Read this stuff
What is your role, what should you say, and what do you need to participate? The pre-production meeting, or “pre-pro”, is perhaps the most important stage of the project because it outlines the process, resources, and expectations involved. It usually takes place in the presence of the advertiser or sponsor, director, director’s producer, production designer [...]
What format and frame rate will be used for acquisition, and why does it matter? Clarifying shooting formats matters because DPs and directors often think about what will look aesthetically pleasing to them without taking into consideration what the editing equipment or the delivery specs will be. There is often a push to shoot DV [...]
How will it be done and what effect does it have on your workflow? Will audio be recorded as a “single” or “dual” system, and will it be post-synced prior to delivery to you? If you don’t ask this question, don’t be surprised if you get a box full of videotapes with no sound and [...]
What Does the Editor Provide to the rest of the team? If they’re shooting film, provide dailies specs for the lab to process the film to video. Dailies specs are guidelines that are given to a film lab technician so that he or she can prepare your film and transfer it to videotape in a [...]
What will be the final master delivery formats? How will the final project be delivered? Digital file, HDCam, HDV, DVCProHD, Digital Beta, Beta-SP, DVCam, DVD, online video? The answer to this question can be as simple as whatever the standard procedure is for a particular client. On the other hand, some clients don’t have a [...]
Who will do the final mix/color correction and where? Will there be any studio recording? Even though FCP and Soundtrack Pro have good tools for doing sound mixing, there some situations where a “real” recording studio and a talented mixer is needed. Recording studios can run as high as $500/hour, but there are ways to [...]
How will they be done? What codec will be used? If there is a discussion about visual FX or graphic animation of some kind, there’s a chance that everyone is assuming you will be doing it. That’s fine, except that if it isn’t, someone has to say who will be doing it. And then, how [...]
How does everyone want to see work-in-progress? It’s not like the old days where every rough cut was dubbed to a VHS or 3/4″ tape and Fedexed to a bunch of people. Now, compatibility with everyone’s computer and browser has to be considered along with their Internet connection speed to stream a video. And authoring [...]
How many hours will be shot? This is the question every editor asks, and, for producers, it is the most annoying thing to hear. But the reality is that you should be given a ballpark estimate for how many total hours of footage you can expect to receive. How else will you be able to [...]