cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...

, behind-the-scenes (BTS), also known as the making-of, the set, or on the set, is a type of

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

that features the

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

of a film or

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. This is often referred to as the EPK (

electronic press kit A press kit, often referred to as a media kit in business environments, is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials that provide information about a person, company, organization or cause and which is distributed to members of the media for p ...

) video, due to its main usage as a promotional tool, either concurrent with theatrical release or as a bonus feature for the film's

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

release.

History

Shorter behind-the-scenes documentaries are often used as a bonus on DVDs, as it offers more insight into the film, how it was made, and to credit the

film crew A film crew is a group of people, hired by a production company, for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. The crew is distinguished from the cast, as the cast are understood to be the actors who appear in front of the camera o ...

. Occasionally, some films have included a "making of the making-of" as a joke. The making-of is also often released for TV as a part of the promotion of the film.

Examples of feature-length making-ofs

*''

Burden of Dreams ''Burden of Dreams'' is a 1982 " making-of" documentary film directed by Les Blank, shot during and about the chaotic production of Werner Herzog's 1982 film ''Fitzcarraldo'', and filmed on location in the jungles of Peru. Plot summary Cast * ...

'', the ''

Fitzcarraldo ''Fitzcarraldo'' () is a 1982 West German epic adventure-drama film written, produced and directed by Werner Herzog, and starring Klaus Kinski as would-be rubber baron, Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irishman known in Peru as Fitzcarraldo, who is ...

'' making-of *'' Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse'', the ''

Apocalypse Now ''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella '' Heart of Darkness'' by Joseph ...

'' making-of *''

Lost in La Mancha ''Lost in La Mancha'' is a 2002 documentary film about Terry Gilliam's first attempt to make ''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'', a film adaptation of the 1605/1615 novel ''Don Quixote'' by Miguel de Cervantes. The documentary was shot in 2000 d ...

'', a making-of documentary of the failed ''

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote ''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'' is a 2018 adventure- comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam and Tony Grisoni, loosely based on the 1605/1615 novel ''Don Quixote'' by Miguel de Cervantes. Gilliam tried to make the film m ...

'', which was eventually completed more than 15 years later Lost in La Mancha , Film , The Guardian
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History

Examples of feature-length making-ofs

See also

References

Further reading