Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1451070
38 S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y l It is important to understand what a preferred take is (circle take). In some cases, a director might say they want both takes two and five from a setup. Both takes would then have to be edited and prepared for playback on the B-side. If this is the case, it is important to note what takes you are using for playback for post-production to reference. l Try to be included in any technical rehearsals or camera tests that may serve as the tech crew's dress rehearsal for the on-set workflow. Knowing how other departments are planning to proceed may affect the sound department's workflow design. l The "Action" call from the director becomes baked into the setup on the A-side and will serve to begin the scene on the B-side. As Matt McLarty mentioned, it may be necessary to lav up an AD or set a plant mic near the director in order to record the "Action" call on the A-side. Doing this will allow the overall timing and length of the setup to remain consistent from both the A- and B-sides. l When using motion-control equipment on set, there is often a "Bloop Light" which would precede the "Action" call and is used to trigger and align the head/video/sound playback. When filming the B-side, the cast and crew might only hear a "roll playback" command from an AD. This would then begin the playback for the motion-control equipment/video/Pro Tools, which would lead to the "Action" call being played back from the A-side to the actors' earpiece or loud speaker and, if wanted, to the public Comm feed for everyone on set to monitor. l Loud speakers seem like a great idea and will work fine only as long as there is no overlapping dialogue. There may be a push to move away from using earpieces if the cast doesn't respond well to them or if the RF environment is too difficult to make an Earwig work at the range needed for the shot. One hack that Matt McLarty add it to his mix for the director and crew to hear. In addition, he sent a mix minus (mono mix without the B-side lines) to VTR (video playback) so, when it came time to shoot the B-side, he could simply route the audio from the VTR playback to his Earwig feed. He would have a clean version of the A-side for the cast to hear without any Pro Tools editing to do. In this setup, most of the stress on set for the sound department would arrive on the A-side of the scene as things were getting ironed out with the blocking and performance of the scene. When the B-side arrived, the scene was established, the timeline was set, and Matt only had to worry about mixing the scene and making sure that his Earwig feed was getting a clean signal from the VTR operator. As Matt described his setup in more detail and began speaking in depth about his current project, he mentioned an interesting advancement that he had made since Living with Yourself that he was employing on his current job. One of the very difficult things to cue without impacting performance in a twinning setup is non- verbal actions. For example, a scene where the actor walks over, takes a pair of glasses off, and then puts them on the twin. This is even more challenging when there is dialogue occurring throughout the movement as it eliminates the chance to just give an off- camera cue. Matt has been employing a simple single-octave MIDI keyboard to deliver audible cues for the cast to respond to via their earpiece. With a handful of notes, he is able to reference the timecode- locked A-side video file from VTR and add MIDI notes to his timecode-locked Pro Tools session. Then, when the B-side is being filmed, the actor will not only hear the A-side lines in their earpiece, but also a note to indicate that their A-side self is taking the glasses off. Another note will indicate that they are being passed and another note to indicate that they should be received. This simple system has been enough to aid Rachel Weisz through some very complicated blockings without the need to cue her from off camera and spoil her dialogue. In this scenario, all that is needed is a rehearsal or two to dial in the timing for the cast—and a bit of patience as the kinks are ironed out. Matt mentioned that once the cast was warmed up to it, after a few days, he found that the cast would actually come over to him after blockings or between rehearsals to ask for specific cues to be made or adjusted to help them through a scene with specific cues to hit. As mentioned before, a lot of the success or failure in this type of work hinges on cast and directorial buy-in. In this case, the director and cast were happy and the results, according to Matt, have been great. Matt mentioned the musicality of this type of setup where timing is so critical. If the players rehearse together and maintain patience, they usually end up with a great performance after a few takes when everything begins to gel. A few important points to consider when beginning a twinning project: