Chapter 15

Working with the Post Supervisor

There is a tremendous amount of work that continues after you hand in your director’s cut and before the final version gets delivered to the network for airing. Knowing what happens may not make you a significantly better director, but we think you should have a working knowledge of the sequence and respect for the skilled people who do it. We mentioned in the previous chapter that you have creative rights. But practically speaking, you will see that television postproduction is really the producer’s domain and most producers exercise their control over all of it.

It is said that theatre is the medium in which actors have the most control, film is the medium in which directors have the most control, and television is the medium in which writers have the most control. To elaborate: after opening night, a play is in the hands of the actors who do a fresh performance every night. The director’s job is done and the bulk of the producing job is also finished once the show is mounted (except running the show, which is left in the hands of the production and company managers). A director stays involved with the decisions about a film (with the exception of distribution and marketing) until the picture is locked and stays involved until it opens. Writers supervise a television show from beginning to end. Why? A writer creates a show, pitches it to a network, and proves that his idea has legs to last many seasons. The network that is spending the money is not just buying a one-time product; it is buying a sustainable product that will hopefully last many years on the air.

The viability of the continued success of that product depends on a series of new stories every season. A writer is responsible for generating that product; therefore, he garners the title Executive Producer and will certainly always be known as the creator of the show. That is usually only the beginning of his responsibilities. If that writer is also the showrunner, which is often the case, he is responsible for every aspect of the show, beginning with finding writers to write, actors to act, directors to direct, and a line producer to be in charge of production.

That showrunner also delegates. The person who reports to the showrunner for postproduction is the post supervisor or postproduction supervisor. The title is an apt one. There are a lot of different people involved in completing an episode. Lots of things happen simultaneously; others occur in a strict sequential order. The postproduction supervisor coordinates and supervises it all, much as the director does during production. This supervisor contributes similarly by making choices and applying her creative vision to the various processes of post, as well as leading each postproduction department on a journey toward one goal. The postproduction supervisor may have earned a more advanced title (associate producer or coproducer) based on her years of experience, but for our purposes here, she will just be referred to as the postproduction supervisor. Or you could call her the lifesaver, because production deficiencies are often obscured by brilliant work in postproduction.

OFFLINE VIDEO

Post is divided into two categories for video editing: offline and online. All of the cuts (editor’s assembly, director’s cut, producer’s cut, studio cut, and network cut) are part of the offline process until the picture is locked. These cuts have been made from “copies,” not the original master you shot. The online part of editing is actually quite fast. It involves taking the computerized list of all the final editing instructions, called an EDL (edit decision list) and using your original footage to create a VAM (video assembled master). So the offline process can take weeks to accomplish, and is really the preparation for the online process, which is the creation of the master of the episode that has made it through prep, shoot, and postproduction.

Once the VAM is created, copies of it go to the following departments and individuals: visual effects, the composer, the music editor, the sound editor, closed captioning, and the network promotion department. This VAM has a rough audio component that serves as a template for all the final sounds that will be mixed into the show. At this point, the postproduction supervisor may make changes to the temp audio track.

The VFX still have to be created. If you discussed them during preproduction, the preliminary work was begun then. Remember that SPFX are done during production, but VFX are created artificially and added in post. An example of a VFX is CGI, which uses three-dimensional computer graphics to create images such as a crowd in an arena. CGI animation at its most sophisticated can create a three-dimensional world where the Na’vi of Avatar live. It costs less than hiring and costuming thousands of extras and has possibilities that are continually being explored. However, the old-fashioned way of building miniatures to create large or different environments still works, and works well, especially in the sense of making the scene look “real” and not like something out of a video game.

After the VFX are added, the VAM needs to be color corrected. Even though many cameras have color correction filters and the DPs have carefully lit every scene, the light is never exactly the same; therefore, the image recorded from take to take never matches exactly. A computer artist (sometimes referred to as a colorist) with a great eye for matching color (sometimes with the DP present) makes sure that the red wine in the glass is always the same red or—even more noticeable—that the color of an actor’s skin always consistent. He may also enhance color balances for creative reasons. Once color corrected, it is called a CTM (color timed master). Suzanne Welke, Mary Lou’s postproduction supervisor on Girlfriends, defined it like this: “A CTM is the same as the VAM, only pretty.”

Now the episode is ready for titles or credits: the text that is placed on top of the picture or a black screen (as The Closer does) and includes those important words “Directed by.” The people who create the text must do their job perfectly. People hate when their name is spelled incorrectly or their title mislabeled. It’s why every newspaper in the country prints corrections. It is why people who work in television and motion picture have contracts that spell out what text will appear on the screen, how big it will be, in what order, and sometimes for what duration of time. It is also negotiated whether your name appears alone (single card) or simultaneously as someone else (shared card) on the same screen. Directors always get a single card, and it is nearly always listed last in the up-front credits (the ones at the beginning of a show). If, for example, your story begins with a visual montage, you may want to shoot extra footage to allow for credits to finish before the dialog begins.

