Dialogue Editing

20 NO ONE WORKS IN A VACUUM
is a postproduction Rosetta stone that enables the dialogue editor to work
directly with the tracks from the Avid. The EDL and the original fi eld recordings
are used by the sound team to recreate the picture editor’s sound edits—
if necessary—by going back to the original recordings. If the sound was
initially loaded into the Avid via analogue or if there are other sound problems,
the sound assistant will auto-assemble (or PostConform) the fi lm
using the EDLs to automatically recreate all of the picture editor’s sound edits
with audio from the original tapes.
The dialogue editor also uses the audio EDLs to fi nd alternate sound takes
during the editing process. From this point on, electronic postproduction
resembles the mechanical fi lm model. It’s true that during the mix, sounds
will play from a DAW or hard-disk player, and will likely be recorded to a
hard-disk recorder rather than to fullcoat, but those differences are cosmetic
rather than structural.
Meanwhile, the picture department redigitizes the necessary images, this
time with no compression. The online edit, followed by color correction and
titles, yields a high-quality picture, into which the mixed sound is inserted.
Shoot Film (24 fps), Record Sound on Tape,
Edit Picture and Sound in NTSC
Once again: At any given stage in the process, the picture and sound must have
the same reference, either 60 Hz (fi lm speed) or 59.94 Hz (video speed). Over
the course of production and postproduction, the image and sound will
speed up and slow down several times between fi lm and video speed (see
Figure 2-3), but as long as they work in tandem, there will be no problems.
Really.
At the shoot, the sound recorder is running at 44.1 or 48 kHz and the fi lm
camera is running at a fi xed 24 fps. The DAT (or ¼″ tape) will record 30 fps
timecode. When the fi lm is transferred to videotape, it undergoes the 2 : 3 : 2
pulldown. This doesn’t affect its speed, but since the telecine is referenced to
the video clock rate of 59.94 Hz, the picture is slowed by one-tenth of a percent
to 23.976 fps. If the original audio fi eld recordings are to be synchronized in
the telecine, that DAT player must also be locked to the video reference generator
so that it will be running at the same rate as the fi lm.
The video recorder, whether Betacam, U-Matic, or the like, runs at the video
reference speed and the timecode on the tape is 29.97 fps, almost always nondrop
for fi lm postproduction. Because sound and picture are running at the
same speed, the DAT sound can be synced to the picture in the telecine
transfer bay, but this would certainly not be my fi rst choice. I’d wait to sync
sound and picture in the Avid.