The Soundtrack: a basic Introduction.
by Dr. Fred Ginsburg C.A.S. Ph.D.
Before we get started...
This text is about the craft of Production Sound recording for motion pictures and videotape. Production Sound Mixing is the craft of recording dialogue and sound effects on the set during principal production. Whether you aspire to specialize in sound mixing; or just seek to enhance your skills in order to occasionally fill in as "soundperson" on a small shoot—the material in this book will prove invaluable. There are also, no doubt, a number of readers who have absolutely no interest in the world at all about doing sound. You may have aspirations to Direct, Produce, D.P. (director of photography), Edit, or Whatever. For those of you, I suggest that you need the information contained within these pages even more than the future
sound mixers—for they, at least, will eventually learn through trial & error, if nothing else. You, on the otherhand, may never have to personally record sound, but much of what you do in your specialty will hinge directly upon the success or failure of the sound crew. Learn as much as you can about each other’s crafts, because a little understanding and compromise may make a major difference in the final product. On the same token, prospective sound mixers should also endeavor to learn as much about all aspects of filmmaking as possible, for the same reasons. Much of what you do affects the rest of the production, in terms of time, budget, and quality. Learn Editing and Lighting, especially!
Please note that most of this material was written prior to the use of non-linear, computer based, editing systems. Although the technology has changed and become more flexible, the principles of editing remain the same.
You live or die in the dailies
In Hollywood, we have a saying, "You live or die in the dailies!" Because that is when the producer evaluates the performance of the entire crew.
In the real world, where time is money, no one is going to wait until the first cut (six weeks after the end of production) to make a decision. Technicians and even Directors will be gone before their next pay check if their work doesn’t shine in that screening room! A Sound Mixer whose tracks are consistently unusable, whose material always sounds like it will need a lot of sweetening or fixing up later—is not going to be kept around! Ditto, a Director—especially a young, new Director—will be replaced early on if it appears that he or she always seems to need additional, costly takes because they can’t relate to their crews!
But the Director who only shoots one or two takes, and consistently delivers good footage from his actors and technical people is definitely going to be favored by the producers.
There are no apologies, no excuses. What gets projected up on that screen, and heard through those speakers, had better be top notch.
An anecdote... One side note, if I may. After I left college, I envisioned myself as a cameraman. I had the necessary skills, including professional still photographic as well as cinematographic experience. Actually, I figured that no one would hire me outright as a Director of Photography, so I planned on starting as an Assistant Cameraman (focus puller). After coming out to Hollywood, I took immediate employment at a motion picture equipment Sales/Rental house, and also began freelancing on the side. On one particular shoot, the Producer was desperate for a soundman, so I "switched hats" and took over the Nagra. That same producer hired me again several times—as his Sound Mixer!
Soon, I found that I could work a lot steadier and advance quicker mixing sound than by loading magazines & checking focus. Photography became a hobby again, and I became a full fledged Sound Mixer. The moral is, life may surprise you. Learn it all, for everything you learn about filmmaking will come in handy one day or another.
WHY DO YOU THINK THEY CALL THEM "TALKING PICTURES"?
If audiences didn’t care about dialogue, but only were interested in the visuals—Hollywood never would have bothered to invent sound motion pictures. But early movie goers did care, and thus the soundtrack was born.
How did Hollywood refer to this new marvel of modern technology? They didn’t hype the sound effects. Audiences already heard "live" sound effects, courtesy of men performing theatrics in the orchestra pit. The studios didn’t hype the music, films already were projected with orchestral accompaniment. The big attraction was DIALOGUE. For the first time, audiences could hear the movie stars speak! Hence, when ‘silent’ motion pictures were supplied with the first sync soundtracks—everyone named them the "talkies". Production Dialogue had come to movie making!
From those early days of sound onward, filmmakers have relied heavily on the presence of sound to help tell their stories or convey their messages. They discovered that picture and sound were two sides of the same coin.
Picture and sound could reinforce each other—that is, cover the same material, or contribute to the same perceived message. We see an airplane; we hear the airplane. We see an actor shout; we hear the shout.
On the other hand, picture and sound could counterpoint each other. This refers to the soundtrack conveying new or different information and meaning than a viewer could perceive by only seeing the visual. We see the airplane; but we hear a hijacker’s threat to the pilot. We see an actor shout; but the music tells us that he is
joyful, not angry.
In any case, sound has unquestionably become an indispensable aspect of modern filmmaking (and television).
