Dialogue Editing

318 THE MIX
If the mixer insists on “going straight to fi nal,” try to persuade her that a
single mixer can’t open up all of the tracks and give them the attention they
deserve. We have only two hands and two ears. This is a good time to try to
get the producer to argue your point. If persuasion doesn’t work and you fi nd
yourself supervising the “dialogue part of the fi nal mix”—whatever that
is—your job will be to ensure that the dialogue isn’t shortchanged and swept
under the carpet of backgrounds and effects.
Getting Approval
It’s just as well that most directors fi nd observing the dialogue premix akin
to watching a printer set type. It’s much easier on all concerned if you keep
her out of the daily blow by blow, bringing her onto the stage only when
you’ve fi nished a reel. If possible, ask the director to remain quiet and take
notes while you play an entire reel. If you’re always stopping and starting to
address her issues, you’ll never get a feel for the reel and you’ll never fi nish.
Ask her to attach timecode or footage to her notes since it’s diffi cult to tell a
machine control to “cue to the shot where Roxanne coughs.”
When you’ve fi nished screening the reel, listen only to the opinion of viewers
who have any business spouting one. If you can, keep ex-spouses, accountants,
boyfriends or girlfriends, and personal trainers out of the screening—one tiny
bomb dropped by an outsider can poison an evaluation and the damage may
take hours to rectify. Take good notes on who says what, and review them
before dismissing the audience. Look for any confl icts, such as the director
wanting scene 3 more blue and the producer wanting it more red. Don’t let
anybody go until you have a plan for the fi xes you intend to make.
As you address complaints, decide with the mixer which ones are for fi nal
mix and which require getting back into the premix. Normally, most issues
raised by the guys in the back of the room are of the “Louder here, softer
there” variety, which can be addressed in the fi nal mix.
The Final Mix
It’s likely that you won’t be at the fi nal mix unless you stick around for your
own enlightenment (a good idea from time to time). Even if you aren’t there,
it’s important to know what happens to your work down the line, after you’ve
left the job, just as you had to know what happened to the dialogue tracks
before they got to you.
Dialogue is almost always the fi rst premix, since on most narrative fi lms it
serves as the backbone of the soundtrack, with other mixes referring to it. In