Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535806
C I N E M A A U D I O S O C I E T Y. O R G 63 how the re-recording mixer would like it. If a person is walking from L-R in the scene, my recorded audio's name starts like this: L-R BG MAN BOOTS CONCRETE FS, this way, even when it's zoomed out in the session, just by looking at the name, they'll know to pan it from left to right without even playing it back. And on top of that, this audio will be on a track named L-R BG FS, and anyone who crosses any scene from left to right will be on that track. That's one of the many little things I like to pay attention to so the dubbing mixer can focus more on the creativity of the mix. To take it further, you can also color-code the cues to make it visually clear as well. For example, all the Grass FS can be colored green, so it's very easy to spot which audio regions are the grass footsteps. Same with Wood, Water, Snow, or other surfaces in your specific show. Cue example of a person walking on multiple surfaces. Each time they step on another surface, the region/clip has a break on that exact frame that the heel of their foot meets the ground. The color- coding acts as a visual aid for identifying surface type. Hands At this point, we are well familiar with the props we need to record and gather. Most artists are proactive in collecting props between the footstep takes so they spend less time finding them later. I personally like to record the "Hands" first and then move to props. Again, some artists like doing it last. Some fall asleep during hands because they are bored if their mixers aren't fast enough or if the cues are horrible! The "HANDS" are: hand on hand (skin hands), hands to body, hands to wood/table/desk, fighting hands, and leather hands. Category Props Category props are essentially the most important part of cueing props! A number of cuers don't have proper training on how you should categorize your session, and it can get very messy with busy shows these days. This means each category of props gets its own tracks and nothing else lives on those tracks. For instance, all the papers and folders, then onto tech tracks like cellphones, laptops, tablets, etc. Sips, bottles, bags, jewelry, hats, canes, balls, and any special props that are repeated in the show must have their own track until the category props are done. If you are cueing a prop like "popcorn spill on the floor," and realize there's chewing and eating popcorn at the end of the show, you need to create a separate track for it and call it POPCORN. Because imagine you made popcorn and recorded the spill on the floor and then cleaned up all the popcorn and threw it in the trash. Then, all of a sudden, at the end of the session, you come across the popcorn-eating cue! Now, just for that one chewing cue, you must make popcorn again and record one chew that you could have done earlier (and before spilling it on the floor) only if the cuer had efficiently put those on a designated track for you. It may not sound too important, but when you're trying to move a hundred miles an hour to finish the session, it makes a huge difference. Snow There are similar considerations when working on "Snow" episodes or films that involve snow. We need separate tracks for all the snow FS and all the snow props. That way, when we buy 500 pounds of snow bags to record those, we can tackle all the snow sections at once right after the snow is delivered and before it melts and becomes a slosh fest! If the cues are not accurate and not separated, it is not efficient to look for each and every snow-related cue within a feature film while the snow is melting! And guess what, it has happened to us many times when we thought we finished it all and cleaned up the snow with shovels and bags and wiped down the stage. Then, suddenly, we find a scene that was completely missed by the cuer and I had to get creative and re-use some of the snow FS and handling of the snow from previously recorded scenes, edit them for the missing scene, and make it work so that it sounds like it was specifically recorded. That process takes time, and when the budget doesn't allow for overtime, it's money that goes out of our pocket to accommodate the client and keep a good reputation without complaining and pointing fingers at someone else. Specialized Props After the category props, we move onto props that require more time to build or a combination of other things to sound right. Gear movement for a carriage, armor, guns, rifles, and many more would be in this category. Then we go over random props that don't get repeated in the episode or film. All the one-time props will be in the Props 1, Props 2, etc., tracks.