“We’ll Fix It In Post”
Last weekend, from February 17 to February 19, SCAD hosted its tenth annual TV Fest. I had the opportunity of attending one of its insightful panels, “We’ll Fix It in Post .” Producer and Director of SCAD FIlm, Brantly Watts, hosted this event with panelists including Misty Showalter, Co-Executive Producer, and Scott Wiley, Senior Editor.
Many times, I have heard of the problems and issues that the irritating phrase “We’ll Fix It In Post” brings the filmmakers and editors. I wondered if filmmakers have a problem on-set, why wait to fix it in post-production when they can fix it right away? After this panel, I realized that it is much more complex than I thought. Many aspects make a director decide to fix something in post-production; it is not just bad decision making or a bad director.
Misty Showalter established that every shoot starts with very high hopes and expectations. “Everything will run smoothly.” “Everyone will execute the script perfectly.” “The team will get every item on the director’s shot list.” “No one is feeling stressed; everyone is happy.” “There is plenty of time for wrap up”… These are a few of the optimistic but very unrealistic phrases or expectations that filmmakers have when starting a project. However, many aspects cause delays on filming days. The top elements that cause delays are:
- Weather
- Covid
- Bad Actors
- Not great director choices
These delays affect the expectations, which in worse case scenarios, entire scenes are lost, leading the filmmakers to say the dreading phrase “We’ll Fix It In Post.”
Weather is the most common aspect that causes production to get delayed. Many of the horror shows that both Misty and Scott work on are outside. When there is bad weather, filmmakers need to decide whether to use precipitation in their favor. When using rainy weather, multiple aspects need to be kept in mind, such as the appearance of the actors, are they going to have wet hair in all the shots, are they going to use an umbrella, a raincoat? Rainy days might not be a huge problem when it comes to delays; however, if there is lightning, that is another story. If there is a Thunderstorm or lightning reported within six miles of the shoot, filming must be canceled for safety purposes and equipment protection. These delays cause a lack of shots that might not be entirely fixed in post because the editors have very few options(shots) to push forward the story.
After 2020, Covid became the newest problem that lead to “We’ll Fix It In Post”. Before the pandemic’s restrictions, all the crew would gather around on set without worrying about social distancing or sanitation. That normality changed. Now everyone is responsible to clean equipment and keep their distance on set. These Covid restrictions led to the shoot time decreasing dramatically and many times losing shots because of this.
Scott Wiley went over how often bad directing affects the film from an editing standpoint. Many times directors do not understand that less is more; they always want more. Sometimes less is imperative since It will show a better storytelling and save production time. Removing scenes will have to be done to keep things moving forward. Sometimes directors fall in love with a scene that might not be as imperative as they think it is from a storytelling standpoint. The insistence of filming that scene leads to delays and losing time. On the other hand, sometimes less is just less. Scott mentions the Frank-En-Bite technique in which filmmakers have to condense and base the information for greater impact.
Bad performance is often identified in post and not during production. Misty shared with us how often she feels like the performance was amazing during filming, but then realizes in the editing phase that it was not. To fix this, editors have to rely on the actor with the better performance and use music and effects to amplify and create the story’s mood.
The event culminated with a Q&A session where I had the opportunity to ask one of the speakers the following question: What was the most challenging experience you went through when fixing a shot in post? How would you have approached this problem without fixing it in post? Scott Wiley shared how the most challenging aspect of fixing a shot in post is keeping the continuity of a film when improvisation is involved in the performance.
Overall the event was very insightful, and the speakers shared additional advice when fixing problems in post and developing projects. Remember that nothing will turn out exactly as planned; the best editors are the best problem solvers who go beyond the plan and push forward the story.