The editor has a million choices with every scene. Do they use this take, or that take? Should the audience see the main character from behind, or side on? How long do you linger on each shot? There’s no right or wrong answer but it explains why post-production can take longer than people imagine. No two editors armed with the same raw content will produce the same cut, that’s what makes the process so exhilarating.

THE ROUGH CUT
It’s a good idea to create a rough cut before too much time in invested in the final edit. This first draft, which puts all the relevant scenes on a timeline, helps the director, the producer and other invested parties, understand the flow, look for inconsistencies, and determine if reshoots are necessary. This is not a time to be finicky. The main focus is to show that this basic edit has a natural flow and if it doesn’t, it’s back to the drawing board.

PICTURE LOCK
When the editor and director are satisfied that they have enough footage, the cuts are crisp, and transitions smooth, the footage goes to ‘picture lock’. The story is now relatively set in stone and ready for the next stage of post-production.

MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN
The sound designers job is to create music and effects to enhance the visual experience then ultimately create a final mix including all the dialogue. In some cases, Additional Dialogue Recording (ADR) may also be necessary, if the audio recorded on set is distorted or not clean. In that case, actors are required to come into the studio and record their lines cold, in time with the footage.

If the budget permits, it is optimal to engage a composer to create the soundtrack for the film. This was necessary in The ‘Man from Mooroolbark’ as the first three minutes of the film has no dialogue. The composer needed to create a score that ultimately became the voice of the film, creating the protagonist’s narrative through music and enhancing the story and mood. In the fight scenes, foley was used to add horror and reality to the violence.

COLOUR GRADING
Original footage is shot in a Raw format, often over multiple cameras. While a white balance is performed on set, to ensure all cameras match, occasionally shots can look different due to lighting, reflection and colour combinations. The colour grader has the job of matching all cameras, modify the colour palate and lifting shadows and highlights to add focus where necessary.

Colour grading can also be used to create a specific mood or feel to a film. A blue filter can create coldness. A muted filter can suggest age or sadness and adding more yellow can make a shot filmed at noon appear like dusk or dawn.

VISUAL EFFECTS
While less relevant in corporate videos, short and full length movies often require visual effects. In the short ‘Hatchback’, the lead actor, played by Stephen Curry, looks straight through the gunshot hole in the head of a dead body. This was made possible by using a green screen patch on set and required hours of time in a visual effects studio to create the reality of a gaping gun shot wound in the head. More and more, films turn to special effects to create otherwise unattainable magic made increasingly easier by the technology available to filmmakers.

ANIMATED GRAPHICS
Using animated graphics is a simple and inexpensive way to give your project a sophisticated edge. Animation can also be used for titles and credits. In the comedy-drama, ‘Is This Thing On?’ the introduction was an animated sequence featuring the name of the show built into a comedy microphone and stage. This not only gave the audience an insight into what the show was about but it also spoke to the humorous tone of the piece.

Post-production more often than not takes longer than the actual filming, so be sure to budget both time and money for this process. Once colour grading, sound mixing, animated graphics, and visual effects are complete, the entire combination is then exported out in the required format, ready for distribution.