CLAi the film and video production company in San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Specializing in videography, video editing on Premiere Pro and color correction on DaVinci Resolve for corporate videos and documentary films

The Film & Video Post-Production Company

Post-production, or just post, for film and video is everything that happens after the shoot and core components are completed

I love post-production – there, it just had to be said – because it’s where the film or video project really happens, in one giant multimedia jigsaw!  It’s where you get to throw away all of the plans, storyboards and scripts and ask one simple question – what have we actually got in the can to make a great movie with?

Then you start to build, change, rearrange, fine tune and test every possibility until you hit just the right storyline, performance and outcome.

The Mission Promise Neighborhood commissioned CLAi to produce a large number of short commercials to be used for broadcast and web advertising to promote their work in the very mixed ethnicity community they serve. Chris Layhe directed and was DP on the project, with producer Alexandra Conway, and co-director Pedro Delbrey, shot on two RED digital cinema cameras against a green screen, with many of the beautiful murals in the Mission as backdrops. Video editors were Chris Layhe and Alexandra Conway.

It's a thrilling mind game for a particular type of person...

…that goes through the test cuts, the rough cuts, and the final rough cut with an “offline” editor.  Then it’s passed to the “online” or “finishing” editor to further fine tune and refine, adding in graphics, effects, titles and credits, with a much wider pallette to work from, and finally to the colorist to perfect the visuals. In the meantime the soundtrack comes together with the selection of test music and effects. From there it goes on to a composer, foley studio and/or sound studio to put together the full soundtrack.  Then it’s touched up and has the mix tweaked to picture in sound sweetening. 

Finally the colorist combines final images and sound and masters the film. More than that, though, they (along with a VFX artists) are the only ones who can actually expand or fine tune what has been shot and increase the scope of what you have to work with. Color is the place where you can re-light a scene completely, turn day into night, remove or add objects and people, and visually change the whole perspective and feel of a scene. Now I have had to give up every day shooting this is my happy place, even more than it has been over the past years!

Of course, if you have just a little bit of a multiple personality disorder life is even better, because then – like myself – you get to combine the offline editor, online editor and the colorist roles, each of which usually needs different hats to provide the necessary perspective… but in my case it’s one pair of eyes and one brief on the entire post project, which offers huge advantages all round, from cost and time savings to a far deeper understanding of the creative possibilities.

Unlike the shoot, with it’s many variables, exhaustion fueled craziness and instant decisions, post is a simple linear progression with enough time to think about what is being done… and there is fresh coffee right next to you 24 hours a day!