Post Perfect: In 10 Easy Steps

by Susan J. Spohr | Published November 11, 1999

Often moviemakers see postproduction as a scary, expensive, confusing and stressful process. It is my claim that postproduction stands wrongly accused. In fact, some of us who make our living in this job find it positively addictive.

Postproduction should be a magical time where your project is transformed from a mere concept to a finished product. All the creative options available, from visual effects, sound, music, titles, opticals, and even film stocks can seem overwhelming. But if you know the basics, what steps to take to complete a project, and where to get help, the process becomes much less daunting.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at what postproduction is and the 10 easy steps it takes to complete a project.

Postproduction encompasses all steps that take place between production (the shooting of the project) and final delivery (usually your first good night’s sleep in months). Every project, including TV shows, features, movies-of-the week, commercials, and industrials, all go through postproduction. People who manage postproduction are called Postproduction Supervisors or Associate Producers—although in some situations it is the producer or assistant editor who coordinates post.

Postproduction on your project will include some, if not all, of the following steps:  Scheduling, Budgeting, Film Laboratory, Dailies, Editorial (film or off-line editing), On-Line Editing, Sound, Completion, Delivery, and Legal Issues. The steps you complete will depend on your budget and whether you are shooting on film and finishing on film, shooting on film and finishing on videotape, or shooting on videotape and finishing on videotape. When you start planning the post on your project, facing this one fact will help you: If you are someone other than the producer, you probably won’t get to choose what steps are included to complete your project. But, you will have some control over how each phase is carried out. And in postproduction, the how can be the key to success while the why may remain a mystery. So, with your head on straight, your energy high and your attitude properly adjusted, let’s make a movie.

1. Scheduling. As post supervisor you create the postproduction schedule. Make sure every step you are going to perform is included. When laying out your schedule, start with the first date of photography, which tells you when your first day of dailies will be. Then fill in the delivery date for your finished project. Now that you’ve set the parameters for beginning and ending your project, you simply fill in the steps in-between. Each phase is dependent on the successful completion of the previous phase. Any interruption may cause a ripple effect throughout your entire schedule. Translation: your schedule needs to be flexible and you need to be very organized and possess a lot of patience.

Your post schedule will include a column for many, if not all, of the following:

A. Principle photography
B. Dailies
C. Second Unit Photography
D. Editor’s Cut
E. Director’s Cut
F. Producer’s Cut
G. Temporary On-Line/Temporary Dub
H. Network/Studio View
I. Picture Lock
J. Opticals and Film Titles
K. Negative Cut
L. On-Line/Assembly Edit
M. Answer Print
N. Spotting Music and Sound effects
O. ADR/Looping
P. Scoring
Q. Color Correction
R. Pre-lay/Pre-dub
S. Titling
T. Mix/Dub
U. Delivery
V. Release/Air Date

The type of project and your budget will help determine the amount of time it will take to complete postproduction.

If you are shooting at a distant location, you will have to arrange to ship your dailies to the lab or cutting room. This may add days between production and editing. It may also add days between the time production wraps and the time the final dailies reach the cutting room. These extra days will need to be included in your schedule. Also keep in mind that some steps will take place simultaneously. For example, if you are shooting on film, principle photography and the transfer of film-to-tape dailies will overlap. And if you are finishing on videotape, color correction and the sound mix will often happen at the same time.

2. Budget. The goal of most projects is to create a high-quality piece that either entertains or informs, or both. The bottom line for most projects is the budget. Unless you are making a high-profile feature, you will probably be required to stay within the budget allotted at the start of the project. At the start, your job will often be to put a detailed budget on paper. This can actually be much simpler than it sounds if you just follow a few steps.

A. Make sure you have an accurate list of all of your delivery requirements.

B. Know the shoot dates, when the picture must lock and the delivery dates.

C. Meet with vendors to discuss your project. If these are people with whom you’ve worked in the past, all the better.

D. Negotiate packages and volume rates based on the work each facility will be doing.

Obtain an existing budget form to follow which closely matches your type of project. Also, there are software programs for your computer that can be tailored to your project—you simply fill in the blanks.

The areas you’ll likely include in your postproduction budget are: film processing and prep for dailies transfer, editing room equipment, telecine transfer and editorial, second unit, titling and opticals, sound editorial and design, sound mixing, looping, effects and layback, music, duplication, delivery elements, negative cutting, and visual effects. If this is your first project, your vendors will be able to help out with budgeting time and costs.

We must also mention purchase orders. Purchase orders are a written record of work ordered, items purchased or rented, and the projected cost(s). If I don’t accomplish anything else in this article, I hope to impress upon you how vital purchase orders will be to you when reconciling your budget and tracking the moneys you authorized spent during the postproduction process.

3. The Film Laboratory. If you aren’t shooting film, you can skip this section and move onto dailies. If shooting film does apply, you may want to investigate what really happens in a film laboratory.

