Who doesn’t love films? Most of us love the story that unfolds on a screen in front of us, and for a few hours at least, we are completely absorbed in the story telling. Films are stories brought to life.

But, how are films made?

Well, making a film is not easy. It takes at least a few months, and sometimes years to get a film out.

The key people or companies in the production of a film are the producer, the director, and the writer. The writer is the person who has the story that needs to be told. The Director is the person who, well, literally brings the dream alive. The director directs the actors, decides what the scenes should look like, what the locations should be, etc. As you can imagine, a director has to do a LOT.

A producer is the person who produces the film. Usually, the producer provides the money required to make the film. Sometimes, they may be a financier. One or more people or companies may come together to produce a film.

Once this is done, the acting and technical teams come together.

The On Screen Team

The acting team are the people you see on screen.

The main characters in the story are called leads.

People who support them are called ensemble cast. For example, if its a family story, the main person would be the lead and their family members (parents, siblings, cousins, relatives etc.) would form the ensemble cast.

There are special casting directors whose job it is to find the right actor for the role.

The Off Screen Team

This is a HUGE chunk of the film team.

There are specialised roles and general roles – people who do whatever it takes.

Let’s meet some important creative and technical roles behind the film. Each one of these is a specialised skill that needs years of hard work and practice. We have not been able to cover everything here, just the most important ones.

Music

The music director(s), lyricists, singers, orchestra, and sound engineers create the amazing sound track and background music for the film.

The music directors provide the music – both song music (called soundtrack) and background music (the music you hear during scenes but barely notice. A lot of hard work goes into that too).

Lyricists provide the words to those songs.

Singers bring the songs to life.

Orchestra provides the music to which the singers sing. The orchestra also records the background music.

Sound Engineers ensure that the sounds are arranged just so, to create the perfect experience. The orchestra is not too loud, the sound should be just perfect, and so on.

Art Direction, Locations, and Animation/ Virtual Reality

Remember that village from Lagaan? Or the beautiful house from another movie, or the exquisite sets from Marvel Studios? All of that goes into art direction, location, and animations.

Think of this as the stage on which the story is played out. This is really hard work. For example, when making a period film (a movie about a time in the past), we have to get all the things absolutely right. The kind of furniture used then,the kind of houses people lived in, how the streets looked, and so on. A lot of minute details have to be taken care of.

Sets can either be outdoor locations or created in the studio. Sometimes, street scenes that you think are happening in natural light are actually shot in a studio!

When we are trying to create a movie about the future, we have to imagine the locations and bring them to life. Sometimes, that is done using physical objects and locations. Sometimes, the entire backdrop is created artificially using computers.

For example, the movie – The Martian, was shot at the Wadi Rum in southern Jordan. That is the importance of finding the right location.

Costumes

Can you imagine a film with the wrong costumes? For example, the Spiderman suit, the iron Man suit, or a movie about the past in modern clothes?! How wrong would that look!

Costumes are very important to give the right feel to the film.

Costume Designers and Arrangers do this important work.

Choreography and Action Direction

In most Indian films, dance is very important. Many people of my generation have grown up copying the lovely dance moves of our heroes and heroines on screen. But do all actors know how to dance well and what steps they should take?

Well, no. There are specialists who think of what the dance moves should be on a certain song or music piece. They are called Choreographers. Choreographers teach stars how to dance, what their steps should be. But they also teach all the background dancers (the ones you don’t notice) what their steps should be. The steps have to be perfect to the second.

Just like dance, fights seem to be natural parts of a movie. But do the actors know how they should fight? Or do they get into a fight on the set (the place where the movie is made is called a set) and the camera team captures it?

No! Every punch, every defence, every kick is planned before it is made. The directors who take care of action sequences are called Action Directors. They teach the actors what each fight or action sequence will look like. Action sequences may involve fights between actors, car, flight or other vehicle chases, or stunts on the screen for any reason.

Cinematography

This is the important person who captures all this for us to enjoy and see. When you see a location, where do you want the light? What should be the angle? How should the scene be captured? All this is decided by the cinematographer. Even the most beautiful location needs a good cinematographer to translate it for us, the viewers.

Editors

While filming, the directors capture a lot of scenes. The editor’s job is to see the movie and edit out all the scenes that, in their opinion, are not integral to the movie. They ensure that the movie remains gripping. If there are too many scenes that don’t add to the story telling, the viewer gets bored. At the same time, all important episodes should be in place. If we cut out an episode that is referenced later in the film, the viewer will not be able to connect the dots.

The Marketing Team

Phew! After all this hard work, the film finally gets made. But wait, the work is not over yet! How will anyone know that a film has been made? How will we get people to come and see it?

This is where the marketing team comes in. They design the posters, the social media campaign, and the trailers. Trailers are short promotional films about a movie. You might have seen trailers in a movie hall. Before the movie plays, trailers are shown, so viewers know which movies are being released in the next few weeks. Trailers are also released on Youtube and OTT platforms.

You might have noticed that before the release of a film, press interviews of the lead actors and the director, etc. appear in newspapers, magazines, and on TV. They also make guest appearances on TV shows. Arranging all of that is the hard work of the marketing team.

Releasing the Film

The producer and director do not own cinema halls or OTT Platforms. So, they need to take the films to the folks who do own the cinema halls and the OTT platforms.

The producers take the films to people called distributors. Usually, distributors are by geographical territory. The distributors, in turn, sell the rights to cinema owners. The cinema owners then play the film, and we get to watch it.

The cinema owners give some money to the distributor, and then make money from our ticket and food sales. Do you know that in the metros, most of the revenue (money earned) is from sale of food products like pop corn, and not really from sale of tickets?

What a long, amazing journey that is!

In some cases, large multiplex owners like PVR Cinemas might buy the rights directly from the production company. PVR Cinemas has also entered production. (later in life, you will learn that this is called vertical integration. 🙂 )

And finally, a question for you

How many people do you think earn from a single commercial film? Take a wild guess, and share your guesses with us in the comments section.