What's involved in making a film?

I meant to start this blog over a month ago! There is so much involved in this process and I think that it is so interesting! I wanted to share that with people, everything that is involved, from the writing, to the search of a director and crew, to planning on how to produce it, finding locations, casting actors, deciphering schedules, making a budget, paper work, oh and of course preparing myself to be playing the lead role. It is unbelievable how many moving parts there are that need to come together. And the funny thing is, that honestly I don't know what it is going to look like when it's done. It's all just in my head. How crazy is that? It's this idea, this concept, I can picture it, I can write it, I can explain it, but can we make it what I'm picturing? Or does it have to be what I'm picturing to be good, or great, or amazing? That is one reason why I definitely didn't want to Direct it myself. Quite a few people told me that I should but they hadn't read the script. And the interesting thing is that even though I wrote this film and I can picture it, I don't know how to bring you those pictures. When I hired Shannon to Direct, I was blown away by the ideas that she had. I had never thought of doing "that scene like that." You don't realize what a Director, that really knows what they are doing, can bring to a film. And then I even thought, ok so Shannon shows up with a camera and we film this. And she said well, I have a camera but if you want this to look good we will need, "this" kind of camera, "this" kind of lens, "this" type of equipment to get "that shot." OH! So then we hired a Cinematographer, also known as a Director of Photography, with his own equipment to figure out the best way to get the shots to look the way we want with the equipment that he has. The funny thing is, the very same script that I wrote could be "Produced" incredibly differently. I don't think I completely understood what a Producer even was until I became one. There are so many possibilities! I think it would be harder for a writer to hand over their work to someone else to Produce than to Direct. Although I will also say that, for me, Producing has been the hardest part, the most tedious part, and the only part that has caused me stress. Locations and scheduling were the hardest. My favorite part has been the training, although it sure would have been nice to have a Personal Trainer and Stunt Coordinator, but that pretty much would have doubled the budget.  I've had a lot of fun figuring stuff out on my own, pushing myself past where I thought I could go and of course, asking for help along the way. After we film, I will continue to train, get stronger and learn new things because if Stunt Mom is successful, who knows what could come next!