Post-production guide
Everything that happens to a video after it's shot: the edit, the notes, the colour, the sound and the final file. Each stage, who does it, and where the time usually goes.
In short
Updated
Where post-prod fits
Reviewers pin notes to the frame, draw on the picture, or press Talk through it and say what they think while it plays. Every point becomes its own note on the exact frame. Clients do it from a link, with no account.
A note like “tighten this shot” can become a suggested edit: a cut, a zoom, a blur that follows a moving object, speed, audio, colour, a shot swap, a text fix or captions. Everyone plays it on the cut, and the next version renders from the original.
When the next version goes up, every note from the last is marked looks fixed, still there or can't tell, each with a reason, so nobody has to rewatch the whole cut to find out.
The basics
Post-production is the third phase of making a video, after pre-production (planning and scripting) and production (shooting). It takes the raw footage and turns it into the file that gets published, broadcast or delivered to a client.
People shorten it to post, post prod or postprod. A post-production team can be one editor on a YouTube channel, or an editor, an assistant, a colourist, a sound mixer, a motion designer and a post supervisor on an advert or a film.
The same few jobs come up on almost every project, even when one person does several of them.
It depends on the length, the footage and how many rounds of notes it goes through. A short social video can be cut, reviewed and delivered in a day or two; a long documentary can take months.
The rounds of review are the part that's hardest to plan, because nobody knows how many there will be until the notes come in.
The stages
Not every project goes through every stage, and most of them overlap. This is the usual order.
1. Ingest and organise
Copy and back up the footage, sync sound to picture, make lighter copies to edit with if the camera files are heavy, and name everything so it can be found.
2. Assembly and rough cut
Every usable take laid out in story order, then cut down to a first version that's long but complete.
3. Review and feedback
The cut goes to the people who sign off. Their notes come back to the editor, and the cut goes round again.
Review and approval4. Fine cut and picture lock
The timing is tightened shot by shot until nobody wants to move a frame. After picture lock the edit stops changing, so colour and sound can finish.
5. Colour
Correction makes the shots match each other; grading gives the video its look.
6. Sound
Dialogue cleaned up, music and effects added, and the levels mixed for where it will be played.
7. Graphics and effects
Titles, lower thirds, motion graphics, screen replacements and clean-up.
8. Captions and subtitles
Timed text for accessibility, for people who watch with the sound off, and for other languages.
9. Quality check and delivery
A last watch for black frames, offline media, clipped audio and typos, then the files are exported in every format the platform or client needs.
Automatic checksWhere the time goes
The edit itself is fairly predictable. The rounds of notes around it usually aren't, and they fail in the same few ways.
“The middle drags” sends the editor looking. A note pinned to the frame, or to the start and end of the stretch it's about, doesn't.
A paragraph with three changes in it gets two of them done. One change per note, each ticked off on its own, means nothing hides.
“Make it punchier” is a guess for the editor. A zoom or a trim the reviewer sets up and plays on the cut is not.
When the producer and the client ask for opposite things, the editor does both and waits. Agree who has the final say before the first cut goes out.
Each new version gets watched from the start to see whether the last notes were done. Checking the new version against the old notes, note by note, saves that watch.
A fix exported from a compressed review copy, or a final that missed the last round, means one more round. Render the final from the original.
How to give video feedbackFewer rounds
Go deeper
The post-production workflow
Every step from the footage to delivery, in order, with who does it and who signs it off.
Read the workflowReview and approval
How to run the review rounds so the cut is signed off in as few versions as possible.
Read the guideGiving video feedback
Notes an editor can act on the first time: where, what, why, and shown on the picture.
Read the guideA video review checklist
What to look at on each pass, from story to typos, before a cut is approved.
Read the checklistClient approval
Getting a client to sign off without endless rounds or a thread of emails.
Read the guideAgentic video editing
An AI agent that reads the notes, makes the edits and posts the next version for people to check.
How it worksEverything that happens to a video after it's shot: editing, review and feedback, colour, sound, graphics, captions and delivery. It's often shortened to post, post prod or postprod.
Ingest and organisation, the assembly and rough cut, review and feedback rounds, the fine cut and picture lock, colour, sound, graphics and effects, captions, and a final quality check and delivery. Most projects overlap some of them.
Editing is one part of post-production: putting the shots in order and timing them. Post-production also covers the review rounds, colour, sound, graphics, captions and delivering the files.
It varies by project, but review is the hardest part to plan: every round of notes sends the cut back through the edit, and sometimes through colour, sound and graphics too. Clear notes on the frame and a check of each new version against the last round's notes are the usual ways to cut the rounds down.
It's software for one part of post-production: review and approval. You still edit in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro. post-prod.io is where the cut goes for notes, where reviewers can suggest the edit itself, and where the next version renders from your original. The notes go back to your editing app as markers. Video review software
If you're looking for the review tool, yes: post-prod.io is often written postprod or post prod. Post-production itself is the whole process on this page.
There's a sample video you can open and review the way a guest would, and you can test it with one upload of your own (a video up to 500 MB). Plans are paid per admin, and guests never need a seat.
post-prod.io
The review stage of post-production, in fewer rounds: clear notes, edits reviewers can show, and the final from your original.
From $10 per admin a month, or $8 billed yearly. Unlimited guests. Cancel any time.
