Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1544300
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 61 You work in two completely different worlds: high-end movie & live-action TV series, and the potential madness of an animated series. How do you shift gears between them? Joe Schiff: As a dialogue editor, I have two radically different workflows: movies & TV, and animation. Features and premium television are pretty similar to each other, but they're worlds apart from an animated series and other fast-paced shows. I look at the animation side more as a left-brain task—analytical, grid-based, and very iterative. Live action is more of a right-brain thing, where I'm using more creativity and judgment to keep the performance consistent. Let's talk about fast-paced animated shows and those turnarounds. What does that loop look like on your end? Joe Schiff: It's process-oriented unlike anything in traditional film or TV. The show evolves in real time. A first draft might only be a paragraph or two but can go through 50 or more drafts by the final version. The dialogue might be recorded, cut to picture, revised, and sent back to me to conform several times in a single day. Once I get the new cut from picture, I find any new dialogue and cut it in using our original audio files. With that many revisions, how do you handle the cleanup? Joe Schiff: I don't do any of the cleaning up early on because there's a high likelihood that takes will be replaced, re-voiced, or cut out. If I start doing cleanup too soon, I'm just wasting time cleaning material that may go away. I only do my full cleanup pass when it's getting close to the final cut. That's when I get rid of the clicks and pops and make sure it's ready for the mix. Also, when the final cut comes in, I need to be sure to get rid of breaths on closed mouths, which may not be apparent on picture with animatics or pre-final animation. You conform manually instead of using automated tools. Why do it the hard way when you're on a deadline? Joe Schiff: For me, auto-conforms for dialogue are too risky. It's way too easy to lose something, an alternate take, a specific breath, or an edit that makes the performance work. My method is more about visual cues. I color-code the picture, dialogue guides, and AAF tracks: Current versions are green, previous are red. I checkerboard them, lock down the green clips, and start at the top and scroll until I see something not lining up. It's fast once you're fluent. I'm constantly zooming in and out. If I zoom out too far, I might miss a one- or two-frame change and not catch it until playback. It's a balance between zooming out for speed in scrolling and zooming in for accuracy. Manual conforming keeps me aware of the material. What does a typical fast-paced animated show session look like in terms of tracks? Joe Schiff: We record using two boom mics. The second boom is a little further back to use as a safety in cases where the closer boom has distortion. Typically, there are usually two or three tracks for each main actor, plus individual tracks for short participations or special characters. When you're on a feature, how do you set things up for the mixers? Joe Schiff: Most mixers are on an S6, and they usually want eight tracks of dialogue to fit their template. I cut scene by scene and organize things into two 8-track basic folders. Odd-numbered scenes will be in the one through eight folder and even-numbered scenes will be in the nine through 16 folder. There will be exceptions for scenes that can't fit into eight tracks. You're using Clip Gain: Why is that your primary tool? Joe Schiff: I do all my level adjustments with Clip Gain. When the mixer opens my session, all the faders are at unity with no volume automation, no plugins are inserted. The difference between the guide track and my cut tracks is that my tracks are clean and in many cases, sound fuller because of phase alignment. My tracks have alternate takes and are filled for ADR. I match the guide's perceived loudness using a stereo Dorrough Meter for reference. A copy of the dialogue guide track is bussed to the left channel, my cut tracks are bussed to the right channel, and I use Clip Gain to match my cut tracks to the dialogue guide track. When you get a brand-new assembly, what's your first move? Joe Schiff: Once I get the dialogue assembly, the first thing I do is dump everything redundant. I crank the waveform view all the way up and delete anything that's just a straight line (no modulation). I delete any muted clips. This becomes my basic