Should I use a limiter on a film mix?

Only as a true peak safety at the end. Loudness comes from balance and dialogue level, not from limiting.

What loudness should a short film be?

Follow the festival or platform spec. If none exists, minus 23 LUFS for broadcast style delivery and around minus 16 for web is a safe pair.

Do I really need an M&E track?

Any distribution outside your language will ask for one, and rebuilding it later is far more expensive than keeping stems clean now.

6 min read

Mastering audio for film: what the final pass actually involves

There is no mastering plugin for film. There is a specification, and a series of checks that prove you met it.

In music, mastering is a creative final polish. In film, the equivalent stage is a delivery discipline: hitting a loudness specification, guaranteeing playback behaviour and producing the files the distributor asked for. Reaching for a mastering chain instead is how mixes get crushed.

Know your target before you start

Cinema: reference monitoring level, no loudness normalisation, dynamic range is expected.
Broadcast Europe: minus 23 LUFS integrated, true peak at or below minus 1 dBTP under EBU R128.
Broadcast US: minus 24 LKFS under ATSC A/85.
Streaming platforms and web: commonly around minus 14 to minus 16 LUFS, and each platform normalises.

Dialogue first, everything else around it

The final pass is judged on intelligibility. Set dialogue level and consistency, then place music and effects around it. If you have to choose between a beautiful music moment and a clear line, the line wins on every project except a music video.

Check on the worst speaker you can find

Phone speaker, laptop, television downmix. Most of your audience will never hear the mix on anything good. Anything that disappears on a small speaker needs level or midrange, not more bass.

Mono compatibility is not optional

Sum the mix to mono and listen. Wide stereo effects that vanish, or dialogue that changes level, indicate phase problems that will surface on television and social platforms.

Deliverables, the part people forget

Final mix in the requested format and channel layout.
Stems: dialogue, music, effects, at matching length and start point.
M&E track with all dialogue removed and the effects intact.
A loudness report, and files named exactly as the delivery spec asks.

Before sending anything, inspect the exported files: sample rate, bit depth, channel count and duration should match the spec and match each other. It is a two minute check that prevents a rejected delivery.