Kevin Hiltonlooks at different ways of making this necessary process more efficient and how trial and error is still at the heart of it
IN AN ideal world, everything would run smoothly first time. But this is real life and, besides, something can improve the more it is worked at. That’s often the case with sound in TV and film. Directors and actors prefer to get it all right on location or on set but sometimes weather conditions or unexpected interruptions dictate otherwise. Then a second attempt suits everyone. Which is where ADR comes in. Standing for Automated Dialogue Replacement, and also known as looping and post-synching, it has rescued many a production and saved the blushes of quite a few actors. Despite the ‘automated’ part of the name, ADR is a time- and labour-intensive procedure that calls for patience and expertise from the actor re-recording the lines and the audio editor. ADR is used for replacing lines
if the performance wasn’t quite right, the original recording was faulty or there was too much background noise; and for dubbing productions into another language. Over the years new techniques
have been developed to support the timing and skill of the actors and engineers. During the days of film the rythmo band, or lip-sync band, system emerged. This is based on the lines being written on clear 35mm leader that runs in sync with the projected scene. New Zealand company KIWA
International has taken a new approach to this method of ADR with its VoiceQ software program. This scrolls a script over the film/video image being projected
EUROPE loop for ADR Goldcrest’s Theatre 2 ADR suite
varying degrees. DAWs like Pro Tools, working with digital projectors, have improved efficiency by taking film and tape out of the equation. A more extreme implementation has been VocAlign, developed by Jeff Bloom of Synchro Arts. This uses algorithms to change and realign the pitch and timing of a line of dialogue to make it lip-sync. Peter Gleaves, ADR mixer at
Goldcrest Post Production, acknowledges there have been many attempts to automate dialogue replacement but says a degree of manual guidance is still preferable: “I find that if I have the control then I can adjust something very precisely. If it’s automated then you will always be doing the same processes.”
Regardless of automation and
screen displays, there is the question of how the actor approaches this. Gleaves says having someone move around, matching the action in the film, can change the sound of the voice and make it fit better. A recent example of this was the BBC adaptation of Birdsong, much of which takes place in tunnels during World War I. ADR was recorded at LipSync and while lead actor Eddie Redmayne re-voiced his lines at a lectern, co-star Joseph Mawle crawled around on the studio floor as an engineer followed him with a mic. Well, they say there’s a method to everything. www.goldcrestpost.comwww.synchroarts.comwww.voiceq.com
“Dialogue recording and replacement is a vital and integral part of making film and TV programmes”
Nigel Heath, Hackenbacker
on the screen, and is synchronised with the original dialogue to provide precise cueing. Hackenbacker recently installed the software at its Soho facility. “Dialogue recording and replacement is an integral part of making films and TV programmes,” says founder and dubbing mixer Nigel Heath. “It is common practice to re-record and synchronise dialogue during the completion of projects. Successful ADR requires a great deal of skill because you need to get the best performance from the actors, while also concentrating on capturing a high-quality recording.” Digital audio technology has made itself felt in ADR to