Post Production Services • Audio & Video DeliverablesDocumentaries • Reality • Indie • Commercials
Friendly & Knowledgeable Staff
DCP • Tape & File Mastering • Conversions • QC
HDCAM SR • Digibeta • Blu-ray • DVD • Closed Captioning
Distribution, Broadcast and Festival Assistance
Address:1119 S. Flower Street #3
Burbank, CA 91502
(323) 851-0299
Burbank, CA 91502
(323) 851-0299
Post Production Basics:
Tree Falls is a Post Production service business serving numerous Post Production functions. Post Production, as the process is collectively known, are all the final steps when making television shows, films and commercials. Post Production or “post” as it is often referred to, is a wide range of tasks that sometimes happen simultaneously in several disciplines, or one after another, depending. The most common of these tasks are: dailies, picture editing, conforms, compositing, titles, color grading/color correction, sound recording (voice over, A.D.R., foley, looping), sound editing, sound design and sound effects, music editing, music scoring, sound mixing, mastering, closed captioning, deliverables and quality control, among others.
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Tree Falls offers many of these services. Here are some basic details:
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DCP or Digital Cinema package: A file based theatrical screening format that has taken the place of film prints for Big screen viewing.
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Tape Masters: Still widely used in the Industry as picture masters and clones. High definition formats Like HDCAM SR, HDCAM and D5 continue to be an important delivery and archiving format. Legacy standard definition tapes, such as Digital Betacam (Digibeta), continue to be viable way to deliver a Standard Definition project for domestic and international use. Many projects produced in the last 25 years were typically mastered on taps and so are archived one or more of these formats.
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File Masters: Such as ProRes , DNX, or MFX are the high data rate, broadcast/finish quality for many projects. They are relatively large files and with a fast enough data pipeline, can be transferred to and from locations all over the world using the Internet. However, since the files are so large it is often only possible to deliver the files on a hard drive or a backup data tape known as an LTO. In these cases, the files are still handed off in person or shipped by services such as Fed Ex, UPS, or USPS.
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Reference files of more compressed quality are extremely common. Many of these files vary widely to suit different needs, but many of them are small enough to download or stream on the Internet, either for review of projects, or for general consumption.
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Blu-ray and DVD are disk formats that most people are familiar with as “consumer” formats. While they look pretty good for casual (consumer) viewing, they are both highly compressed formats and also have limited durability. These disks are generally not used for big screen or high profile screenings. They are also not generally high enough quality or reliable enough to broadcast from, except perhaps on smaller community television systems. However they are popular because they are relatively inexpensive to manufacture into many physical copies. They also require relatively inexpensive player equipment and very common in many households.
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Due to the wide variety of formats, frame rates, data rates, tape types, file types and standards that vary in different countries, conversions from one to the other, conversions are frequently needed. Conversions are done with a variety of hardware and software tools to suit the need of a particular conversion. Examples of these tools are: The “Teranex” which is a hardware convertor, or a software toolkit of conversions, such as “Compressor.” Finishing platforms like Da Vinci Resolve can also do conversions as part of their picture finishing capabilities. Though there are reasons in different cases to use one tool over another, or to split the task between more than one tool, for a recipe that provides better results for different workflows.
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Closed Captioning is a data signal on a picture file that superimposes out the dialogue on screen, to help the hearing impaired. This is in contrast to subtitles, which are intended to type out the dialogue on screen in a different language so that a viewer (for example) who only knows English can watch an Italian film and read the subtitles to understand the dialogue. Both Closed Captioning and Subtitles have similar workflows. Captioning and/or Subtitles are two efforts. First, the content of a project is transcribed and the then the text is timed back into the film. Second this result is encoded into the master file.
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Quality Control or QC or Q.C. is the process of checking and testing finished work. This can range from observational spot checking, to a detailed human viewing and listening of a project by a QC technician, to a detailed analysis of every pixel of picture data and every sample of sound data.  Any issues can be called out for fixing, or the decision can be made to not fix items, or determine that the flaw noted is for creative intent or not fixable. The depth of QC is dependent on the expectation of the both the project’s producer and the recipient.
Â
Post Production is a diverse process, with many tasks and many different ways to get to an end result. Tree Falls Post is here to help on many of these tasks.
Â
Tree Falls offers many of these services. Here are some basic details:
Â
DCP or Digital Cinema package: A file based theatrical screening format that has taken the place of film prints for Big screen viewing.
Â
Tape Masters: Still widely used in the Industry as picture masters and clones. High definition formats Like HDCAM SR, HDCAM and D5 continue to be an important delivery and archiving format. Legacy standard definition tapes, such as Digital Betacam (Digibeta), continue to be viable way to deliver a Standard Definition project for domestic and international use. Many projects produced in the last 25 years were typically mastered on taps and so are archived one or more of these formats.
Â
File Masters: Such as ProRes , DNX, or MFX are the high data rate, broadcast/finish quality for many projects. They are relatively large files and with a fast enough data pipeline, can be transferred to and from locations all over the world using the Internet. However, since the files are so large it is often only possible to deliver the files on a hard drive or a backup data tape known as an LTO. In these cases, the files are still handed off in person or shipped by services such as Fed Ex, UPS, or USPS.
Â
Reference files of more compressed quality are extremely common. Many of these files vary widely to suit different needs, but many of them are small enough to download or stream on the Internet, either for review of projects, or for general consumption.
Â
Blu-ray and DVD are disk formats that most people are familiar with as “consumer” formats. While they look pretty good for casual (consumer) viewing, they are both highly compressed formats and also have limited durability. These disks are generally not used for big screen or high profile screenings. They are also not generally high enough quality or reliable enough to broadcast from, except perhaps on smaller community television systems. However they are popular because they are relatively inexpensive to manufacture into many physical copies. They also require relatively inexpensive player equipment and very common in many households.
Â
Due to the wide variety of formats, frame rates, data rates, tape types, file types and standards that vary in different countries, conversions from one to the other, conversions are frequently needed. Conversions are done with a variety of hardware and software tools to suit the need of a particular conversion. Examples of these tools are: The “Teranex” which is a hardware convertor, or a software toolkit of conversions, such as “Compressor.” Finishing platforms like Da Vinci Resolve can also do conversions as part of their picture finishing capabilities. Though there are reasons in different cases to use one tool over another, or to split the task between more than one tool, for a recipe that provides better results for different workflows.
Â
Closed Captioning is a data signal on a picture file that superimposes out the dialogue on screen, to help the hearing impaired. This is in contrast to subtitles, which are intended to type out the dialogue on screen in a different language so that a viewer (for example) who only knows English can watch an Italian film and read the subtitles to understand the dialogue. Both Closed Captioning and Subtitles have similar workflows. Captioning and/or Subtitles are two efforts. First, the content of a project is transcribed and the then the text is timed back into the film. Second this result is encoded into the master file.
Â
Quality Control or QC or Q.C. is the process of checking and testing finished work. This can range from observational spot checking, to a detailed human viewing and listening of a project by a QC technician, to a detailed analysis of every pixel of picture data and every sample of sound data.  Any issues can be called out for fixing, or the decision can be made to not fix items, or determine that the flaw noted is for creative intent or not fixable. The depth of QC is dependent on the expectation of the both the project’s producer and the recipient.
Â
Post Production is a diverse process, with many tasks and many different ways to get to an end result. Tree Falls Post is here to help on many of these tasks.