If you doubt this for even a moment, try this simple exercise. Turn on the television to any show. Watch for a few moments, and then turn your back to the screen. The soundtrack alone will supply you with enough details to keep track of the story. Now, try the same thing with the picture—that is, watch the screen but turn off the sound. The storyline becomes much more difficult to follow.
The point is—even though all of the glory in filmmaking is associated with camera work—without the sound, those pretty pictures lose a lot!
It is sort of ironic, but that conclusion is often a whole lot more apparent to audiences than to filmmakers on the set. Everyone is willing to sacrifice all on behalf of getting a good shot, but rarely do amateur and low budget filmmakers concern themselves seriously with sound. Directors often take audio for granted, until they get back to the editing room. There, they regretfully discover how much better and easier it would have been had they spent the effort to record good sound on the set while they had the chance.
ELEMENTS OF THE SOUNDTRACK
Much of what a Production Mixer does is based upon his or her assessment of what will be needed later on during post- production (editing & final mixdown). With that in mind, let’s begin with a brief overview of "post" and work our way back to the production side of things.
What types of sound make up a motion picture or video soundtrack?
Narration Many films rely heavily on NARRATION to hold the visuals together or to provide explanation. All of us, I’m sure, are familiar with documentaries, travelogues, and educational films that employ Narration as the primary element of the soundtrack. Don’t forget, however, that many theatrical films also use Narration as a story device—sometimes in the role of an ‘anonymous’ storyteller, sometimes as the inner thoughts of a principal character.
Narration can be recorded in two different ways.
The first way, or style, is to have the narrator view the film and record live commentary while it is projected. The lines may be from a script or totally improvised, depending on the film in question. This style is referred to as "sync to picture". As you have guessed, it is quite common to travelogues!
The other approach, which is usually the preferred way of doing it, involves recording the narration "wild" from
a script, instead of from watching the picture. The talent reads the lines from a prepared script, which are
recorded as isolated takes. (Note, while it is true that some narrators may view the film in preparation of the
recording session, the picture does not play a role during the session itself.) An editor then cuts the desired
lines in place opposite the appropriate footage.
This method gives the filmmaker maximum creative control over the relationship between picture and narration, and allows greater flexibility should editorial changes be desired later on. It also frees the narrator to concentrate on enunciation and delivery of the lines, rather than worrying about matching whatever is up on screen that moment.
Narration tracks can physically be recorded either in a professional recording studio (with full acoustic isolation from any outside noise), or as a "wild track" while on location. Which technique is used depends on knowing how the narration is to intercut with the rest of the soundtrack.
If the narration is supposed to be authoritative and ‘anonymous’ (commonly nicknamed the "voice of God" approach) -- then isolated studio recording is called for. The voice track is recorded with a full presence, completely free of any ambient background noise or room coloration (room echo or bounce).
On the other hand, if the narration is supposed to be a "continuation" of on-screen dialogue or on-screen explanation—then the narration is usually recorded as a "wild track" (camera is not shooting) at the same location. The sound quality of the wild lines should match closely with the sound quality of the original on-screen portion of the dialogue. Perspective and presence should be similar. Background ambience and room acoustics should also match. The goal is to convince the audience that the narration is an uninterrupted continuation of the talking head they saw at the beginning, even though the visuals have cut away to instructional inserts.
It is true, however, that often the sound mixer will be asked to record "voice of God" narration as well as "wild lines" while out on location, due to limited availability of some actors (or limitations of the budget). This, though, becomes more a matter of technique in "faking it" (to sound like an isolated recording studio).
Music
Even the earliest ‘silent’ films depended heavily on music to add emotion to moving images. The presence of a musical score tells the audience what feelings they are supposed to have: joy, sorrow, tension, exhilaration, impending fear, etc. In fact, many prerecorded musical scores in music libraries are titled and catalogued by
their suggested emotional effect.
If this explanation of music’s role is new for you, then experiment a little. View a favorite film or two on videocassette. Pick out a few major scenes, and try viewing them again with the sound off. Instead, play a few music albums in the background as you view the scenes. Notice how each different music selection appears the change the feeling of the scene!
As you can see, the presence of music always has some effect on what the audience will perceive about a scene. Depending on the musical selection, this effect may reinforce, contradict, or completely alter the original intent of the picture.
