A new definition for post production

In the past few years the post production has been coming under increasing pressure. Most people blame tougher negotiations by studios – that they want twice as much work for half the money.

Micahel Cioni of Panavision’s Light Iron has an alternate theory. Here he is talking during last week’s Opening Keynote Presentation at the annual Hollywood Post Alliance Tech Retreat suggests:

Father and Son: An HPA Story from Light Iron on Vimeo.

(4:53) I don’t believe the squeeze is actually coming from studios, although a lot of people think the content creators are creating a squeeze at the top and that filters down. If we were to look at this market as a business transaction, it’s like having a new owner – a new boss. The content creators have a new boss – that new owner is alternative distribution methods. It’s not just creating a squeeze below the line… it’s actually effecting people above the line. 

(5:31) What’s really changed is this idea of what is actually ‘post.’ I think of it as like a waterfall. Services you provide in post production eventually go ‘over the edge’ – they become part of production. Once they do, you can’t get them back … 

(6:35) …if you elminate film, you don’t eliminate film making. If you eliminate post houses, you don’t eliminate post…

(7:00) [new definition of post:] ‘Any manipulation of an image that happens after it leaves the camera’…

(7:19) [on screen] Transcoding and online are 2 post services that are soon going “over the edge” and will fall into production. This doesn’t mean post is dead, but many of its fundamental services are.

(8:57)

Coming up with standard ways of doing things isn’t good news for post production professionals. Post pros are more valuable in environments when there are many different ways of getting things done

Post: that which happens in parallel with, which is synchronized with and accompanies production