Panelist Mark Steele (Howl, It’s Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise) discusses how your relationship with a post-production supervisor is critical to a project’s success. Post-production supervisors are essential in managing the many moving parts of the post process, including sound, music, coloring, visual effects, and much more. Steele explains that the role is primarily to act as the project manager, helping producers to put budgets together early on and helping the team make collective decisions that will benefit the film through the editorial process.
But what’s the difference between a post-production supervisor and a producer working in post? The focus on the big picture of the project means that the two jobs may overlap at times, but according to Steele, while post supervising requires an active knowledge of how to reach certain milestones, it ultimately comes down to bandwidth. Working through editorial, going through footage daily, tracking the budget, and looking ahead to the finishing stages of the film is a big job that requires the expertise to make critical, long-term decisions. Furthermore, post-production supervisors work in post all the time, which means they often have established relationships and a deeper understanding of the roles, which can be hugely helpful for producers trying to stay engaged through the rest of the process.
If you are a producer working in the editing room with an editor, assistant editor, post-production supervisor, and director, you may sometimes feel like you’re overstepping your role. Steele’s advice is to stay actively engaged in the process with the director and editor starting in pre-production, rather than be absent from any part of the process. He warns that being out of the loop in the creative process at any point could also leave you out of the conversation later in the editing room.