The dramatic source of music under a scene can be either "extraneous" or "practical". Extraneous means that the score is simply there on the soundtrack because the filmmaker put it there to accompany the picture. The people in the movie theatre hear it, but the characters in the film do not. Most music in soundtracks falls under this category. In contrast to this, some music is initially explained or motivated by some source on screen, such as a radio playing, a nightclub band, or a character musician. In these instances, the music that the audience hears is also being heard by the characters on screen!
Sometimes, music can creatively overlap both of these categories, by starting off as extraneous and then being revealed as practical, or vice versa.
Music for a soundtrack can originate one of two ways: canned or original score. "Canned" music refers to having come from a prerecorded music library. For a fee, a producer can purchase the rights to use selections of existing music in his or her production. A large number of companies produce volumes of high quality, generic purpose music tracks intended exclusively for this purpose. The music is composed and recorded so as to facilitate "modular" editing to accommodate scene length or climax.
Producers can pay for the music on a "needle drop", screen minute, or blanket basis. Needle drop refers to buying music based on a per selection, per use, basis. Blanket arrangements permit unlimited usage of the entire library either per entire production or per entire year. In determining their fees, music libraries will also want to know the intended purpose and scope of distribution of the film (theatrical, educational, home video, nationwide broadcast, industrial in-house, etc.). Readers are warned, however, to exercise extreme caution in planning to use consumer music albums (pop, rock, soul, oldie, classical, etc.) as sources of music. Even in cases where the song itself is in public domain, the particular arrangement and performance are protected under copyright and fair trade laws. If you feel it is absolutely imperative to use a "real" song instead of one from a music library, make certain to obtain permission—in writing, in advance—from the recording company in question! Otherwise, you will discover just how ruthless, greedy, and unsympathetic lawyers and their clients can be.
The other source of music is to have it originally composed and recorded for your project. This could involve a full scale orchestra, or be as simple as a single musician overdubbing himself. The process begins with supplying the composer with a videotape copy of the footage along with instructions from the director or editor.
In the course of composing the music, at some point the composer and editor will create what is known as a "click track". This is a soundtrack that consists solely of clicks placed opposite the picture in order to convey cutting rhythm and climax. This click track serves to guide the composer and, later on, the musicians in keeping ‘beat’ with the film rather than a more arbitrary reference rhythm. After the music has been composed, the next step is obviously to record it. In the case of an orchestral score, musicians are assembled and arranged in a large recording studio, known as a "scoring stage". There, they view the film on a large screen while hearing the click track in headphones. Led by the composer, the orchestra performs the selections. The music is recorded on multi-track for later mixdown.
When the score is composed and performed by a single musician, as is more often the case on low budget productions, the individual composer may be responsible for producing the entire musical soundtrack. Employing a portable multi-track recording system in conjunction with video playback, he or she will commonly perform and overdub with keyboards, synthesizers, electronic drums, and perhaps a few acoustic instruments.
As to which form of music is better, it all depends on the situation, budget, and talent pool available. A good canned library will sound better than the results obtained from most "aspiring" young composer/musicians and from many "hack" orchestral composers. On the other hand, there are many talented composers whose quality and brilliance far surpass the generic
accompaniment of even the best music libraries. (Personally, on low budget shows, unless the individual is of known and proven aptitude—I would prefer to go with a canned selection of good quality rather than gamble for excellence and end up with trash.)
Sound Effects
The third of our soundtrack elements, in addition to narration and music, is the category of "Sound Effects". Sound Effects (commonly abbreviated as "FX") refer to the sounds—other than dialogue—that objects or people make, along with those sounds that occur naturally in the background. All of these sounds are defined as "natural" necessarily only within the creative context of the movie and the filmmaker’s imagination. What they may or may not sound like in real life is not always in question. Who really knows what a three foot mosquito sounds like, so long as the sound effect works within the creative framework of the movie! Sound effects can refer to events happening on or off screen. Footsteps of an actor may be an on screen event if we see the actor. Footsteps of the killer, coming down the hallway, outside of the closed door are an off screen event if all the audience sees is a shot of the closed door (from inside of the heroine’s room). Similarly, background ambience often refers to off screen activity that the audience may never see, such as a passing siren, birds & crickets, a thunderstorm, and so on. Sound effects may be either frame-accurate or wild. If the effect is dependent on synchronizing exactly, frame-to-frame, with an on screen event -- it is known as a frame-accurate effect or more commonly, a "hard" effect. Examples include matching the sound of a gunshot with the firing of a gun, matching up door slams, whip cracks, sword clashes, punches, silverware being put on a plate, and so on.
