You've certainly lost sleep, probably lost weight, and maybe lost hair too, but so very quickly the shoot is over. Cameras are gone, actors have vanished, and you're left with nothing but cans of celluloid and impatient studio executives drumming their fingers.
The bulk of their money has been spent and there is no possibility of a return on the investment until the film is in cinemas so the director, producer, and now editor are under pressure.
"When I started in the early 70s," said "Bonfire of the Vanities" co-editor David Ray in 1991, "you'd take three or four months to film then a year to edit." On "Bonfire", filming began in April for a screening just five months later in September.
Even since the early 90s the editing process has been hugely speeded up and improved by a move from physically cutting celluloid to using computer systems such as Avid. But then the post-production time is not solely about assembling what footage you've got; 'post' can also be about re-shooting and is always about looping.
Looping is when recorded dialogue can't be used for one reason or another. For "Bonfire of the Vanities", Bruce Willis had to loop dialogue and also record narration: "The looping was disastrous. By the time he showed up for the looping session after working all day his voice was weak," according to writer Julia Salamon.
Yet that's at least better than what happened on "Twelve Monkeys" where post-production was so accelerated that when Willis was needed for looping, director Terry Gilliam couldn't locate him. Eventually he was found and the film inched its way to completion ready for test screenings and any subsequent final trimmings.
Extended post-production affected "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". Its director, Robert Wise: "We didn't have any time ... I saw it all completely together on the Monday before it opened in Washington on the Thursday. I was planning to do some more cuts on the version that would be released overseas but I found later that Paramount had already made 150 copies." To re-edit and print again would have cost a quarter of a million dollars.
Go to Factory Line - Part 6 sidebar: Keeling Over - Post-Production on "Titanic".
Go to Factory Line - Part 7: First Sight
Go to Factory Line - Part 5: We're paying you, aren't we? Where's the movie? Get shooting!
Factory Line Introduction
Factory Line Glossary
Sources:
Birmingham Post: "Star Trek" supplement, William Gallagher, 1997, Birmingham Post and Mail Ltd.
"The Making of the Trek Films", revised edition, edited by Edward Gross, Image Publishing, 1992, ISBN 0-9627508-9-0
"The Devil's Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood", Julie Salamon, 1992, Jonathan Cape, ISBN 0-224-03347-6
