Documentary notes

Pre production:

Pre-production is a fairly loose term which refers to the tasks undertaken before production begins. Exactly what is included in this stage depends on the medium and situation.

For a small video company, pre-production may refer to everything that happens before shooting begins, for example, meeting with the client, research, storyboarding, location planning, etc.

For feature films, pre-production is more specific and only begins when other milestones have been met such as financing, screenplay, casting and major staffing. In this case pre-production includes:

• Location scouting
• Prop and wardrobe identification and preparation
• Special effects identification and preparation
• Production schedule
• Set construction
• Script-locking (semi-finalisation of the script)
• Script read-through with cast, director and other interested parties

Production:

In film and video, production refers to the part of the process in which footage is recorded. This is what most people imagine when they think of a film being made — actors on sets, cameras rolling, etc. The production phase is also known as principal photography.

In large feature films the beginning of the production phase marks the "point of no return", i.e. the point at which it is no longer financially viable to cancel the project. At this point it is almost always cheaper to continue until the project is finished than to deal with the financial fall-out of canceling.

The goal of principal photography is obviously to record all required shots, however it is fairly common to shoot "pick-up" shots in post-production. Pick-up shots may be required when a mistake is noticed, a script change is made (this is unusual), or even if a performance is deemed to be unsatisfactory.

In music, production usually refers to the creative direction of a project. Unlike a film producer who is more of a manager, a music producer has a very hands-on role in the creative development.

Distribution:

• A film distributor is an independent company that acts as an agent for a filmmaker (or film production company) to market and circulate a film in festivals, theaters, television, home video (DVD, Video on Demand, Download, etc), and for educational purposes (curriculum tool, conferences, social/cultural/educational organizations, etc.).
• Educational distributors - release films and other visual programming that can be used as educational tools. They may distribute to: schools, libraries, universities and colleges, museums, media centers, conference programmers, social and health service providers, professional/employee associations, government, community and grass-roots organizations
• Home video distributors - release films in various forms that can be purchased for home viewing. This includes VHS, DVD, Video on Demand, Internet Download, Pay-Per-View, etc.
• Television - release films and other visual programming to network and cable TV, public access TV Theatrical - release feature, documentary, and short films to the theater circuit