Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545099
34 M PS E . O R G on performance when I felt it was going to be helpful. Sometimes there is a silent acknowledgment between the director and me that he needs my help in getting an actor to perform better. Sometimes that felt like being a scapegoat! When an actor doesn't want to do something, the director would turn to me and give me "that look" and I would say to the actor, "Oh, we have a sound issue with that line. You can't hear it on this track but there is a giant buzz going on so please do it and we will try and save the production sound. But at least, we'll have this re-recorded 'just in case.'" It's a bit of a hot seat to be the go-between. And of course, the ADR mixer would be in on it and offer his/her support of the problem. You can't just write on your ADR cue sheets "redo for performance" as the reason to ADR a line because the actor would see that. 've always loved supervising ADR as it was as close to directing as I could be! Working with the actors is a thrill as I feel I contributed to the film's storytelling. I love making suggestions that enhance the narrative—like adding dialogue that is in keeping with the story. I learned how to direct the actors from some of the directors I worked with. Some directors, like Wes Craven, gave me full rein to direct the loop group. He would be on the ADR stage with me during the group recording in case he wanted to write specific lines for them to say. But he let me direct them. One has to be so diplomatic on the ADR recording stage. You are dealing sometimes with huge egos and very high-powered stars. Some stars are humble, like Jane Fonda, who, when we ADRd her for On Golden Pond, saw that the space in front of the ADR stage had a cone on it, so she parked down the street. When we told her the cone and space was reserved for her, she laughed. think one of the most challenging scenes I ever did was a scene from Ironweed with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. I supervised the whole film and did the ADR. As an ADR supervisor and production dialogue editor, I know how important it is to keep ADR at a minimum. I always research any other solution besides ADR. I don't want to just put down lines. I look for alternate takes to fix whatever problems there are. I present those to the director. There is a reason that outtakes are not the chosen take. And I need to respect those choices. However, it's fine to steal a word or a sentence if it helps clear up the sound problem but I've always presented anything I've changed from the film editor's version to both the editor and director. A lot of actors hate doing ADR and I also have to respect that! Ideally, if you can investigate outtakes and fix problems and THEN schedule ADR, that would be great. But schedules being what they are, we are often editing production dialogue at the same time as needing to record the ADR. I know that a lot of actors are frustrated by editors over-programming ADR lines willy-nilly and then they come in to record and find out later that the production was used. Then they tend not to trust us. Over programming lines not only frustrates the actor but could also increase the cost of the film. It's important to know what an actor's contract says about doing ADR. The bigger stars have maybe 1-3 days of "free" ADR and after that, it's the actor's daily rate, which in the case of Nicholson, was about $50,000 a day! So, if I missed a line of ADR when I was programming or we went over the time of his "free" ADR days, he would have cost the production an extra $50,000 PER DAY. I don't want that on my head! The scene in Ironweed involved him and Meryl Streep's character walking along a street at night. The film is a period piece and so the production mixer mic'd them with a boom, pointing up to their mouths to avoid recording any "modern" traffic from the street in Albany, NY. Great idea—however, no one cleaned off the sidewalk of grit! So, the whole one-minute scene was covered with gritty, snappy footsteps! I think it was a one-take scene of them walking and talking so no outtake coverage would have worked. We were editing on film back then so no plug-ins I I "I love the taste of mag in the morning." –Vickie Sampson, circa 1980