If the sound of the effect only needs to be placed in the vicinity of an on screen event, but specific frame-to-frame synchronization is not important, then it is referred to as a wild or "soft" effect. Examples include environmental backgrounds (birds & crickets, rain, wind, ocean surf, traffic), engine noise, cafeteria ambience, crowd noises, applause, laughter, even music and narration.
The sound effects themselves can originate from a number of different sources. Many effects are lifted from special sound effects libraries that operate similarly to music libraries. Editors can pay per effect, or arrange blanket usage agreements. Most sound editors and studios maintain and compile their own elaborate libraries of sound effects, built up over the years from all of the films they have worked on as well as by swapping with fellow editors. Unlike music, it is very difficult to identify original ownership of most sound effects—so, except in a few rare cases (recognizable synthesized effects), mere access to an effect is considered by most editors as an okay to use them. Legally speaking, that is false. However, the practice remains rampant in Hollywood.
Library effects include both "hard" effects as well as "wild" or "soft" backgrounds. Sound effects don’t always come from a library. Quite often, they are recorded right on the set during actual production. Effects may be recorded in "sync" with picture during a take. This might include footsteps, door slams, explosions, car crashes, virtually anything that takes place in front of the camera. Sometimes, though, these sound effects coincide with live dialogue or other effects. In those instances, and when time permits, the location sound mixer will try to record the sound effect "clean" after the take has been shot. (Although it can be confusing, the term "wild" also applies to anything recorded on the set without the camera rolling in sync.) This newly recorded effect retains most, if not all, of the same ambience and characteristics of the original take. It is also completely accurate in that the same props were utilized.
Imagine yourself as an editor trying to match the sound of an arthritic woman slamming the car door of a ‘62 Thunderbird coupe... from an effects library. There might be a dozen or so car door slams, but probably none with the right speed, intensity, delivery—not to mention car model. In some situations, exact matching of details may be very critical, such as in a sales film or commercial, where it is illegal to substitute the sound of another car for the one being featured.
Sound effects can be recorded after production, during editing. It is not uncommon for a sound editor to send someone out (hopefully, a bona fide soundperson) in order to record a list of needed effects. Freshly recorded sound effects are usually far superior to anything in a library. By knowing as much as possible how the effect is to be utilized in a given scene, the soundperson can do a better job of recording the sound effect to match. The soundperson should avoid the temptation to record any more or less elements of the effect than called for by the editor. For instance, if the editor needs the sound of a hammer striking a nail, don’t embellish the track with background construction noises and wild dialogue ("Hey, Ralph, hold this nail for me!").
Some effects don’t readily lend themselves to live recording. Ever try to get the footsteps of a giant dinosaur? Editors and sound mixers will often conspire to create a sound effect that doesn’t exist in real life (or does exist but doesn’t lend itself to be easily recorded). Effects may be completely synthesized on electronic instruments, or may be based on taking real sounds and electronically modifying them. Most effects are composite effects, created like a musical chord, built up from a number of simpler sounds (all of which may have also been modified).
Finally, many sound effects are ‘dubbed’ in, by means of a process known as "Foley". Briefly, the Foley process consists of recording the sounds of an artist while he mimics the actions of an actor on the screen. A short section of the film is projected over and over again for the Foley artist (also known as the "Foley walker"). The artist watches every movement of the actor very carefully, and mimics both the action and rhythm. The artist performs those same actions using a variety of props, and these actions are recorded in sync with the picture. For instance, the Foley walker may imitate the actor taking out a gun from a holster, or sitting down in a squeaky chair, or shuffling some papers in his hand.
In addition to mimicking simple actions, the Foley artist will also dub fight punches, hugs, kisses, swordplay, head scratching, and anything else that emotes sound—no matter how subtle.
Then there are the footsteps, which are what Foley people are best known for. Every actor walks. Sometimes we see his feet moving, other times we only sense the movement because the camera is in close. The Foley artist will recreate all of the footsteps of each actor, regardless of whether or not the steps are seen or implied. To assist in making the Foley footsteps match the environment on screen, the inside of the Foley recording stage is equipped with a multitude of small troughs known as Foley pits. Each Foley pit is a small rectangular area filled or covered with a different texture, such as concrete, dirt, linoleum, carpet, hardwood flooring, marble, grass, brush & twigs, sand, cobblestone, steel plate, and so on. In addition, there is a small wadin pool of water for creating aquatic sound effects. The Foley walker also has access to a wide array of footwear, ranging from men’s combat boots to women’s high heels (irregardless of whether the Foley artist is male or female!) in order to accurately recreate all of the footsteps as well as mere body shuffles.
