage of production. Modern films usually wrap up in around fifty days of shooting- an average of two to three minutes a day- depending on the demands of the script. Directors and crews who can stick to schedules will be rehired and save money. Special effects which require shooting with actors can be a major problem and cause some productions to come back to studio lots or specialist facilities.
Shooting is the most visible aspect of the production process and is frequently filmed in order to be used for publicity purposes.

Post-production

Post production is the longest process of post production. Here the film is edited. The relationship between the director and the editor may be distant or very close, as in the case of Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker, who work together for months in order to complete a picture. The importance of sound during the last ten years has added to the work done in post production. More time is spent on tidying up dialogue through looping or automatic dialogue replacement. It also involves adding sound effects and special visual effects. The completed film then goes to the laboratories for colour grading and other adjustments.

Distribution and marketing

Distributers promote and market films in particular territories and negotiate release patterns with exhibitors. The distribution of most big budget Hollywood films is directly controlled by the majors themselves. In North America each major studio usually distributes its own pictures. In the UK, Paramount and Universal, with MGM-UA, are joint owners of the biggest distributor, UIP. In the other important cinema markets around the world the majors may have an agreement with a local distributor, but as the international market grows they are increasingly opening their own offices in every territory.

Exhibition

In the US major studios were barred from ownership of significant cinema chains. Overseas there was no such restrictions, and in the last few years warner bros and UCI have built multiplexes in many cinema markets, including the UK, where other US chains such as showcase are also receptive to Hollywood films.
Ownership or control of every single stage of production is known as vertical integration, and it has obvious advantages for the majors in ensuring that they will have a cinema available to take a film when it is ready for release.
The lack of cinema screens on which to release new films became a problem in the UK in the mid 1980s and was a factor in the building boom within British exhibition.
The major change for the exhibition sector will come with digital projection, which will require all cinemas to invest in new equipment.