Inside Post-Production with Spencer Levin
Spencer Levin is the newest addition to our post-production team, overseeing post workflows and collaborating closely with our creative teams to keep projects moving smoothly from editorial through finishing. We sat down with Spencer to learn more about his background, his experience in the world of post, and what excites him most about joining the team.
AX: What inspired you to work in the media production industry?
SL: From an early age, my parents would take me to concerts and share their love of music with me. Sometimes it would be a blues legend at the Hollywood Bowl, and other times I would be the only toddler dancing to a live band at the local biker bar. Music and film became such a huge part of my life that I could not imagine doing anything else.
AX: What is the favorite project you have worked on to date, and why?
SL: Working on the film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You by Mary Bronstein was an incredible experience. I was involved from dailies to delivery on that movie, and it always felt like the filmmakers were telling a truly special story. It was also great to see the lead actor, Rose Byrne, get rewarded for her transcendent performance with an Oscar nomination!
AX: In your opinion, what “makes or breaks” a project behind the scenes?
SL: Having creatives with a strong vision of the movie they are making is essential to the process. There are a million different questions you are asked over the course of a project, and they all need to come together to make a unified film. Indecision is the death of the process.
AX: How would you describe your role to someone with no understanding of production?
SL: I feel like my answer is always changing depending on what we are working on and what is needed from me. Post-production is always becoming more technical with all of the new technologies being introduced, but at the end of the day, our job is to keep the train on the tracks. To help the filmmakers turn their vision and pile of footage into a finished movie that’s ready to be screened in a theater.
AX: Do you have a favorite part of the post-production process?
SL: I love sitting in a dark theater with the other creatives and mulling over all the individual choices for sound, color, vfx, and edit, and watching it all come together.
AX: What tools or resources are the most helpful to your work week?
SL: Besides the obvious answers, phone, email, etc. I think the most useful tools are the remote work systems that we have in place. Particularly collaborative software like Clearview, Evercast, and Frame.io. We use these with our clients constantly to make everyone feel like they are in the same room, even though we could be on different continents.
AX: How do you see yourself evolving as the industry continues to change?
SL: All art is constantly evolving, and that’s what makes it fun. A few years ago, no one viewed AI as a viable tool, and now we have to at the very minimum, have a conversation about it on most productions. 20 years ago, the digital intermediate process was just being introduced, and 10 years before that, editors were cutting on physical film. There is very little certainty on how the industry will look going forward, but I’m confident the role of human beings in the process will only become more important as people crave real stories with the artistry only a craftsperson with years of experience can pull off.
AX: What’s one challenge people outside the industry might not realize comes with post-production?
SL: I think people tend to underestimate the amount of time and effort required to make a movie look theater-worthy. Post-production can be tedious, where the hours we spend placing a specific sound or getting the shadow to look just right on someone’s face may seem insignificant to an outsider, but without dedication to detail, the final film won’t feel right. People can tell that something is off, even if they don’t know what it is. Good post-production work should be invisible so the viewer is completely immersed in the work.
AX: How has technology changed the way you approach your work?
SL: It hasn’t changed my approach all that much. Evolving technology is just a part of filmmaking, and we have to adapt to the reality around us to stay competitive in this environment. I welcome any tool that gives our creatives more time to focus on the important decisions our clients come to us for, and at the same time, I don’t want to force unnecessary technology into our workflows that slows us down or results in worse-looking movies.
AX: What do you think are the most important skills to have as a post supervisor?
SL: Effective communication is so important to being a good post-super. Most projects have countless people on multiple teams working all over the globe. Many of them will never talk to each other, yet we all need to be on the same page.
AX: What’s the most rewarding part of seeing a project through from start to finish?
SL: I love seeing something I worked on play in a theater with moviegoers who are excited to watch it. Or when my mom calls me to say she saw my name in the credits on something – that’s always cool.
AX: What motivates you creatively in your role?
SL: It’s hard not to become personally invested in the project you work on, and that makes me want to make it as good as it can possibly be. That sense of responsibility to the final outcome motivates me.
AX: What do you enjoy most about collaborating with editors, producers, and clients?
SL: Bringing all of these individual parts of the film together after being hyper-focused on each one in isolation is always fun. Even seasoned filmmakers are amazed by how a movie becomes more than the sum of its parts, and being there for that moment when it finally clicks as a completed movie is really special.