Dialogue The fourth and final major element of the soundtrack is dialogue, or speech. Audiences want to hear what the actors are saying!
Dialogue in a film takes on, ultimately, one of two forms. Either the words are spoken by an actor on screen, with the lips visible to the audience; or, the words are spoken by an actor off screen, or by an actor on screen whose face is not visible. Dialogue from an actor whose face we see is termed "lipsync", because the words must match the movement of the lips. All other dialogue is considered "wild", since it does not have to sync with any on screen source.
The recording of dialogue usually occurs on the set during filming, and this is referred to as "production dialogue". Sometimes, while actors are on the set, but without cameras rolling—the company will record additional lines of dialogue to be used later as "wild lines". Examples of wild lines that would be recorded on the set for future use include other halves of phone conversations, shouts or greetings from afar, background ambience, alternate dialogue (to cover profanity in event of television broadcast), narration, or any dialogue that talent tends to stumble over (the editor can either meticulously replace the lipsync a word at a time, or cut to a reverse angle that hides the actor’s lips and just lay in the lines).
Sometimes, for any of a multitude of reasons, production dialogue is unusable and must be replaced during post-production. Sometimes a production mixer is either incompetent or suffers an equipment malfunction. Sometimes, the problem is totally beyond the help of the mixer, such as a loud generator or continuous aircraft. Directors often shout screen directions and talk during dialogue. There are all sorts of reasons and excuses for having to replace dialogue on occasion, some of which we can control and some of which we can’t.
When a production track does need to replaced, editors use a process known as "A.D.R.", which is short for Automated (or Automatic) Dialogue Replacement. In the old days, dialogue replacement was done by physically cutting out short sections of the original dialogue (consisting of one or two lines) along with the appropriate picture. These sections were formed into continuous loops. That’s why the process was called "looping". A projection system would run a loop of picture along with the corresponding loop of original sound in sync with a loop of fresh stock threaded up in a recorder. The actor would watch the film clip, listen to his original track on headphones, and re-perform each line aloud.
When the process was complete for each loop of dialogue, the editor would painstakingly replace each section of picture along with the newly recorded sound.
Better technology greatly simplified the process. In the A.D.R. process, the physical loops have been done away with. Instead, the entire reel of picture and the entire reel of original sound are threaded up in sync. An entire reel of blank audio stock is set up on a recorder. A computer is fed the start and stop footage of each "loop" that needs to be recorded. All three machines roll down, in sync, to the first "loop" and the process begins. The actor watches the projected footage and listens to the cue track on headphones. A series of three audible beeps alerts talent as the system rolls forward towards the record start point. His take is recorded on the blank stock. At the completion of each take, the computer rewinds all three machines back to the
programmed start point and the process repeats itself. When the loop has been successfully recorded, the entire system moves ahead to the next programmed set of cues.
After the A.D.R. recording process has been completed, life is considerably much easier for the editor since all three elements—picture, production sound, A.D.R.—are already in sync with each other throughout the length of the entire reel. To replace bad original sound, all the editor would have to do is put the three elements in a gang synchronizer on his editing bench, roll down to the first cut point, and splice in his track. 550’ at the picture and 550’ on the production sound reel would correspond to 550’ on the A.D.R. reel.
Note that today, with the use of non-linear edit systems and digital recording formats, ADR has evolved into an even more streamlined process, completely doing away with the need for sprocketed magnetic tape. Computers and video projectors now make up the hardware systems. The process is basically the same, but
without the drudgery.
WHAT IS PRODUCTION SOUND?
We have spoken briefly about Production Dialogue. Earlier on, we also mentioned recording sound effects on the set, either sync or wild. Combine these concepts, and what unfolds is "Production Sound"—namely, everything that is recorded on the set during production. Production Sound should be thought of as raw material for the editors. It is standard practice for editors to divide the production soundtrack into separate tracks for each actor and for sound effects, so as to provide the most flexibility and control to the re-recording mixers during the final dub (mixdown). Therefore, editors tend to prefer clean, isolated dialogue with effects and ambience recorded separately.
However, the expression that "you live or die in the dailies" seems to countermand the notion about Production Sound being raw material earmarked for post-production embellishment. A production soundtrack free of effects and ambience is candy to a dialogue editor, but will sound sterile and unnatural to many producers
(who usually know a lot about business and little about editing).
