Workshop: Modern Post-Production Film Workflow

This workshop provides a maximalist, comprehensive overview of the post-production process. It identifies the tasks to be completed and the skills required from wrap to delivery, and suggests practices aimed at accelerating the completion of a project and protecting the participant's mental health. We start with the information which might flow into post-production, including sound and camera media, script, notes, slate information and camera and and sound recorder metadata. We cover some of the post work which can be done concurrently with production (e.g. "dailies"), such as backups, proxies, sound syncing, application of LUTs or color tables, and pulling selects. Students are walked through the picture editing process from stringout to picture lock, with the differences implied for various forms of scripted and unscripted work. We look at sound post work from dialog editing through sound design and final mix, music editing and working with composers, color grading and VFX. We finish with finishing, marriage of picture and sound, inclusion of graphical elements, and the complications of delivery for various environments, standards, and platforms. At each stage the relevant skills are demonstrated in the software tools available to students. The common roles and collaborators are introduced, including data wrangler, assistant editor, editor, dialog editor, sound editor, sound designer, sound mixer, foley artist, VFX artist, colorist, and post supervisor-along with some encouragement for students who will of necessity perform all of these tasks themselves.