Chinatown: Part 4: Dialogue

Young-H._Lee

Young-H._Lee

Well-known member
Hello again for another installment of Chinatown the adventure ;D , I am editing the dialogue scene right now (right before the chase and fight) and honestly I'm having a lot of problems.

First here is what my camera 3 setups look like:
chinatown_dialogue2.jpg

chinatown_dialogue3.jpg

chinatown_dialogue6.jpg


My question is this, the audio is good (had a nice mic on the set), but with the multiple setups, I'm not sure how to sync up the audio so that when I do cut and reverse, they will match - should I just stick with one audio track and cut whenever a dialouge is about to go out of sync (like what RR did in El Mariachi) - only problem is I had only 3 setups and I dont want to pad my dialogue scene with shots to random things (as is the practice with some filmmakers). Any advice is appreciated, and I'll definetly post the clip when I figure this baby out

thanks
 
Re: Chinatown: Part 4: Dialogue

What is it you are attempting to do? Typically you would stay with one TRACK and intercut but you are saying that you DO NOT want to do this? Ideally, the takes are similar enough to use ONE TRACK but the footage can be matched to this TRACK.

If there are Audio synch issues you might have no other choice than to do cut-aways to say the chick walking by :p
 
Re: Chinatown: Part 4: Dialogue

You seriously have to tell us your secret of how you get to be out filming all this stuff every day! I'm so jealous. And it looks great, BTW.
 
Re: Chinatown: Part 4: Dialogue

i'm guessing you're having problems w/ the sound "popping" when there is a cut -- no real problem, happens a lot with production sound, especially outside -- first you want to cut for performance -- it's best to use the sound that goes with the take first (as synching is major tough later) -- after you've done that, stagger your dialogue tracks in your timeline so that they're never side by side -- this is so you can pull out the heads and tails of each take -- hopefully you'll have at least a second of free ambient sound before the other person's dialogue comes in -- then create a fade between the two, smoothing out the sound -- use headphones as speakers can mislead you, especially with noise in the room (you know, AC hum, computer whirl, and so on) --

if you are unlucky and don't have enough heads and tails, grab a section of ambient sound with no dialogue (also known as room tone: if you didn't record it on set after every major setup, then try and find it in one of the takes that doesn't have a lot of dialogue) -- take that ambient sound and use it as a bridge between the two takes... use keyframes to try and smooth out the transition...

i know it sounds like a lot of work, but sound design is as important as picture editing... always take into account sound when you shoot, it'll save you headaches later -- for example, you said you had a good mike, fair enuff, but in a noisy situation like the one you were in, backing that mike up with some lavaliers that only pick up the actors and nothing else would have given you cleaner dialgue... then later, if you need to beef up the lav sound (sometimes it may be too thin) you can place the other production sound track over it to beef it up --

hope this helps, sorry for the length
cheers ;D
 
Re: Chinatown: Part 4: Dialogue

dub it old school!

Frame 1: "You guys need some crack?"
Frame 2: "Show us your goods, mang."
Frame 3: "Okay. But first let me lecture you on the dangers of illicit substances."
 
Re: Chinatown: Part 4: Dialogue

haha glasscat - nah im not filming everyday - just had two weekends of shooting back to back scheduled, it took weeks to get it organized though - I had to get actors, prepare crew, storyboard and plan like crazy so I could get out there and film rapidly

thanks a lot dromotador - that was very helpful. up to this point, all my films had never had any dialogue so im learning something new. I had a question about your comment, could you clarify what you meant by this:

"after you've done that, stagger your dialogue tracks in your timeline so that they're never side by side"

wasnt sure what that meant. yea, only had one mic, so I did notice that there was a lot of ambient noise and when I cut it, it was a pop there

and krtk...yup, wait till you see the subtitles
;D
 
Re: Chinatown: Part 4: Dialogue

hey young,

bear with me, my first time with grabs ;D first grab is of a normal timeline, mine is on FCP, but avid and premiere is same, so i'm guessing vegas is too...
320134332.jpg


second grab is of the "staggering of the dialogue" -- if you need more tracks, add them -- you should group your trax -- dialogue, then sfx, music, ambience, and so on -- as many as you need --
320134353.jpg


finally, the pulling out of heads and tails, then fading in and out -- notice how the dialogue is pulled out beyond the cut -- you'll have to play with this until it sounds right to you -- richard portman, academy award winning sound designer taught me this :D
320134405.jpg
 
Re: Chinatown: Part 4: Dialogue

LOL. Ryan has a big BUTT. LOL
What a great post, dromatador...
 
Re: Chinatown: Part 4: Dialogue

hey dromotador! Thanks much for taking the time to help me out with this question! Much appreciated, I'm looking over it now and figuring stuff out

again, thanks!
 
Re: Chinatown: Part 4: Dialogue

dromotador, I suggest that you start a post with what you posted for me in the audio section, cause I think a lot of people will benefit from it

thanks again!
 
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