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.

If you were to mute the movie, any movie, what would be lost?

Movies are absolute visual stimulus, no matter the genre, no matter the plot. The audio tends to be secondary in our minds. While sound lends itself more to a villain’s monologue than a daring car chase through Amsterdam, both are ultimately on the chopping block. Direct exposition might stall in the silence but we still have visual cues: the performances, the aesthetic and the movement. In live theater, it’s all about the actor’s movement whereas film relies on the camera’s. This cinematic principle is called the “eye of god.” A camera takes you places you’re normally unable to go. Even more than that, this dynamic gives you insight – a camera will hold on an actress’ face far longer than we’d dare stare in real life, and in that disembodied, extended focus we observe every inch of her emotion. Now incorporate sound: her shuddered breath is agitating, the stifled sobs emotive. Sound is the sensory validator, confirming what we see is communicating what it should be. The screech of a violin announces a psychopath with a meat cleaver while a slammed door indicates an unseen entrance. Now remove those markers… something is lost but is something gained as well? Think of cinema before “talkies,” in the silent era when faces were dialogue and music was exposition. Now remove that music and there’s still a wholly visual experience there, with all types of indicators toward a story.

So can a movie exist without sound, or sound without picture? Should they be expected to? Ideally, yes.

Take last year’s Whiplash, for example. It’s literally a film about music, but there’s a silent, visual story in there. Imagine Whiplash on mute and the foundation remains intact through what we see: “An aspiring drummer vies for a spot in a formidable jazz conductor’s studio band but soon realizes the man is not only a master manipulator but an absolute sadist to boot.” You could watch the entire film, start to finish and while the sound may change or arguably enhance the overall experience, you’d take in all the information you need from the performances and gradual evolution of the cinematography.

Now, sound without picture is a different story, one we’re actually more familiar with. Audio plays have been around since the dawn of mass media – one of my favorite parts of the radio show A Prairie Home Companion is when Garrison Keillor and co. present a highly-involved skit with nothing but voice and sound. Even more than expositional narration, our ears pick up what is called “ambience” or “foley” to make sense of things. These audio principles ensure the environment of the story is communicated by noise, from a chuga-chuga-chuga at a train station to the skittish footsteps of a woman walking home during a full moon. While picture stimulates us, sound activates our visual imaginations. For example, the final scene of Pulp Fiction serves as its own audio play from the moment Jules and Vincent sit down to pancakes. By removing the picture, we hear only the ambient sounds of the diner and the dialogue of our characters, and once Ringo and Yolanda stick up the joint we are treated to tension in both the silence and raised voices that break it.

The take away from these examples and the theme at large is direction both in sight and sound. Directors should constantly be selling the story in the visuals, even beyond the structure of the script. Likewise, sound editors and mixers must strive to not only follow the visual cues but at the same time compose their own audible story between every screeching tire or ringing gunshot. If sound and sight can come together in these highly intentional ways, that’d make for movies that feed both the eyes and ears in a swell of cinematic awesomeness.

I found an article on Mentalfloss that does a great job of digging up footage you never knew existed and presenting it with a bit of background trivia. Just the kind of stuff I was looking for. Here’s my totally subjective round-up of the 10 most inspiring of these – and what Rudie Obias had to say about them.

1. Feature: Napoleon Dynamite / Short: Peluca

Before Jon Heder played the titular character in 2004’s breakout indie hit Napoleon Dynamite, the actor starred as the same character (only going by the name of Seth) in director Jared Hess’ student short film Peluca, which was made in 2002. The short was made for only $500 on black-and-white 16mm film stock in Hess’ hometown of Preston, Idaho over the course of two days. After being shown during the Slamdance Film Festival in 2003, Peluca was adapted into Napoleon Dynamite the following year.

Although Napoleon Dynamite was a sleeper hit in 2004, the film’s production still kept its indie sensibility with a small budget of $400,000 (Heder was only paid $1000 to reprise the leading role). It was selected for the Sundance Film Festival, where Fox Searchlight acquired the film’s distribution rights and the indie film became an instant cult hit.

2. Feature: Half Nelson / Short: Gowanus, Brooklyn

In 2004, director and co-writer Ryan Fleck and screenwriter Anna Boden made a 19-minute short film called Gowanus, Brooklyn, which followed a middle school teacher who was addicted to cocaine. The short won the Short Filmmaking Award at the Sundance Film Festival and grew into the feature film Half Nelson two years later. The feature film still kept the short’s handheld, minimalistic style, but added actor Ryan Gosling in the leading role. Gosling was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor later in the year, but lost to Forest Whitaker for his chilling performance as dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.

3. Feature: District 9 / Short: Alive in Joburg

In 2005, director Neill Blomkamp created a vision of dystopian South Africa with the short film Alive In Joburg. The film followed a group of extraterrestrial refugees living in Johannesburg and looked at how the human population treated the new alien race. Blomkamp’s film was documentary-style and explored themes of South African apartheid; the director had conceived the short as a proof-of-concept to showcase advanced special effects with a low budget.

Alive in Joburg caught the eye of director Peter Jackson, who planned to produce a live-action version of the video game Halo with Blomkamp in the director’s chair. While the Halo creators ultimately backed out of the film adaptation, Jackson gave Blomkamp $30 million to do whatever he wanted to do instead. The result was the feature District 9, a box office hit that went on to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2009. Blomkamp introduced a new character named Wikus van de Merwe, played by Sharlto Copley, a well-mannered government official who slowly turns into an alien. Copley was also Alive in Joburg’s producer.

4. Feature: Bottle Rocket / Short: Bottle Rocket

In 1992, after meeting in a playwright class at the University of Texas in Austin, Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson collaborated on a short film called Bottle Rocket, which followed the exploits of three clueless would-be criminals, played by Robert Musgrave, Owen Wilson, and his brother Luke. During the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, Bottle Rocket received little attention from film critics and festival attendees, but it managed to catch the eye of film producer James L. Brooks, who funded the duo’s debut feature based on the short.

The feature film version of Bottle Rocket was released in 1996 and gained cult status among film critics and cinephiles. The difference between the 13-minute short and the 92-minute feature film are mostly cosmetic; the narrative was expanded, and color photography was used. The feature also ditched the short’s jazzy soundtrack for a new score from composer and former Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh. Director Martin Scorsese named Bottle Rocket one of his 10 favorite movies of the decade, and it launched Anderson and the Wilson brothers’ careers.

5. Feature: THX-1138 / Short: Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB

Before George Lucas raced into super-stardom with the release of American Graffiti and Star Wars in the ’70s, he made a student film called Electronic Labyrinth: THX-1138 4EB while he was still a film student at the University of Southern California in 1967. The short film followed a group of people living in an underground dystopia, as one of its citizens hopes for something more to his simple and mundane life.

The short was made into a feature when Lucas’ friend and fellow USC film student Francis Ford Coppola founded his production company American Zoetrope in 1971. A feature film version of Electronic Labyrinth: THX-1138 4EB, now simply titled THX-1138, was the first film under the new banner.

Check out the article on Mentalfloss for more.