If you are planning on making a film or video production you should know there are a lot of steps involved in making an interesting and well-made film. You might have an idea in your head of what you would like to see and to show to the world, but without planning it may never look exactly how you want it to.

There are several stages a video production company goes through to ensure your idea for your film or video is perfect.

1. Film or Video Development

The first stage in a film or video's creation is the development stage. This is when you have an idea, either from a book or existing script or perhaps you wrote a brand new script and want to turn it into a video. This idea or script begins to be developed from the written word into a moving picture. This is when you would hire your video production company to work with you to develop the script into a film. You would pick a producer unless you are going to produce it yourself, a director, and if needed, a writer to take your idea and turn it into a viable film. This can take several weeks to a few months as ideas are can be altered to fit the narrative of the film better. This is done before any video equipment is rented or actors are hired.

2. Pre-Production of the Film

Once you have your script and hiring of your video production company is completed, you move into the filming planning stage of your film called pre-production. At this point, you are making a plan as to how you want to film the video. This means what kind of shots do you want, what locations would make sense for each scene, and getting the equipment ready for the shoot. At this point, you also start hiring your cast and production manager to oversee the entire production.

3. Production Phase and Principal Photography

The next stage of your film is the production stage. This is when the planning of daily shots and what material from the script will be covered each day. A schedule is set up with a timetable for how long each shot should take before moving on to a different one is created. Principal photography begins around this time too. Once you have your plans set for each day's shooting schedule, you will begin filming the movie. Your video production company will have much of its employees or contractors on set at this time and this is probably the most expensive part of your production.

4. Post-Production

Your video production company will move into post-production once principal photography is done. This means all editing, special effects, and audio work is done during this time. This helps to bring the entire film together and you will see your idea finally come to life onscreen. Once your production is done you can distribute it to an online streaming service, Youtube, or a movie theater.