One of the many great quotes from The Big Lebowski: “Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.” The same Dude said: “That rug really tied the room together”. Both of these quotes helped put us in the proper mindset for what’s known as “Post-Production”, the stuff that happens after principal photography. You know, the editing, sound mixing and mastering, color correction, the rug that ties everything together before you start screening. While there is some science to it, most of it is art, and it ultimately comes down to your opinion, man.

 

1. Time is on my side (no it isn’t). Going in, I knew that the process of editing our film would take longer than many independent films because our editor was doing it in addition to his regular full-time professional editing job. There was lots of constructive back and forth as we reviewed everything, seeing what worked well and what didn’t, and how we could re-arrange/add/delete scenes to best tell the story.
2. Remember that post-production budget you created? Well, the good news is that it covered many aspects of the phase, but some aspects cost a bit more than anticipated. To be fair, we had folks who were extremely generous in their time and efforts to make it affordable for an independent film, and they did tremendous work, but there were some additional enhancements and time not originally anticipated.
3. Say what? Good audio is essential for any film, and especially one with lots of dialogue and music throughout. Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) is the process of re-recording dialogue by the original actor to improve audio quality or reflect dialogue changes. We captured lots of ADR’s right after scenes were filmed so we felt confident that we would be able to use them as needed during editing. Even with all that capture, there were a few gaps we noticed late in post-production.
4. Color makes it POP! The color correction process made the scenes really pop on the screen, and was a great investment in ensuring a high-quality visual experience for the audience.
5. Behold the final product! It was illuminating to see the final product after so many months of blood, sweat, and tears. And it was SO worth it! We are humbled to be accepted to four film festivals so far along with 6 award nominations including Best Comedy, Best Director/Editor/Poster Designer Ben Bacharach-White, Best Actress Aditi Molly Bhanja, and Best Actor Chris Wolfe. All the credit goes to the amazing cast and crew that made it happen.

 

We are looking forward to screening in the festivals over the next year or so and then see what happens from a distribution standpoint. Targeting and finding a very niche audience can be quite challenging, and we recognize there will be lots of opinions out there. Ultimately we have a product of which we are very proud and excited to exhibit, and we will be working hard to find our audience.

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