For questions related to the process of producing a film or a TV show.
Film-making or film production involves a number of discrete stages including an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a film release and exhibition.
Film production involves three major stages:
Pre-production - Preparations are made for the shoot, in which cast and film crew are hired, locations are selected, and sets are built. The Development stage, in which the ideas for the film are created, rights to books/plays are bought, etc., and the screenplay is written, occurs before Pre-production.
Production - The raw elements for the finished film are recorded.
Post-Production - The film is edited; production sound (dialogue) is concurrently (but separately) edited, music tracks (and songs) are composed, performed and recorded, if a film is sought to have a score; sound effects are designed and recorded; and any other computer-graphic 'visual' effects are digitally added, all sound elements are mixed into "stems" then the stems are mixed then married to picture and the film is fully completed ("locked").
TV production begins when a network approves a pilot episode of a TV show for filming.
Filming is conducted in a television studio in which video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, with a few amendments for the special requirements of television production.
Before filming begins, first, the showrunner and producers are hired. The showrunner is the person in charge. He or she works with the writers and script, casts the actors, is responsible for creative direction and usually oversees the project from start to finish. Sometimes the showrunner is the person who created the show's concept, wrote the script or treatment and pitched it.
Producers help the showrunner handle everything. They help with hiring the director, talent, crew, writers and assistant producers, and their first task is rewriting or updating the script. When that's done, cast auditions are next. Then the producers hire the crew -- and finally, the pilot is shot and edited. This schedule is generally outlined as preproduction, production and postproduction.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmmaking
