Post-production

Last updated December 22, 2024

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]

The traditional first part of the post-production process, non-linear (analog) film editing, has mostly been replaced by digital or video editing software, which operates as a non-linear editing (NLE) system. The advantage of non-linear editing is the ability to edit scenes out of order, thereby making creative changes at will. This flexibility facilitates carefully shaping the film in a thoughtful, meaningful way for emotional effect.

Once the production team is satisfied with the picture editing, the editing is said to be locked. At this point the turnover process begins, in which 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

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

When content is shot on film it is typically transferred to video, DPX, OpenEXR with a telecine or a more modern motion picture film scanner.
Editing the content of the film or television program.
Writing, recording and re-recording, and editing the soundtrack.
Adding visual effects – mainly computer-generated imagery (CGI) which is then composited into the frame.
Sound design, sound effects, ADR, Foley, and music, culminating in a process known as sound re-recording or mixing with professional audio equipment.
Stereoscopic 3D conversion in the case of content that was shot in 2D which is scheduled to have a 3D release
Color grading (and color correction) in a color suite.
Subtitling, closed captioning, or dubbing.

The post-production phase of creating a film usually takes longer than the actual shooting of the film. It 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. The choice of music and sound increases the effect of the scenes shown 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 and 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:

Advertising that requires one background (as one or more images to assemble) and one or more models. (Usually, the most time-consuming, as often these are image bank images which do not have much quality, and they all have different light and color as they were not controlled by only one photographer in one set location)
Product-photography that usually requires several images of the same object with different lights, and assembled together, to control light and unwanted reflections, or to assemble parts that would be difficult to get in one shot, such as a beer glass for beer advertising. (Sometimes to composite one image of a beer glass it requires four or five images: one for the base, one for the beer, one for the label, one for the foam, and one or more for splashing beer if that is desired)
Fashion photography that usually requires heavy post-production for editorial or advertising

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]

Related Research Articles

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 VFX processing.

Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. When putting together some sort of video composition, typically, you would need a collection of shots and footages that vary from one another. The act of adjusting the shots you have already taken, and turning them into something new is known as film editing.

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.

A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of crude illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic, or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at Walt Disney Productions during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.

<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).

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.

Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screenwriting, casting, pre-production, shooting, sound recording, post-production, and screening the finished product before an audience, which may result in a film release and exhibition. The process is nonlinear, as the director typically shoots the script out of sequence, repeats shots as needed, and puts them together through editing later. Filmmaking occurs in a variety of economic, social, and political contexts around the world, and uses a variety of technologies and cinematic techniques to make theatrical films, episodic films for television and streaming platforms, music videos, and promotional and educational films.

Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based non-linear video editing application developed by Adobe Inc. and distributed through the Adobe Creative Cloud licensing program. Initially released in 2003, it succeeded Adobe Premiere, which was first introduced in 1991. Premiere Pro is designed for professional video editing, whereas related product Premiere Elements is aimed at the consumer market.

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".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital cinematography</span> Digital image capture for film

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 2000s, most movies across the world have been captured as well as distributed digitally.

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.

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.

In filmmaking, the rough cut is the second of three stages of offline editing. The term originates from the early days of filmmaking when film stock was physically cut and reassembled, but is still used to describe projects that are recorded and edited digitally.

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.

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

↑ 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.
1 2 Hoggan, Michael (2022). Art and Craft of Motion Picture Editing. Routledge/Focal Press. ISBN 978-0-367-56878-8.
↑ "Post-Production: A Guide Through the Fundamentals" . Retrieved 2024-02-22.
↑ "What is "Comping"? | Sweetwater". 27 January 2016.
↑ "Crafty Comping".
1 2 Hodgson, Jay Understanding Records, p.231. ISBN 978-1-4411-5607-5.

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[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.

[Routledge/Focal_Press-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".

[Hodgson-6] 1 2 Hodgson, Jay Understanding Records, p.231. ISBN 978-1-4411-5607-5.

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