[ggegan]

I have started this thread because the points raised in the recent thread discussing the necessity of putting fades on every cut point to a larger issue of efficiency in general in the new post economy.

Most of the films I work on have post budgets somewhere between $200k and $400k, which may seem generous to some, but there is often a fair amount of unfinished editorial work and an insufficient number of predub and final days to do the job as I would ideally like to and still allow the facility to make a decent profit.

Sometimes it seems that almost every project, regardless of its budget, has been pared down to whatever the wishful thinking bean counters hope will somehow barely suffice, and then when we have to go over in time or resources, we are asked to discount our pay to conform to their unrealistic expectations. Too many projects become a struggle just to get done on time, especially if your primary focus is on making sure the director realizes his aesthetic intent, which is job one (to the director at least). Of course this is just part of the nature of the beast, but I believe there are things we can do to alleviate the situation.

So what I hope to achieve in this thread is for us to discuss smart and creative ways to increase efficiency so that we can recapture the time that has been taken from us in our schedules, thus allowing us to spend more time doing creative work less on repetitive or unnecessary housekeeping chores.