It's time to talk post-production. Post-production is the long-standing and often under-appreciated final stage of any video project. Everything gets edited together, new elements are added in, and the final product is polished until it's as exciting/funny/dramatic/engaging as it possibly can be.

If you’re new to the post-production process, welcome! We’re here to walk you through how to create a streamlined post-production workflow so that you can save time and work smarter, not harder, as you assemble your final project.

What is the Post-Production Process?

The post-production process is what any video project goes through after it stops shooting and before the project is released to the public. It includes the raw video editing process, sound mixing, visual effects, color correction and grading, and final soundtrack development and placement.

Why is Post-Production Important?

It is often remarked that shooting a video project is simply gathering the ingredients to be later combined into the final recipe by the post-production team. This is a pretty accurate picture of where post-production fits in during the creation of a movie, tv-show, or other video projects. It's the place where all the different elements are mixed and melded together to create the final project.

There is no final product without post-production, making it as crucial to a project as pre-production or production (shooting).

The 8 Steps of a Streamlined Post Production Workflow

Step 1: Receipt of Raw Footage

This can come in the form of "dailies," which is a daily delivery of all footage shot during that day of filming (this is typical on longer projects such as TV shows or films), or at the end of a shoot (which is often the case for shorter projects such as music videos or commercials).

Post-production starts once footage starts arriving at the editors. This is the raw material that everything will be built around in post-production.

Step 2: Storage and Organization of Raw Footage

This is a crucial step that is too often overlooked and, if done improperly, can cost hundreds of wasted hours over the course of a project. Once the post-production team receives the footage, it must be properly notated, organized, and cataloged so that it can be easily found and retrieved later.

This is sometimes done on a personal drive with backups or on a shared network or cloud drive for teams working collaboratively. No matter what method you choose to use to store your footage, make sure you put a system in place to properly organize each shot so you can find it easily later.

Many video editors receive a shot log from the camera crew with each delivery of clips, which they use to organize the footage. It tells the editor what scene each shot is for, which camera setup it is from, and which take each shot was. It sometimes also includes helpful information from the director of photography and director about which shots they would prefer to be used in the edits.

Editors can use these notes to properly catalog the footage and keep track of exactly what shots are where so they can quickly build their rough draft of the edit.