In-the-know production companies have been working with The Finish Line and Vaudeville Sound Group for some time, in some cases for a decade or more. It is creative post with a difference; bringing boutique picture and audio finishing all together where it should be, in the production office.
Many production companies have their own cutting rooms and media management, with final post outsourced to a third-party post house. Not many have complete picture and audio finishing, where the downsides are considerable. Media management is challenging, complex and requires a dedicated support team with specific technical knowhow. Picture and audio finishing are both craft skills. Creative finishing talent comes with a price tag, and no one colourist or mixer is right for all projects. Building (and maintaining) an audio or grading room is expensive.
The Finish Line and Vaudeville Sound Group offer an attractive alternative to the traditional third-party post model, as the testimonials on this page bear testament. Combined, they bring all the benefits of running a full inhouse post service, providing picture and audio finishing where and when required, without any of the complexities or downsides.
The Finish Line has over a dozen talented finishing artists (highly technical senior colourists) to choose from, who are assigned projects and take full ownership of picture through final post. Backed by the post house’ elegant and robust distributed working infrastructure and team of finishing assistants who can support a production from pre-planning through to mastering, QC and delivery.
Vaudeville Sound Group works in the same boutique way. With over 50 mixers on its books, Vaudeville can curate a shortlist for the execs and the director to choose from based on the project needs. For the producers, both companies can manage most of the work remotely which helps on cost – with the team working across various sites like Vaudeville’s offices, including Atmos HE, in central London, the US or Canada – before setting up embedded facilities within the production companies’ offices. For those producers with sufficient throughput, these facilities can be more permanent, while having the advantage of being centrally supported.
Working backwards from the deliverables, the two specialist facilities work together to design and implement the best possible workflow for the production, supporting the producers from pre-production to final delivery at the highest specifications (Dolby Vision/Atmos), with one post producer as a dedicated point of contact. Better still this approach is time and cost-effective, allowing the production team to focus on the series or film and direct more of the budget into creative fulfilment.