Summer 2001 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound

The'Olf Mg Trolley' Meettng...
A SOUND EDITORS VIEW
The divide between production artd postproduction
sound in film and television, though
irot wilful or intcntional. is irr practice very real.
Both sidcs of the lirre have questions they'd like to
put to the other, Lrut time ancl opportunity rarcly
permit a proper exchauge.
- As an editor ancl re-recortling rnixer I'm firmly
routed in post production. Aparl from the courfy
chairs and air-conditioning, one of the things ['ve
found attractive about the post world is the everexpanding
range of sophisticated equipment
available to achieve our ends. Not particularly
high-minded,I know, but there we are. Compared
with this, the pole and shoulder-slung Nagra has
always appeared rather bare and the miracles
achieved by Production Mixers in acquiring usable
sound far too reliant on real-time native cunning
and physical endurance. This, as Production
Mixer and panelist, Stuart Wilson points out, will
always be a big element of the job:
"There will always be a need for this 'real-time
native cunning and physical endurance' as on
location, aeroplanes will fly over period sets,
costume shoes will clump loudly on wooden
floors, sets will be too reverberant and need
dampening, lighting equipment will hum and buzz
and need cooperation to reduce, cutlery and
crinoline underskirts will be louder than the
dialogue and unfortunately no amount of high-tech
equipment will eliminate these very practical,
mechanical problems!"
That said, after the meeting, it's clear that the
array of kit now employed, by said artful
individuals, is hugely expanded. Simon Bishop
demonstrated SAS-like efficiency in deployment
of his customised equipment trolley as, stopwatch
running, he rolled the beast from the back of his
van, powered-up, flipped out a few LCD displays
and control panels and stood, 75 seconds later to
my watch, ready to serve his glorious director.
With his Deva|track HD recorder and facility
for four radio mic's plus booms pltn transfer from
Deva to DVD RAM, Simon would be capable of
leaving options very open for the post-production
department in terms of sources. [n practice, of
course, ever-greater budgeUtime restraints mean
that the PM's live mix is often used by the editor,
with recourse to the multitrack being for
emergencies only. Heart-breakin g, considering the
lengths sometimes gone to to offer this flexibility.
However, this knowledge makes it even more
important that the PM geti the live mix as right as
possible. With this in mind, Simon told of a
colleague who had an interesting solution: He was
using an 8-track rig where seven tracks of his
eight-track recorder were fed from separate mics,
with the live mix going to track eight. Having
recognised that his mix for a certain part of a
t0
recorded scene had not been ideal, he would wait
for a break and then roll-back his 8-track, and
remix the section to DAT still pr:eserving synch.
The post:pro team were apparently anrazecl at the
consistently high quality of the production mix.
Simon is crrrrcntly looking into various models of
hard disk I track, with a view to designing a
systent that woulel allow irrstartt remixing {on set)
bul. not necessarily archiving the B-track originals:
"How many post pro schedules havc timc to
even find the oft'ending shot on the 8-track tapes'/"
comments Simon. Alt this alsn points up the
importance of conscientious dialogue editors. It's
easy for us to complain about lack of information
and consistency, but it's also up to us to make that
extra effort to read any notes and listen to all the
takes. Time permitting... which it rarely is!
Fully loaded with human ingenuity and also
topping the kit-and-caboodle stakes, Stuart told of
his most recent job on which he was using no less
than 11 radio mics going to two eight-track
recorders. [n a quasi Dogma 95-style his director
was adamant about not replacing any dialogue and
recording everything at all times. The film had
started out as a relatively low budget project shot
on DV with available light. Of course, it soon
became apparent that to derive usable dialogue
from this rough-and-ready approach was going to
be far from easy or cheap. The director wanted to
get good sound though and so Stuart was expected
to do what he had to do to make it all happen -
without taking any extra time, of course, save for
a small allowance for getting the radio mics on
before the start of a scene.
Stuart: "There seems to be an idea among some
directors and producers, that sound isjust'there'
and as long as we push the record button, what
goes down on tape will be exactly what they
hoped for - a lovely, clean, ready-mixed dialogue
track with minimum background noise! The fact is
that to make a small improvement on location,
usually involves a disproportionate amount of
effort! But with a sympathetic director who is
prepared to allow the time to get something better
out of a challenging sound situation, there is a lot
which can be achieved."
One such adventure involved two of the main
protagonists engaged in conversation while
hurtling down a water slide, into and under the
surface of a swimming pool, re-emerging to
conclude their chat, covered by a second camera
on the opposite side of the pool. A lesser person
would have marked it down for ADR, but utilising
hermetically sealed plastic bags, condoms for the
mic capsules and lashings of gaffer tape (no Fairy
Liquid bottles), he strapped transmitters to the
actors' backs, placed mics in their hair and got the
whole process as a clear and convincing single
take. Tape should be removed from hirsute backs
with one swift yank!
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