Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/221535
ciently as possible without an ADR recordist. As the ADR mixer, Navarro handles every aspect of the ADR session himself, from setting up the mics, recording, playback, and mixing, to interacting with the clients. "Nowadays, you're seeing fewer and fewer ADR recordists," he says. "I do everything on the ADR stage. My system is as efficient as if I were working with a recordist, perhaps even faster. I'd love to work with a recordist, though the way I have my system set up now, I think it would be difficult to include another person." So far the ADR for Jane Got a Gun has been smooth sailing, with a minimal amount of copy rewrites. For the on-camera dialog changes, Navarro achieves near-perfect lipsync by zooming in on the guide track waveform and zooming in on the waveform of the new take, and matching up where there might be a "p" or an "m," or another noticeable syllable. "Some syllables are pretty noticeable because you use your lips for those, and if you can sync up that part of the word. It may not fit perfectly, but it'll fit a lot better than if you just line up the beginning of the word." One challenging ADR scene in Jane Got a Gun, notes Navarro, is where the character John Bishop (played by Ewan McGregor) is sitting down at a table opposite another character. They're in a large, live-sounding room. Navarro hears a lot of reflections in the production dialog, especially from the table. "As an ADR mixer, you really have to have an ear to dissect what it is exactly that you're hearing," says Navarro. "When you record an actor in the studio, the recording is nice and full spectrum, and it sounds perfect. The recordings sound really clean. If you try to play that into the original, well, it's going to sound quite different. You have to listen for what exactly it is you're hearing.You have to be able to hear what is coming through the mic." The two characters are sitting down at a wooden table, in a room that is very live, and they're being recorded by a variety of mics at varying distances. Navarro also hears a bit of phasing. "To be able to record new dialog, that will fall easily into the mix, you need to know what you're aiming for," he explains. "That was tricky to hear for this scene. How far is the mic? Is that phasing from the table something they can add in the mix? And, is it offmic? All these things you should know for your mic placement. That was tricky." Navarro gives another example of challenging ADR. There is a scene in Jane Got a Gun with dialog happening between four different characters.The dialog levels on the guide track are really low. Navarro could almost not hear the conversation. By listening very carefully to hear what was said, and based on the actors' recollections of what they said, they invented new dialog to match picture. "It actually turned out a lot better than I guessed," he says. "The actors' performances, and the dialog that we were able to fit together to fit sync for the picture, turned out really well. They also wrote some new lines for that scene, for important plot purposes." Even though Audio Head runs efficiently as a one-person ADR stage, Navarro would like to see an increase in two-person stages. "Just because you can have a one-person stage, which might cost less to operate, it can really be a hindrance, both technically and creatively." Navarro points out that with a two-person stage, the mixer can give more attention to the clients, and to the sound, because the recordist can handle all the labeling, file trimming, moving clips around in Pro Tools, and other tasks that are happening in the background. "This business boils down to customer service, says Navarro. "Being able to get a great sound at the end of the day is only part of the equation. The more time and attention the mixer can give the clients and the recordings, the better it is for everybody." Another reason why two-person ADR stages are beneficial is that ADR recordists learn their craft from the ADR mixers they work along side. Without ADR recordists, Navarro wonders where tomorrow's mixers are going to come from? "This is definitely a job you learn through hands-on," he explains. "You can read all the books, and take all the classes in school, but to actually learn the technique, train your ears, and observe the protocol of how a session runs, who talks to who, and how things are said, all the politics, so much of that is learned in the actual environment." Navarro doesn't see much sustainability for the ADR industry if more facilities choose to go with a one-person stage. Having moved his way up from an ADR recordist to an ADR mixer, Navarro understands the importance of learning the craft through experience. "I was fortunate enough to learn from ADR mixer Eric Thompson," he says. "He was great with his mic placement. The clients would always praise his matches. He would quiz me during the sessions, and ask things, like, 'Is it a little too close? Is it a little too far? Is it too off-axis?' All that made me think and pay close attention. I could only have gotten that experience by being an ADR recordist. With one-person stages, who is going to be learning for the next round?" Particle Fever Eric Milano is a freelance sound designer. He owns The Love Loft, an audio post studio in New York City (www.loveloftstudio.com). Before starting The Love Loft, Milano helped to build the audio post division of Gigantic Post in New York City (http://giganticpost. com). Although he's no longer on staff at Gigantic Post, Milano still freelances for them. He also freelances at other studios around town. He does everything audio post, from Foley, ADR, and sound design, to mixing, and editing dialog and sound effects. Working on every aspect of a film is something Milano often did while working with mentor Tom Paul, head mixer at Gigantic Post. "I was Tom's intern for awhile, and we would do all aspects of a film," Milano says. "Foley is something I've been doing from the beginning." Milano feels that, to be a good Foley artist, you have to be a good performer. "It's really about mimicking, which is an actor's talent. It's about getting into a character and walking the way they do, or doing actions the way they do. You're performing, even though someone isn't watching you, they're hearing you." Milano was recently called in to Gigantic Post to create the Foley for Particle Fever, a documentary about the Large Hadron Collider. The film was edited at Gigantic Post by Walter Murch. "The biggest challenge was that Walter Murch was going to be listening to all the Foley I was doing," says Milano. "And that's not something that happens everyday, so, it raised the bar a little bit. I was excited about that." Particle Fever is currently having a successful run on the film festival circuit, most recently showing at the New York Film Festival.The film will open in theaters in March of 2014. Though far less common, it's just as impor- www.postmagazine.com Audio Head's Chris Navarro recently recorded ADR for the 2014 feature, Jane Got a Gun. Post • November 2013 27