Obviously there is a lot of variation in the production schedules of different forms of media, but I have noticed that TV series are very good at continually pumping out new episodes, but movies have more leeway to be delayed until the crew can get it right.
But considering the amount of filming/animation/voice acting that goes into producing stuff for TV, wouldn’t it logically make sense that it would take more time to produce a TV show than a movie? As an example, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic consistently had 26 episode seasons, each episode was 22 minutes long, and according the the show’s creator, it is about a year between initial pitch for an episode to final release. At this rate, this is 9 and a half hours of animation, writing, voice acting per year.
Compared to the movie, this was greenlit back in 2014, and was released in 2017 with zero delays. It only last 99 minutes, and while undoubtedly the animation quality got higher, I have a hard time picturing how this alone would have accounted for the production discrepancy. I’d imagine that the voice actors spent more time recording lines for the show than the actual movie because of how much more story they had to do in the show.
Granted, these days most shows do not have this many hours of raw episode runtime. Many cartoons will have 11 minute episodes, or only 20 episodes a season. There are also live action shows that have maybe 10-12 44 minute episodes. Wouldn’t this take up more of the actors’ time than just filming a 2 hour movie?
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One key aspect, filming locations. Going out and film a movie is not that straight forward, you gotta move equipment, you gotta work with different lights (ie, cloudy vs sunny days). If there’s bad weather, we’ll no filming that day etc.
TV shows are filmed in a studio. No need to worry about the logistics of filming outside, no weather delays. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but some sitcoms episodes are filmed in just one or two sets.
Remember the episode where no one is ready in Friends? All filmed in Monica’s apartment (plus the gala event scene at the end). A creative way of saving production time (plus on of the best episodes of Friends).
A lot of the beginning of a film is legal/admin stuff, getting all the ducks in a row if you’re actually starting from scratch.
Lots of accurate posts here, one other thing is that movies are usually *done* a long time before they’re released. They need to be distributed to theaters, and they need to be scheduled for a time that people will see it.
TV shows just air pretty much as soon as they’re done on a fixed schedule. Movies get slotted into release weekends very carefully and very far in advance. Even if a movie gets finished 14 months early, the release date will be the same.
Watch an episode of Star Trek: TNG and then watch Star Trek: First Contact. You should notice a huge difference in production values between the TV show and it’s movies. The cinematography, the special effects and cgi, the costume design are all world class in a Hollywood movie production. This means more money and more time.
After wrapping production on Star Trek The Next Generation they immediately started filming the first TNG movie. In an interview the cast talked about just how different filming the movie was from filming the show. Typically for the show once they got a take that worked they would just use that one and move on to the next scene. But with the movie they would do take after take after take. Plus more effort went into the costumes, the lighting, the sets, etc.
Comments explain about tv shows being cheaper. But what about high budget tv shows with each episode looking like a feature length film (Game of Thrones and House of the dragon)
Many TV shows will use limited sets/costumes, not have as many fun locations around the world, and have fewer flashy visual effects shots. It won’t necessarily take a lot more of the actors times if they aren’t shooting the same scene so many times, traveling as much between locations, prepping as much for crazy action scenes, or doing as much voice-over/dubbing work.
They don’t have to. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was released the same year they started filming.
A few things: pre-production can take a lot of time as work is put in to generate content that secures funding. It can be a very stop-and-start process. Serialized content has funding that’s at least (most likely) secured to complete the whole season.
Peter Jackson actually kind of revolutionized the industry by producing and pitching the LotR series as a cinematic triptych of sorts. It greatly reduced the production time of the whole trilogy.
Then there’s post-production. The more CGI heavy a project is, the longer post takes. You might be shocked to find out how unfinished most movies are by the time their trailers are released, and how soon after they’re finalized they’re released to theaters. Hollywood productions have been trending towards an overreliance on post to the point where a lot of productions are not really efficiently made. It’s way harder to get away with that lack of competent planning for TV. Tons of Hollywood movies coming out today could have been made for significantly less cost with a significantly reduced production speed if they were better managed.
For what it’s worth, I work in this industry. Not as anyone special and not on any big projects yet, but.
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