How To Plan Your Film Workflow

Ok you’ve written your script and you’re now ready to dive into the magical world of filmmaking, but before you do it’s super important you have a clear and defined film production workflow so that everyone involved in the process knows exactly what each step is and their order.

A film production workflow essentially has five steps. First is development, and this is where the screenwriter comes up with, develops, and writes the script while consuming massive amounts of coffee.

Second is pre-production. This is essentially the planning phase where under the guidance of the film’s director and producer, all the details for shooting the film are planned out. This is also where casting is done, props or set pieces are made, and rehearsals or test shoots are also done.

Third is production and this is where the movie making happens. Basically production is all the time spent actually shooting your film. And of course, consuming lots more coffee while doing it.

Fourth is post-production. This is where the film gets edited together and polished with color correction and audio mixing. This is also the phase where you forget what sunlight looks like after sitting in a dark editing bay for eight hours.

And finally, fifth is distribution. Surprisingly this step can often be overlooked or forgotten by first time filmmakers, but it’s a critical step. After all, aren’t you making your film to be seen? And hey, who doesn’t want to make money, right?

This step usually involves submitting to film festivals in order to find a distributor or self distributing on internet platforms. Whatever you choose, just make sure you plan for it in advance and in the budget.

So that’s a basic overview of a film production workflow, but there’s many more steps to each of these sections. Development and distribution can vary greatly depending on what sort of film you’re making, but you can check out my videos breaking down the different steps for pre-production, production, and post-production to learn more.

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