Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1277927
Approach Two Next, I spoke with Ron Judkins. As a production mixer at the top of the game, he is probably most recognized for his work on many of Steven Spielberg's films, as well as other high-flying directors. In the animation realm, he is credited with The Adventures of Tintin, The Jungle Book, The BFG, The Lion King, and many others. With all of these CGI animation titles, I assumed a great deal of this work was done in conjunction with the actors on a motion-capture (mo-cap) stage. This is our second style of dialogue recording for animation. Right off the bat, however, Ron set me straight by telling me that The Lion King had no mo-cap and that, these days, the proper term is "performance capture." He went on to explain that in those early days, it was mostly the actors' faces, completely stationary, that were marked with dots and recorded into the mo-cap stream. This was in the early 2000's and Ron had the opportunity to do many experiments recording mo-cap dialogue in the run-up to what would be The Polar Express. While Ron did not work on that film as the production mixer, he said the experience set him up for The Adventures of Tintin, where things shifted. It was the late 2000's and the state of the art had morphed into performance capture. Now, instead of just faces, there were up to three individuals in full performance capture suits! Further complicating things, they moved freely around the soundstage! Ron and his team included three boom ops to follow the actors, as well as radio mics on each for coverage. In essence, much of the filming was shot like a live-action shoot, with three moving cameras, a wide camera, and the sound team. Another consideration for this second kind of dialogue recording environment is fluidity of the work. Ron tells me everything has to be worked out entirely before actors arrive on set—even if the systems are new, and they often are. Accordingly, Ron and his team are involved in what are now three-month setup times. All this prep is to ensure that the actors can have as much freedom as possible. Acting without rehearsals, without blocking scenes, without hitting marks, and often wanting to go with the first takes. This, of course, behooves all of the technological players to have things well in hand before the shoot day! Rango