Want to make movies?
Hey there, aspiring filmmakers.
You’re the New Hollywood Generation.
My name is Orlando Delbert.
This is ‘Hollywood, Unapologetic!’
I first wrote about success in filmmaking,
success in life, when I was writing, Pollyanna’s
Tear Soaked Battlefields of Hollywood: A Survival
Guide Against the Cynicism and the Hypocritical.
Today I wanted to speak about Filmmaking Essentials:
9 Things You Will Need to do and be Mindful
of to be Successful During the Post-Production
Stage of Film Production During the Coronavirus
Pandemic.
For you, the New Hollywood Generation, this
directly applies to you.
If you haven’t watched, Filmmaking Essentials:
Reopening Hollywood, I’ll have a link at
the end of this episode for you to check out.
And since the Hollywood “Task Force” released
it’s White Papers on reopening Hollywood,
follow the link in the description for the
downloadable .PDF.
I’ve been asked via Twitter, “What is
the film production process during the Coronavirus
pandemic?”
This is a common question, and I wanted to
address it in the reopening Hollywood series.
But I should add, the Alliance of Motion Picture
and Television Producers who shared the long
anticipated document on proposed procedures,
“Proposed Health and Safety Guidelines for
Motion Picture, Television, and Streaming
Productions During the COVID-19 Pandemic”…
“Phew!
That’s a hell of a title!”
…The White Papers, the next steps we speak
about here would be the steps everyone should
follow in the filmmaking process with their
proposed guidelines in mind.
I have to mention up front, there is a lot
to creating our vision.
Most of the steps for a motion picture and
for television are the same in the most part,
but distribution is different.
Plus with the growing availability of digital
and self-distribution outlets online, and
with the growing popularity of crowdfunding,
there’s multiple ways to get your vision
financed and your voice heard.
I offer these episodes to give you more in-depth
information, all in the hopes to help you
make your check list of things you need to
have in order, before you pick up your camera
and shoot a single frame.
The fourth stage in the filmmaking production
process is the post-production stage.
This is where all of the media that was captured
is assembled and edited together.
Probably the best way to look at this stage
of the filmmaking process is to think of your
film as being a huge puzzle with thousands
of integral parts that make up the completed
story.
At this stage, it’s easier to see the many
pieces, because there is a convergence of
everything shot, and everything has a representative
scene and take number.
For many productions, this is the most time
consuming and costly part of the production
process.
The reason being, professionals getting paid
a high rate are doing most of what is needed
during this stage.
Most facilities have a high overhead, and
these same individuals are using the very
best and fastest computers and networks being
used in the industry.
There are a lot of resources needed to keep
a facility open.
Operational costs are high because they need
to cover existing infrastructure and networks,
ensure connectivity never fails, computers
stay cool, and their talent is being paid
their rates.
Facilities will most likely be renting most
if not all of the computer equipment.
This is very expensive especially when the
maintenance and proprietary software fees
are included.
And unlike the earlier stages of production,
many of the ones that actually handle the
moving parts of the assembly process and effects
may have extensive schooling and some experience
already in the production process.
It is very rare that someone wanting to get
into visual effects or picture cutting would
have the opportunity to work on a Flame or
Inferno upon getting their first job at an
effects or editorial house.
They would have most likely would have been
runners, who are much like production assistants
during the production stage, and they would
handle the heavy lifting of operations at
any given facility.
It is not at all uncommon for a runner to
be making deliveries of tapes and other types
of grunt work for a year and a half if not
longer, before having any opportunity to sit
at a $1 million dollar workstation in the
middle of the night for the very first time.
Normally I would have said this next one is
the very first thing to do during the post-production
stage, because of its importance.
And that is to remember to stay calm and breathe.
If you’re not overwhelmed by now, you most
likely will be.
A feature film can have hundreds of shots,
all with multiple takes that have to be gone
over one-by-one.
Even shooting segments for a television show
can have hundreds of clips to go through.
I’ve seen so many times footage delivered
with poor logging, if the shots are logged
at all.
When that happens, some productions will hire
several editorial assistants to go over, and
sometimes digitize all of the footage into
a non-linear editing system usually at a low
resolution, before sifting through the shots.
This falls under the off-line editorial part
of post-production.
This often is a very time extensive and costly
process, which in the most part could have
been avoided if someone was keeping tabs on
the shots as they went along.
Keep your head together and track as much
as you can as you go along.
Do your best to get comfortable with the behemoth.
Before going any further, you should know
that post-production has many processes that
fall under this title.
This includes the intake, processing, and
sweetening of production sound.
Additional audio components such as automated
dialogue replacement, designed audio effects,
foley, and music are then added.
Special digital visual effects, including
3-dimentional elements and scenes, compositing,
match-moving and wire removal, film titles,
and elements from the graphics digital toolkit
for television, and the end crawl are done
during this stage.
When shooting on film, the process of developing
the film, and then digitizing for digital
intermediate also falls under post-production.
Digital intermediate allows sophisticated
color correction tools unparalleled control
over film color.
Color, contrast, and brightness in different
parts of the frame can be changed overtime,
timed separately and in real-time.
Scanning film and printing it back to celluloid
in the laboratory is also part of post-production.
Working offline and the EDL.
As I just mentioned, often an assistant editor
will digitize the raw footage into a non-linear
editing system for editing.
The off-line editor or editors will began
assembling, often doing a string-out edit.
A string-out edit is following the shots captured
in the log during production and placing them
in a timeline back-to-back.
This allows the picture cutter to see what
shots work best with one another for each
scene, as well as see which shots from different
camera angles can be included to make the
scene work better.
