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Moving Into Post-Production
Pete is back in Los Angeles, and one could make the argument that the hard part is over. The production battles are a thing of the past; the grind of principal photography is over with. But Pete is far from finished as he reaches a crucial moment in the making of his film: post-production.
Post-production is the last phase of the filmmaking process, where the sights and sounds captured during shooting are assembled into a well-crafted narrative.
Once shooting wraps, Pete returns to the LivePlanet offices in Los Angeles, California to begin editing his film with Gregg Featherman. Over the course of shooting, dailies were being sent to Gregg for him to view. In fact, Gregg was even able to begin "cutting" the film in Los Angeles while shooting was going on in Chicago.
Gregg edits the film on a digital, non-linear system called an Avid(r). Back in the day, editors would physically cut frames of film with a razor blade, and tape them back together to other pieces of film. It was a long and arduous process that required precision, as there was little room for error.
These days, Avids(r) have nearly become the rule in Hollywood, as editors can enjoy the ease of use with an Avid(r) machine, which is operated by keystrokes and point-and-click functionality. Avid(r) even allows the editor to lay sound effects and dialogue.
More on editing later.
In addition to configuring the images of a film, the manipulation and mixing of sound is a huge responsibility. Remember, sound is recorded on its own tape, and later synched up with the visuals. That is why, when film is being shot on the set, someone will jump in front of the camera, say which scene and take is about to be shot, and slam the clapboard down. The clap is a means to synch the sound tape with the film.
It is in post that sound engineers determine which dialogue is usable, and which is not. Almost always, the actors from the film will have to come to a sound stage to record additional dialogue recording, or ADR. The actors actually sit and watch the take, and try to mimic the movement of their mouth to near perfection. The average audience member will rarely be able to differentiate which lines are ADR.
Another facet of sound is foley and sound effects editing. A foley artist is a person who creates the subtle sounds we take for granted (footsteps, breathing, clothes moving, etc), performing them in sync with the actors on a screen, similar to how the actors redo thier lines while watching themselves. A sound effects editor works off of a prerecorded library of sounds and places them in sync with actions in the scene (a dog bark, a door slam, glass breaking).
And there is also music. Musical scores are written and composed, songs are either acquired or recorded.
Ultimately, a mixing crew will put the final soundtrack down, which is encoded onto the final film print.
Of course, we have not even touched upon special effects. There are teams of effects specialists and CGI experts who can spend months, even years assembling very sophisticated effects shots, frame by frame.
There are main titles and end titles, the bookends that introduce and give closure to a picture, as well as give recognition to the men and women who worked on the film.
Post-production often will take longer than principal photography. Huge sums of time and money are sunk into finishing a film, and the final product is, in a perfect world, the result of highly talented individuals working toward a collective goal, and succeeding.
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