Dialogue Editing

168 NOW, THE ACTUAL EDITING
Still, sometimes you need to get back to the original tracks because something
didn’t work out so well. For example:
The production mixer missed a cue, so the beginnings of an actor’s
lines are off-mic. You hear the correct microphone fading in too late.
The boom operator missed the cue, so the speaker is off microphone
until the microphone pans into focus. You can try to resurrect the line
from a nearby radio microphone. Success is unlikely, but the attempt is
noble.
The location mix is good, but you want to change the focus of the
scene. Since you have all of the elements of the shot, it’s easy to
reconstruct the shot and alter its balance.
A nonspeaking character touched her radio microphone. That channel
was open at the time, so the mix was corrupted with mic noise. Go
back to the solo track and pull what you need, without the noise.
There’s an overlap problem. You may be able to solve it with other
tracks of the same take. In the end you may have to go to alternate
takes but this is certainly the easiest place to start.
Simple two-microphone scenes can benefi t from multitrack recording. Say
you have an interior wide-shot urban scene with two characters far enough
apart to warrant two microphones. The close-ups are covered with one boom.
Since we’re in the city, the dialogue recordings are punctuated with bus-bys
and car-bys and the occasional siren. If there’s a siren-by over a wide shot,
how do you deal with the continuation of this background sound when the
picture cuts to a close-up? Place another microphone away from the action,
distant enough to avoid picking up the dialogue in the recording but close
enough for it to capture the same noises the set mics do. Record this on the
third track. When the picture editor cuts away, you’ll fi nd the conclusion of
the siren-by on track 3.
Unfortunately, this fl exibility isn’t free. More tracks means more editing, and
with so many options you can choke on the bounty. Unless you have an
unlimited budget (unheard of), try to stick to the location recorder’s mix if
it’s good. When you accept a job with multitrack recordings, have a long, hard
talk with the supervising sound editor about her expectations regarding time
and methodology.
Planning for Multitrack Editing
There are many ways to organize a production/postproduction workfl ow to
suit the needs of the picture and sound post departments as well as the