Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1436283
These are real questions from editors from around the world! QUESTION #1 from DeLaVanta Tabor of Hydrate Entertainment in Georgia: How do you handle it when the producers and directors prefer the sound of the editor's cut with all the mics open? DIALOGUE DETECTIVE: Unfortunately, if the on-set tracks were not ingested properly into the fi lm editor's session, the director and editor get used to hearing them that way. It's like "temp love." You get used to what you've heard over and over. When you do a "proper" edit, selecting the best sounding boom and/ or lav and they are phased properly, you might have to explain to the director that they got used to hearing it that way but that doesn't mean it's the best way to present their fi lm to an audience! That's why you have to be a dialogue detective! Assume that a fi lm was recorded with lavs and booms, even if your OMF or AAF session just shows one track. Investigate. Ask for the sound reports. Ask for a lined script. INVESTIGATE what was intended. Charles Dayton, (owner/mixer) at Twisted Avocado Post Audio in Los Angeles answered: "I just had that [situation] with a feature. They thought they were ready for a mix, and I informed them the dialogue edit was not correct. I told them, after hearing it over and over again, they had just grown accustomed to it, but the audience will only hear it once, and it will be distracting to them. When I was a kid, I made a cassette tape of The White Album, that had a skip in one of the songs. I wore that tape out, and that skip became a part of that song. When I got a new copy of the album, the song seemed strange without the skip. You get used to anything with enough repetition. Better heads prevailed." Charleen Steeves (a great ADR mixer) responds: "I've found sometimes they have been listening to it for so long. They can't erase it from their brain." QUESTION #2 from Andrew Macht in Minnesota: Could you explain the reason why you sometimes use both lav and boom tracks for certain shots? Robbie Mann in London answers: "I've used them together when the boom lacks presence on certain lines but still has the nicer qualities that I want to retain in the edit. Auto-align makes this almost too easy..." DIALOGUE DETECTIVE: Auto-align Post is a plug-in that will phase a boom and a lav. I used to do this manually (and still do sometimes) by blowing up the wave forms, putting the nudge into subframe mode and highlighting the boom track and moving its subframes until it aligns with the lav. My thought was that the lav is closer to sync because it's closer to their mouths! I found that if I moved the boom six subframes, it would line up and be "in phase" with the lav! This is a shot of two tracks of lav mics. If I want to play them at the same time, I would nudge one track in subframes so it is exactly lined up with the other one AND/OR line the boom mic up with these. If the ambient background is consistent, I will often just use the pieces of each of the lav tracks where the actor is on mic. I zig zag back-and-forth and LISTEN to make sure it sounds good! If I notice that there's an ambient drop-out, I may keep both lavs going OR use the boom (synced up and lowered) on top of the lavs. Remember my MANTRA OF SOUND—IF IT SOUNDS GOOD, IT IS GOOD! Do it until it sounds right. Here I've used both lavs at the same time. Here I've MUTED the lavs where each actor is off mic. I leave the regions in the session muted so that maybe the mixer wants to hear what it sounds like if they're unmuted. They usually trust my judgment but remember, it must sound consistent and even. One of the important points of editing is arranging all of these separate sound elements into a session that a re-recording mixer can readily mix! Seems simple, doesn't it!? A lot of things come into play to do this. The OMF or AAF must come to you with scene and take numbers. I've gotten OMFs and AAFs with generic labels—whatever track, it came from the editor's session. Why is that important? Because a fi lm is shot in scenes and takes. The rule of thumb is that most takes shot in the same scene will have the same sound issues—the noise floor. BUT 18F may have a diff erent noise floor than 18C. If they are diff erent, you zig zag or checkerboard the tracks putting the same 18F tracks on the same "units" like Dialogue 1 and keep 18C on Dialogue 2, for example. This way, if there is a tone or hum, the mixer can aff ect it once for the whole scene. It also allows us to also pull out handles and fade in and overlap "fi ll" or ambience to make the changes between takes sound smooth. Sometimes the problem with checkerboarding lavs or lavs and booms is that the ambient level (the noise floor) may be so diff erent that, now, you're trying to smooth out the sound by having to add MORE noise! I think that most mixers will agree that a BOOM recording, if done well, is the best solution. Sometimes an actor may improv a line and the boom operator doesn't move the mic over in time to get that line on mic. That is when you might steal that part of the line BY VICKIE SAMPSON MPSE DEAR DIALOGUE DETECTIVE