Make yourself a cup of coffee, whip out a notepad, sit up straight and listen carefully. Enjoy.

And now there’s an easy – and may we add fun – way to achieve the perfect VHS look for your film.

Post-production service providers Rarevision has come out with an iPhone app (Android version is reportedly on the way) that allows you to shoot up to 1080p video in far-less-than-HD quality. Sound like an oxymoron? Try it. The image comes complete with the familiar VHS tape noise and distortion, which you can manipulate as you shoot, and the app lets you zoom, modify the on-screen date stamp, and even choose between different frame rates.

On the VHS Camcorder website you get the impression that the app’s makers are targeting the Instagram/Facebook demographic with an affinity for kitsch video sharing, but if you’re a DIY filmmaker and the iPhone is your best friend, then this should definitely be part of your tool box. To be used when appropriate, of course.

What is The Storyteller? The Storyteller is a feature film co-written by 20 Questions Film creator Joe Crump and 20 Questions Film writer Rachel Noll. Joe will be directing the film, while Rachel is producing and starring. Independently financed and scheduled to start filming next year, the film is the story of a young girl claiming to be an immortal who unites a dysfunctional family while she explores a world teeming with magic in order to escape the traumas of her dark past.  Though still in development the script was recently named a quarter finalist in this years highly regarded PAGE International Screenwriting Awards.

It’s one thing to talk abstractly about the idea and stages of filmmaking; it’s quite another when those stages are put into action. Stages merge – a decision in pre-production, such as casting, has an affect on the story and the script is rewritten. Financing may change a bank location called for in the script to a jewelry story. Access to visual effects (or lack thereof) may mean that a ghost is actually a monster in make-up.

And so The Storyteller Series will explore not only what is involved in each stage of the filmmaking process, but how each stage is being tailored and enacted during the making of an actual film.

Before we get started, though, remember that making movies is – and should be – fun! Just ask Barton Fink:

In order to understand our series, let’s discuss each stage that The Storyteller, like any film, will be going through…

Development: the birthing place of screenplays. The development stage is that interesting place where your idea goes through the metamorphous of becoming a screenplay. It’s during this process that the writer must ask him or herself: which of my many ideas is ready to be developed into something bigger? Once that decision is made, the question becomes: how do I start writing? Should I write a treatment and then outline scene by scene? What research do I need to do? What is the theme of my story? Many writers ask these and a multitude of other questions before even starting draft one while others will simply dive in and answer those questions along the way. However the questions are answered, it’s in your development stage that your writing craft and process is key.

Even adapting a book into a screenplay takes craft and creativity, just ask Charlie Kaufman:

Now, once the draft is written that doesn’t mean development is over. There are still rewrites, copywriting and financing to be done before you can move onto the next stage: Pre-Production.

Moving into the Pre-Production stage doesn’t actually mean that the script is locked and doesn’t need any further development. What it does mean is that financing has been secured and the process of planning the actual filming can begin. This means location scouting, casting, securing a crew, production design, costume design, and, perhaps most importantly, scheduling are coordinated. All of these variables will have an affect on the story, either changing it or further sharpening it. This is why Development leads to Pre-Production but, at a certain point, they exist simultaneously.

This is the point that The Storyteller is currently in. The script has been written, financing has been secured, so casting, location scouting and other parts of the pre-production process are now taking place while the script is being further developed and redrafted, as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

Let’s be clear – Every stage of the filmmaking process affects every other. It’s because of this that your story and thus your script will always be developing.

Some filmmakers consider Production or, in simple terms, the time during which the movie is being shot, to be the most stressful. Should we rehearse? Is there time to rehearse? How do I, the filmmaker, make sure I get all the shots I need? Should I “shoot to edit?” All these questions and many more are asked to and by the director every day of production. And again, just because the story has been developed and pre-planned to be one way, doesn’t mean that’s how it’ll be shot. What if you wrote and planned for a big chase scene in a field but it’s raining on the only day you have your stunt drivers available? Do you rewrite the scene or change what you’re shooting that day? Can you afford to lose a day of production? What the actor brings to a scene on the day of filming can also greatly affect your plans.

Here’s a fun behind-the-scenes story. Remember that scene in Silence of the Lambs? No, not the fava beans… the scene where Clarice tells Dr. Lecter about the ranch she ran away from as a child. Jonathan Demme actually planned to shoot flashbacks with a young Clarice but when they filmed the scene he knew the performances were so good, he simply didn’t need it. That film went on to win 5 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay:

We’ve talked about Post-Production workflow before, but the actual stage of post-production is, like it’s sibling production, taken into consideration during the pre-production and even development stage. Do you plan to edit the film yourself or is it better to have an outside perspective? Visual effects, what can and can’t be accomplished with your budget? How can the sound such as Foley, ADR and mixing both hide problems and become a character in the movie? Should you commission an original score or pay to license existing songs?

