Post-production is the place where everything comes together. Here, you'll turn those flubbed lines into one cohesive story. From editing to storytelling, post-production is all about creating a polished final product that's both engaging and entertaining.

Brooke Van Poppelen

Nametag van poppelen@2x

Comic, Writer, Actor

Graham Burns & Jackson Cook

Nametag graham and jackson@2x

Co-Creative Directors

Dave Mizzoni

Nametag dave@2x

Actor & Producer 

Nate Nichols

Nametag nate@2x

Creative Director

Adam Lisagor & Claude Zeins

Nametag adam and claude@2x

Sandwich

Adam Day

Nametag adam day@2x

Lead Producer

Michelle Khouri

Nametag khouri@2x

CEO & Founder

Dan Mills

Nametag dan@2x

Head of Wistia Studios

Dana Saint & Dan Riordan

Nametag dana and dan@2x

Partners

Danielle Bushrow

Nametag danielle@2x

Senior Designer

Wistia Editing Basics

Editing Basics for Business Video

Inside-our-Premiere-Project

Inside Our Premiere Project

E14 Post-Production - Deleted Scenes 0315.00 00 02 01.Still001

Deleted Scenes

Post Production


BROOKE VAN POPPELEN: When you're in post-production, you're going to edit out just people not getting-- OK, let me get this, sorry. Help, um, you might have--

CREW: Sorry, we got a car.

BROOKE VAN POPPELEN: Oh, yeah, honkity honk honk? My brain almost fell out of my [BLEEP] head. We can fix that in post, right? Yeah? OK.

NARRATOR: Get ready for the world of endless possibilities, where bad takes get thrown out. Where rambles get turned into articulate sound bites. Color, animation, music, sound effects. You can even travel the world via green screen. It's the magical world of post-production.

GRAHAM BURNS: By the name, you might think post-production means after production.

JACKSON COOK: Yeah, but don't focus on the word post. Focus on the word production. It's actually still a very creative part of the process.

DAVE MIZZONI: It's where all the pieces of the puzzle finally get put together. It's the cutting, and the gluing, and the color correcting, and the sound editing. Just polishing the diamond that you have carved out of the Earth.

NATE NICHOLS: From the colorist, to the editor, to the DIT, like, all these things make post-production fluid, amazing, and beautiful.

ADAM LISAGOR: You can take something that was shot really well and edit it poorly and it's bad. You can take something that was shot not so great and edit it really, really well and it becomes amazing.

NARRATOR: In the world of episodic shows, post-production helps you accomplish three very important things. Here's Wistia's lead producer, Adam Day, to break it down.

ADAM DAY: How's the hair? One, post-production is where you can edit your episodes to be as engaging as possible. Because that matters a lot. Two, you can provide context for your viewers so they know where they are and who they're hearing from. And three, post-production is where you add all the bells and whistles that keep your audience in the world that you've created for them.

NARRATOR: Let's start with number one. How do you make things engaging? By being a great editor.

ADAM LISAGOR: One way of doing things is you can record an interview in its entirety. And then just put it out there. Say, here audience, listen to this. It's three hours long.

Or you can be more respectful of their time. Just by producing something that's easier to listen to, you'll get that respect back for your company or your brand. Trust me, it's going to return the value that you put into it.

BROOKE VAN POPPELEN: Some people just drone on too long. Or in my case, it is a dog zoo in my house and you guys do not need to hear that. Take note everybody, edit your podcast, for god's sake.

NARRATOR: Here's show host and podcast producer, Brooke Van Poppelen. Don't be so married to every idea you have. You're going to think you're brilliant. You know what people think is brilliant? A nice, short, tasty podcast.

MICHELLE KHOURI: For an audio-only project like a podcast, you don't have as many distractors. You've got this one sense funneling everything through the ears.

NARRATOR: Founder of Frequency Media, Michelle Khouri.

MICHELLE KHOURI: It's not just about taking out ums and ahs. It's also about making sure that the experience, everything from sinking into silent spaces between different segments of a show, or after one heavy, dramatic moment something being said allowing there to be silence for processing. See, it makes a difference.

GRAHAM BURNS: So there's a lot of things that you can do to tighten and get the perfect sound bites that you want to use in your video. But in order to get those perfect sound bites, you're going to have to cut around all this other BS. We pause, we might go off on a tangent. We might lose focus. We might start talking about, who knows what.

JACKSON COOK: Burritos.

CREW: Great example, thank you. Edit this out, because that was a bad example.

JACKSON COOK: That was good.

CREW: That was bad, yeah.

NARRATOR: This is we're having a couple of cameras can really elevate your show. With one angle, a jump cut from minute one to minute four would feel like this.

SPEAKER: You have a great email newsletter? Include your content launch there. Tease it there, launch it there.

NARRATOR: Your viewer's going to notice that edit. With two camera angles, your viewer will still feel like they're watching one brilliant stream of consciousness from your very well-spoken expert.

SPEAKER: You have a great email newsletter? Include your content launch there. Tease it there, launch it there.