There is some preplanning that a director can do in regard to titles and credits. Suzanne Welke told us (via email, November 18, 2010):

In regards to planning your shots for the part of the show that is titled: the post supervisor will know the specifications for duration and placement (and also for the “bug” or network logo that often appears in the corner, and the ratings bug). Knowing this comes in handy when you have a lot of close-ups, as you won’t want credits covering up half of your actor’s face, or if you have a lot of quick cuts (a credit will never go “across the cut” or span over two shots), as you don’t want to still be running credits halfway into the show.

You should first review the titles and credits for a previous episode of the show and then consult your postproduction supervisor if you have any questions.

OFFLINE SOUND

Meanwhile the postproduction supervisor is also concerned with sound editing. During your shoot, sound is recorded on different tracks and monitored by the mixer we talked about in Chapter 11. The master of that track is called the O track, for original track, and is always the preferred track when assembling sound because the quality of the sound decreases the further generation you go from the original. In digital recording, in which there is no degradation of quality, the O track is preferred simply because it is the single origination of material. As soon as the EDL is completed, it goes over to the sound house or company so they can start to assemble a time-coded master audiotape or locked digital audio file. But that step is not possible until all the sounds are ready for the final mix. The sounds are the dialog, the sound effects, and the music. Those sounds are edited and assembled by the sound editorial team, and each member will specialize in one of those specific types of sound. So each episode will have a sound effects (SFX) editor¹, a dialog editor, and a music editor.

The bulk of your dialog will come from the scenes that were recorded and mixed live during the shoot. But some of that dialog may need to be looped or replaced, which is done at a looping or ADR session. Looping was a process used in filmmaking until the 1970s in which an actor would listen to a physical loop of audiotape repeated over and over (without the picture) and would mimic the line reading, which was then recorded and inserted into the soundtrack of the final product. ADR stands for Automated or Automatic Dialog Replacement. It is done on a looping stage at the sound house where actors watch the VAM while they listen to themselves do the dialog. They then try to repeat their dialog to fit their lip movements. Actors must contractually do these sessions. They are asked to either replace dialog that can’t be heard well or add new dialog. If there is a sizable amount of dialog that needs to be looped, it is a good idea for you to show up at this session so that you can direct your actors.

Mary Lou did this on a series she directed when one of the guest stars gave a great acting performance, but her accent was so thick that it was unintelligible. During the ADR session, Mary Lou had three responsibilities: to listen with fresh ears to dialog to make sure that it was understandable, to see that the lip-syncing looked credible, and to see that the actress maintained her hysterically funny performance without getting frustrated by the many attempts it took to get it.

The principal actors’ dialog is not the only spoken word. There is improvised dialog for textured background atmosphere provided by a loop group or walla group. (“Walla” is a made-up name referring to the wall of sound a large crowd creates.) These are union actors who specialize in this craft. A loop group is necessary because your background artists during production were pantomiming, not speaking aloud, so that the principal actors’ dialog could be recorded clean, or without any extraneous sound. The walla group does many layers of sound to fill in what is missing. They can do an array of things. They can provide the voices for the people chatting next to your hero table in a restaurant or the soldiers dying in pain on a battlefield. Mary Lou’s husband, Charles Dougherty, an actor who specializes in playing Irish characters, supplied the commentator voice for an Irish boxing match on the radio in the background of a Murder She Wrote scene. He also provided extra slobbering sounds for the Saint Bernard in the movie The Sandlot—even though the dog probably did not have Irish ancestry! Loop group actors are a talented lot who are called upon to do many unusual things, including kissing. To augment a kiss sound, a loop group actor will kiss his own hand, making sure that the lip smack provides the appropriate texture: is it quick and light? Or prolonged and wet-sounding?

The sound effects part of the audio digital file will come from many sources. Some will be sounds recorded on the set or on location while you were filming the scene. Others will be wild sounds recorded after the shoot; that is, the sound is unrelated to a specific picture. Some sounds will come from industry libraries. Still others will be manufactured, either electronically or in a studio.

The ones manufactured in a studio are often ordinary, everyday sounds such as feet walking. These sounds are called foley, named after Jack Foley, the Universal Studios sound effects pioneer. Foley artists duplicate or augment production sounds to make them more specific and audible. A foley stage is an amazing place, with different kinds of flooring, a bin of shoes with different types of soles, a huge array of props, and pits filled with water and sand.

