Read Chapter 11 pgs. 410-420 (through "Postproduction")

 Read Chapter 11 pgs. 410-420 (through "Postproduction")

Money, Methods, and Materials: The Whole Equation

*Moviemaking is a moneymaking enterprise.

Today's Features

Get Out, 2017 was $5 million  Justice League, 2017 was $300 million.

A 2016 Film L.A. sampling of the highest grossing films of that year found the average budget to be $74.4 million. An additional 50percent is applied to marketing and distribution. So a $75 million movie must earn around $113 million before it makes profit. 

Investors care first about the money and their investment and second - often a distant second - about art. They focus on movies as commodities. 

In this view, it's amazing that a small number of films can actually be genuine works of art rather than simply commercial products to be consumed. 

Why do today's movies cost so much?
labor and materials. 
Blockbusters require 100's of people at all levels of production who are trained to use
  highly advanced digital technology. 
Action films have dozens of job titles that did not exist before digital filmmaking. 
The audience wants more features like 3-D and IMAX formats but it increase prices. 

Movies involve a constant tug-of-war between artistic vision and profitability. 

A great movie requires:
1)a good script
2)a director's inspiration, vision, intelligence and supervision (but not necessarily control) of all aspects of the film's production. 

Because the director plays the most important role we ordinarily cite film:
Great Gerwig's Lady Bird (2017)

Yet filmmaking is teamwork: 
purchasing of raw film stock
It's exposure
processing
editing
projection
filmmakers depend on a variety of artists
technologies
technicians
craftspeople. 

The filmmaker may have a clear idea but it will change considerably thanks to the technology and teamwork from beginning to end. Filmmaking is a collaborative activity. 

Jon Lewis wrote, "What ends up on the screen is not only a miracle of persistence and inspiration  but also the result of certain practical concessions to the limitations of the studio system." 

Film production is complicated by the cost-effective practice of  shooting movies out of chronological order. 

Script Supervisor
Stays as close as possible to the director during shooting
records all details of continuity from shot to shot
costumes, positions, objects placement and actors are consistent in each shot

Film and Digital Technologies: An Overview 
Film Technology
analog - because the film is analogous, or proportional, to the input. the first image is analagous to the the second. 
shooting - exposes the film to light
processing
projecting
A movie film's FORMAT is the gauge or width of the film stock and its perforations measured in mm Super 8mm through 70mm
film stock length number of feet or number of reels

film stock speed or exposure index

exposure - the length of time that the film is exposed to light
resolution - the capacity of the camera lens, film stock and processing to provide fine detail in an image

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
Digital and electronic process that creates its images through a numbered system of pixels

FILM VS DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

PREPRODUCTION
preproduction consist of planning and preparation. 
Robert Altman example. 

PRODUCTION
production is the actual shooting that can last 6 weeks to several months or more. 

POSTPRODUCTION
postproduction consists of three phasis
editing
finishing
bringing the film to the public (marketing and distribution)