How do they edit film sound?

Timecode is used all over the place, especially on shoots that use the Red and the Arri Alexa. Those are timecode capable cameras. I've always been on shoots that used timecode cameras (anyone remember the Viper Cam from Grass Valley?). It's a life saver in terms of saving time in syncing audio and doing post conforms. Using plural eyes is fine for syncing in FCP, but when it comes time to grab the master audio tracks in dialogue editorial, there is no reference back to the original production tracks if there is no timecode, makint the making dialogue editor's job a major headache. I can put all kinds of metadata in an audio file on production, and pro tools can see that and knows which production audio track from my deva/cantar corresponds to the picture edit because of all that metadata and timecode. If there is no timecode there, good luck.
 
It must be a nightmare on those Reality TV shows where you have women screaming and people whispering under their breath. I always wondered how they did that with 5 chicks all running around with wireless lavaliers.

So basically, if no timecode compatible camera is relevant, then the syncing is performed in an old-school type fashion? Rather it be a clap, slate snap or other.
 
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The more you sync the faster and easier it gets. I can usually see the waveform from the pattern of peaks and sync visually, its really fast. I check on the active monitors later when I'm mixing. For those using FCP your audio is not locked into frames. You can start your audio files between frames LINK
 
It must be a nightmare on those Reality TV shows where you have women screaming and people whispering under their breath. I always wondered how they did that with 5 chicks all running around with wireless lavaliers.

Well, kind of. Those shows throw a lav and wireless mic on each person, and each person gets their own audio track. There is usually a boom track as well. They are all separate. I've cut dialogue on "The Dog Whisperer" and "Survivor" (for a very brief time as fill in), and there are lots of tracks on that stuff. It's up to the dialogue editor to make sense of it all and give the re-recording mixer something to work with in the final mix.
 
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