Chapter | nine

Postproduction, or

Taking a Cue from

Dedicated Hookers and

Finishing Your Movie

Off Right

The most important thing that you as a director should remember when principal photography wraps is that YOU'RE NOT DONE! A movie doesn't transform from a box of DV tapes sitting in your living room (or miles of 35 mm film sitting in your Tromaville office) into a real movie until it reaches postproduction — the editing, sound mixing, etc. When a gyno lovingly nurtures a fetus for nine months, feeding it from her own body through a bloody little tube, she doesn't just pop the kid out and consider her job finished,1 assuming that someone else will care for it and make sure it comes out all right.2 You need to treat your film like a fussy infant. ...

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