Within that one space, the artist can create the sounds of a horse running, an arrow leaving a bow, or the ping of a table knife against a glass as the actor calls for attention in the scene playing on a screen at the front of the stage. The artist watches the picture and attempts to sync his motions to it. If adjustment is needed, the sound editor will physically manipulate (edit) the sound element to put it in its rightful place. In addition to foley, there may be bigger sounds to edit or add to the soundtrack, like explosions and crashes or smaller constant sounds like room tone or a crackling fire. No matter where the sound effects come from, they must be organized according to time code to be ready for the mix, or dub, which is the process of putting all the sounds together.

Meanwhile, the music requirements for the episode are being addressed. As soon as the composer received the EDL, he began writing all the music cues for the episode after screening the show with the post supervisor and/or possibly the showrunner. The composer writes underscore, which is music played along with a scene to lend emotional impact. Cues can be as short as three seconds (known as a sting, this is usually for an act-out) or cover an entire scene. Almost all act-ins and actouts will be scored. The job of the composer is an integral one to the success of the final product because the music almost functions as one of the characters, communicating to the audience how they should feel. After the composer writes the music, it will be recorded by hired musicians on a soundstage with natural instruments, or it may be a synthesized track created with a digital keyboard played by the composer himself, or it may be a combination of the two. Some music in the show may be a song that has been cleared for use in the episode as we talked about in the last chapter. Wherever the music comes from, each cue has a start and stop, or a point when the music begins and ends that is matched to the picture. The starts and stops are precisely coordinated with the time code of the picture by the music editor.

ASSEMBLING THE DUB

After all three of the sound components are ready, they get assembled together in what is called the mix or dub, which is when the postproduction sound mixer assembles all the sounds in relation to each other. It is when you determine at what levels your music, dialog, and sound effects will be heard. The mixer also can sweeten any and all of the sounds. Sweetening might include using noise filters that can reduce certain sounds and enhance others. It might be boosting low or high end sounds or adding an echo or reverb to others. The goal is to make it sound the best it can and make our ears happy. The postproduction supervisor is present for the dub to add, subtract, balance, and refine all the audio elements. The showrunner may listen to a preview of the mix to give final approval. Just like the video online product, the sound dub should be seamless so that the audience views it and hears it and is aware only of following the story, rather than noticing the techniques that were used to create the episode.

Once the tracks have been mixed down, the sound mixer will take care of Dolby, surround sound, and stereo components of the mix. When all of these aspects are complete, the audio portion of the episode is added to visual part: the layback.

AFTER THE LAYBACK

Once the layback is done, you have a final air master. It needs to be closed-captioned. If you don’t personally use this option when watching television, you may not know that it exists. But it is there. And it is required by law so that people with hearing disabilities have equal access to public information, which is why the people who do this in post have access to the script and the VAM, and then also check to make sure that they have the dialog correct after ADR. They even add and descriptions of other sounds when applicable.

Once the closed-captioning is done, copies must be made or dubbed for distribution. Where do they go to get broadcast? They go to the network, which has a license and is federally regulated. Each network might have different specifications and limitations. It is the post supervisor’s job to know these are. Suzanne Welke shared some specific examples:

The SyFy channel requires that the running times for each act must be at least six minutes. So if, in your director’s cut, you want to change where an act break is, postproduction may tell you that you cannot do that, as it will make the act too short. The overall length may be different for the syndicated version versus network/broadcast version. So when you see the show in syndication, know that the production company does not always control this trimming; it is sometimes handled by the studio and their own set of editors. Another example in this area is zooming in on a shot or “blowing it up.” In the director’s cut, you may want to get in closer by blowing up a shot. You might be told that you cannot go in as much as you’d like because it will get bounced back by international. The post supervisor would know that once the “international” master is made, that particular shot would not be technically accepted.

She also cautions directors to not “fall in love” with songs used as temporary tracks. Music is just not clearable for any number of reasons: it may not be available, or permission may not be granted, or it may be too expensive to license.

Once the networks receive their copies, they send them out to their stations and affiliates, who broadcast it in the specified times. Just to give you an idea of the scope of a network: the ABC television network is an American television network made up of 10 owned and operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates. The broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and CW) can be seen by nearly 100 percent of the population, delivered for free over the airwaves. The cable networks (such as USA, TNT, Lifetime, and Spike) could reach nearly that many, but their services must be picked up by distributors. Pay cable channels (HBO, Showtime) require viewers to pay for their service.² Once you have directed a show, it requires distribution of some kind to an audience. Those opportunities are growing. The Internet is the new media, delivering previously unthinkable paradigms for audience viewership with downloading and live streaming.

In addition to the copies that go to the network, the postproduction supervisor also sees that you get a copy of the show, usually on DVD, which is guaranteed by your DGA contract. You will usually get it the day after the show airs for the first time. And when you watch it, you should notice all that went into completing it after you finished your cut. Postproduction is not an afterthought, just because it comes at the end. It is the part of the process that polishes the jewel.

1. In production, SFX is Special Effects, but in post-production, SFX is Sound Effects.

2. http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/overview.html.