The Poor Man's Guide to ADR

[KenV]

Ok, so I've noticed that alot of films on this forum could benefit from better ADR.

But, not all of us have the budget to go into a studio and do a full blown ADR session. So, how do we fix this?

First of all, you recognize that the dialogue in your film does not have the best sounding attributes (i.e. has lots of reverb/wind noise/general noise).

The remedy.

---
Rule Numero Uno:
A good actor will deliver lines great even if they are not being filmed. Remember that. . .
---

A. Re-record the dailog from a moderate distance on the same set/room/ambience. Act like you were 2 people away from the actors in the scene and record the conversation from that point of view. Do a couple takes.

B. If you did a shot outside, and wind/ambience is your problem, record from a medium distance shot from where the actors are inside a controlled environment, much like if your where shooting a close up/medium shot of the actor from an inside location. Then record some outside ambience, or completely sound design it, and mix it in with the rest of dialogue.

C. If your not sure, then just record another take in a medium sized room from a conversational distance, and add "room tone" to it later.

All this depends upon your willingness to re-record and edit the audio without video. But like I said before, your actor should nail it with your supervision.

And if your ADR sounds great but doesn't match up to the video, well this is the reason why ADR editors are hired in bigger productions.

And if your ADR matches up, but doesn't sound great, well this why ADR editors are hired in bigger productions.

This is the best advice I can give.

Noise reduction plugin's can only go so far, . . .

and awsome original recordings make for awsome sound.




KenV

 

[faultygoblin]

Good guide,
Point A is by far the most important one I think.

Even on our little student features I still like to test an actor with an ADR situation during the call back process. Record something, play it back and see if they can loop with the same inflection/timing and frequency as they gave the lines.

Aside from synching issues a dead give away of bad adr is if the quality of the sound changes (often for the better) or their is no sense of direction and dynamics.

Between the last few semesters having to do ADR, isolating production noises, and some sound design I've come to realize just how rough you sound guys have it... Though foley work is a blast..

It seems at least on some student productions, field sound recording takes a backseat, does that change once directors/producers actually have to sink additional time/resources into making up for poor recording, lack of room tone etc?

 

[Noiz2]

I would also put out there that indoor recording takes a LOT of work to pass for outdoor. So I think B is a very problematic solution. Finding some quiet out side location or going inside to a VERY dead room and then tweeking it makes for much more believable ADR.

I also generally recommend that if you do one part of the scene you do all of it. It's much easier to do the whole scene (usually) than to try and get one actor's ADR to fit with the other actors production.
And I have also found that usually any similar location will sound "right". Since you often don't have access to the "set" by the time you find out you really HAVE to ADR the scene. Interiors (except big marble floored institutions and such) can usually be recorded in a house. Try to match roughly the size and the "liveness" and it will drop in nine times out of ten.

 

[ptalsky]

This is also where shooting a project using double system becomes critical. If you're recording directly to camera, why not just shoot another take? And it is really not likely that the camera department will let you take their baby off in a corner to capture wild audio.

Phil

 

[Brad S.]

I also generally recommend that if you do one part of the scene you do all of it. It's much easier to do the whole scene (usually) than to try and get one actor's ADR to fit with the other actors production.

This is very true, but I've also learned that sometimes really really short ADR cues will sometimes blend into production sound if the ADR recording is relatively close to production sound. I've just finished working on a feature where the Dialogue supervisor cued some ADR lines that were one word and it worked with production. For example, there was a line in the film where one of the actor said "I'll meet you there" but the word "there" was unusable. We recorded the whole line, but were able to use the word "there" only and it worked seamlessly. This takes some skillful editing, but it might be an option in certain circumstances.

 

[cyclone]

You will also find that some actors are good at it and some are not. The not-so-good ones always end up "chasing their lines", even when you give them countdown beep cues. This will go beyond the ADR Engineer's ability to save it no matter how good he is. Some of the best actors out there aren't very good at ADR; others will nail it on the very first take every time.

 

[moonlitnite]

Thanks Ken,

Perhaps this is implied, but we should also mention the process of having the sound engineer recording ambient noise on location, then mixing the ADR with the ambient noise in post.

Warm Regards, Michael

 

[livy500]

Thanks for taking the time to post that, Ken. That's very helpful.

Livy500

 

[Noiz2]

This is very true, but I've also learned that sometimes really really short ADR cues will sometimes blend into production sound if the ADR recording is relatively close to production sound. I've just finished working on a feature where the Dialogue supervisor cued some ADR lines that were one word and it worked with production. For example, there was a line in the film where one of the actor said "I'll meet you there" but the word "there" was unusable. We recorded the whole line, but were able to use the word "there" only and it worked seamlessly. This takes some skillful editing, but it might be an option in certain circumstances.

Yes good point I should have added that also. Very short bits can often work fine, it's when say one lav was acting up or such where your looking at replacing 1/2 the conversation. That's when I pretty much insist that we do all of the scene. A lot of times on a single word you can steal it from elsewhere.