Dialogue Editing

24 NO ONE WORKS IN A VACUUM
A disk-recorded shoot differs little from fi lm production with a DAT recorder.
The recorder rolls, the camera comes up to speed, and a clapper is used to
synchronize the two. Some hard-disk recorders allow for offl oading to an
external hard drive, while others permit only transfer to DVD-RAMs. Some
can be programmed to name fi les as they go, while others require naming
take by take. Some location mixers name fi les based on scene and take or
camera setup and take (when they have time), while others simply let the
recorder name fi les by recording order. For these reasons, a bit of planning
is in order.
If you’re shooting in a tape format, whether high defi nition (HD) or standard
defi nition (SD), and recording sound on hard disk, there are several routes
you can take to synchronize the video camera and recorder. You can use radio
links to transmit the camera’s timecode to the audio recorder, or you can
transmit the recorder’s timecode to the camera. Both of these techniques have
some serious downsides. 13
The most reliable and common way to get a video recorder/camera and a
hard-disk recorder to work in tandem is to attach a very stable free-running
timecode generator to the camera and record its output to one of the camera’s
unused audio channels. At least twice daily, synchronize the camera’s timecode
generator with the timecode clock on the hard-disk recorder. This preserves
the integrity of the videotape’s longitudinal timecode—making for
easier video postproduction—and it can be used on multiple-camera shoots.
When the videotapes are digitized and synchronized in the Avid, the audio
timecode, which is on an audio channel of the tape, is attached to each video
image. Since all tracks of a take have a common timecode, it’s easy to sync
each track to the corresponding image.
At the end of each shooting day, the sound recordist drops by the location
cutting room and transfers the day’s spoils to an editing drive. As soon as
the picture telecine tapes are back from the lab, the picture assistant can start
syncing dailies, as there are no longer DATs to digitize into the Avid.
Working in a PAL Environment
The PAL world, with its 25 fps, 50 Hz fi xed realities and never a dropped
frame, is decidedly less complicated than its North American cousin. 14 Of
13 For a detailed discussion of incorporating hard-disk recorders into a shoot, see Aaton
Audio: Post Chain, v11 (Aaton, s.a, February 2006, www.aaton.com).
14 For a clear, brief overview of working in PAL, see “PAL Basics: Film Sound for the
Rest of the World” by Douglas Murray, in The Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine (vol. 23,
no. 2, March/April 2002).