14. To the Finish—Ho!!

There’s a toast that many picture editing crews use when they’re in the final throes of editing. By this time, it’s likely that the crew has been on the film for five or six months, and we are preparing for the sound mix. The end of the film, while actually quite close, still seems very far away. At times like these, when we are clinking our glasses of wine (or whatever), I usually hear someone say something like, “To the answer print!” The answer print is what this chapter is all about.

In a nutshell, the answer print is a fully edited, color-corrected print of a film that may or may not have a sound track attached (or married) to it. Getting to this point involves many complex technical steps, but before you get to that ...

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