Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521235
my input on sound very early on in the process, which started us down this rabbit hole! "Sound for a Deaf project? Why, yes!" I attended the performance with the voicing actors at the Group Rep Theater in North Hollywood in August 2023. At first, it was a different experience to watch a play with all Deaf actors using American Sign Language. As a hearing person and a sound professional, I had to adjust my brain a bit to watch the Deaf actors signing while hearing the spoken dialogue coming from a different actor, but then quickly forgot as the performances were seamless in all of the natural inflections, timing, and rhythms. For the filming production day, there wasn't any audience, so production sound could get what they needed. The voicing actors were miked individually and were first recorded during a simulated performance (giving a vocal performance simultaneously with their Deaf actors), along with music and sound effects that were part of the play. Hilari is one of those directors who cares a lot about sound quality, so for the second run-through, the voicing actors were positioned upstairs in the theater to perform the entire play "wild" while the Deaf actors were filmed downstairs on the stage without the voicing actors, music, or sound effects. As this entire production, as well as the process was experimental, things changed quite a bit during post-production. The film was originally intended to be used as a promotional tool for regional theaters to view for consideration for a world premiere of the play. There was high demand to see the film, and Hilari decided during post-production to make the film into something to be viewed by the public, to be screened on the festival circuit, and eventually, up Chase with the synced dialogue tracks that he can't hear. Chase and I both use Premiere Pro for film editing, so I set up a session with Chase and Hilari. Hilari knows ASL and is a trained ASL interpreter. We figured out how to sync up the three cameras and two performances with the sound—and we made multi-cam sequences. Chase was set up to drag along all the dialogue tracks as he edited. It was a crucial step for me to be able to access those tracks down the line. I have found that even some experienced hearing film editors don't know enough about the process to make sure that all the "good" mics are synced up to the "camera" sound. Otherwise, I don't have any way of accessing the "good" mics after a film has been edited. We sound editors don't use original timecode in our edit sessions. A lot changed during post- production, including the captioned streamed for a fundraising event during Halloween. There was only one production sound mixer, so they only had camera sound to record the body percussion from the Deaf actors' sign language and other production sound sans dialogue. The audio had to be heavily noise reduced. Had Hilari known she was also making a "stand-alone" film, she would have miked the Deaf actors' performances. Had there been any more money or time, we would also have Foleyed it. Having a stand- alone film was never its intention but things do evolve, and they were now making a commercial film. The film was edited by Chase Chambers, who is Deaf. As Chase and Hilari were together, they discovered that it was working as a cool stand-alone film. The first challenge was setting M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 17