logistics of production

It's important to budget and to pre-production expenditure for a media production because producers only have a certain amount of money for a film and they have to make that money back. They have to make sure they have enough to hire equipment, actors, food, props etc. They budget so they can make sure they have enough money for the whole film and they don't run out half way through. They need to pre-plan so that if anything goes wrong they have a backup plan. For example if its raining and you need it to be sunny there will be a plan b so that they aren't waiting around for the weather to clear up.

Even when the producers make sure they have enough money and have pre-planned everything there can still be unforeseen circumstances that halt production. An example of this is when Phillip Seymour Hoffman died during the filming of Hunger Games: Catching Fire Part 2. Lucky he'd filmed the majority of his scenes. They used a pervious shot of him for another scene. But for a part where his character was supposed to have a conversation with Katniss, they replaced him with Woody Harrelson and said his character had to escape.

The pre-production stage is where the actors get hired, sets get made, props are made/bought, filming locations are found, scenes are planned, director and crew are hired, the budgeting happens, screenplay is finalised.