If you have made it this far you have successfully moved through both of our “how to guides” on pre-production, as well as production. That means almost all of the hard work is done! Don’t slip now though, because in post-production the film finally comes together. A good editor can tie together a film in ways that other people with less skill simply can not do.
A lot goes into editing, and it isn’t just finding the best takes and putting them in a timeline. Editing involves pacing, keeping the viewer interested, building suspense, and working with the natural elements of storytelling to portray what you want the viewer to feel and how the actors and scenes should be perceived.
Hopefully on set you had a script supervisor who took notes about the different takes during production. That will make a huge difference for the editor in post. He has to sift through all of the footage, which can be thousands and thousands of hours of footage sometimes, so anything a producer or director can to do to expedite that process is huge.
Post-Production is usually a multiple step process. The first step is to lay the footage down so that you have a working timeline. Watching this sequentially may be kind of boring, because the pacing will be off, and no effects will be added. It is strictly to get the best possible footage to review. The next step is polishing the timeline. This adjusts the pacing to reflect the type of film you are producing. Once the pacing is ready, you can start adding special effects, titles, and transitions. In this phase you will really start to see the film come together.
Next, you will want to find the best music and sound effects for your film. A good soundtrack can set the mood for the film. Good sound effects should not be something that is noticeable, but helps people delve deeper into the experience of watching the film.
Follow Pixel Productions to learn about how to distribute your film in our next blog post.