NARRATOR: But sometimes it can be tough to know what to keep and what to cut. Here are Adam and Claude from Sandwich to show you how you can make sure your story's airtight.

CLAUDE ZEINS: It's us again.

ADAM LISAGOR: Wearing the same thing. It's really important to give yourself the freedom to remove things in order to make the piece better.

CLAUDE ZEINS: I call it killing your darlings. And it sucks every single time.

ADAM LISAGOR: We have a part of our creative process that we like to call putting peppers in the gumbo. That means spicing things up and adding more and more to create more flavor. But sometimes the gumbo is best without all the peppers in it.

CLAUDE ZEINS: Putting peppers in the gumbo and we all--

ADAM LISAGOR: Peps in the gumby.

CLAUDE ZEINS: And we all just nod.

ADAM LISAGOR: Peps in the gumbo.

DAVE MIZZONI: The note-giving process is interesting. It's always a push and pull. And I think the main thing you have to keep in mind is that everyone's working towards the common goal of this being good. Everyone thinks they're Scorsese. They have ideas. I would breathe them all in, try them out. And then pick which ones are most important to you. And, you know, bend where you need to bend.

NARRATOR: Next up, audiences appreciate context. Whether it's on a flight, on a website, or watching a show, people like to know where they are.

DAN MILLS: Providing context is all about how you structure your show. It's like crafting a great piece of writing. You want to break your show into sections, so that your audience stays engaged and glued to your work. And you need to communicate with your audience which section they're currently in.

NARRATOR: Welcome back, head of Wistia Studios, Dan Mills.

DAN MILLS: Let's say your show starts with an opening theme song. Then there's an introduction moment. After that you bring on a guest. And then there's a rapid-fire question segment. Don't be afraid to mark every one of those sections with lower thirds, with graphics, even their own title sequence. And that's exactly what we did for our show, Brandwagon. We had a segment called Building the Brandwagon. There was how many chairs. We shared clips from people's podcasts. All of these moments create a structure for your show that's easy to consume. And it all happens in post-production.

NARRATOR: The last thing, post-production is where you polish and spruce up your shows before they go out the door, like adding a sweet soundtrack.

DAN RIORDAN: At Gnarly Bay, we don't do a lot of CGI. We don't do crazy special effects. For a long time, I think we looked at music as our special effects.

DANA SAINT: You know, music is just one of those things that people overlook and kind of botch all the time. It's almost like they put the whole project together and then they slap music on.

ADAM LISAGOR: Music is your opportunity to add another character to your story. If it's not right, it doesn't make the video better, it can make it worse.

NARRATOR: Sound design is another way to add production value to your show. Just ask creative director, Nate Nichols from the Palette Group.

NATE NICHOLS: Sound design is super special because you have the ability to create a whole new layer of nuance to your cuts. It's a multi-dimensional thing. You want to hit as many sensory opportunities as you can from the footsteps, to the water falling, to the air whisping by. All those different and small nuances create a dimensionality that people appreciate.

NARRATOR: Color is another way to bring consistency and polish to your episodes.

DANIELLE BUSHROW: You can really communicate a lot in the mood with how you choose to use color, whether you're using warm tones, whether it's dark and moody. And this can really play into the tone you're trying to strike, the mood you're trying to set, to ladder up to that brand you created. More tactically, you also can use this color correction to connect shots that you've done and make them all feel consistent.

ADAM DAY: I don't know. OK, I got this blue. What do you think?

CREW: Try, like, the second one.

ADAM DAY: Wait, is it this? Or is it this? Before you leave post-production, you just got to do those final checks too. Look for things like a bad edit, a shot that made it in without color grading, out of sync audio. Any mistake like that is going to distract your viewer and just take the production value down. And you worked hard on this stuff, so make sure you do those final checks. Watch it down one more time before you hit Upload.

ADAM LISAGOR: Editing isn't really just about taking the material that was shot and making it shorter. It's really about giving shape to the story that you're telling.

CLAUDE ZEINS: The thing that you make is really made three times. The first time is when you write it. The second time is when you shoot it. And then the third time is when you edit it.

DAVE MIZZONI: It's in the can now. So you have to figure out what you have can be cut together to appease everybody.

GRAHAM BURNS: The best advice I can give you is actually, make sure you watch through all the footage that you captured during production. You want to take notes and you want to mark the footage and start to organize it in a way so that you are really prepared and know exactly what you have to work with.

JACKSON COOK: So we can fix this in post, right?

GRAHAM BURNS: Yeah, it's going to need a lot of work.

NARRATOR: Like we said, post-production is a world of endless possibilities. So don't get stuck here. Let the three objectives of post be your guardrails.

Use your ninja editing skills to make sure your episodes are super engaging. Make sure you give your audience context by breaking up your content with things like transitions and graphics. That way they'll know right where they are in your show. And help them stay in the world that you've made for them by polishing the audio and visual elements that tie everything together and make your show feel like the real deal.
