Dialogue Editing

Working with More Than One Channel of Dialogue 159
works with two radio mics in one shot. As long as the shots are reasonably
similar, then symmetrical crossfades almost always give you good results.
One Shot, Two Mics, Similar Room Tone—No Dialogue Overlaps Imagine
a long shot in which two people walk toward the camera. There’s no headroom
for a boom, so both actors are wired with radio microphones. (See
Figure 10-28.) Each carries her own room tone, but the tones aren’t overwhelmingly
different from each other. This doesn’t sound altogether bad, and
you may be tempted to do nothing at all, leaving both tracks. However, there
are a few pitfalls in leaving both running simultaneously.
You’re unnecessarily playing two tracks, even though only one person
is speaking at a time. This doubles the room tone noise.
Since both tracks are always open, you increase the chances of radio
microphone distortion, clothing rustle, and other nasties coming from
the nonspeaking character’s mic.
Whenever one of the characters speaks, you hear her voice twice—
once close and on-mic and again through her partner’s microphone,
muffl ed, off-axis, and slightly delayed. The resulting dialogue is less
punchy because you now have two wavefronts: one tight and crisp;
the other gooey and late. If you remove the off-mic track, you’ll
usually get better articulation and a sense of reduced ambient noise.
Contrary to general opinion, mixing two radio mics separated by a reasonable
distance won’t often result in phasing. In fact, you’ll hear phasing only when
Figure 10-28 A typical pair of radio microphone tracks. The characters are each
wearing a wireless, and their room tones are similar. Normally, you won’t want
to let both tracks play at the same time, as all sorts of problems may arise.