Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546135
C I N E M A A U D I O S O C I E T Y. O R G 49 characteristics of the original language, and that technical specifications are met. The Recording Session Nicholas mentions that in his experience, the recording process of an episode for each language could take anywhere from a week to four weeks, depending on the size of the show. "Obviously, if it's a 30-episode show, you're going to be working on it for a couple months. You make sure that there's a lot of communication between production, engineering, and the recording team because there's bound to be some confusion." Some problems that could arise are, for example, missing lines of dialogue, mispronunciations, and even changes of lines or cast. Therefore, coordinating pickups is also part of the production process. Nicholas explains his process. "I set up the Pro Tools session. It's ready to go with the original dialogue mix and the M&E in the session. Once the Pro Tools session is set up, I do a quick mic check. We use different microphones depending on the scenario. Right now, I'm using a U87. We'll change the mic depending on the show. Then I'm constantly riding the gain. You watch the original language with the actor once they're in—you clock that as a recordist. Okay, they're really whispering here, and then they get loud, and then they're whispering there. I have to track that on my setup and make sure that I get the signal without clipping. It's a very collaborative process with the director. I've worked with some amazing directors—they're paying attention to the performance, I'm honing on the sync and the quality, like checking for phlegm, plosives, color, and sync, while the director is listening for inflections and emotion. That collaboration makes the product better. "Listening to the original language for reference is king. Our actors are really good at picking up those little nuances that you get from the original language that you need to replicate. And that combines everything. That's your mic placement, that's you riding the gain, that's your director talking about the performance, that's capturing those subtle breaths. When you see the actor move. When you see the actor talk. If we can get as close as possible to that, using all the technology, all the performance, then we've done our job, and that's the most important thing," explains Nicholas. And when asked about the selection of takes, he mentions that usually selected takes are comped on the recording stage—sometimes from one take, sometimes with bits from different takes. There's of course, a current trend, since COVID-19, of some talent recording from their homes without the desired control. That just adds to the challenges of the mix, and although convenient for getting the talent for dubbing or for pickups, it tends to be less than desirable, as acoustics, audio chain, and overall control are compromised, not to mention the challenges on technical direction and performance guidance. Cues for the Talent There are different methods for cueing the lines for the actors to be in sync—or as close as possible—from using streamers, sync beeps, and colors on screen, to word-by- word karaoke-style systems that cue every word in sync, making it easier to follow and stay as close as possible to the original sync since each syllable has already been cued and adjusted by the adapters, making sure that the B's, P's, T's, and similar sounds are properly adapted. "Listening to the original language for reference is king. Our actors are really good at picking up those little nuances that you get from the original language that you need to replicate. And that combines everything. That's your mic placement, that's you riding the gain, that's your director talking about the performance, that's capturing those subtle breaths." – Nicholas Fluhr