Dialogue Editing

Evaluating Noises 191
Dollies and Cranes
Dolly noise is easy to spot since dollies and cranes don’t make noise when
they’re not moving. It’s simple: When the camera moves, listen for weird
sounds—for example:
Gentle rolling, often accompanied by light creaking and groaning.
One or more pairs of feet pushing the dolly.
Quiet metallic popping or ringing, indicating fl exing dolly track rails
as the heavy dolly/camera/camera operator combination crosses over
them. The tracks are made of metal, so this fl exing resembles the
sound of an aluminum baseball bat striking a ball. Occasionally you’ll
hear this bat sound even when the dolly isn’t moving. It might come
from the track settling after the dolly passes over it or from a crew
member lightly bumping the track.
Too Many Feet
Unnecessary footsteps are easy to hear but hard to notice. When you fi rst
listen to a scene involving two characters walking on a gravel driveway, all
seems normal. You hear dialogue and some footsteps. But something inside
tells you to study this shot more closely and check for problems. Ask yourself
how many pairs of feet you hear. If it’s more than two (which is likely),
you have a problem. Picture how the shot was made and you’ll understand
where all the noise comes from. How many people were involved? Let’s
see: two actors, one camera operator, one assistant camera operator, one
boom operator, one location mixer (probably), one cable runner (probably),
one continuity person, one director. That’s a lot of feet. But because you
expect to hear some feet in the moving shot, you initially overlook the
problem.
As with dolly noise, be on the lookout for a moving camera—in this case
handheld; that’s where so many noise problems breed. Find out how the
footsteps interfere with the scene by replacing a section of dialogue from
alternate takes or wild sound (discussed in later sections), noting any
improvement. It’s likely that the scene will be more intimate and have a
greater impact after you remove the rest of the crew’s feet from the
track.
Fortunately, a good location recordist will spot the trouble in the fi eld and
provide you with workable wild lines, and perhaps even wild footsteps, to
fi ll in the gaps. Otherwise, you’ll have to loop the shot.