Post-Production Processes in the Turkish Advertising, Cinema, and TV Series Industries

The guest of the online interview event organized by the Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Communication, Visual Communication Department was Post-Production Studio Manager Kerem Kurdoğlu. In the interview moderated by Head of Visual Communication Design Department Assoc. Prof. Dr. And Algül, Kerem Kurdoğlu made evaluations regarding 'Post-Production Processes in the Turkish Advertising, Cinema, and TV Series Industries'.

“Resolution is the most known feature, but not the most important one”

Post-Production Studio Manager Kerem Kurdoğlu explained the topic of Post-Production by focusing on the NETFLIX project. Kurdoğlu stated, “Digital platforms have started to hold a much more important place after the pandemic. Most projects are being made for platforms such as NETFLIX, Game, or BLUTV. The preference for digital platforms is much higher. Workflow is important in all sectors. I also include Post-Production in the cinema industry in this. Perspective is very, very important. Prep Production means all kinds of preparations made before starting the shoot. This includes finding the idea, presenting the idea, writing the script, setting up the order, planning, and identifying locations. It is something that takes many months. Generally, for feature films, it's around 8-10 weeks. Of course, for a TV series, it can be around 10 to 20 weeks. We come to where the real magic happens. Post-Production is where all the visual effects and color of the film are created. First, we start with the material coming from the shoot. Post-Production requires shooting material. There are two things in this shooting material: image and sound.”

“RED camera played a pioneering role in the transition to digital cameras”

Kerem Kurdoğlu, stating that ALEXA and Venus are the most commonly used cameras, said; “As for which cameras are used, in recent years, we can make films with all kinds of cameras. The most commonly used are ALEXA, Sony, Venus… Five to ten years ago, there was the RED camera, which was very common but is no longer as widely used in recent years. RED played a pioneering role in the transition to digital cameras, but it is not widely found in recent years. ALEXA and Venus are the most commonly used cameras. When asked about the features of a camera, resolution is the most known feature. However, it is not the most important feature.”

“More important than resolution is color depth”

Kurdoğlu, noting that cinema projects are now produced less frequently, states that all projects are now being made for NETFLIX or similar platforms; “Cameras generally shoot in higher formats. Cameras have different shooting formats. More important than resolution is color depth. To define the color of a pixel, we are used to 8 bits on a computer. Professional cameras have a very wide color range, such as 12-bit or 16-bit. And this is a much more important feature. When doing color grading, we need that information to get a good result. Professional cameras shoot logarithmically. The total footage of a feature film occupies 50-60 terabytes. It is not very feasible to take such a large amount of data and put it into editing. In a NETFLIX project, the editing of a film can take at least 3-4 weeks,” he stated.