Kanban for the postproduction supervisor

The postproduction supervisor coordinates the entire postproduction of a film. This person plans the workflows, taking the budget into account, and ensures that everything runs smoothly. The postproduction supervisor is onboard from the word go, planning and coordinating the dailies process, audio and visual postproduction and on through to the ultimate delivery of the data to the studio, distributor or broadcasting company. The postproduction supervisor is a link between departments, remaining in contact with the colleagues and teams from all departments involved and reporting to the producer.

In addition to keeping to the right order of tasks, all deadlines and delivery dates have to be adhered to throughout the entire process. There is constant pressure on time and costs and a good dialog between the postproduction supervisor and various departments is crucial.

It is essential for the postproduction supervisor to know whether the production is going as planned. He/She wants to know what work is pending, who has already started their work, which decisions are yet to be made to enable work to be started or completed, and what the next steps are.

A normal Kanban board would be good for the postproduction supervisor to help them organize and keep track of which tasks are upcoming and to remind them of routine tasks. It also makes sense to have a team board for the postproduction supervisor and representatives of the involved departments. A Kanban board is also good to show concisely which tasks are upcoming – with a brief description – and to mark the status of each task. An example: A green screen comp has to be processed in VFX. A card entitled «Compositing Shot 400_110» is set up in the To Do column. As soon as the VFX artist starts working on the clip, the card is moved to the In Progress column and the artist allocates the card to themself. When the shot is approved, the card gets moved to the Done column. If the editing room subscribes to the card, it is notified automatically when the card is moved to Done. If the VFX artist links the render to the card, the editing room can download the clip using the link on the card.

If there are still uncertainties or inconsistencies regarding the VFX material, questions and ideas can be entered onto the card, the card returned back to In Progress and the feedback integrated. Finished? Then the card is moved back to Done. An Edited In card could also be added to the board. When the assistant editor has integrated the final VFX shot, they can move the card into this column. This not only reduces the coordination workload for the postproduction supervisor, it also shows them that nothing has been missed for the impending approval.