Dialogue Editing

48 GETTING SOUND FROM PICTURE DEPARTMENT TO SOUND DEPARTMENT
editor will become increasingly involved with the picture department. His
crew will provide temporary sound effects for the picture edit and prepare
tracks for temp mixes for studio screenings and focus groups. By the time
the picture is locked, the supervising sound editor and a small sound crew
will be very intimate with the mechanics of the fi lm and the dynamics of the
picture department.
As the dialogue editor, you probably won’t become offi cially involved with
the fi lm until a few days before picture lock, unless you’re called in to assist
with temp mix tracks. But don’t wait until picture editing is completed to
establish contact with the picture staff and with the fi lm. Your sanity and
success will depend in part on having a good relationship with the picture
people.
Often on very low-budget fi lms, the picture editor and assistant leave the fi lm
as soon as the picture is locked. This means there’s no one around to answer
questions, fi nd paperwork, or help you read those illegible sound reports. The
Avid has already been rented to another client, so you can no longer easily
look into how a problem scene was put together. If you didn’t get what you
need while the picture department was on the payroll, you’re out of luck; or
you have to contact an editor who’s already on another job and barely remembers
your fi lm.
On a fi lm with a decent budget, the job of moving the fi lm from picture to
sound rests on the shoulders of the assistant sound editor, so you may never
need to do any of this. However, to be prepared for the job where you have
no assistant, read on.
The Dialogue Editor’s Relationship
with the Picture Department
Your most valuable contact in the picture editing room is the fi rst (and likely
only) assistant editor. This is the person who will (or won’t) save your neck.
The picture editor is important, of course, but may not be your most useful
contact, since she’ll be focused on other matters during audio postproduction.
When you fi rst introduce yourself in the cutting room, be nice to the picture
editor because she can help you get your next job and can provide needed
insight into the fi lm, but spend your time with the assistant because that’s
where all the information is.
Today many small fi lms don’t employ a full-time assistant picture editor, but
instead use an assistant as needed to digitize materials at the beginning of
the project, to periodically maintain the database, and to “get the project out