HD For Indies

Today I was a speaker on a panel at the UFVA Conference in Denton, Texas. The other speakers on the panel were John Sterneman (who runs Dragonslayer Post in LA) and Norman Hollyn who runs the editing track at USC's film school. Ashley Kennedy from Avid was our moderator.

We'd prepped for the panel pretty well - we emailed in advance, had a nice conference call earlier in the week, and had an excellent dinner the night before to chew the fat on all things movie-making. While we touched on technology from time to time (Avid vs. FCP, Red's significance, etc.), I was delighted that the conversation stayed more high-level, less techie nitty gritty.

I very much liked that we cover a nice range of aspects of the industry between the three of us - John does pretty high level post (high end HD work for features budgeted from 6-7 figures), Norman teaches editing at USC with more emphasis on the craft, not the tech end, and I of course obsess on the tech end and leave the creative stuff mostly to other folks.

I plan on looping back and embellishing this substantially, but at least here's the Top Ten we came up with, this from Amy Peterson's (of Avid) notes from our conference call:

1) Putting together the right team. Be sure you have the right members involved at the right time. For instance, the editor should be involved in pre-production and the producer should be involved in post. This was a far flung and all encompasing topic - this also included getting the right team that knew the nitty gritty of their jobs and would see to all the granular implementation details to make sure stuff went right. By default, the right team will include folks to steer you clear of certain pitfalls, warn you of expensive or limiting choices, and be able to think on their feet when contingencies are needed to be invented on the spot.

2) Work backwards and know what you want to deliver before you start shooting. Plan your post workflow (i.e. deliver on film? HD?). I say this all the time to clients when they start asking about what to shoot on - I say STOP - what do you want to end up with at the end of the day? Work from there.

3) In pre-production know what budget is for post and stick to it! Perhaps even account for more $$ in POST. Many producers end up spending 3x the money in post because they didn’t plan accordingly.

This folds into a saying I've come up with - "Most indies would rather save a nickel on Friday that costs the $20 on Monday...and even if they knew they were doing it, many still would, because they didn't have the nickel on Friday."

(mention turd polishing vs. refinement and dollars on the screen)

4) Don’t just try to piece the workflow together. Make sure your NLE supports your camera and the formats that you are shooting in. Be sure that your offline edit will seamless make it to the online. Know how to get final product out of the system. This one was all me - for a good example, see the post from a couple of days ago about Pull Trigger, Then Aim (link to follow).

5) Have a realistic schedule from the get go. Based on your budget – know how many days you will need to shoot, weeks you’ll need to edit, etc. Many have unrealistic post schedules. As an add-on to that, just because you only have enough money for a 6 not 12 week creative edit DOES NOT MEAN that you'll get it done in that timeframe.

6) With so many choices – be smart about what you choose for technology, talent, location, etc. Overprepare and execute. Small projects can take the same or more amount of prep as larger projects. Small budget = use every penny wisely.

7) Know your story! If changes need to be made – make them on set, not in post. Plot point vs character point. If the story isn’t coming together based on the shots – it can cause 2-3x increase in post production.

8) Producers need a better grasp on the distribution process – particularly for indie film. Understand the requirements that distributors have. Avoid getting a 20 page document after QC of what needs to be “fixed” before the film is ready for distribution.

9) Understand how to appeal to distributors. It’s always about the best story. Know whether to spend funds on name power vs. technology. Discern hype from reality – when It comes to vendor marketing. Know how to get your “name” out there.

10) No role is unimportant in indie film. Even if tools have a color application – you still need a “real” colorist to do the job. Best use what tools you have (media management.)

The 5-3-1 thing - 5 choices to start with, pick one, narrows to 3, by the time you get to post, there's only 1 option left, and it is of course the most expensive/painful/time consuming. So know how you are limiting your choices each time you commit to a decision. Such as, if you are shooting film, you've committed yourself to development, telecine, etc. costs.

I told the folks who attended I'd post at least this much today, I'll come back and embellish further later - I just got home from Dallas and need to catch up on some stuff. Keep checking this article, it'll definitely grow.

One thing in particular that caught my attention was the focus that John put on deliverables for distribution - my working theory had been more about getting a good HD master for festival submission, but John pointed out that since the end goal is to get acquired, at that point you need deliverables. And HD/SD, 16:9 & 4:3, pan & scan, NTSC & PAL, etc. are all common requirements. Having your M&E separated from the dialog tracks so you can easily dub, stuff like that. I asked him to write up something more about it, hopefully he'll have the chance soon and I'll gladly run it in full on here once I get it.

-mike

PS - Norman blogged on this panel too.

Labels: workflow