How Long Does It Take To Shoot A Feature Film

What'south the boilerplate filmmaking time frame?

Picture product happens in phases, and the time it takes to push a movie through each phase can vary widely. While well-nigh films take from a few months to a few years to go from pre-production to release, a few have taken quite a chip longer.

I outlier is Orson Welles'south The Other Side of the Wind, which began primary photography in 1970 only didn't run across theatrical release until 2018 due to legal and financial problems. While many things can affect the timeline, if yous empathize the ins and outs of which blazon of movie you want to make, you lot can gain a better estimate of how long it will take to create.

How long do different types of movies have to make?

Well-nigh filmmakers acquire their craft by making short films earlier moving onto features. The amount of time a feature picture takes to make depends heavily on the genre.

Indie

Contained movies usually come up together on shoestring budgets, so production time, which is the nearly expensive part of filmmaking, is shorter. "For an independent film, take almost three to 6 months for pre-production and i to 2 months for principal photography, then accept perhaps six months to a year for mail service-production," says cinematographer Hiroshi Hara.

Romance

Authentication creates tons of holiday romances by devoting just a few weeks to production and then moving quickly through editing, and then a film shot in summer can stream on Netflix by Christmas. Romances tend to require fewer action scenes or special effects, and fewer sets and actors, so they can be shot chop-chop.

Drama

These films tin can vary widely depending on the budget and scope of the motion picture. An intimate drama virtually a couple in Los Angeles could come up together apace, while a period drama might require elaborate costumes and sets that take time to build. A war epic may require the hiring and coordination of hundreds of extras and hard stunts, both of which add time to the production.

Superhero or sci-fi action

Because and so much of the action happens with VFX, DC and Marvel movies and franchise epics like Star Wars films require a lot of time in postal service-production. Nevertheless, with the resources of a major studio, these large films tin can come together fast. Avengers: Endgame spent five months in production and made it into theaters 15 months subsequently.

Animation

Blithe movies tend to take longer than live action, but information technology depends how many animators are on the team. A feature picture show past Pixar or Disney might take 5 years to make, with more than 100 animators working together for several months.

Various sketches of sci-fi robots for a movie

The iv phases of moviemaking.

Ideation

This phase begins with the first artistic spark. The filmmaker will take that original thought and brainstorm to write an outline and so a crude script, and remember nigh the team they'll put together. This could take several months, and this is the phase in which yous can change your mind about the particular project without losing whatever coin.

Two people sitting in chairs holding sheets of paper talking to each other

Pre-production

This procedure should take less than a year. The producer and director hire crew members, outset with department heads. Those heads hire the balance of the crew, audition and hire actors, scout locations, and brainstorm prepare and costume design.

The production squad plans the product. Writers use the fourth dimension for rewrites, and the director and cinematographer storyboard the scenes. The producers outline a budget and raise money.

"You actually need to take your fourth dimension in pre-production and make certain that everything is ready," says manager and writer David Andrew Stoler. The more planning you can exercise, including rehearsal, blocking scenes, and making a detailed shooting schedule, the fewer surprises you'll accept to bargain with during production, and the smaller the run a risk that you volition go over upkeep.

A movie set with a crew of people recording an actor in front of a green screen

Production

For the boilerplate moving picture, the bodily shooting of footage usually takes between 1 and 3 months. The time depends on the length of the script, only the going is slow. "One or two script pages will have a whole day to moving-picture show," says cinematographer Margaret Kurniawan.

That estimate can vary greatly depending on the number of different photographic camera setups and scenes you need to shoot, equally well as the types of scenes. Sequences involving heavily choreographed activeness, stunts, or pyrotechnics can take twice as long as scenes of people simply talking to each other.

It's good practice to give yourself more than time to shoot scenes than you think you'll need. "Whatever your director of photography says, add more time to information technology. Requite yourself as much space as possible for things to take longer than you idea," says Stoler.

Mail-production

In some respects, mail service-production is a restart of the filmmaking procedure. No affair what was in the script, what matters at this stage is the video and audio the coiffure captured. Reshoots are often impossible due to budget and time constraints, then the goal is often to utilise video editing techniques to extract the all-time film you tin can from the footage y'all have.

Information technology takes an boilerplate of six to twelve months to go from raw footage to concluding cut. This phase besides includes the addition of whatever CGI or other special effects, movement graphics for title sequences, color correction, sound mixing, and adding and editing music or other sound furnishings.

The Adobe Premiere Pro color effects menu superimposed over an image of a parent and child wearing space suits

Speed up post-production.

With Adobe Premiere Pro, the manufacture-standard video editing software, you have all the tools yous need to turn your raw footage into a release-ready film in the shortest length of time. You can set up Scene Edit Detection to use Adobe Sensei AI to add cuts or markers and utilise adjustments faster.

You can also do all of your color grading and correction in Premiere Pro. With user-friendly tools correct in your video editor, the Lumetri Color workspace has all you lot need to set the correct tone for every scene.

Premiere Pro also works seamlessly with other Adobe apps, so you tin can speed up every aspect of post-product. Discover and buy Adobe Stock sound tracks in the Essential Audio panel inside Premiere Pro, or edit sound in Adobe Audition to add to your pic.

Relieve postal service-production time with Adobe After Effects. Create movement graphics and other visual effects and export your compositions to Premiere Pro. With Dynamic Link, any changes you lot make in After Furnishings volition be reflected in your project in Premiere Pro.

Filmmaking is a labor of dearest that requires the effort and collaboration of many people. It takes fourth dimension, then the sooner you start, the ameliorate.