Dialogue Editing

326 DIALOGUE EDITING IN A NUTSHELL
1.4. Determine the quality of the tracks and estimate how long you’ll
need for dialogue editing. Knowing what the big problems are
will come in handy at the spotting session with the director,
editor, supervising sound editor, et al.
2. Make sure the picture editor cut the fi lm into 2000-ft reels, or no longer
than 21 minutes.* (Chapter 5)
2.1. Make sure reel breaks occur at sensible places.**
2.2. Ensure that “sync pops” (or “plops” in the United Kingdom)
occur two seconds before the fi rst frame of action on each reel.
See that the picture editor has attached tail leaders with
corresponding sync pops.**
2.3. Make sure the picture is “locked” before you begin!!!
3. Perform OMF conversion and/or auto-assembly from original tapes.*
(Chapter 5)
3.1. Extract OMFs from the Avid and convert to Pro Tools sessions.
Or use the OMF import routine of whatever DAW you’re
working on.*
3.2. Create CMX3600 EDLs from the Avid session. Make separate
EDLs of audio-only edits and video edits, by reel.**
3.3. Clean the EDLs in preparation for autoconform (auto-assembly)
or fi le linking.*
3.4. Autoconform or fi le-link on one reel of the project (if you plan to
autoconform the fi lm).*
3.5. Listen to a reel of the OMF, then to a few minutes of the
autoconform. Compare the two to see if there’s any advantage to
autoconforming the entire project. Decide if you’re using the
OMF, the autoconform, or both. Dialogue crews on feature fi lms
almost always reload and resync the original sound elements.
Low-budget fi lms often rely on the OMF audio fi les because of
money/time constraints.
4. Set up your editing workspace. (Chapter 9)
4.1. Open the session you created with the OMF translator.*
4.2. Open about 14 tracks above the OMF or the autoconform tracks
(for a total of about 30 tracks). Label the fi rst 10 blank tracks
“Dial A,” Dial B,” . . . “Dial J.” Label the 11th and 12th tracks,
“work 1” and “work 2.” Before you set up your track workspace,
talk to the rerecording mixer about track preferences.*
4.3. Create three new tracks called “junk 1,” junk 2,” and “junk 3.”
These are for regions you remove from the active tracks but
want to keep just in case.*