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Photography, Animation & Creative Production · Post-production houses
HR for Post-production Houses: Edit Suites, Night Shifts and Freelance Editors
A post-production house rents out skilled hands and suites: editors, colourists, sound mixers and online finishers. Suites run late, freelancers move between facilities, and the owner must keep bookings full and people fairly scheduled.
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Share your requirementsA post-production house takes footage after the shoot and turns it into a finished film, series, advertisement or music video. Offline editors cut the story, colourists grade, sound designers and mixers finish the audio, online artists conform and deliver masters, and runners handle drives and deliveries. Clients book suites by the hour or the day, including at short notice, and directors sit in on sessions that run into the night. Some editors, colourists and mixers are freelancers who work in several facilities, so the house competes for their time. The owner has to keep suites and people matched, and records tidy. See also HR for marketing agencies and the photography, animation and creative production group.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in post-production houses, you may see
- Suites sit empty or are double booked
- Clients stay until two in the morning
- Freelancers choose between facilities
- Assistants do the drudgery for years
- Media and client files are sensitive
- Night work is taken for granted
- Skills fall behind the tools
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in post-production houses
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Offline editors and assistant editors
- Colourists and grading assistants
- Sound designers and mixers
- Online editors and finishing artists
- Data wranglers and media managers
- Studio and suite managers
- Runners and delivery staff
- Client service and scheduling coordinators
- Freelance specialists on call
Roles we help you hire in post-production houses
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in post-production houses. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
Job descriptions for this sector
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
We set up the interview and hiring process for post-production houses
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
1. Role brief and scorecard
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
2. Stages and sequence
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
3. Question bank and scoring
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
4. Interviewer readiness
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
5. Offer and follow-up
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Where HR strains in post-production houses
Suites sit empty or are double booked
Bookings change by the hour, and the person who knows who is available is the scheduler, who in a small outfit also answers the phone.
Clients stay until two in the morning
A director who wants one more change keeps an editor and colourist late, and the extra hours are neither agreed nor recorded.
Freelancers choose between facilities
A strong colourist has offers from three houses and picks whoever pays on time and has the best suite.
Assistants do the drudgery for years
Syncing, backing up and conforming take their days, and few are taught to cut, grade or mix.
Media and client files are sensitive
Unreleased material sits on drives and servers, and access rules vary by person and by project.
Night work is taken for granted
Night shifts and weekend sessions are part of the job, but travel, meals and time off are handled by favour.
Skills fall behind the tools
New cameras, formats and delivery specifications arrive faster than staff can learn them, and clients ask for them anyway.
HR topics for post-production houses
Start with the topics that matter most here: Employee Administration; Learning and Development; Employee Relations. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for marketing, advertising and creative, not in general.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Employee Relations
Two routes, one for complaints, one for conduct, kept separate.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when, and what they will cost.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why, and which of them mattered.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a post-production houses business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Build a freelancer file
Craft, software, day rate, availability, past clients and a note from the suite manager.
What this coversHide
Build a freelancer file
Craft, software, day rate, availability, past clients and a note from the suite manager.
What this coversHide
Craft, software, day rate, availability, past clients and a note from the suite manager. Keep it under the employee information management routine.
Make a suite and people calendar
One view of rooms and operators for the week, with holds, confirmations and overtime flagged.
What this coversHide
Make a suite and people calendar
One view of rooms and operators for the week, with holds, confirmations and overtime flagged.
What this coversHide
One view of rooms and operators for the week, with holds, confirmations and overtime flagged. See the attendance and shift process.
Agree overtime and night terms
Rates, meal and transport arrangements, and rest after a late session, written down and given to staff and freelancers.
What this coversHide
Agree overtime and night terms
Rates, meal and transport arrangements, and rest after a late session, written down and given to staff and freelancers.
What this coversHide
Rates, meal and transport arrangements, and rest after a late session, written down and given to staff and freelancers.
Set a path from assistant to editor or mixer
Steps with tasks to learn, tests to pass and a mentor, so assistants can see how the years add up.
What this coversHide
Set a path from assistant to editor or mixer
Steps with tasks to learn, tests to pass and a mentor, so assistants can see how the years add up.
What this coversHide
Steps with tasks to learn, tests to pass and a mentor, so assistants can see how the years add up. See the learning and development process.
Write simple rules on client material
Who may open which project, how drives are signed in and out, and what to do when something goes missing.
What this coversHide
Write simple rules on client material
Who may open which project, how drives are signed in and out, and what to do when something goes missing.
What this coversHide
Who may open which project, how drives are signed in and out, and what to do when something goes missing.
Settle freelance payments quickly
A fixed day for paying freelancers after each session, whether or not the client has paid, if your cash allows.
What this coversHide
Settle freelance payments quickly
A fixed day for paying freelancers after each session, whether or not the client has paid, if your cash allows.
What this coversHide
A fixed day for paying freelancers after each session, whether or not the client has paid, if your cash allows.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. Work through the checks using a recent operating period. The time needed depends on the records you hold; note missing evidence and use the findings to choose a priority.
Share your requirements- List the freelancers you used last month and how many were repeat bookings.
- Count the late sessions in the last quarter and how many had agreed extra terms.
- Ask your assistants what they would like to be doing in two years.
- Check who has access to a client's unreleased material and whether it is written down.
- Note the last time a good freelancer declined your booking and the reason.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the rules on night work, freelance engagement and handling of client material that apply to a facility like yours.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- Attendance, shift and leave process
A schedule for suites and people, with night shifts, holds and rest after late sessions recorded.
- Employee information management
A tidy file for every freelancer and staff member, so bookings start from facts.
- Learning and development process
A learning path for assistants and a way to keep operators current on new formats.
- Grievance and disciplinary process
A clear, fair way to handle disputes over hours, conduct with clients and care of material.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in marketing, advertising and creative, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Process
One employee, three versions of the record: fixing employee information management
Payroll says one joining date, the personal file says another and the manager remembers a third. How to establish a single trustworthy employee record and keep it that way.
7 min readRead article
Industries
Fresher hiring and a first-year training programme for a small IT services company
A founder's guide to hiring freshers and running a first-year programme: campus or open drives, a screening round, a training plan by quarter, mentors and checkpoints.
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HR Process
A grievance procedure for a company with no HR department
An employee brings you a complaint about their supervisor. What happens next should not depend on who is in the room. A grievance procedure a small company can actually run.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Keep one calendar that shows rooms and operators together, mark holds separately from confirmations, and let one person own it. A weekly look ahead on Friday catches clashes before they reach the client.
Agree with clients on a finish time or an extra rate at booking. Agree with staff on overtime, meals, transport and a later start the next day. Record every late session on the same sheet.
Common reasons are late payment, poor suites, last minute changes and unclear terms. Pay on a fixed day, share terms in advance and tell them early when a booking moves.
Show a route to editing, grading or mixing, with tasks and tests. Give them real sessions to shadow and cut. People stay when the work leads somewhere.
Have a written rule, speak to the person promptly and record what was said. Confirm the proper steps with a qualified professional if the matter is serious or involves the client.
We would ask how suites and people are scheduled, how late sessions are recorded and what an assistant can look forward to. A combined suite and people calendar with clear night terms is a natural first job, with scope in writing for your sign-off.
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See all HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative, or another industry.