"We'll fix it in post"

These are five words that send shivers down the spine (and not in a good way) of those working in audio post.

When you’re on set, there can be time constraints, technical issues, external noises, wayward crew members - sometimes it feels like your whole world is slamming and banging.

It’s in these situations that those dreaded five words tend to surface.

And unfortunately, sound is often the first thing to be overlooked.

We know it happens even in the biggest productions. In Lord Of The Rings, about 98% of the dialogue had to be dubbed in post because filming took place near a flight path.

But most productions don’t have access to the same resources as Lord Of The Rings.

A far less costly alternative is to dedicate enough time to the pre-production of your film.

A great example of this is a project I worked on lately - an ambitious short film, featuring practical effects as well as animation sequences mixed with live action. The sound design needed to be suitably detailed and atmospheric.

The director and producer got in touch nice and early. They had a storyboard worked out of what sounds they wanted to hear and when.

In the end, we had a week to shoot, edit, complete the audio post and deliver the film.

Because we spent that time in advance, everybody was prepared. Even when the inevitable issues arose on set, the sound recordist was able to capture great sounding dialogue.

This meant I was able to spend hardly any time correcting errors, and the vast majority on the creative stuff. Even though I received the final cut of the film two days before it was due, it wasn't a problem.

Giving time to pre-production leads to a much smoother process in post with less headaches for everybody.