Post-production services: edit, colour, sound and finish

Questions

How to prepare your footage for post-production

A finish goes smoothly when the material arrives complete and organised. Before the edit starts, this is what to gather and send.

• Camera-original footage, in the folders the cameras created. Re-encoded or renamed files make conforming and grading harder.
• Separate sound recordings, with the sound reports if you have them, so dialogue can be synced and cleaned at full quality.
• The script or a transcript, and for documentaries, a list of the interviews and the moments you already know you want.
• Your existing edit, if there is one, exported as a reference video and an edit list or project file.
• Logos, fonts, approved wording and music licences, so titles and the score can be built without waiting.
• The delivery specification from your broadcaster, festival or platform: format, frame rate, loudness, subtitle rules and deadline.

If you do not have a specification yet, say where the film will be shown and a delivery plan is drawn up for you at the start.

What you receive at the end

The deliverables are listed in the written quote, so you know exactly what will arrive. A typical finish includes:

• The master, graded and mixed, in the format agreed, such as ProRes for broadcast and archive, H.264 for online, or a DCP for cinema screenings.
• Platform versions: a web master, and square or vertical cut-downs for social media if they were part of the brief.
• Sound stems: dialogue, music and effects as separate tracks, so the film can be re-mixed or dubbed later.
• A textless version, without titles or burned-in text, for international versions and future edits.
• Subtitle files in the formats festivals and platforms ask for, through subtitling, translation and dubbing.
• Trailers and teasers, if ordered, cut from the finished film: see trailers and teasers.

Common mistakes that slow a finish

Most delays in post-production come from a few avoidable decisions. Knowing them in advance saves weeks.

• Re-opening the edit after picture lock. Colour, visual effects, music and the mix are all built on the locked cut, so a late change means redoing work in every department.
• Temporary music that becomes permanent. A track used in the rough cut may not be licensable. Agree early whether the film will use licensed music or an original score from the studio’s music team.
• Too many reviewers. One person gathering all notes into a single list at each stage keeps the film moving.
• Missing sound files. Dialogue taken only from the camera microphone limits how clean the final mix can be.
• No delivery specification until the end. Loudness, frame rate and subtitle rules affect the mix and the master, so they belong at the start.

Sound design and the final mix

Sound is half of what an audience feels, and it is often the part left until last. The sound finish runs in steps after picture lock:

• Dialogue edit and clean-up: each line synced, levelled and cleaned of hum, wind and background noise.
• Sound design: ambience, footsteps, doors, crowds, weather and the designed sounds that a scene needs but the set never recorded.
• Music: an original score composed to the locked cut, or licensed tracks placed and edited to the picture.
• The final mix: dialogue, music and effects balanced for where the film will be heard, a cinema, a television or a phone, at the loudness the platform requires.

You review the mix as a whole before it is printed to the master, and the separate stems are kept so the film can be dubbed or re-mixed later.

Tools and review

Editing runs in Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, colour grading in DaVinci Resolve, motion graphics and visual effects in After Effects, and sound in Reaper with iZotope, FabFilter and Waves tools for restoration and mixing. Review copies are shared online with time-coded notes, so you can comment on an exact frame from anywhere. Each stage, from rough cut and fine cut to the final mix, ends at a named review gate described on the process page.

Have a film that needs finishing? Start a project and tell us what you have shot.

Post-production terms, explained

Quotes, schedules and delivery specifications use a vocabulary of their own. These are the words you are most likely to meet:

• Assembly: the first joining of the chosen takes in script order, before the story is shaped.
• Offline, online and conform: the offline edit is cut with light, fast copies of the footage; the online, or conform, rebuilds the locked cut frame for frame from the full-quality camera files.
• EDL or XML: a file that lists every cut, used to move an edit between programs for colour and sound.
• Log footage: footage recorded flat and grey to keep the most detail in highlights and shadows, which the colourist then shapes.
• LUT: a preset that converts footage from one colour space to another. It is a starting point for the grade, never the grade itself.
• M&E track: music and effects without dialogue, used to make dubbed versions in other languages.
• Loudness: the measured average level of a mix, in LUFS. Broadcasters and platforms each set their own target.
• QC: quality control, a full technical check of picture, sound and subtitles before delivery.
• Deliverables: the agreed list of files sent at the end.

Colour grading, from correction to look

Grading happens after picture lock, in layers, each reviewed before the next:

• Correction. Each shot is balanced for exposure and white balance, and shots are matched, so a scene filmed across a day, or on two cameras, looks continuous.
• The look. The colour that serves the story, warm or cold, soft or hard, built from the test grade you approved.
• Shot work. Skies, faces and details are adjusted with masks and tracking where a scene needs it.
• Output. The grade is checked for each screen it is going to, then rendered for cinema, broadcast or online.

Captions and accessible delivery

Accessible versions are easiest to make while the film is still in post-production. Closed-caption files, which describe important sounds as well as dialogue, help viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. Burned-in subtitles serve social media, where many people watch without sound. A clear dialogue mix helps everyone, including older viewers and anyone watching on a phone speaker.

Ask for these at the brief and they are listed among the deliverables. Translated subtitles and dubbed versions are covered on subtitling, translation and dubbing.

Handover, archive and later versions

When a film is delivered, the files that let it live on matter as much as the master. Keep the textless version and the sound stems, and agree in writing at the start whether the project files and graded media are handed over, and for how long they are kept.

Planned this way, later work becomes simple:

• a new trailer, teaser or short cut from the finished film;
• a re-edit for a new platform, running time or aspect ratio;
• new language versions, dubbed over the M&E track;
• updated titles, credits, logos or end cards, without regrading the film.

For new versions of a film already finished elsewhere, send the master and whatever source files you have, and you will be told plainly what can be done from them. See all services for the rest of the studio.

Questions about post-production

Can I outsource just the editing?

Yes. Editing, grading, sound and music are each available on their own, for a film you are already making.

How do you receive footage?

By cloud transfer or a drive, whichever suits the size of the project. Review copies are shared online with time-coded notes.

How much do post-production services cost?

It depends on the running time, the amount of footage, and which services you need. You receive clear options with a written quote.

How long does post-production take?

From a few days for a short brand film to several months for a feature. The schedule is agreed in writing at the start.

Do you colour grade footage shot by others?

Yes. Footage from any camera can be graded for a consistent, cinematic look for cinema, broadcast and online delivery, with a test grade first so you approve the look before the full grade.

Do you offer video editing in Guwahati?

Yes. Video editing, colour grading and sound post-production are done at the studio in Six Mile, Guwahati, for clients in Guwahati, across India and abroad, with footage exchanged online.