Production, Post, and Distribution

This capstone unit integrates advanced on-set craft, technical decision-making, and post-production workflows to ready short films for public exhibition and preservation. Students translate genre and production design into detailed pre-production packages, execute professional camera and sound practices, complete editing/delivery, and build festival/distribution campaigns with archival strategies.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze genre, tone, mise-en-scène, and location factors to produce a cohesive pre-production package (storyboards, shot lists, and production design notes) that communicates aesthetic intent and continuity for a given short scene.
• Apply knowledge of camera systems, lenses, lighting scenarios, camera angles/movements, and microphone pickup patterns to design and justify technical plans and shot setups for assigned scenes, including lighting diagrams and lens/camera selection rationales.
• Demonstrate professional on-set procedures by running set protocols (levels, tone, room tone), maintaining continuity and screen direction, and capturing production audio and video to industry standards ready for post.
• Evaluate and produce a complete post-production and distribution workflow—perform parallel editing and sound design, execute cutting-room procedures, deliver a DCP (or appropriate digital masters), assemble festival/distribution materials and campaign creatives, and implement archival and backup strategies.