A Life In Post...
What the hell is "Post"? Post is an abbreviated term for Post-Production. So what's Post-Production? Basically, it's the period of time after the "shooting" stage of production where the editing, sound mixing, and marketing is done. One could argue that it's the most important stage for a film. Currently, I have 3 films in Post-Production. Which might sound exciting but if you know anything about Post, it's really depressing. It's exhausting, it's time consuming, and it's...well..it's...
Boring.
At least that's how everyone else outside of the film will view it. Let's face it, everyone loves pre-production. You're already on a high because you got the money to put your creative vision on the screen so everything else seems like a dream.
You get to hire your crew: Fun.
You get to cast the film: Fun.
You start getting paid: FUN.
And everyone you know will say this to you--Congratulations! I am soooo happy for you!
Production is hard of course but everything seems so damn precious once you start shooting. Everything you've been dreaming about has become a reality. There's on set fighting, you'll end up spending way more than you were supposed to, and you slowly realize that when people tell you that you're the best writer/director/producer that they've ever worked with, they actually think you're a moron that knows nothing about film. But that's not how you'll look at it.
The very first day you get on set: Amazing.
The first time you hear, "Rolling": Monumental.
The first time you scream, "Action!": No words have ever sounded as commanding or sexy or powerful than the words you just spoke. You're a God. No, better. You're Bono.
And everyone you know will say this to you--I always knew you could do it!
But Post-Production is an entirely different animal. It's private, it's intimate, and nobody outside of the film really understands what the hell you're doing. And you'll make the ill-advised decision to show some of your friends the rough assembly. Which will be horrible. All rough assembly's are horrible. When the studio saw the rough assembly of Chinatown they said, "Well, at least we didn't spend that much money." That's just the half of it. Post-Production, especially if you just made an independent film, can take forever to be finished. We're talking fucking years, man.
And everyone you know will say this to you--You're not done yet?!
Even my Executive Producer for the film that I directed had it in his head that my co-director and I just gave up on the movie. Which of course is madness but so much time has passed, who could blame him? He doesn't really get the process and to an outsider, especially someone who put up money for the film, it must feel like death. Cause it sure feels that way to me.
Now as the gods of serendipity would have it, all 3 films are pretty much coming out at the exact same time. Which is pretty great. But until the movies are actually in the theatre or on television (ugh, more death), I've been forgotten. But that's my life right now.
My Life In Post.
--Tenspeed
posted by Tenspeed & Brownshoe @ 10:27 PM
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