Major Project: Post Production Research

Throughout post production, I know that I will need to always be overlooking the project, making sure we are sticking to deadlines and making sure that the composers are constantly giving us music updates. Luckily, the composers have been on board with the project since last year and have already began giving us pieces and tests of what we want for certain scenes. I have decided to look further into a producers role in post production to allow myself to look at other jobs I can do to help myself get organised more, as well as looking into other films to see how they update social media and keep the audience interested. 

''Your function will be to hire people and oversee them by dropping in for half an hour here and there.''

I looked onto Indie Wire which has a few articles entailing tips to help yourself in post production. I read these tips and found a lot of them really helpful - it was also reassuring to find that I had already done some of the tips, meaning I was hopefully on the right track! Here are the tips and what I will do to follow these along with any actions I will/ have already taken.

• Screen the movie, collect feedback.

If handled the right way, screening a rough cut of the film in private, for friends and family and those you trust, before locking picture can help identify problems early on. If the majority of the audience flags something as an issue, then it is better to know that before the film is put in front of real audiences. I combine these screenings with a 1- or 2 page feedback form given out directly after the movie has finished and then collected before a verbal Q and A starts. 

I know that we will definitely be getting feedback through a through sources from giving rough cuts to our Simon, along with guests who will be coming in such as editor Tim Bentham and producer Sam Adams. I will definitely be keeping notes along the way, and I want to also try show people who have no idea on the films storyline such as friends and other people so that we have a variety of feedback. I will also try to look at the film from the audiences' perspective - this is particularly hard with our film as it is a mystery drama and I want to make sure that the film makes sense, and that the audience know what's going on without having to explain it too much.

• Deal with music early on.

Leaving music to the last minute is another common mistake. This includes both source music and score. Remember, a composer needs time to come up with themes and ideas, so including them in the screening of rough cuts can be useful. 

I'm happy that the composers have already began giving us pieces, even before we began filming, and are in constant communication with us. However, I think the advice to keep giving them rough cuts is really helpful and beneficial. It will help so much if they begin seeing visuals instead of just going off notes and ideas that we have, i'll definitely be sending them a lot of rough cuts. 

• Know your director and his needs.

Every director has a different process. This relates to time needed to edit, the staffing support they need during the process or simply the way they work best. Talk to your director about how he or she has worked in the past and build a post schedule realistic to their needs. Plan and budget accordingly so no one is surprised later on.

This is something very important with our film, we don't have all the time in the world to edit this film, and usually, it takes 8-10 weeks for a feature film to be edited, so ideally, we need the edit to be done in less time. I want to make sure that the edit isn't being edited right down to the last minute and make sure we have enough time on each section - editing, colour grading and sound. I think each one of these should be scene as it's own project, as the edit is such a huge thing to do, and then the colour grading and sound are also huge things to think about. So, I want to make sure we have a schedule that is not only organised and planned, but is also realistic to our project. I have been talking to the Director/Editor Vic, and have created a schedule that I think will benefit all of us. It will allow Vic to know how long he has until the next rough cut viewing, and allow us and our composers to know when we will have music by. Creating the post production schedule has really helped me to see more clear how long we will have after the final filming day and definitely puts everything into a more realistic perspective.

Post production schedule:

March Schedule 

April Schedule

Reference: http://www.indiewire.com/article/the-8-keys-to-a-successful-post-production-from-the-producer-of-blue-valentine-and-half-nelson?page=1

I decided to also look further into the actual role of a producer in post production. I want to make sure I am doing everything correctly and fulfilling all my jobs. 

The Role of Producers
in Post-Production

Producers have the responsibility of delivering the film in whichever formats are required at the end of post-production.

As well as making sure that everything is completed and that everything from the production phase is closed down properly, the Producer will support the Director, as in production. As such they are a sounding board in the editing suite and are likely to be preparing for pushing the film towards exhibition while finding ways to promote it, possibly with the assistance of a Marketing team.

