Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1492834
SEE PAGE 54 45 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E T E C H it's left to the re-recording mixer to bring the mix to completion at a time when the filmmakers really want to focus on music, story, and final delivery." A typical studio mix has two re-record- ing mixers. One mixer handles effects, Foley, and backgrounds; the other mixer handles dialogue and music, and that's problematic because, as Urban explained, "During the final mix, we add in the music, wh ic h is extrem ely exp en s ive. At th is point, the directors and producers have heard the dialogue a million times. They feel absolutely positive that every word is super-clear because they have a preexisting knowledge of the script. As mixers, we're the last people to hear the dialogue, so we're more objectively able to recognize dialogue issues. That's so important at the end of the process, but we have to prioritize that. We, as mixers, have to say, 'Are we losing dialogue here? Let's just take a listen and focus on diction.'" But as Stateman pointed out, "Clients don't have the patience to go syllable by syllable through the dialogue on the final re-recording stage. They're really focused on how the overall balances with music are working – shortchanging the stage time necessary to go through the dialogue appro- priately. Sadly, time on a re-recording stage is often less than ideal, driven by scheduling and budgetary limitations." Time is the issue. Time spent on the re-recording stage is more expensive than time spent in the editing suite. According to Hoehn, the average mix is afforded one week per hour of content. "You're talking about 10 hours of content mixed in 10 weeks. The industry has taken on this survivalist sound mentality of 'we have a week to get through this.' And so we ask ourselves, 'what's high- yield and what's low-yield?' That's how we prioritize elements in the mix. The filmmak- ers care about music and sound effects, so we're balancing what they want to focus on with trying to encourage them to focus on dialogue for a while." Part of a dialogue editor's responsi- bilities include cleaning up the dialogue, but what if that was expanded to include improving intelligibility as well – so that they take a pass at the dialogue ahead of the mixer, perhaps while listening to it on TV speakers? "If we're not going to get more time on the mixing stage to address these things, whose responsibilities can we rethink to help with this problem?" asked Hoehn. "We think the dialogue editor is an obvious next choice for that, considering these are people who aren't going to have Onnalee Blank. P H OT O : H B O A scene from "Game of Thrones."