Dialogue Editing

258 ADR
down and make you cry if you ignore it. This is “Version,” which refers to
the picture version you used to spot the ADR. It’s perfectly normal for the
picture department to keep making “improvements” long after picture lock
and even after you spot the ADR. If you don’t know which picture version
your spotting refers to, you won’t know which tape to take to the ADR
session. If the recording studio preprograms the ADR cues—beeps, streamers,
monitor cues, and the like—based on your detailed instructions and then
you show up with the wrong tape, who looks stupid?
In the main section of the call sheet, each line represents an ADR line.
Code. Each line of ADR bears a unique code that follows the cue from
spotting to mixing. The fi rst digit of the code refl ects the reel number
and the subsequent two or three digits are the serial ID. I like to prefi x
the number code with a three-letter abbreviation of the character’s
name, so Rebecca becomes REB and Hanna becomes HAN. This helps
me keep the lines straight while I edit, and since the code numbers
will appear on the computer-generated rerecording cue sheets, it
makes life easier in the dialogue premix. It also makes for easier
sorting by character. ADR lines recorded specifi cally for a TV mix
should carry the suffi x “TV,” so the TV version of Hanna’s line, “HAN
304,” becomes “HAN 304-TV.”
Character. If you use name abbreviations in the code, you don’t need a
separate column for the character name, but including it in the master
makes the list more human friendly. Some fi lm cultures insist on it.
A/R (Add/Replace). This tells you if the line will replace an existing
production line or just “sit on top” of the dialogue. Original lines
being replaced with ADR require special preparation.
Call. Whether recording or editing ADR, I like to know who requested
that a line be recorded. You may have to drop certain lines if there’s
just not enough time, so it’s useful to know if a line was requested by
the director or the dolly grip.
Start. This is the line’s exact start time: If that’s an audible breath, Start
falls there. (If during the recording session you fi nd the actor is having
a tough time getting the timing right with cues that start with breaths,
drop them; record some wild breaths and begin each take with text.)
Stop. This is the end time of the cue, plus about half a second for
ringout or a late delivery.
Text. This is pretty obvious. Less obvious is how long a line should be.
If the loop line is one short sentence, that’s a natural duration. But