lesson: Post-Production

Students will understand the post-production stage of the Production Process. Students should grasp the basic dates and Film terminology that will be presented.

Post-Production

The last scene has been shot. The wrap party is over. But in many ways, the movie-making process is just getting started in the post-production phase. All the footage must be edited and assembled, the music and sound effects cut in, and visual and optical effects created.

Like production, "post" requires a vast array of talented, technologically savvy crews. The picture editor and editorial assistants start their work during production when they view dailies (each day’s filming) with the director, and begin assembling work prints into coherent scenes. By the end of principal photography, the editor has

cut together a rough assembly of all the scenes, which the director will use as a starting point to shape the picture into the story he or she wants to tell. Directors generally have at least ten weeks to edit their assembly of the film before the producers view this "rough cut," suggest their changes, then show it to the studio executives.

Advancements in technology have made the editing process faster and, some would say, more creative than it used to be. Directors and editors are now able to make and view changes instantly with digital workstations. Computer-generated visual effects can be easily laid in for the director to see. The days of cataloguing strips of film, splicing scenes together, and running them on a flatbed editing machine have given way to transferring film to tape through a process

called telecine, then digitizing the taped scenes, which are viewed and edited on a digital editing system such as an Avid® or Final Cut Pro®. The scenes are stored as files and can be opened or transferred to other computers in a flash. Digital editing systems are also helpful when creating optical effects, such as fades or dissolves.

Once picture editing is underway, sound must be added. Although most of the dialogue recorded during production is used, it usually needs to be cleaned up, by removing pops and hisses, or replaced through ADR, Automatic Dialogue Replacement, in which an actor re-records lines of dialogue in a studio to match the picture. This process is commonly called looping, referring to the strip of film that used to be repeatedly played in a "loop".

A loop group adds background murmuring, also known as "walla", in the same way. A group of actors records conversations about specific things related to the scene. The walla is added later to create the effect of normal background conversations.

Sound effects can be so subtle that they are barely noticed, but they add complex layers to the sound of a film. While some of the production sound is left in, such as car doors slamming or windows smashing, other sounds must be added. In this case, sound effects may come from an existing sound library or be recorded especially for the movie from the source itself, such as the engine noise of a sports car or the thundering hoof beats of a racing thoroughbred.

Other sounds are created on a stage through the process known as Foley. Foley is used to make new sounds or enhance sound effects that already exist. Foley artists use props to record sounds in sync with the picture. It’s not uncommon to see a Foley artist walking in place on linoleum to create the sound of footsteps or hitting a raw steak to imitate the smack of a punch.

Music adds an important element to a film’s sound, whether it’s an original score or source music, such as a popular song or a sequence from a symphony. The director watches the film with a music editor and composer in a music "spotting" session to select places in the film where a music cue makes sense. The music supervisor or music editor then selects source music for the director to listen to, and the film composer writes the score.

Digital technology has also affected the way work is performed in the sound department. Sounds are still occasionally recorded on a tape, but more often are recorded or stored onto DAT (digital audio tape), a CD, or a hard drive. Sound from these sources is uploaded directly into a digital audio workstation, such as Pro Tools®. The sound effects, dialogue and music editors sync their respective elements with the picture. Sound designers manipulate multiple sound effects to design multi-layered sounds for more complex actions on screen. The assembled sound is then ready to be mixed.

At the same time, visual effects artists are hard at work creating hundreds of computer-generated effects shots, depending on the film. Effects artists may simply add a shadow or clouds in the sky, or remove a wire or harness from a stunt actor. More often they create lush backgrounds, insert thousands of extras, or add meticulous details to wardrobe, props or sets. The effects are cut into the digital assembly of the film for the editor to view.

The studio’s Post-Production Administration team oversees the whole process, acting as a liaison between the studio and the director, editor, producers, music and sound supervisors to keep track of the budget and schedule. The studio Post Admin team also assists in making the crew deals and negotiating with vendors.

A studio may decide to test-screen a picture. These preview screenings are organized by an outside film research group. A work-in-progress version of the film is screened for a recruited audience, which completes a questionnaire about the film. This helps the director, producers, and studio determine the response of the focus audience and consequently, what, if anything, should be changed.

After the studio and director are satisfied with the audience preview results, the film is locked, meaning no more picture changes are made. The sound department cuts in the final sound effects and dialogue, and the score is recorded on a sound scoring stage where a full orchestra plays the score in sync to the film, which is projected on a screen. The original negative is cut by a negative cutter, who conforms the film to match the digital assembly by following a list of key codes, or numbers embedded onto tape from film during telecine. The film undergoes color timing at a lab so that the color of the film is uniform.

Once an answer print (the final version of the film) is made, the pre-dubbing begins. Multiple sound effects, dialogue and music tracks are mixed down to a lesser number of tracks or "stems" by re-recording mixers on a dubbing stage. The final mix blends these final effects, dialogue and music tracks and the mixer equalizes, filters and sets the desired volumes. Digital mixing consoles give filmmakers a much higher quality, more complex soundtrack and enable the mixer to be far more creative and handle more tracks.

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has performed major renovations on its sound facilities, creating some of the world’s best-equipped, state-of-the-art sound stages with Academy Award®-winning mixers on staff. SPE also inherited one of the best scoring stages when it purchased the studio in 1989. Although it has been modernized somewhat, composers and performers from all over the world come to Sony Pictures’ scoring stage because its original recording quality remains unequalled.

The final stages of post-production sometimes come unnervingly close to the release date of a film. To protect the original cut negative of the film from damage, several interpositive elements are struck from the original, each of which in turn can be used to make a number of internegatives, or "printing" negatives. Each "interneg" can be used to make several hundred release prints before it starts to show signs of wear or needs replacement. These release prints are shipped to the exhibitors. The studio’s marketing and publicity departments gear up a publicity blitz to get the audience into the theatres. After months, perhaps years of work, the completed film is finally ready, "coming soon to a theatre near you!"

Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment Museum

sonypicturesmuseum.com/education/