1. The Role of a Production
Company
By James Bowman-Spink

2. About...
• A production company is generally the company that
handles the funding, the advertising and the screening
of the film.
• They are normally under contract with a media
conglomerate, entertainment company, film studio, or a
Motion Picture Company or they may be owned by one
of the above.
• These are vital as they act as the production company’s
partner or sometimes their parent company. This has
become known over time as the Studio System.
• However production companies can also be
independent.

3. Types of Production Company
• Some production companies exist in mini media conglomerates which cover their
own production advertising, merchandise etc. This is an advantage as this means
that most of the revenue from the film will be kept in that one company.
• There are motion picture companies which specialise purely in the making of
motion pictures, and collaborate with sister companies to do the rest.
• Production companies can either work under contract for an entertainment system
or as some sort of junior company or (asset) for the bigger entertainment company.

4. The Role of a production company
• The production company comes in to work when the screen play has been written.
• The Production Company manages; funding, actor casting, staff hiring and other
things within that field. This is known as the pre-production phrase.
• The actors are generally hand-picked by the producer. By this point it is very rare
for the production to be cancelled.
• The production company is also in charge of the security of the filming
process, having to conceal shooting locations, so audiences don’t gather and cause
problems. They do this just as said above: by hand-picking their staff so they know
they are trust worthy, and using codenames when deciding on places to shoot. They
also employ security which is vital to a large-scale production , particularly when
shooting in a public space.
• During post-production the company handles the editing, special effects and sound
to make the footage into a proper film.
• Once the final cut has been approved the film is sent off to the distributers.
However this is not all, production companies can also be in charge of their own
advertising.