Post
During post, the director gets a final chance to reinterpret the script by creating the director’s cut. During the postproduction period, you work closely with the editor to refine his assembly, and then the rest of the tasks are taken over by the postproduction supervisor, who sees that the final version of the episode is readied for delivery so that it can be shown or broadcast.
While you have been shooting, the editor has been working on his assembly. It is helpful that you know the editor’s vocabulary and process in order to best use your time together. It is important to be open to what the editor has done. Together, you will cut for story, cut for time, and then add temp music and sound effects. This cut will be viewed by the executive producer, who may do another pass at editing it down closer to time, often removing entire scenes or chunks of scenes to shorten the episode. The network will approve a final cut before the episode goes through the final stages of post.
Further postproduction processes include offline and online editing. Video processes such as creating a VAM and color correcting and audio processes such as ADR (where you may want to supervise), foley, adding the music cues, and doing the mix are done separately and then assembled back together in what is called the layback.
Finally, the postproduction supervisor sees to the closed captioning, dubbing, and delivery. If you are shooting anything other than episodic TV, you will stay with your project to completion. If you’re an episodic director, you will probably depart the show after delivery of your cut.