Think of it as giving the editor a visual
toolkit of everything for that particular
scene that he or her can move around to make
the scene flow.
As the edits are coming together, an edit
decision list is generated.
The edit decision list is an extension of
the logs that were made during production.
The great thing about this process is that
the edit decision list contains all of the
reel information and associated timecode representing
each clip.
This process saves a lot of time and effort
towards the final edit.
An autoconform can be run on an online editing
system, which digitizes only the shots needed
for assembly in high resolution.
Once everything has been digitized and is
approved, then it is ready for digital intermediate.
I should add, digital intermediate takes longer
and at the moment still more expensive than
traditional film timing in the laboratory,
but prices are coming down.
One major advantage to consider is since your
film is in a digital format, greater options
are readily available.
In addition to what I’ve already mentioned
before about digital intermediate regarding
the ease of adjusting color, contrast, and
brightness changes in real-time, you now have
the ability to also remove unwanted elements
somewhat easily from shots.
Plus the combined prices for film and video
timing, your fade and dissolves that fall
under optical effects, and titles usually
cost about the same as a full digital finish.
Do your best to be smart and on schedule.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked
on projects that just don’t seem to end.
Often times this will run into budget overages
and possible deadlines missed.
More times than not, this occurs when the
director doesn’t really know what he or
she may want, or his ego is in the way.
An inexperienced director will tweak things
to death because he wants it to be “perfect”.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting
your edits to be just right.
But too many times, you just have to just
stop and move on.
One of the positive things about working in
broadcast television is that you are forced
to work within a definitive amount of time.
You work diligently to get your first pass
completed, and then go back and do as much
tweaking as you possibly can before delivery.
I’ve worked on thousands of episodes of
live television and live-to-tape programming
to learn you have to make your deadlines,
period.
Film often doesn’t have the same time restraints,
but one needs to make a decision when done
enough is done.
Oh, here comes the pixel-fucking.
If you are creating content for a client,
you will be under the scrutiny of the client
and his or her people.
When dealing with big productions and with
studios, there usually is an entourage of
a dozen or more people that show up to review
your work.
It’s not a big deal and of course within
the client’s right to be there.
But I’ll tell you, dealing with “the committee”
is a tiresome process in itself.
More times than not, they will have you nudging
things around your screen a pixel away from
where it was, change a color on a bar or graphic
only slightly, or move a clip a frame or two
in your timeline, only to justify their own
jobs.
It gets old fast, especially if any or all
of them are coked-up.
More times than not, you’ll end up putting
everything back to where it was before they
first arrived and they will “love it!”
It’s comical and you will see this again
and again on large projects.
Expect all of this to come with a big heaping
spoonful of coldly served hubris and self-gratifying
compliments to themselves for the work you’ve
done they’re taking credit for, “fun times”.
On small projects, this happens as well, but
you’re usually dealing with a less-experienced
client who only knows what they want once
they see it.
Get ready for lots of revisions.
Save all . . . Save often . . .
I know I’ve already mentioned to stay calm
and breathe, and to get comfortable with the
behemoth.
For this next point, I have to stress again
to always remember to be calm . . . For this
next point; some of you may not like what
you’re about to hear.
Depending on what kind of distribution deal
you may have, you may have to give up the
director’s edit or director’s cut.
This is especially true whenever you are dealing
with a film studio.
Only the very top directors in the world get
final cut on some of their theatrical releases,
and are rarely released to the public theatrically.
This is why you often see “director’s
cut”, “extended cut”, and “special
edition” versions of films when released
to DVD or Blu-Ray that may have 20 additional
minutes or more of the film on the disk.
This trend began in the 1980s during the rise
of the home video industry, as part of originally
feeding a small cult fan marketplace.
The studio who has invested in your production
can insist on changes that they feel will
increase their return on their investments.
This is all about maximizing their profit,
specifically with box office sales.
The final cuts are often shorter in length
to allow for more screenings per day at the
theater.
Sometimes the studio executives may feel they
want a better audience-restricted rating,
or even a happier ending than found in the
director’s cut.
There are a lot of things that happen during
the post-production stage of creating your
project.
Just like at the very beginning, you need
to make your plans, make your lists, and do
each thing one at a time to ensure everything
gets done in the right order and on time.
Don’t be overwhelmed if you feel you don’t
know all of the steps.
There are others out there that do.
Right from the beginning, you began building
your team.
Everyone in the post-production process is
no different.
You just need a handful of good people that
can delegate and track all of the moving parts
so that you can concentrate on what needs
to be done next.
I should add that what I’ve mentioned here
today might have some overlap.
It’s best to put together these items in
order, but as you go through the process,
you’ll most likely find one of the elements
you are working on directly affects something
else.
Sometimes multiple items are worked on simultaneously.
If you’re a one-man or one-woman show, it
may be a bit difficult to do.
But, like with anything else, do your best
to do one thing at a time, and don’t let
it overwhelm you.
Have fun with it.
Being part of any film crew, you have to accept
it is a very tightly run unit.
And as I mentioned throughout this series,
we, as members of the New Hollywood Generation
are all in it together.
We’re all in close proximity of one another.
And under normal circumstance, sometimes our
lives are at risk while on the clock.
Today, the risk is higher.
And this new way of working and living may
be with us for months or even years to come.
Be safe.
Be smart.
Take it all one day at a time.
And don’t forget to be great!
I’m going to add a link at the very end
to the episode, Filmmaking Essentials: Reopening
Hollywood.
If you haven’t checked it out, I think you’ll
dig it.
Are you ready for the challenge?
