Post-production

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A video editing suite Linear suite.jpg
A video editing suite

Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. [1] [2]

Contents

The first part of the post-production process is the traditional non-linear (analog) film editing at the outset of post-production has mostly been replaced by digital or video editing software that operates as a non-linear editing (NLE) system. The advantage of being able to have this non-linear capacity is in the flexibility for editing scenes out of order, making creative changes at will, carefully shaping the film in a thoughtful, meaningful way for emotional effect. Once the production team is satisfied with the picture editing, the picture editing is said to be locked. At this point begins the turnover process, where the picture is prepared for lab and color finishing and the sound is spotted and turned over to the composer and sound designers for sound design, composing and sound mixing. [2]

Processes

A sound control room at Tainted Blue Studios, 2010 Tainted blue studios control room.jpg
A sound control room at Tainted Blue Studios, 2010

Post-production consists of many different processes grouped under one name. These typically include: [3]

The post-production phase of creating a film usually takes longer than the actual shooting of the film and can take several months to complete because it includes the complete editing, color correction, and the addition of music and sound. The process of editing a movie is also seen as the second directing because through post-production it is possible to change the intention of the movie. Furthermore, through the use of color grading tools and the addition of music and sound, the atmosphere of the movie can be heavily influenced. For instance, a blue-tinted movie is associated with a cold atmosphere and the choice of music and sound increases the effect of the shown scenes to the audience.

Television

In television, the phases of post-production include: editing, video editing, color correction, assembly, sound editing, re-recording, animation and visual effects insertions, combining separately edited audio and video tracks back together, delivery for broadcast.

Photography

Professional post-producers usually apply a certain range of image editing operations to the raw image format provided by a photographer or an image bank. There is a range of proprietary and free and open-source software, running on a range of operating systems available to do this work.

The first of post-production usually requires loading the raw images into the post-production software. If there is more than one image, and they belong to a set, ideally post-producers try to equalize[ further explanation needed ] the images before loading them. After that, if necessary, the next step would be to cut the objects in the images with the Pen Tool for a perfect and clean cut. The next stage would be cleaning the image using tools such as the healing tool, clone tool, and patch tool.

The next stages depend on what the client ordered. If it is a photo montage, the post-producers would usually start assembling the different images into the final document, and start to integrate the images with the background.

In advertising, it usually requires assembling several images together in a photo composition.

Types of work usually done:

Music

Techniques used in music post-production include comping (short for compositing, or compiling the best portions of multiple takes into a single composite take), [4] [5] timing and pitch correction (perhaps through beat quantization), and adding effects. This process is typically referred to as mixing and can also involve equalization and adjusting the levels of each individual track to provide an optimal sound experience. [6] Contrary to the name, post-production may occur at any point during the recording and production process. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Digital compositing is the process of digitally assembling multiple images to make a final image, typically for print, motion pictures or screen display. It is the digital analogue of optical film compositing. It’s part of the VFX processing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Video editing software</span> Software used to edit digital video files

Video editing software, or a video editor is software used for performing the post-production video editing of digital video sequences on a non-linear editing system (NLE). It has replaced traditional flatbed celluloid film editing tools and analog video tape editing machines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Non-linear editing</span> Non-destructive audio, video, or image editing

Non-linear editing is a form of offline editing for audio, video, and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified and modified by specialized software. A pointer-based playlist, effectively an edit decision list (EDL), for video and audio, or a directed acyclic graph for still images, is used to keep track of edits. Each time the edited audio, video, or image is rendered, played back, or accessed, it is reconstructed from the original source and the specified editing steps. Although this process is more computationally intensive than directly modifying the original content, changing the edits themselves can be almost instantaneous, and it prevents further generation loss as the audio, video, or image is edited.

Video editing is the post-production and arrangement of video shots. To showcase perfect video editing to the public, video editors must be reasonable and ensure they have a superior understanding of film, television, and other sorts of videography. Video editing structures and presents all video information, including films and television shows, video advertisements and video essays. Video editing has been dramatically democratized in recent years by editing software available for personal computers. Editing video can be difficult and tedious, so several technologies have been produced to aid people in this task. Overall, video editing has a wide variety of styles and applications.

Linear video editing is a video editing post-production process of selecting, arranging, and modifying images and sound in a predetermined, ordered sequence. Regardless of whether it was captured by a video camera, tapeless camcorder, or recorded in a television studio on a video tape recorder (VTR) the content must be accessed sequentially.