Producers have often worked their way up through other departments to gain the necessary understanding of the industry and a strong network of contacts, crucial for finding talented people to work with and ensuring the film gets made. They tend to either have a background in development or production but can come from other areas or disciplines entirely.

reference: http://www.myfirstjobinfilm.co.uk/producersinpost.html

Something which I need to be constantly working on as the producer is marketing. I need to be promoting the film and making sure that it is getting hyped up for the audience. In post production I had a lot of ideas what we could do after doing research on larger movies marketing. However, it doesn't fit in our budget and would take too long. However, I've still got some ideas which I could do to market our film such as creating behind the scenes footage, and creating a trailer which can go on all of our social media platforms. I've also been looking into films which are going to be released in the summer, and I want to see how they entice their audience through images and pictures on their website. 

Finally, I have decided to look at Raindances' '13 Steps of Post-Production'

The 13 Steps of Post-Production

1. Pick an editing format

For our film, we will be editing on Final Cut Pro.

2. Hire a picture editor

The Director Vic will be the editor for our film.

3. Hire a sound editor

For sound as it's just a huge job and will need sound effects, music, and voice syncing in, I will be doing the majority of the sound editing whilst Vic will be editing the film and doing the colour grading, however he will also be helping with some sound too.

4. Do ADR

(Automatic Dialogue Replacement) This is when the actors lip sync to what they have said and you re record it. However, we won't be doing this step as we recorded the audio separately so we have to just sync it up with the video.

5. Do Foley

This is something I have been thinking a lot about recently and we will definitely be needed to record some foley for any sounds which we just couldn't get on the filming days.

6. Secure Music

For our project, we have got a lot of music already from our composers, however I have also found a website called https://filmstro.com in which you can download the application and download unlimited songs for around $7 a month. This is such a helpful website as when you are picking the songs you can change the depth of the song and turn some of the instruments up and down along with the pace of the song. This website is really helpful and we will definitely look more into it as we can cancel the membership afterward and still have the licence for the music. 

7. Do The Mix

This will be layering all the sound effects, music and voice overs together which I am confident will be done right in the edit.

8. Get an M&E

This is when you just export the film with the music and effects - no dialogue. This is so that other producers can add dubbing to it. However, we will be skipping this step right now due to not sending our film to any other country.

9. Get your titles

Once the edit has been finished, or whilst it's still being finished, we will need to create some titles for our film. Vic and I have had lots of different ideas on how to do this, if we want to incorporate them into the film or if we want them just to appear on the screen separate from the videos. We will work on this further together and create some titles for our film.

10. Get a DCP

A DCP is a Digital Camera Package - a hard drive which has your final film, encoded so that it can be played in the cinema. We will be putting our film onto a hard drive however, it doesn't need the cinema coding as it will not be playing into a full cinema. We do need to check with Ferg though in which format our film needs to be in.

11. Get a dialogue script

A dialogue script is a version of the script which has the prices time code so the dubbing artist knows exactly where to place their dialogue. However, this is something which we once again don't need so will skip this.

12. Get a campaign image

The campaign image is something that should have titles and credits and should let the viewer know exactly what our film is about. During pre production we took a variety of images of our main actress and the mask to use on our different poster ideas.

13. Get a trailer

A trailer is something I definitely want to have as part of our final film marketing, as it's something that will help encourage our audience to want to see the film and will allow us to put it on our website and build up the hype of the film.

Reference: http://www.raindance.org/the-13-steps-of-post-production

I'm really happy that I read this and it's really encouraged me with what I will be doing such as marketing as a lot of the steps we are already in the process of doing. 

Overall, the research I have done into my role as a producer in post production has given me a further insight into what I should be doing and all the extra marketing work which I can look into. It's also helped me to schedule myself and Vic further and now we have more detailed deadlines and times for the post production schedule and i'm confident we will be able to get it all done.