AUDIO IN LOCKDOWN
POST
david Tennant in staged
complete social distancing “where the voiceover booth is separated from the suite by a separate entranceway, the air con is a segregated system and we always leave the room fallow for a minimum of 72 hours” with any non-wipe able kit, mics for instance, bagged up and put away for at least a week between sessions. At the same time the client can attend remotely while the dubbing mixer controls the session from their own suite. Another solution was a VO booth in a box.
“It’s literally a plastic box from B&Q,” says Bray, containing a monitor, computer, microphone and a little acoustic cave that could be delivered to the VO artist’s home. “It feels to them almost like the real thing”, as the dubbing mixer controls and records the session directly from the suite with the director linking in too. Audio post found that many processes were
infinitely possible from home, but not always preferable. “The largest change to the process was the physical absence of the client in my studio during the review,” says Envy dubbing mixer, Tom O’Pray.
Instead, mixers are relying on uploading
files for review with comments coming back via email or Zoom calls. “The main difficulty with this process is not having the ability to communicate with clients face to face” says O’Pray. “When you are in a studio together you are able to build
58 Summer 2020
televisual.com
a rapport and an understanding of the project directly with the client which is hugely beneficial. This also has an influence during the final mix, with communications being limited to electronic/ remote means it’s not easy to quickly discuss individual notes or try different options.” And with large files having to fly between
workers’ homes, the facility and the client’s home, it’s not ideal. “If updated pictures are needed for me to work to, or new audio to be added to a project, those files have to be sent out to me and downloaded my end and vice-versa with review files, this slows things down,” says O’Pray. Johnson says that “the only big hold up is people’s internet connection. That’s the one
When you are in a studio together you are able to build a rapport
variable that has been put to the test. If you’re having to stream something to a client for them to review, you need a stable connection. And if you can finish something after that review, and then you need to upload it to the broadcaster’s servers, you suddenly realise how much faster your downloading speed is than your upload in most domestic settings. That has probably been one of the bigger pain points.” What has been staying in the facility, is most
finishing. For something like Dolby Atmos, while pre mix work is possible from home, completion is far from preferable and that’s true of much finishing work. With audio suites costing somewhere around £100k before any kit has been hooked up “you cannot really emulate that at home very easily,” says Bray. “You need the horsepower and you need the equipment,” says Johnson. “You need lots of speakers in a treated room. That’s the nature of that content. That will always be a requirement so I don’t see dubbing theatres just disappearing overnight.” It comes down to the fact “nothing is
impossible, my studio is technically capable, I am artistically capable, so it’s business as usual, but not ‘as usual’!” says O’Pray. Everything is possible but it’s not necessarily preferable beyond current restrictions.
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