Dialogue Editing

Looping, ADR, and Postsync 249
character who’s just left the screen can yell from the exit sign that
she’ll be home at 8:30. This sets up the next scene: It’s 12:30 and no
Sally. Sally’s small line adds to the drama because everyone else in
the fi lm had warned her that it was folly to go surfi ng during the
shark warning.
Narration. We’re supposed to hate narration in dramatic fi lms, viewing
it as admission of narrative meltdown. But some fi lms have it, so
you’ve got to record it.
Background voices. Imagine a scene at an oh-so-fashionable, crowded
cocktail party. In the middle of the shot are our protagonists engaged
in conversation, while in the background is a horde of pâté eaters, all
chatting away. Occasionally walking across the foreground are other
principal actors. During the shoot, no one made a sound save our
protagonists. From the extras in the background to those crossing the
screen in the foreground, everyone’s superfl uous conversations were
mimed. (This isn’t necessarily true of the nonextras. The director
may choose to wire every principal actor in the scene with radio
microphones, record on multitrack, and decide later how to blend the
scene. 1 ) In postsync you’ll record any principal actors who are to be
heard—whether visible as walk-bys or as added off-camera tidbits.
Background action will be added as group loop.
Group Loop (Loop Group, Walla Group)
Films are full of human sounds that don’t come from the principal actors: the
crowd in the bar; commuters on the train or in the station; the vendor in
the background selling ice cream to kids; a riotous mob. What they have in
common is that they come from actors brought in during audio postproduction
to add life, depth, and the occasional story detail to the soundtrack. More
later on spotting and recording group loop.
Looping, ADR, and Postsync
Like many people, I tend to use “ADR” and “looping” interchangeably, all
the while knowing that they aren’t exactly the same thing. You can call it
what you like as long as everyone understands what you mean. Still, it’s
worth knowing the differences between them.
1 For an outstanding example of control over many simultaneous conversations, see
Robert Altman’s Gosford Park. Watch any of the “upstairs” scenes and you’ll witness
delightful control over multiple radio mics.