There is a common belief that post-production is actually the final stage of the screenwriting process. Lines are taken out; scenes are re-ordered or taken out completely. This isn’t to say those scenes weren’t needed in the script. They can be cut for time or because the combination of the camera work, actors performances and pacing simply makes it so they’re repetitive and unnecessary.

Even master filmmakers like James Cameron refine their stories. Check out these deleted scenes from the film that put him on the map:

One may think that the filmmaking process is finished with post-production but it’s actually not finished until the film has been distributed. Distribution is about making people aware and getting them to see the film. Whether one should play the festival circuit? How to find a distributor and negotiate a deal that is mutually beneficial? How to market the film? These are all questions that need to be asked and pursued during pre-production, but the minutia of each detail can’t fully be answered until the film is complete.

Making a film is a long journey, one that The Storyteller is only at the beginning of.   As this series develops we will dive deeper not only into each stage of the filmmaking process, but the process within these stages. Next up on The Storyteller Series: The Process of Ideas – which ones are worth pursuing and how do you start writing?

Movies about making movies can be funny too, especially with Woody Allen directing, check out this trailer for his film Hollywood Ending:

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An assistant editor’s first and most important responsibility is to make the editing process as smooth as possible. On a feature where footage will be coming in over a period of time this means communicating with the camera and sound departments to understand their workflow and the process by which the footage is being shot, downloaded and delivered. Understanding the type of camera and what kind of footage files are going to be delivered helps determine the post production workflow and whether the footage will need to be offlined and synced with the external sound files.

Need a refresher on post-production workflow? Check out this article.

The assistant editor’s duties include prepping the editing system for the editor. The first step of prep is to log the footage into the system. This means downloading the dailies from the hard drive, and, if the project is following an offline/online workflow, transcoding them to the offline format. Organization of the files is key not just in how and where they’re downloaded, but also what the file names are going to be.

But, wouldn’t it be easier to simply use the numbers generated by the camera? While the answer might be yes when you’re first downloading the footage, it quickly turns into a no when it’s crunch time and the editor is searching for their shot.

In naming files, I recommend using a system that includes the date the footage was shot (so that is can be easily referenced/ compared to the camera logs) the scene number, the camera (if it’s a multi-camera production), and the take number. So, if a scene 15 was shot on the A cam on May 25^th, 2015, the file name would be: 20150525_Scene015_CamA_Take001.

It is also during the logging process that the assistant editor will review the footage for any technical issues, such as picture and sound not syncing properly or a discrepancy in timecode, and add descriptions or what is called metadata. The best way to think of metadata is to think of it as keywords that are easily searchable. If the editor is looking for a particular shot of scene, they can search the metadata and find takes that match what they’re looking for.

Working in Premier? Here’s a great tutorial on how to customize you metadata!

Okay, so the clips are logged and the metadata has been added, but the prep isn’t finished. The clips must be organized in bins. For a feature, bins might be organized by scene. On a documentary, they could be organized into bins for each interviewee and a sub-bin for that interviewee’s B-Roll. If several editors are working on a project, such as a reality show, then creating a universal bin structure that will exist from episode to episode will greatly help with the organization. This is because even though each editor will in evidently customize their specific project file to their needs, having a universal structure will mean that the assistant editor will not have to go searching when it’s time to transfer files or work in said editor’s project.

Once the logging, adding of metadata and organization of the bin structure is complete, it’s time for the assistant editor to hand the project to the editor. This, however, does not mean that the assistant editor’s job is over. Editors rely on the assistant’s knowledge of the footage, and to troubleshoot any trouble with the editing software, be it Premiere, Final Cut Pro or Avid. This means that the assistant editor needs to know the program inside and out.

But where’s the artistry? Believe it or not, there is artistry in organization and technical knowledge. You are taking the raw elements are creating the building blocks (or legos) that they editor will then use to assemble the story. How you build and organize those blocks has a direct artistic relationship with what gets built.

Speaking of, let’s take a moment to remember this creative little story – that used nothing but blocks (or legos, rather):

Like all relationships in filmmaking, the relationship between the Editor and Assistant Editor is one of trust, support and teamwork. The editor has to trust that the assistant editor will organize and work with them to make the editing process a smooth one. The editor also has to trust the assistant editor understands that there is a bigger picture. Indeed, if the editor trusts the assistant editor, they will ask them to edit a rough assembly of a scene that the editor will they take and refine. Thus monitoring how the editor is bringing the story together is key because those rough assemblies need to have the same tone and emotion as what’s being editing.

