Myths in Post (II)

Myth: "Dramas don't need a lot of sound work".

While it's true that big action films do require a huge number of hard efects to be cut, a drama can be as demanding (or sometimes more) than a show full of explosions and gunshots. Producers and directors who don't have a lot of experience assume that, because their film is set in a suburban setting and has mostly dialogue, the sound post process is fairly simple (and therefore, inexpensive).

The truth is more complicated than that. When you don't have the dialogue being masked by loud effects, it is totally exposed and has to be really clean and great sounding to avoid distracting the audience. I just saw "Ocean's Thirteen" and, in some of its quiet scenes, I was pulled out from the story because the dialogue sounded muffled when it should have been pristine. This has been said countless times, but it's always worth repeating: if the sound calls attention to itself instead of complementing and enhancing the visuals, the job wasn't done right. The best-sounding movies I've seen have kept me glued to the story and, even though I do notice when some thing sounds particularly great ("Damn, that's good Foley!"), I know the audience won't be distracted.

The end result of dialogue sounding great is a combination of a good recording, an appropriate ADR assesment, a precise sync edit and clean-up, and a tasteful mix. Several times I have heard directors say, "We don't need any ADR on this film, the sync sound is perfect", and I always have to fight the urge to laugh. Unless the director is Robert Altman, ADR is an inevitable part of doing films, if they are to sound good. Usually, films that are ruled by the "No ADR" edict, end up feeling like no-budget films. On the other hand, there are many no-budget films that sound like they were done by a studio because the sound was done right. The trick is to know exactly how much ADR is needed, and only experienced sound supervisors and re-recording mixers can evaluate the sync sound properly.

Another point is that quiet scenes are harder to cut than big action scenes. When you have 80 tracks of gunshots, no one will notice if one of your footsteps in the middle of the main gun battle is out of sync by two frames (not that it should be, either). In a quiet conversation, Foley and ambiences play a huge role in selling the scene. In film, as in life, there is no such thing as silence (except in an anechoic chamber), and a scene where there is no room tone, no background ambience, no distant noises, no gentle movements of clothing, no subtle Foley sprinkles, is a shot where sound will stick out like a sore thumb. The audience won't know what is wrong, but they will be pulled out of the story and the illusion will be broken.

This level of precise work takes a lot of craftmanship and experience. If you add too little or too much, the scene won't play seamlessly. In many cases, you can cut a huge action scene with an ax – for a quiet scene, you need a scalpel and steady hands.