So whom should the Production Sound Mixer strive to please, the editor or the producer? Think about it and draw your own strategy. No one said this game would be easy, but you were forewarned about the importance of compromise.
Very often, though, the production sound track recorded in the field may be the end product itself, except for the addition of a little music, possibly some narration, and an odd effect or two. This is especially true in low budget productions, where there seldom exists any budget for sound editing nor A.D.R. In these instances, the
production mixer must be extra diligent in acquiring crisp dialogue tracks complete with perspective, sync sound effects, and ambience. (As you can see, there is a lot more to this business than just knowing how to plug a microphone into a Nagra, DAT, or VTR!)
More important in low budget video
As important as good production sound is for low budget filmmaking, it is even more critical to have good production tracks when working in the video medium.
The reason for this is that although film sound editing takes place right there on the basic editing bench and is readily feasible to even the low budget 16mm film cutter—sound editing in video is a technologically complex (read "expensive") process requiring special facilities that charge big bucks per hour.
As a result, low budget video producers shy away from allowing the editors to spend any more time in "sweetening" (video’s name for sound editing/mixing) than is absolutely necessary. Typical low budget sweetening usually means just rolling in some music and narration, and maybe one or two sound effects at most. The bulk of the soundtrack relies on whatever the production mixer was able to record!
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE Conventional SOUND EDITING AND
POST-PRODUCTION PROCESS
The importance of Production Sound, especially in video, will become even clearer as we examine the basic sound editing progressions for both film and video.
Sound for film
After the production tracks have been recorded in the field, the *-inch audiotapes are sent back to the lab or studio for transfer to either 16mm or 35mm sprocketed magnetic film. This initial transfer is a most critical stage for the audio (and the person who recorded it), since a poor transfer can easily induce lots of distortion. (Transfers will be dealt with later on in this book.)
An editor then syncs up the dailies, by aligning the clapsticks on both picture and sound and matching the lengths of the two reels (either adding leader or cutting out garbage). After the dailies have been synced, both picture and sound reels then have matching edge number codes inked on so as to facilitate keeping track of
sync later on during editing. (Coding may occur after the screening of dailies.)
Each previous day’s footage is screened in sync at the "dailies". Here, the producer, director, client, and key crew members get to evaluate what was shot. It is in this projection room that we get to "live or die". It is very important for the sound mixer to attend at least the first few dailies screenings (if not all of them) in order to ascertain that the production tracks are not being played back distorted due to bad transfer or poor screening room facilities!
From there, the picture and production soundtracks go to the picture editor for rough cut.
After the completion of the rough cut, the material is duped. The picture editor keeps the original edited workprint and a dupe of the production soundtrack. The sound editor receives a dupe of the edited workprint and the original of the spliced production soundtrack for sound editing. The sound editor performs several
tasks to the sound. The dialogue of each main character is separated and spliced onto individual tracks so as to facilitate the final mixdown.
In fact, all of the sound elements (dialogue, effects, music, narration) are eventually checkerboarded onto separate tracks. This permits the dubbing mixers to establish individual volume levels and equalization for each track, and are thus able to deal precisely with overlaps, fades, special effects, and any changes that occur end to end with each other.
Unwanted ambience occurring on the same track (such as between an actor’s words) are cut out. This editing process is known as "flipping the track", because in 35mm that is literally what they do. Since 35mm has sprocket holes top and bottom, the editor merely has to invert the unwanted section so that the base side goes where the (sound) magnetic emulsion was, and vice versa. In 16mm, they use leader.
Sounds of very short duration are merely erased from the track by mechanically removing some of the magnetic oxide emulsion with a razor blade, sandpaper, or cleaning solvent.
Totally unusable dialogue is replaced with A.D.R.
In the course of dialogue editing, the sound editors will often come across a section that is full of unnecessary splices or contains damaged sprocket holes. Requests will be sent to the Sound Department or lab to have these takes retransferred from the original *-inch tapes. These reprints will then be meticulously spliced in to replace the damaged sections. (This is why all transfers must be done to industry standard on well maintained equipment - so that reprints intermatch original.)
Sound effects are added wherever necessary, including the creation of ambient backgrounds. Foley is recorded for the footsteps, body movements, and some sync sound effects.
Narration tracks are laid in, as needed. Checkerboarding is used so that the mixers can correct any audible changes that may occur when different sounding takes are joined end to end.
