Dialogue Editing

Check the Answer Print 305
ing, go back to the “regular” session, the version of the fi nal Avid cut. Check
each of the noted shots for any apparent sync differences between the Avid
output and the answer print. If you fi nd any, let the production offi ce know.
Normally, the supervising sound editor will want all editors to resync their
edited tracks to the answer print so she can mix against that rather than the
ugly Avid digital dumps. In this case, reopen your new “Save As” session
and watch the answer print. You’ll probably need to “nip and tuck” the dialogue
sync. You’ve been looking at an Avid digital dump over the course of
your dialogue editing, so there are likely things in the shot that you’ve never
seen before. Now that you have a much higher resolution image, you can
clearly see the lips past that walrus moustache or the footstep on the dark
marble fl oor.
Keep track of what you offset: what you moved, how much, and in which
direction. This information will tell the other editors what you did and
prevent sound effects built on top of production sounds from getting gooey.
Also check both ends of any region you move. You may have displaced the
region enough to damage your transitions.
Resyncing Tips
Blindly syncing your session to a new cut will wear you down, and you’ll
never be totally confi dent that you’re in sync. Sooner or later you’ll have to
trust your eyes, ears, and gut to fi ne-tune the sync of a print, but don’t start
there. Instead, use the countless landmarks a reel provides.
When you get your fi rst Avid digital dump, and with every new video version
thereafter, make a log of a few landmarks for each reel. The few minutes this
takes will pay off when it comes time to resync to another version. Table 17-1
describes the benchmarks I use.
Armed with this information, you can quickly determine if the new version
is behaving correctly and you’ll have a number of sync locations for calculating
offsets. If this level of list making is too much, then always—at the very
least—record the start mark, head sync pop, fi rst internal cut, and LFOA.
Don’t start resyncing your session until you’ve measured the LFOA and
calculated the reel length. If the old version and the new version aren’t the
same length, there’s no point in continuing. 1 Something is terribly wrong and
1 This is a good time to have a timecode/footage calculator. There are many good ones
out there, and because the players change regularly, there’s no point in recommending one.
Do a Web search for “TC calculator shareware” and you’ll be rewarded with many options.