Life Cycle of a Film

Idea
A producer will find an idea for a story to be made into a film. This idea may be inspired by a book, a true event or an original script.

Pre-Production
The producer will identify a theme/underlying message. In some cases a script will be developed after the story has been decided. The script will be altered and rewritten many times to improve it. In this stage, every step of creating the film will be carefully planned.

Funding
A film pitch will be prepared which will go on to be presented to potential financiers. These financiers will typically be a major film studio, film council or independent invester. If the pitch is success, then the film will be given the 'green light'. After this, the producer will hire a film crew, the size of which will be dependent on the budget on the film

Production & Post-Production
In this stage, all the scenes of a film will be shot. This can be a long process, with workdays often lasting 14 to 18 hours, with very little minutes of material being produced each day. After this, the film will go into post-production. This is where all of the material that has been shot will be reviewed and the best scenes will be selected for the final cut. This process involves the editor who puts the scenes together.

Distribution & Marketing
This is the stage where the film companys aim to raise public awareness of the film. This will involve releasing a trailer, a small preview of the film along with film stills. The stars of the film will give various interviews on television, magazines and radio. Film critics who write for papers or magazines will get an early screening and write a review for the film. Another feature in the marketing stage is that a website for the film will be set up. The website will usually include the film's trailers, television adverts, clips from the film, stills and the opportunity to pre-book tickets

Exhibition
The exhibition stage is the final stage in the life cycle of a film. The film will be released to cinemas (big budget films will be released to cinemas across the world, while independent films will be shown at independent cinemas or at film festivals) and the amount of money the film makes in it's first weekend can affect the success of the film. This is because if the film has good opening numbers, other people will believe that the film is good and go and see the film, therefore giving the film studio more profit. If the film doesn't get good opening numbers, it will most likely be pulled early from cinemas and released to dvd quite early. Usually after a couple of months the film will be released on dvd and also made available on pay-per-view channels such as Sky Box Office. Eventually terrestrial channels such as Channel 4 or BBC One or Two will get the rights to screen the film.