Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1492834
44 C I N E M O N T A G E T E C H my best to make the dynamic range a lot smaller but still punchy and also make sure the backgrounds and low-level sounds are apparent in the mix. But again, my work is lost if the streaming service doesn't provide users access to that specific mix." THE TEST OF TIME Dialogue editing and mixing, rebalanc- ing theatrical mixes into nearfield mixes, and creating different nearfield mixes that hit specific loudness specs for different dig- ital distribution platforms all happen at the end of the filmmaking process when time and funds are in short supply. Big-budget projects allot time for making the required nearfield mixes. But is it enough? "Maybe not," said Hirschberg. "We're asked to do three different mixes in three days that have to hit specs that are sometimes really rigid, and they're all different. Disney has one spec, and Netflix has another. The number of mixes that we're asked to create in a very short amount of time (that need to play on a wide variety of devices) is kind of ridic- ulous. Making nearfield mixes definitely takes time and money, and most often, we don't get that, so it gets the least care that can be given in order to get it out the door as fast as possible. So what you might get is hard-to-hear dialogue because no one had the resources to spend time listening to it and trying to figure out how to make it work for the home theater." Simply adding time to the end of a post-production schedule isn't feasible. So what about changing how dialogue is handled along the chain of custody from p ro d u c t i o n t h ro u g h p o s t ? T h a t 's t h e proposal from multi-award-winning super- vising sound editor Stateman, at 247SND in Topanga, Calif., and his long-time collabo- rator sound editor Eric Hoehn, CAS. They both won Emmy, AMPS, and MPSE Golden Reel awards for their sound editing on Netflix's "The Queen's Gambit." (Hoehn also won an Emmy and CAS Award for mixing that show.) Before discussing this solution, let's dissect the problem, starting with what State m a n ca l l s t h e "d i a l o gu e c h a i n o f custody." He said, "Dialogue intelligibility is a very solvable problem that requires an acute focus on the various issues affecting clarity, and, of course, the allocation of time deemed necessary to work the mate- rial appropriately. Everybody in the chain participates at some level. The production mixer often tries every trick to get the take, the dialogue editor tries their best to take out clicks and bumps and smooth out the ambiances, and an ADR editor tries to add to or substitute new recordings. In the end, Eric Hoehn. P H OT O : N E T F L I X Anya Taylor-Joy in "The Queen's Gambit."