In addition to processing your film, printing film dailies and prepping your dailies for transfer to videotape, the lab is also where you go to procure bags, cans and cores which go to the production set. When picking up these items, the lab needs to know the film’s gauge and what size “loads” you’ll be using. Your production manager can answer these and other questions. Be sure to meet with your laboratory contact prior to the start of production. This will help you avoid expensive mistakes down the road. It will also insure that the lab is prepared to process your dailies when you need them.

Your lab contact will need to know the details of your shoot. This will include the amount of film you expect shot on a daily basis, if you have any night shoots or weekend shoots scheduled, and if you are cutting on film or videotape (or both).

I recommend you arrange a film lab tour for yourself prior to starting the postproduction process. This will give you a leg up on how film is processed and what information the lab needs to do the job correct and on time. Have someone show you what to look for on a camera report. There is vital information the lab needs from those reports to even begin your job. Understanding this information will allow you to properly communicate should information be missing. On a busy night, a lab may process 200,000 to 300,000 feet of film and yours will definitely go to the back of the line if there is any question on how to process it.

Labs usually process film at night (machines are started up and tested between 8pm and 10pm). Your lab contact will give you a cutoff time for dropping your film at the lab for processing. Unless arranged ahead of time, any film you drop off after this time may not be developed in time for your morning screening or transfer session. Special daylight processing can be arranged, but it must be done ahead of time. Before shooting begins there are usually camera tests shot and processed. You may be responsible for arranging this.

Most film laboratories offer a variety of services. They develop your film and prepare it for transfer to videotape, create prints, and repair damaged film. Some have optical departments where they create your film effects and titles, blow-ups and repositions. To fully understand and appreciate the work that goes on at the film lab, take a tour. Your salesperson or laboratory supervisor will be glad to arrange one for you.

4. Dailies. In a film shoot, dailies, as the name implies, is the footage that is shot each day and rushed to the lab for processing. It then moves on to telecine or printing so you and your crew can view them, usually the next morning. The dailies from a tape shoot are still the footage that is shot each day; it just does not require processing.

If yours are film dailies, it is important to tell the lab what time your dailies need to be completed. If your dailies will be printed and then viewed in a film screening room, your editor will need time to cut them together with the sound. If your dailies are to be transferred to videotape for viewing, you need to tell the lab what time your telecine session is scheduled to start. Based on this information, the lab will let you know what time your exposed negative (film shot that day) will have to arrive at the lab. 4,000 to 5,000 feet of film is an average day’s shoot. Based on this, the lab will need from four to six hours to process and prep your film for telecine. They will need six to eight hours to process and print film dailies. In other words, if you are shooting 4,000 to 5,000 feet of film and your telecine session is at 4am, you will need to have your film into the lab by 10pm the night before.

Your dailies sound will go to a sound house to be recorded onto magnetic tape (mag) and “sunk” to picture by your film editor or the facility doing your dailies transfer. Often, for transfer dailies, you can leave your sound at the film laboratory so it can be picked up by the transfer facility when they pick up your film. While this is standard procedure for many jobs, it is a detail you must still arrange before your first dailies are shot.

If you are having your film dailies transferred to videotape, you will need to speak with the transfer facility prior to the beginning of your job. As with the film lab, they will have a list of questions for you to answer before they can schedule your job. The information they will need includes details about what type of film and sound you are shooting, how you plan to complete your project once shooting is finished, and what your time schedule is for your project. How much film is budgeted for each day, and how many days you will be shooting will also be important.

Some information must be taken directly from your film during the transfer process. Whether you plan to do a film and/or videotape finish will tell the facility what information they need to gather at the time of telecine. Not planning ahead and having to go back to get this information is extremely costly and time consuming.

5. Film Editorial and Off-Line Editing. Film editorial describes actually cutting your picture on film. You begin by cutting your film print dailies and end up providing a cut list to a negative cutter who will cut and splice together your original camera negative (OCN).

Off-line editing indicates an electronic cut. This means that either your film print dailies (once projected so the director, cinematographer, etc. can view them) will be transferred to videotape or your processed negative shot each day will be transferred to videotape. This videotape is then provided to the off-line editor to be recorded into electronic editing equipment for (non-linear) editing.

One of the recent changes to effect postproduction is electronic off-line editing. Even big motion pictures that finish on film are now editing this way. The ability to make and view changes immediately appeals to the creators of all projects. Before non-linear editing was so widely available, it could take days to see film and sound reprints and have them cut into the workprint to then be projected. Now directors can try different cuts and move shots, scenes and simple soundtracks with a few key strokes. It is inexpensive to make changes and since the changes do not effect the source material, they can be changed over and over without damaging the original footage.

6. On-line Editing. The on-line is where you do the final videotape assembly of your project. If you are not doing a videotape finish from videotape dailies, you can skip over this section.

Just like each earlier process (film processing and telecine dailies transfer), the on-line facility will have a list of details they will need from you before they can book your on-line session and complete this process. This will include questions about what videotape format your dailies are on, where the tapes will be coming from, what off-line system was used to create the editing list (called the edit decision list-EDL), and any instructions involving special effects. Sometimes the same facility that did your film processing and telecine will also be doing your on-line, sometimes not. Other steps that will take place as part of this process may be creation of special effects, titling and color correcting your picture.