Picture Locked – but wait, the job’s not done!

Once the editor is complete and picture lock has been achieved, it is the assistant editor who will take the project and begin the conforming process. The assistant editor will also be responsible to deliver the audio output to the sound designer. Indeed, the assistant editor can stay with a project long after the editor is complete, thus like I said from the beginning, they are the red blood cells of post-production!

On a final note, here’s a pretty accurate look/listen into the life of an assistant editor:

To begin, one must understand that historically there are actually two stages in post-production, namely offline editing and online editing.

What is offline editing? In short, it’s the stage where your raw footage is run through a program that transcodes it to have a lower resolution. You can then use that lower resolution footage to edit your film. Think of this as the storytelling stage. The editor focuses on the timing of the cuts, the pacing of story, and communicating emotions.

Online editing, better thought of as the finishing stage, is where you’ll reconnect those low-resolution files to the original, full quality footage. This is also when color correction, effects work, final titles, and audio are brought into the film. It’s at the end of the online stage that you export your completed film.

To illustrate the need for two stages, take a look at this chart and notice the ‘processing power needed’ axis:

Wouldn’t it be faster to just edit the high-resolution footage? Programs like Premiere do claim you can edit natively, but the answer is in your question: 4K files are HUGE. 4096*2160 pixels, to be exact!.The speed at which an editor can work depends on their software (the editing system they’re using) and their system’s hardware (the actual computer they’re editing on).

So while programs like Premiere are able to edit several high-resolution tapeless formats natively, your editor’s system still needs to have powerful hardware. Every time a cut or change is made in the timeline, the computer’s CPU has to process the large files. If the hardware can’t keep up, the editor will have slow playback, the system could potentially crash and, worst of all, the footage could be damaged. Situations like that will absolutely slow down your editing process.

And please take a note from a post-coordinator: Always, always, always have at least one back-up hard drive of your footage… ALWAYS!

There’s also another place where you can lose time; when actually trying to view the rough cut. Often cuts of the in-process film will be uploaded to a dropbox account, google drive, privately on youtube or vimeo or even to an FTP. If your editor is working natively, in 4K resolution, they are going to have export a compressed (smaller) version of the film to upload. Exporting and compressing a 4K file is going to take more time than exporting and compressing a lower-resolution file.

So, you filmed footage; you’ve got those files on an external hard drive… What’s the first step in the offlining process?  

To begin, a project will be made that brings in (imports) the full resolution files. This is a project that you won’t go back to until the offline process is complete.

The next step is to transcode. Simply put, that means turning (transcoding) the raw, high-resolution files into offline, low-resolution files.

Let’s be clear. When you transcode footage to have a lower resolution (in the above picture’s case, a 1920*1080 proxy file), you’re not changing the original quality of the footage. You’re making a lower quality copy that your editor’s system can easily edit. And in the case of 4K, you’ll still be working with high-definition footage.

When going through the offline process, I recommend transcoding your media into half the pixel size of your original media. So if you shot 4K, you’ll go to 1920*1080. I also recommend using the Pro Res 422 Proxy codec. Many sites will recommend using Pro Res 422 HQ, but I find that proxy is even easier on the system and the image quality between the two, in the offline stage, is negligible.

If you want to brush up on your knowledge of codecs before moving on, take a peek at this tutorial:

How do I transcode? That’ll depend on your footage and the editing software you’ll be using. Media Encoder is great when using Premiere, because they’re both in the Adobe family. Compressor could also be used for both Premiere and those that still edit in Final Cut. Another application, specific to RED footage, is REDrushes.

Once the lower-resolution footage has been made, it will be brought in (or imported) into a new offline project. That’s when the editor is free to work their magic.

Once the film is completed and, therefore, deemed locked, it’s time for the online process to begin.

The online process (also called the conform) means you’re taking the locked offline edit and reconnecting the used footage to its full-resolution parent. When using programs like Premiere and Final Cut, this starts by generating an EDL of the timeline.

An EDL is basically a reference file of your movie that your editor will open in the original project that contains the full resolution files. Once opened, the full resolution files connect and the timeline of your movie is now online.

But alas, we’re not done. Once the timeline of your movie is online, it’s time to color correct, do effects work and bring in the final audio mix. When all those elements come together, it’s time to export. And voilá, you’ve made a movie!

Remember: Creating a post-production workflow is about creating an environment where you and the editor can focus on your film. If this all seems like an unnecessary amount of effort and you just wanna get your masterpiece through post as quickly as possible, take a second with this countdown of some of the most effective editing moments in film history. It will make you appreciate the time and care needed in creating the optimal post-processing workflow.

And for good measure, here’s a clip from the film that won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Film Editing.