What are the 5 stages of making a movie?

Five stages of making a movie? Ugh, even saying that makes me tired, haha! It’s way more chaotic than five neat little boxes. It’s like… a wild, beautiful, terrifying mess.

First, there’s development. Remember that time I spent six months obsessed with this amazing sci-fi script, only to realize the ending was totally impossible to film without, like, a billion dollars? Yeah, that was fun. Development is all dreaming, plotting, and agonizing over whether your brilliant idea will actually hold together. More projects die in this phase than you’d believe. It’s a real graveyard of half-baked ideas – mine included, sadly.

Then comes pre-production – the whirlwind! Finding the crew, securing locations (remember that time I spent three weeks trying to get permission to film in that abandoned factory? The paperwork alone!), casting… it’s a mad dash to get everything organized before the actual filming begins. You’re basically building a tiny, fragile ecosystem.

Production? Oh, sweet production. The adrenaline rush! It’s a blur of long days, technical hiccups (that one time the sound guy forgot his headphones… oof!), creative sparks, and sheer exhaustion. You eat, sleep, and breathe your movie. It’s incredible, but I swear, I aged ten years making my last short film.

Post-production… this is where the magic should happen. Editing, sound design, color grading – it’s where the raw footage transforms. But it’s also where doubt creeps in. You start questioning everything. Was that shot really good? Did we make the right choices? Is it even watchable? The pressure is immense.

And finally, distribution. This part is both thrilling and terrifying. You’ve poured your heart and soul into this thing, and now you’re sending it out into the world, hoping – praying – someone actually wants to see it. It’s like releasing a little bird and hoping it doesn’t get eaten by a hawk. You’ve survived all the other stages, but this is the ultimate test. So many fantastic films never get seen, it’s heartbreaking.

So yeah, five stages. But really, it feels like a thousand tiny battles, each one testing your sanity and your coffee supply. And the chances of actually finishing are… slim. But the ones that do? Oh man, it’s worth it. Even if it almost kills you.