A hard disk recorder (HDR) is a system that uses a high-capacity hard disk to record digital audio or digital video. Hard disk recording systems represent an alternative to reel-to-reel audio tape recording and video tape recorders, and provide non-linear editing capabilities unavailable using tape recorders. Audio HDR systems, which can be standalone or computer-based, are typically combined with provisions for digital mixing and processing of the audio signal to produce a digital audio workstation (DAW).

Digital intermediate (DI) is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Color grading</span> Enhancing the color of an image or video

Color grading is a post-production process common to filmmaking and video editing of altering the appearance of an image for presentation in different environments on different devices. Various attributes of an image such as contrast, color, saturation, detail, black level, and white balance may be enhanced whether for motion pictures, videos, or still images. Color grading and color correction are often used synonymously as terms for this process and can include the generation of artistic color effects through creative blending and compositing of different layer masks of the source image. Color grading is generally now performed in a digital process either in a controlled environment such as a color suite, and is usually done in a dim or dark environment.

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In filmmaking, dailies or rushes are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. The term "dailies" comes from when movies were all shot on film because usually at the end of each day, the footage was developed, synced to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director, selected actors, and film crew members. After the advent of digital filmmaking, "dailies" were available instantly after the take and the review process was no longer tied to the overnight processing of film and became more asynchronous. Now some reviewing may be done at the shoot, even on location, and raw footage may be immediately sent electronically to anyone in the world who needs to review the takes. For example, a director can review takes from a second unit while the crew is still on location or producers can get timely updates while travelling. Dailies serve as an indication of how the filming and the actors' performances are progressing. The term was also used to describe film dailies as "the first positive prints made by the laboratory from the negative photographed on the previous day".

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Digital cinematography is the process of capturing (recording) a motion picture using digital image sensors rather than through film stock. As digital technology has improved in recent years, this practice has become dominant. Since the mid-2010s, most movies across the world are captured as well as distributed digitally.

Offline editing is the creative storytelling stage of film making and television production where the structure, mood, pacing and story of the final show are defined. Many versions and revisions are presented and considered at this stage until the edit gets to a stage known as picture lock. This is when the process then moves on to the next stages of post production known as online editing, colour grading and audio mixing.

Television crew positions are derived from those of film crew, but with several differences.

Online editing is a post-production linear video editing process that is performed in the final stage of a video production. It occurs after offline editing. For the most part, online editing has been replaced by video editing software that operate on non-linear editing systems (NLE). High-end post-production companies still use the Offline-Online Editing workflow with NLEs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wedding videography</span> Recording a marriage ceremony in audiovisual and electronic form

Wedding videography is a video production that documents a wedding on video. The final product of the videographer's documentation is commonly called a wedding video. It is also referred to as a wedding movie, or a wedding film.

A color suite is the control room for color grading video in a post-production environment.

DTE (direct to edit) is a digital video direct-to-disk recording method (and also refers to the associated equipment) used to streamline the post-production video editing workflow of raw video files into a non-linear editing system (NLE). Recent developments have added solid-state memory recording units with removable modules or flash-cards, to avoid potential hard-drive problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VSDC Free Video Editor</span> Non-linear editing application

VSDC Free Video Editor is a non-linear editing (NLE) application developed by Flash-Integro LLC. The program is capable of processing high-resolution footage including 4K UHD, 3D and VR 360-degree videos. VSDC allows for applying post production effects, live color correction, and motion tracking. It supports VirtualDub plug-ins as well as the ability to capture video from screen, record voice, save multimedia files to numerous formats including those pre-configured for publishing on Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.

This glossary of motion picture terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts related to motion pictures, filmmaking, cinematography, and the film industry in general.

References

  1. Lynne S. Gross; James C. Foust; Thomas D. Burrows (2005). Video Production Discipline and Techniques (9th ed.). McGraw Hill. p. G11. ISBN   0-07-293548-0.
  2. 1 2 Hoggan, Michael (2022). Art and Craft of Motion Picture Editing. Routledge/Focal Press. ISBN   978-0-367-56878-8.
  3. "Post-Production: A Guide Through the Fundamentals" . Retrieved 2024-02-22.
  4. "What is "Comping"? | Sweetwater". 27 January 2016.
  5. "Crafty Comping".
  6. 1 2 Hodgson, Jay Understanding Records, p.231. ISBN   978-1-4411-5607-5.