Dialogue Editing

344 GLOSSARY
along with the location audio. The pilot tone is generated by a crystal within
the recorder. When the location tapes are played back for transfer to mag or
another working format, a resolver compares the pilot tone recorded on the tape
with a reference and slews the tape to match the recording speed to ensure
accurate sound sync. The original Nagra pilot tone was replaced with Neopilot
tone, which consists of two out-of-phase sine waves. On later Stereo Nagras, a
high-frequency FM pilot signal is used. Timecode Nagras are resolved with EBU
or SMPTE timecode.
Plop (sync pop, beep) A 1-frame-long tone used to synchronize soundtrack with
picture. Temporary plops can be used anywhere within a reel for temporary
sync references, but the fi nal plops are placed 2 seconds before FFOA (9 feet
after the start mark) and 2 seconds after LFOA.
Point of view (POV) A shot from the perspective of one of the characters, as though
the audience is seeing the scene as he does. A POV shot is more subjective than
the normal coverage of a scene’s shots and thus may receive special sound
treatment.
PostConform (a trademark of Digidesign) An application for auto-assembly (autoconform)
that uses edit information from the picture editor’s EDLs to automatically
extract and conform sounds from original fi eld recordings. The result is a
Pro Tools session containing the picture edits recreated with original sound
material. Currently, it is supported only in Mac OS 9.
Premix (predub) A mix (dub) preceding the fi nal mix in which like elements
(usually elements from an entire department: dialogue, SFX, BG, or Foley, etc.)
are mixed and organized to facilitate a more effi cient fi nal mix.
Preroll (1) In linear video editing, the amount of time programmed to allow all
video machines to properly synchronize before the edit point. (2) In sound
editing and mixing, preroll usually refers to how much program you want to
hear before the sound you’re focusing on.
Principal (actors) The core ensemble of actors through whom the fi lm’s story is
told. Other actors may play secondary roles or serve as extras.
Print master A fi nished mix encoded into a distribution sound format used to
create an optical soundtrack.
Pulldown (1) In the transfer from fi lm to NTSC video, the process that slows the
fi lm chain by 0.1 percent to accommodate NTSC’s 29.97 noninteger frame rate.
(2) Material added before the FFOA of mixed reels to facilitate joining of reels
for platter projection. The fi nal 24 frames (usually) of the previous reel are
copied to the head of a reel. This practice is not common.
Pullup (1) The speeding up of the fi lm chain by 0.1 percent when transferring from
NTSC video rate to “full” fi lm rate. (2) Material added after the LFOA of mixed
reels to compensate for the offset between a projector’s gate and sound reader
when reels are joined. The minimum pullup is 20 frames, which are copied from
the head of the next reel and added to the tail of the current reel. To properly
add pullups, you must know FFOA and LFOA for each reel.