Dialogue Editing

Setting Up Your Editing Workspace 107
tracks inactive and hide them. Delete the picture editor’s volume and pan
automation, as they make room tone editing next to impossible. Keep all
picture cutting automation in the hidden copy of the OMF, and you’ll have a
convenient reference when you can’t fi gure out what the picture editor was
thinking.
If you’re on an insanely quick job, say a 45-minute documentary with only
two days for production sound editing, you may choose to keep the picture
editor’s automation and just “make it nice.” I never do this because I still fi nd
it faster to start from scratch, but all’s fair in love and war and guerilla sound
editing. It’s up to you.
Labeling Your Tracks
Each track must be named. This ought to be pretty obvious, but even the most
obvious things in life often need to be said a few times. Of course, labeling
your tracks means deciding how you want to organize your work, and this
involves understanding the complexity of the fi lm, the capacity of the rerecording
mixing desk and rerecording mixer’s preferences, and the habits of
your supervising sound editor. Busy fi lms or fi lms with lots of perspective
cuts need more tracks; action fi lms need extra PFX tracks; poorly organized
OMFs mandate more “junk” tracks. Table 9-1 shows the standard dialogue
template for small fi lms.
Some people like to use letters to name tracks. Others prefer numbers. I like
letters for tracks that will make it to the dialogue premix (e.g., dialogue, ADR,
PFX, X) and numbers for tracks I created just for my convenience (junk, work,
etc.). As long as your rerecording mixer is content, it really doesn’t matter
which you use.
Work and Junk Tracks
Some workstations, like the SonicStudio, allow you to work on several timelines
at once and to have numerous open sessions. Most DAWs, however,
present all of your work on one timeline, as though you’re working on a piece
of multitrack recording tape. One of the downsides of a single timeline, as in
Pro Tools, is that you don’t have a “safe” area to work in without worrying
about damaging your session. That’s why I always create several extra tracks
where nothing of value lives.
It’s here, on the “work” tracks that I open long fi les with no worry that I’ll
cover up another region well offscreen. (The danger is not that you’ll delete
a region that you can see—after all, if you’re paying attention, you’ll see it.