Production, also known as principal photography, is the stage of the filmmaking process where the story described in a script is actualized with the filming of each scene depicted in it.
It’s the part of making movies that involves the use of Actors on location or on set. These individuals perform the action and speak the dialogue dictated in the script, which is captured on film for later assemblage in post-production.
The duration of film production can vary wildly from one project to the next. A small student film? Maybe just a single day. A full-scale, studio-backed blockbuster? Perhaps several months. Regardless of the project, the team usually tries to keep the shoot days to a minimum, because time is money in film production.
Some people might use the word “production” to refer to the entire filmmaking process, including pre-production and post-production. That’s completely fine, as words often have multiple definition depending on context. However, in the context of the filmmaking process, production refers to a specific stage with its own distinct goals and activities.