Dialogue Editing

120 GETTING STARTED ON DIALOGUE EDITING
(at 24 fps), before the FFOA. If it’s at 2:00:00:00, place the sync pop at 2:00:06:00;
the FFOA will then be at 2:00:08:00. If the leader was correctly placed by the
picture department, the fi nal “fl ashed” number of the countdown will coincide
with your pop.
The placement of the tail sync pop is a bit more enigmatic. It depends on the
kind of tail leaders you’re using. If the videotape or video fi le doesn’t have a
tail leader, put a pop exactly 2 seconds (48 fi lm frames or 50 PAL video or 60
NTSC video frames) after the last frame of action (LFOA). Talk to the sound
supervisor or picture editor on the project about the rules for tail pops on
your project.
Head Plops for 25 fps Projects
Most fi lms are shot at 24 fps, since that’s the speed at which they’re usually
shown. However, for those editing in PAL, fi lms will occasionally be shot at
25 fps. If you’re making a made-for-PAL TV movie with no plans for a theatrical
release, you might shoot at 25 fps to
Avoid the ugly treatment of motion that comes from 24 → 25 fps
telecine transfers.
Allow you to work on any video editing system, not just “fi lm smart”
systems like Film Composer.
Easily and cheaply avoid fl icker and rolling when fi lming scenes that
include television screens in the shot.
On fi lms shot and edited at 25 fps destined to be shown only on PAL television
(at 25 fps), the head pop is placed at the normal spot: 2 seconds, or 50 frames,
before FFOA. As far as you’re concerned it’s a video project.
Some theatrical fi lms are shot at 25 fps, edited at 25 fps, sound-edited and
mixed at 25 fps, and then projected at 24 fps, for more or less the same reasons
described earlier. Such a project will have a head sync pop 48 fi lm frames
before FFOA, which in this unusual case is also 48 video frames. So you place
reel 1’s head sync pop at 00:59:58:02 (or 01:00:06:02 if the timecode hour falls
at picture start rather than FFOA). Thankfully, you won’t have to deal with
this very often, and if you live in North America you’ll never see such
silliness.
Similarly, if the picture originated in a 25 fps tape format, whether SD or HD,
and will be scanned to fi lm for 24 fps projection, place the head pop 48 frames
before FFOA, as though it had been shot on fi lm running at 25 fps. Remember,
the fi lm will be slowed down once the mix is fi nished.