The basic process is as follows:

Once you've shot your film you send it off to the lab to get processed. The lab processes your negative and then produces "dailies" which are sent back to you. In the old days, dailies were one-light film prints, but these days they are mostly telecined to video. The dailies give you the opportunity to check out the results of your shooting from the previous day.

Before the dailies can be shown the sound needs to be sync with the image (for all shots which involve sound). This is normally either done by the assistant editors or some labs will do it for you (for an additional fee of course).

These days most feature films are edited digitally, which normally means some form of scan or telecine of the negative to produce a digital version (normally put on videotape). This is then edited using the editor's favourite NLE.

Once the edit is complete, a shot list is compiled using the timecode from the images. This is then given to a negative cutter who goes through and using the timecode from the shot list, conforms the negative to the same order as the edit. Film prints are then made from the cut negative.

This is of course a simplified description of the process. There are many optional things that can be done at each stage, depending on the specific needs of the project.

Ben C.

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filmmaking.net
(Incorporating the Internet Filmmaker's FAQ)

Please note the opinions expressed here are those of the author only and do not constitute legal advice. The author cannot accept and liability whatsoever for inaccurate or outdated information contained within.
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Is it uncommon for the filmmaker to get the film back on DV then just transfer the whole wheel that was on film that is now on DV to the computer?

That's what I did for my 16mm short a while back: got a telecine to DV, captured that into the PC, synced up the sound, edited it and output an EDL for the negative cutter.

However, I shot 25fps and edited PAL, which eliminated all those annoying frame rate differences up to the final print stage. I think Xpress Pro can handle those differences internally, but haven't tried it myself.

So after it was processed you got it back on dv, captured it into the computer, syneced it up with the audio, then after you've edited it, you gave the edited dv version back to the negative cutters? I'm confused about that last part.

I was editing in an old version of Premiere, and exported an EDL file onto a floppy disk for the negative cutters: it's basically just a list of timecodes that they can read to automatically figure out how to cut the negative. I also gave them tapes of the original footage and the edited movie with burnt-in timecode as a backup, but in theory the EDL is all they need. You'd have to check with your negative cutters to see what they prefer.

I'm using Avid DV Xpress 3.5 Normally (no matter what program you use) is it difficuilt/a lot of work to export or get the EDL file?

With the version of Premiere I was using you just go to the menu bar and select something like 'Export/CMX 3600 EDL'. I'm almost certain that Xpress Pro supports EDL export, not sure if Xpress DV does.

However, that EDL exporter only supported cuts and basic effects like dissolves, I'm not sure whether that's a fundamental limitation or whether the Premiere exporter was just a cheap and basic implementation.

Mark, you're helpin me out here. Thanks. I have another question though. When u send the film out to be processed, get it back in DV form and put it in ur computer ans ync it with the audio. Say I want to edit it in say adobe photoshop. Like I add something to the shot like a rocket, or fire but it wasn't on the original film. How do the people put that on the actual film when i send the finished DV tape to be made into actual film?

That can get real expensive, real fast. It's possible to get DV transferred to film, but it's fairly expensive and the difference between original film footage and DV to film footage will probably be obvious on the final print. To do it properly you'd have to get the film scanned at a decent resolution, add the effects and then get it printed back out to film... unless you can negotiate a good deal with a post-production house that won't be cheap. OTOH if it's only a few seconds in a short film it may still be affordable.

What about titles though? How do they add those etc? Even if they're not part of the shooting but just a title on a blank screen?