7. Sound. Sound for your project actually starts in dailies with your “production sound.” This is sound recorded right on the set at the same time your picture dailies are recorded. Whether you are shooting on film or videotape, you will probably have some production sound. The exception will be a project that relies solely on voiceovers or sound and effects that are recorded later. Animated projects, for example, record all of their sound after the fact, as the picture for these projects is not shot “live.”

Production sound elements are delivered to sound editors to be used to help “sweeten” the sound that was married to the picture either in the film editing room or the off-line editing room. Once all of the sound edits have been agreed upon, production sound, along with any ancillary sound effects and music are mixed together. This is called “sweetening.” Audio sweetening takes your production audio and finalizes it with enhancements, looping, music, sound effects, and various clean-up procedures. Your sound is “built” under the direction of a sound supervisor. Sound, when done well, tells the audience how to feel, when to laugh, when to cry, and in TV, when a commercial is coming up. Once completed, the sound facility creates an element called an “optical track negative (OTN)” which the film lab then marries onto film to make release prints or onto videotape for broadcast or home video release.

8. Completion. Once you have the picture and sound elements nailed down, your delivery requirements will determine how you complete your project.

A film finish means that all of your work toward delivery will be done on film. This does not preclude making a videotape master from your film elements, but the videotape master will only be struck once the film’s picture and sound elements are completed. A completely finished film element must be created to satisfy your delivery requirements. The negative is cut once the show has been locked (final edits are approved) and opticals (fades, dissolves and titles) are ordered.The film lab creates the color-corrected print. The movie is color-corrected prior to striking release prints and can also be color-corrected for use as a telecine print master.

For a feature or movie-of-the-week, allow at least 10 days for your negative to be cut and spliced into a finished piece. Allow another week (or more) to arrive at the right color-corrected film element.

If your videotape is to be your only delivery format, and you will not be cutting negative prior to delivery, you have chosen what is referred to as a tape finish. A tape finish can also take place on a project that will ultimately be finished on film if materials for preview or advertising are required prior to the film finish being completed. A two-hour show can take at least one day to several days to complete. One-hour TV shows usually spend one to two days in color correction.

Videotape is electronically color-corrected scene-by-scene. Depending on the complexity of the look of the project and the evenness of the negative exposures, it can take from hours to days to color correct a videotape master. The facility can help you determine the amount of time necessary to complete this step.To help correct imperfections such as dirt and minor scratches in your film you will always make a wetgate film print. On videotape, these corrections are done electronically. It is rarethat any project, even TV shows, can avoid scheduling a session to fix picture imperfections and dirt.

If you are finishing on film, any formatting will be taken care of during the editorial process and incorporated into the film cut. If finishing on videotape, formatting will either be incorporated into the EDL or done “tape-to-tape” near the end of the process. Formatting can include adding logos, bars and tone (videotape) and commercial blacks (videotape), and closed captioning (again, videotape).

When finishing on film, titles, credits, locales, legends, etc. are created optically. They are shot on film using the plain “textless” backgrounds. These backgrounds are matted together with titles creating a new piece of “texted” film which is then cut into the final-cut film negative. On videotape, these are done after all of the picture alterations are accomplished (such as special effects and color correcting). As with film, the “textless” pictures are mixed with text, making a new “texted” picture.

9. Delivery. Delivery is completed successfully only when you have fulfilled all of the delivery requirements and the distributor has accepted the elements. While hopefully your project will be a labor of love, in the end somebody will want to be paid. Incomplete delivery will hold up that payment. The only way to safeguard against missing delivery materials is to get, read and understand the delivery requirements.

Delivery elements are best made along the way, at the steps where they are the easiest and most cost-effective to create. They often require paperwork and contracts drawn and signed. Collect delivery requirements at the start of your project. Make a checklist and keep it updated so you are not caught short and costing the producer unnecessary expenses.

10. Legal. There are five items which require you to seek legal advice or involvement. These are stock footage purchases, music clearances, product clearances, reference and inference clearances, and film or video clip purchases. Be conscientious about consulting an attorney and, when doing so, be efficient. Most attorneys, of course, bill hourly. Know the questions you need answered and make contact with attorneys complete but concise.

While experience is once again the best teacher, you will not be alone when posting your project. You will have the support and expertise of your postproduction crew to lean on. The facilities where you do your work are an invaluable resource. The work they do for you is work they do every day. They are the experts and will always be willing to help you get through your project as efficiently and professionally as possible.

Have fun with your responsibilities. It’s an exciting, creative and powerful position you hold. Take pride in your work and take satisfaction in a job well done. MM

Susan Spohr has managed postproduction for more than 36 features and tv shows. She is co-author of Guide to Postproduction for TV and Film (Focal Press). She teaches a seminar on managing post for the Institute of Postproduction. To learn more about postproduction, Susan, the book and the Institute of Postproduction visit www.learnpost.com.