“Make it in Post”: Digital Visual Effects and the Temporality of Creative Value in Post-Production

Abstract

Digital production has had a transformative impact on the temporal process of traditional screen production, such that screen content is not only “fixed in post” but now also “made in post.” However, industrial ideologies and production protocols related to digital visual effects (VFX) and post-production tacitly maintain distinctions between creative and technical skillsets and labour output across production stages, particularly between principal and post-production. This chapter focuses on the production culture concerning digital VFX, which productively reflects the complex temporal dynamics impacting the value of creativity in post-production more broadly. The production protocol “fix it in post” reflects a history of such ideologies that marginalise and devalue the contribution of post-production in the creative appraisal of screen output; moreover, the protocol expresses creative value in temporal terms, in which “after-ness” in the screen production process connotes technical activity of less creative value. Similarly, the distinction between special effects (SFX) and VFX terminology reinforces temporal boundaries between principal and post-production in the screen production workflow. As such, this chapter argues that the devaluing of creative activity in post-production is an ideological imperative driven by the temporal categorisation of “after-ness,” which implies a deferment, marginalisation, and decentralisation of creative value in the screen production process.