Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1261193
20 I M PS E . O R G and save yourself further stress. This is okay, too. Knowing your aptitude and capacity for frustration will serve you well. Trust your intuition. The following is how I deal with doing remote ADR and loop group. It is a mash-up of trial and error, and multiple processes and applications stitched together to come up with something that works. None of this is the only way to do it, and others have discovered their own ways of doing things that I am sure offer more efficiencies. I developed this plan during the first week of the lockdown and have been tweaking it all along. Now, a couple of months later, others have taken the core concepts and found solutions in their own right. I hope some of my experiences and observations can inform you in your process of creating your own solution. First, I find out what at–home recording capabilities the talent already uses. Many actors do podcasts for voiceover work and demos from home. They are aware of room sound treatment to some degree, and have a grasp of at least rudimentary recording techniques. These folks are the easiest to get successful recording from quickly. On the other end of the spectrum of experience level, are the actors that have never recorded on their own and have no idea where to start. These folks require the most patience on our part for the payoff can certainly be worthwhile. Getting a sample recording from the actor well ahead of the session is important. If possible, get a photo of the recording setup showing the mic placement and the room around it. This serves a couple of purposes: The quality of the voice in the recording will inform you of how attentive to sonic detail they are (or maybe they just got lucky if it's really good) and what their environment sounds like, plus shows their ability to get the recording off of their device and sent to you. Make sure they understand that THEY are doing the recording and sending it to you, not just joining a remote session with you recording on your end. Do not depend on their agents to explain this to them … the agents don't know what you are talking about, either. If the actor is recording to a mobile device that has cellular service, it should be set to 'Airplane Mode.' I've gotten recordings back with the repetitive ticking of the cellular antenna system that we're all familiar with. You won't hear it while recording because there isn't confidence-monitoring using this method. Just avoid it altogether by going into Airplane Mode. Remind them to turn that off before trying to send the files to you. It could be days before they discover that on their own, and therefore days delay in the files coming in. The built-in voice memos app on iOS/OSX devices has the audio quality set to 'compressed' by default. Have the talent switch it to 'lossless' for best possible quality for that device. A vital component is simple communication during the session. For this, I use the Zoom meeting platform, with a pro account and all security measures engaged. Zoom is an example of a simple interface that allows real-time discussion and performance monitoring. There are others, each with their own pros and cons. But the idea is to facilitate clear communication without bogging the talent down with technological roadblocks. The extra step of requiring users to log in with the Zoom user account, even the free level, allows the selection of the watermarking option for the encrypted video and audio streams. Every stream can be traced back to the individual Zoom users. I screen-share my Avid Video Engine window and computer audio. All users can talk to each other freely while picture and audio are rolling. The sound supervisor/ADR supervisor and any other concerned parties can come and go as they wish. I've had execs join the meeting for five minutes to say hello to the actor and explain certain script changes and then leave. Other folks stay on the whole time. I like to start the meetings with my camera off to establish a sense of respect for everyone's personal space. It is not needed for our process. Some actors and producers don't mind the cameras on, and others even really like the virtual face-to-face interaction that they've been missing for a couple of months. I let the actors drive whether the cameras are on or not. Muting the Zoom mics of everyone but the talent is helpful during recording to clean up the background noise of the session … and it is mandatory if the talent is not using headphones to monitor the Zoom session as their speakers on their device will be open to their microphone. Nothing like having a dog bark on the producer's end in LA get recorded into the take on the actor's end in London, then the actor sends it back to you. That dog just did round-trip trans-Atlantic travel at the speed of light. Mute the meeting microphones. Monday mornings seem to be the worst time to have a meeting where audio and picture sync are important. Sync suffers from busy internet traffic. Usually, after 6 pm Major components of the process are: 1. The talent's recording capabilities 2. Communication options during recording 3. The talent's ability to send the recordings back to you 4. Your ability and flexibility to ingest recordings and formats not matching your editorial specs 5. Time. You must allow adequate time for this extrapolated process to play out. Don't rush it.