You hear the phrase on film sets all the time, “Fix it in post.”  Maybe a C-stand or the mic boom crept into a shot.  With the current level of post-production technology, it’s possible to solve almost any problem in the edit bay—if you have enough time and money.

“Fix it in post,” is the unofficial motto of independent film production.  But look around and ask yourself–how many of the people saying, “Fix it in post,” are actually going to be there in post-production with you?  Probably none of them.

I’ve never heard a producer say, “fix it in post.”  And even when the crew says it, they’re not saying about their own department.  The make-up artist never wants to skip last looks in favor of taking the shine off an actor in post.  The sound recordist never tells you to fix a mic problem in post.

It’s true that you can do amazing things with the post-production tools available to you, but don’t let that be an excuse to slack off on something you could get right on the set.  Invariably, you’ll end up spending hours in the edit bay trying to fix something that would have taken five minutes to get right in production.  There’s never enough time in post-production for improving scenes, color-correcting, adding effects.  Don’t blow what time you have painting out boom poles and C-stands.

You can spend your time in post fixing problems you didn’t handle during production, or you can spend it making your film great.