Post-Production: An Overview
In a sense, post-production is where you really make your movie. You take all of the elements you shot or created during production and assemble them into your final film. Everything up to this point has been like preparing ingredients; now you’re making the meal.
You should already have a general plan for editing, which you came up with during pre-production. Now is the time to bring those elements together and put that plan into action.
Detailed Planning
While you created a general plan during pre-production, now’s the time to fine-tune your editing plan. Directors and editors work together to use transitions, graphics, music, text and effects consistently and within the artistic vision of the project. Doing so makes for a much more polished and coherent final product that flows easily and effectively.
Logging/Importing Your Footage
Most video editing software will allow you to preview clips without importing them into your project, so that’s a great way to review and familiarize yourself with the video footage and decide what you’re going to use and only import that video. Remember, some “bad” footage can be salvaged; some can be color-corrected, or some shaky footage can be stabilized. Get a good feel for what your editing software can do, and you’ll know what footage you’ll be able to use.
A production following good procedure will provide you with a list of “circle takes,” or takes marked during production as good or the best takes. This can save you a lot of time in going through and selecting clips.
Trimming
Once you’ve imported the video clips you want, you can then pre-trim the footage to isolate the best parts of your clips. Some editing software will let you set in and out points right in your video thumbnails. Most video editing software has a trimmer window where you can pre-trim clips and send them directly to the timeline.
It’s a good idea to learn three-point editing, where, in your source window or trimmer, you set an in point and an out point in a clip and then send the video between those points to a third point selected on your editing timeline. It’s a very efficient way of editing, and the better you get at it, the quicker you edits will flow.
Rough Edit
Following the script, start with a rough cut, laying out the scenes and footage in the general order the script calls for. Then you’ll refine the edits to get them down to exactly what you want. Don’t be afraid to ask for opinions at this stage, to see if it’s really coming across to people the way you want it to. If so, great; if not, then you can use that feedback to make the adjustments you need.
Fine Edit
Once you have an approved rough edit, you begin the fine editing, really getting your cut exactly right, adding transitions, adding music and sound effects, adding visual effects and color correction, adding graphics and text, perfecting your sound, and everything you need to polish your film into final form.
VFX and Sound
On larger productions, different dedicated teams handle those specific tasks – a VFX department, a sound editing department, etc. Different productions handle it in different ways, but generally speaking, a final edit of the footage, or “picture lock,” happens before sending the cut out for visual effects or sound editing, so that those teams only work on the footage they need to.
Of course, it’s rarely that straightforward, and pictures end up “unlocked” regularly.
Export
Once you’ve completed your edit, it’s time to export, or render, so others can watch it. Decide which format is best for your audience. Streaming services like YouTube and Vimeo provide guidelines for how best to export. Other distribution services, including theatrical distribution, streaming networks, and Blu-ray or DVD have other requirements.
Networks, streamers, and international distributors will likely ask for audio “stems” – separate dialog, effects, background, and music tracks, for remixing and dubbing into other languages purposes. They may also ask for a mix-minus, which is usually a full mix with dialog included, but all voiceover removed. It’s very helpful to have an audio post facility on board for this.
Film festivals also have submission requirements.
Most intermediate or professional post-production software can export to meet all of these standards and requirements.
You should already have a general plan for editing, which you came up with during pre-production. Now is the time to bring those elements together and put that plan into action.
Detailed Planning
While you created a general plan during pre-production, now’s the time to fine-tune your editing plan. Directors and editors work together to use transitions, graphics, music, text and effects consistently and within the artistic vision of the project. Doing so makes for a much more polished and coherent final product that flows easily and effectively.
Logging/Importing Your Footage
Most video editing software will allow you to preview clips without importing them into your project, so that’s a great way to review and familiarize yourself with the video footage and decide what you’re going to use and only import that video. Remember, some “bad” footage can be salvaged; some can be color-corrected, or some shaky footage can be stabilized. Get a good feel for what your editing software can do, and you’ll know what footage you’ll be able to use.
A production following good procedure will provide you with a list of “circle takes,” or takes marked during production as good or the best takes. This can save you a lot of time in going through and selecting clips.
Trimming
Once you’ve imported the video clips you want, you can then pre-trim the footage to isolate the best parts of your clips. Some editing software will let you set in and out points right in your video thumbnails. Most video editing software has a trimmer window where you can pre-trim clips and send them directly to the timeline.
It’s a good idea to learn three-point editing, where, in your source window or trimmer, you set an in point and an out point in a clip and then send the video between those points to a third point selected on your editing timeline. It’s a very efficient way of editing, and the better you get at it, the quicker you edits will flow.
Rough Edit
Following the script, start with a rough cut, laying out the scenes and footage in the general order the script calls for. Then you’ll refine the edits to get them down to exactly what you want. Don’t be afraid to ask for opinions at this stage, to see if it’s really coming across to people the way you want it to. If so, great; if not, then you can use that feedback to make the adjustments you need.
Fine Edit
Once you have an approved rough edit, you begin the fine editing, really getting your cut exactly right, adding transitions, adding music and sound effects, adding visual effects and color correction, adding graphics and text, perfecting your sound, and everything you need to polish your film into final form.
VFX and Sound
On larger productions, different dedicated teams handle those specific tasks – a VFX department, a sound editing department, etc. Different productions handle it in different ways, but generally speaking, a final edit of the footage, or “picture lock,” happens before sending the cut out for visual effects or sound editing, so that those teams only work on the footage they need to.
Of course, it’s rarely that straightforward, and pictures end up “unlocked” regularly.
Export
Once you’ve completed your edit, it’s time to export, or render, so others can watch it. Decide which format is best for your audience. Streaming services like YouTube and Vimeo provide guidelines for how best to export. Other distribution services, including theatrical distribution, streaming networks, and Blu-ray or DVD have other requirements.
Networks, streamers, and international distributors will likely ask for audio “stems” – separate dialog, effects, background, and music tracks, for remixing and dubbing into other languages purposes. They may also ask for a mix-minus, which is usually a full mix with dialog included, but all voiceover removed. It’s very helpful to have an audio post facility on board for this.
Film festivals also have submission requirements.
Most intermediate or professional post-production software can export to meet all of these standards and requirements.