Post-Production

Post-production ("post") is everything that happens after principal photography: editing, sound design and mix, music composition and licensing, visual effects, color grading, and delivery of the finished masters. The cliché is true and worth taking literally: the film is written three times — on the page, on the set, and in the edit.

Post runs longer than most first-timers budget for. A modest indie might spend four to nine months in post; VFX-heavy films spend years. The sequence is roughly: assembly and editor's cut, director's cut, locked picture (the moment editing stops), then the parallel finishing tracks — sound, music, VFX, color — that all key off that lock. Unlocking picture after finishing starts is the classic post budget-killer, because every downstream department redoes work.

Two line items writers consistently underestimate: music licensing (that song your character sings along to has a price, and it can be five or six figures) and delivery requirements — the contractually specified masters, mixes, and paperwork a distributor demands, which cost real money after the film is "done."

For projects headed to market, post is also where distribution realities land. Planning post costs at budget tier level is part of what our concierge desk scopes with emerging producers.