Film Postproduction Time Calculator
Estimates film postproduction time from shot hours and visual effects complexity level from one to five using industry average ratios.
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Post-production duration
Most features take 3 to 6 months in post. That window has to absorb picture edit, color grading, VFX, ADR, foley and the final mix. Feed in 300 hours of footage with mid-range VFX (level 3) and you'll land toward the top of that range. The big Marvel-style tentpoles run differently; with thousands of shots split across parallel vendor pipelines, post can drag past 12 months, and a lot of that work piles up in the final stretch before release.
Applications
Post supervisors reach for this when they're booking suites. Editors use it to estimate cuts in Avid Media Composer, colorists to slot DaVinci Resolve sessions, and sound designers to figure out when they can lock a mix stage in Pro Tools.
FAQ
What drives the schedule? Mostly shot count and how hard the VFX are. ADR availability and music clearance can hold things up too, sometimes pushing back the point where you can lock the mix.
Can post start during the shoot? It usually does. The assembly edit tends to kick off on day one of principal photography, with dailies cut as the footage comes in.
How long is sound post? On a feature, the final sound work (ADR, foley, design and mix) usually takes somewhere between 6 and 12 weeks.
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