So, I finished the basic voice assembly of Eddie K #05. What does that
mean, regarding the over-all schedule? I have no idea. I hope to make
some active progress on the "real" editing this week, but I don't know
where I am, time-wise. Is there one month left? Two? the whole thing
has become a blur. And speaking of blurs...
I'm holding on to my coffee cup this morning like a lifeboat. I
couldn't fall asleep last night, and Little Bronx woke me up early.
That's a combination guarranteed to search out and/or create irritation
and conflict later in the day. I'm not at my best when sleep-deprived,
surprise-surprise. But a completed edit of scene 1 is in my sights,
and this phase of the operation WILL be completed today, by golly. By
gum. By cracky.
I've been sick with a nasty cold all the past week, and, while I've
plugged away at this project, it feels like progress has been crawling
for a long time now. How do other producers do it? Seriously, it's a
mystery to me. Granted, I'm dissatisfied with many of the voice
assembly jobs I hear out there, which seem rushed or stale, or even
incomprehensible. In fact, some of the most popular shows have such
bad assembly, it's hard to even listen; voices at all different
volumes, or at widely-differing EQ settings (generally, an artifact of
the satelitte recording process), or -- my biggest peave -- stilted
conversations between characters (which, I believe, mostly comes down
to timing, or a lack thereof).
Now, Eddie K is ostensibly a comedy, so timing is all-important, but
ALL conversations, funny or dramatic or even simply idle, have inherant
timing. Just throwing character lines one after the other isn't
enough. They have to sound like they are talking to each other. This
is a function of context and delivery.
One of the major strengths of satellite recording is also one of its
major weaknesses:
1.) STRENGTH -- The fact that the actors aren't all in the same room
allows people displaced in location, or even time, to appear together
in the same production,
2.) WEAKNESS -- The fact that the actors aren't all in the same room
means they have no idea how the others have read or will read their
lines.
Almost every line has a wide range of possible approaches, and, rare is
it to hear a satelitte show that mates those up well. Quite frankly,
it isn't always well-done even when the actors ARE in the same room.
This is one reason why I tend to be a loner (at least, for my own
stuff). I know how I want the lines read. Really, without serindipity
making an appearance, ONLY people who record together can hope to
manage the proper conversational context with their lines.
This usually means recording in the same physical location, but I'd
imagine that using some sort of real-time audio communication could
allow for the same thing from a distance. Also, if the actors record
their lines sequentially, one after the other, with the appropriate
cues being relayed to the next person in line, and lines being
re-recorded whenever necessary, the same thing could be managed --
though, if the cast is large, it would take an age to get it all done.
Actors who are very familiar with each other might be able to
anticipate how the others would deliver a line, so that can help.
Clever editing or writing can help too.
These strike me as tricks, though, not reliable techniques. Tricks are
perfectly valid, understand, when they work -- but they don't always.
Technique is something you can reproduce, over and over, with reliable
results. But getting a company of really good actors together in the
same location (when you're not paying them, that is) can be very
difficult. You are usually stuck with whatever talent is in the same
geographical area, instead of getting the best talent possible. And,
like most other things in life -- reliability trumps talent and skill,
so the people who always show up are the ones who usually get cast,
regardless of how good they really are.
I'm in no rush to bring the scheduling, reliability, skill, talent, and
ego issues of other people into my projects. I have enough trouble
dealing with my own. I don't mind working on OTHER people's projects,
but that's because my responsibility to them is only for myself, and
I'm only one voice among many. That can be a comfort sometimes. In
fact, it almost always is.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
(c) 2012 lostnbronx
CC BY-SA 3.0
lostnbronxATgmailDOTcom