Finally, music editors will assemble the music tracks, cutting them to match the appropriate picture sections in terms of length, climax, and fade points. As with dialogue and effects, the music tracks are checkerboarded for the mix.
The film Mix
After all of the elements have been assembled onto separate reels and checkerboarded, the sound is ready for "re-recording", "mixdown", or "dubbing"—as the process is known as. (Although some people also think of foreign language replacement as "dubbing", that is not the correct usage of the term. In Hollywood, "dubbing" means mixdown—not A.D.R. and not language replacement.)
The first step are the "pre-dubs". This involves pre-mixing all of the individual checkerboarded tracks of each element down to just a few in number.
Since, on a major motion picture feature, there can easily be as many as sixty or seventy individual tracks for every one reel of picture (approx. 10 minutes worth), and ten or eleven reels of picture to a full length movie—we are talking about a truckload of sound!
On a smaller show, such as a documentary, there may be only several individual tracks.
Using a geometric (or pyramid) type progression, all of these reels are eventually mixed down to a manageable few. For instance, let’s say there are 5 production dialogue reels, and 3 A.D.R. reels. Eight reels, just for Dialogue, is difficult for one set of hands to manage. But all of these tracks could be mixed down to just one or two Dialogue reels. Then we pre-mix the fifteen or so reels that make up only the ambient backgrounds, and pare those down to just two or three. Similarly, reduce forty or so sound effects and Foley reels to just three. And so on.
Now, we are ready for the final mixdown. No longer are there sixty reels, but perhaps nine. These nine, which now include Dialogue, Effects, Music, and Narration can now be mixed down to their final composite levels in
relationship to each other.
However, in real life, the elements are not actually combined into one monaural track. Instead, they are mixed down to three monaural tracks—Dialogue, Music, & Effects—all on the same piece of sprocketed film (known as fullcoat or three- stripe). Producers keep these three elements separate in case they should ever later want to modify the finished film, such as by replacing the English dialogue with a foreign language, or updating the music to appeal to a different audience.
It is because of this eventual mix to a "DM & E" that editors strive to isolate as many effects as possible from the production dialogue tracks. That way, the dialogue can be replaced without having to replace all of the sync sound effects that would be lost with it.
On a stereo release, the mixers would end up with a DM & E for each stereo channel. Television would require two: Left, Right. 35mm stereo requires four: Left, Center, Right, Surround.
70mm, and the new digital release formats use six: Left, Center, Right, Sub-woofer, Left Surround, Right Surround. The Sony SDDS uses 8 channels, adding Left/center and Right/center to the six above.
Sound for video
The audio post-production process for video is somewhat different than for motion pictures, not just in the technology but also in the attitude. Fortunately, as more and more film editors are crossing over into video, the differences in approach are narrowing.
A major distinction between video and film is that, while sound for film is recorded and edited physically separate from picture, in video the sound is recorded and edited on the same piece of tape as picture. (Recording and editing on separate reel from picture is known as "double system". When picture and sound are married onto the same physical reel, it is known as "single system".) To screen dailies in film, the sound
first had to be transferred, synced up, and projected in interlock. To screen dailies in video, one only has to playback the videotape.
Therefore, the screening of the dailies is not the ritual of importance that it is in film. Very often, producers will ask for an immediate playback of the video just after it has been shot—right there on the set.
The next step, after production, consists of the first picture edit. In video, this is referred to as an "off-line" edit, because it is done using a small format dupe of the original videotape, and a small format viewing/editing system. In video, along with picture & audio, it is possible to record what is known as S.M.P.T.E. time code. Time code is an electronic frame by frame "edge number" that identifies every single frame on the videotape in terms of Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Frames. By means of this time code, it is possible to conform the original videotape to an edit made on a smaller format copy of the original.
On some shows, the producers will first do what has been nicknamed an "off off-line" first edit. The original videotape is duped onto consumer VHS format tape along with a time code "window dub" (S.M.P.T.E. time code is keyed onto the picture portion, like credits). The producer can view the tapes on any player system, noting down the approximate start and stop time codes of any take or scene. This information is passed along to the editor. Otherwise, the "off-line" edit consists of preparing a rough cut using a professional *-inch video editing system. Some *-inch systems provide for straight cuts only in the rough cut stage (dissolves and other
effects are merely noted on the time code log, known as the "Edit Decision List", that will be later used to conform the original). Other, more sophisticated edit systems allow for creating visual effects on the off-line version itself, along with storing the time code instructions.
