It's More Complex Than You Think

As I sit here watching "Sherlock Holmes", I can help but realize how movies are taken for granted. Too many people think that film making is a pointless industry; a waste of time.

There is so much work behind the production of a film. First you have the pre-production stage. Screenplay writing, storyboarding, scouting actors, set building, recruiting producers, etc. This is where the most stressful events take place, so to speak. If that isn't enough work in and of itself, take into consideration the actual production stage. You have filming to do in a certain time frame. This is also where editing of the script happens, because sometimes, an actor will forget their lines and improvise their way through a scene. Usually, the director will approve, but there are occasions when he or she will make the actor go through that scene again, meaning they have to discard the old film and start over. Granted, it sounds like the easiest part of film making, but in reality there is no such thing as simplicity in the film industry. And then you have to consider post-production. This is when the editing takes place, which is probably one of the most difficult parts of film making. Scenes are cut and moved into a different order, and sometimes they have to re-film. This is what takes the most amount of time, and yet producers are able to release a decent film on time. So why is it that the film industry is thought of in such a degrading manner?

What I personally find the most irksome is that no one considers film making an art. Yes, it is far different than stereotypical art, but it is nonetheless an art.