2009

What Is Finishing?
Finishing is a catch-all phrase that describes an entire family of related activities. In a
nutshell, finishing describes the process of giving your edited program the final polish it
needs to make it as seamless and professional as possible prior to mastering and output.
Color
correct
Create final
audio mix
Perform format
conversion
of individual clips
Reconform media to online quality
Compose
music
Create
online-resolution
effects
The essential finishing tasks include:
• Reconforming: If your program’s offline edit was accomplished using lower-quality
media than was originally shot, reconforming is the necessary step of replacing all your
offline media with high-quality online media.
• Creating final effects: This is also the time to complete all necessary effects work, prior
to the next task.
• Color correcting: The color and contrast of every shot in your program need to be
adjusted to make the visuals look as good as they possibly can.
• Sound design and mixing: This step often happens at the same time as color correction.
Additional sound effects, ambience, and music are added to your program, and the
levels, balance, and quality of every track are adjusted so they blend together into a
harmonious whole.
The following topics provide more information about how to proceed with the finishing
process:
• “Finishing Using Compressed Versus Uncompressed Media”
• “Format Conversion When Finishing Mixed-Format Sequences”
• “Reconforming Media to Online Quality”
66 Chapter 5 Finishing