Dialogue Editing

CHAPTER 15
ADR
Sooner of later you’ll get to a dialogue problem you can’t repair. Say the noise
interfering with a line is the same on all of the takes, so alternates won’t save
you, or that the actor is so annoyingly accurate that she always says the line
exactly when the dolly starts to move. Maybe there’s no close-up coverage of
the off-mic wide shot you’re trying to fi x, or the take chosen by the picture
editor really does have the best acting despite the F-15 fl ying overhead. There
are a million reasons for rerecording dialogue.
Replacing What Cannot Be Fixed
Everybody loves original production sound, so there’s no point discussing
the magic of the sound from the shoot, when the actors were hyped and in
character. There’s always the concern that replacing the originals with studio
recordings will kill the charm. Nevertheless, if you’re looping a scene someone
has accepted that it had to be redone.
What, though, are the reasons for rerecording a line, a shot, or a scene? I like
to divide them into three groups based on how the lines will be used: replacement,
added, and loops.
Replacement Lines
Replacements are rerecorded lines of existing dialogue. When people think of
postsync, they’re what usually come to mind.
Noise problems. These are easy to spot: excess general ambient noise (a
scene shot in a convertible or next to a waterfall); temporary loud
noises (car horns, voices, sets falling); wind. The list is endless.
Technical problems. These include a wide array of screwups: radio mic
breakup, hidden mic–clothing rustle, rain striking the zeppelin, or any
other microphone-related problems; distortion; wildly underlevel
recordings, and so on.
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