Dialogue Editing

18 NO ONE WORKS IN A VACUUM
reference, 24 fps fi lm) or “pulled down” for video (44.056/47.952 kHz, 29.97
frame TC, 59.94 Hz line reference, 23.976 fps fi lm speed), keep the picture and
the sound at the same reference at any given step and you’ll have no problems.
You can pull up and pull down as many times as you want; just do the
same to sound and picture at each step and your NTSC blues will vanish.
A Note about Drop-Frame Timecode
Let’s get something straight. “Non-drop-frame timecode” does not mean
30 fps and “drop-frame timecode” does not mean 29.97 fps. The dropness or
non-dropness of a timecode fl avor has to do with how it counts, not how fast
it runs. A drop-frame calendar (say, the Gregorian) includes leap years to
keep it in sync with the solar year, while a non-drop-frame calendar (the
Islamic, for instance) has no mechanism to keep it in solar sync. Both calendars
run at the same rate—a day is a day, an hour is an hour, a minute is a
minute. But one has a built-in “hitch” to force it back into sync with the
seasons, while the other doesn’t. Christmas always holds a hope of snow, but
Ramadan can occur in any season.
SMPTE timecode works much the same way. Both non-drop-frame and dropframe
timecode count 30 frames per second, 60 seconds per minute, and so
forth. The difference is that with 29.97 drop-frame timecode an hour of timecode
equals an hour of clock time because the counting mechanism has a
way of realigning with reality, whereas an hour of 29.97 non-drop-frame
timecode is 3 seconds—18 frames longer than a clock hour. Still, despite its
seeming inaccuracy, non-drop-frame’s simplicity makes it the standard in
fi lm production.
Single-System NTSC Production and Editing
There are no secrets to single-system NTSC production. It’s very straightforward—the
sound is recorded onto the videotape along with the picture,
and there’s no speed change throughout postproduction. The timecode for
the sound and the picture is the same, so it’s the most straightforward of all
of the processes. Figure 2-2 shows the NTSC single-system workfl ow.
After the shoot, the video dailies are loaded into the picture workstation, the
picture is usually highly compressed to allow for manageable storage. There’s
nothing to sync, plus sound and picture share the same timecode so list
management is not complicated.
When picture editing is fi nished, the editor makes an OMF and sound EDLs
for the sound department. The OMF (which will be discussed in Chapter 5)