Since the video editor only has a total of two audio tracks to work with (one of which contains the production sound, and the other may contain time code on some systems), there isn’t much that can be done in the way of fancy sound editing at this time.
After the off-line or rough cut is complete, the video show goes to "on-line" editing. During this on-line session, all of the edits made on the off-line version are reproduced using the original videotapes recorded in the field. Although off-line editing is usually done in *-inch for economy sake, on-line can utilize any of the professional formats (3/4, Betacam, 1-inch). During this on-line session, all of the transitions (dissolves, wipes, fades) are performed, along with the addition of titles and special effects (flips, spins, split screens, etc.).
Due to the complex electronic nature of video editing—and the scientifically unproven yet widely recognized influence of supernatural occurrences on computerized edit controllers—there is bound to be at least a few edits that differ in length or visual effect from the off-line version. After the on-line version is complete, video editors begin work on the soundtrack. The process of sound editing and mixdown is known as "sweetening".
The first step in sweetening is to transfer the edited version of the production track onto a multi-track audio recorder. Matching time code recorded onto the last track of the multi-track tape is used to maintain exact frame sync between the audio and the videotape. This entire phase is called "laydown".
A computerized controller/synchronizer allows the multi-track to be played in exact sync with the videotape, and also allows other audiotape players to roll in at designated time code points.
The editor splits his production track into separate elements by re-recording portions onto remaining open tracks of the multi-track. Sound effects, narration, and music are transferred over from the other audio sources onto the multi- track with frame accuracy.
If needed, A.D.R. and Foley can also be recorded using special controllers that synchronize video with multi-track audio by means of time code.
After all of the individual tracks have been built, checkerboard fashion, onto the multi-track—the editor then begins the task of final mixdown. Usually, there are still enough unused tracks remaining on the multi-track to allow the mixer to record onto the same tape. Otherwise, the tracks will be mixed down in sync onto another audio recorder. Depending on the budget of the show and the number of tracks involved, the mixer may create a DM & E. Otherwise, the tracks will simply be mixed down to a single monaural or 2-track stereo.
The final process is to transfer the mixed soundtrack back onto the finished videotape from whence it came. This is called the "layback".
The more recent advent of computerized non-linear editing has changed and simplified the above described (tape based) process of video editing. Camera original is loaded into the editor. Audio is loaded in and then synced up by means of clapstick or production timecode. Audio can then be edited with picture (sort of single system) or creatively manipulated (double system-ish). Some systems allow the creation of multiple tracks, so that sweetening can be combined with picture editing.
Production Sound becomes of paramount importance on these video shoots, because the video editor often can’t clean up the tracks with anywhere near the ease of his or her film counterpart.
Yet surprisingly, many video producers refuse to plan and budget for good production sound. Even though they are the ones who depend on that sound the most, they tend to allocate for it the least. We’ll get into pre-production planning and budgeting for sound in the next chapter.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
There are four basic elements of a motion picture or video soundtrack: narration, music, sound effects, and dialogue.
Narration can be recorded sync to picture, where the narrator comments on what is being projected, as it is being projected. The other method, which is the preferred way of doing things, is to record the narration wild from a script and to edit the lines in opposite the appropriate footage.
Music provides an emotional backdrop to a film. Music can be acquired from a music library ("canned") or it can be an original score.
Sound effects are either frame accurate ("hard") or wild. FX can come from a library, or can be recorded on the shooting set (either sync or wild). Effects can be recorded later during editing, or they can be created & synthesized. Footsteps and other sync sound effects can be recorded in a Foley session.
Dialogue consists of either lipsync or wild lines. It can be recorded on the set, or looped back at the studio by means of A.D.R.
Production sound is the complex craft of recording live dialogue and sound effects on the set during principal production. Usually it is raw material for the editors, but sometimes it can be the end product itself. Film sound editing includes: transfer of dailies; syncing picture & sound; screening the dailies; picture edit w. production
track; sound edit; pre-dubs; and final mixdown.
Video sound editing includes: playback of composite picture with sound; off-line picture edit; on-line picture edit complete with visual effects; laydown for audio sweetening; building tracks on multi-track; mixdown; layback to completed videotape.
Good production sound is usually more important in video than in film due to the added complexity of sweetening and the lack of specialized sound editors (personnel) to be assigned that work.
Excerpted from: http://www.24fps.com
This article was acquired on the "fair use" basis.
We encourage You to visit the source website for more information on this topic.
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