…..the production sound was no good
I guess that now you hopefully recognize the importance of capturing quality production sound. As I frequently expound on this forum, every dollar/minute you spend on production sound will save you
at least ten dollars/minutes in audio post.
I thought it wasn't going to be that hard, but I was wrong.
Just as with every other aspect of filmmaking, ADR is specific technical skill and an art-form. That's why there are audio post teams who specialize in doing ADR.
It was somewhat [more] tedious than I thought.
Of course it's tedious if you consider it so. I don't do production sound because I found waiting around on the set for hours before I could get around to my job to be tedious and boring; it felt like I was wasting my time. Is doing lighting set-ups boring? Blocking? Doing H/MU on the actors? It's all a matter of your perspective. I find dialog editing - sitting in a dark room all by myself sifting through a dozen lines of production dialog, plus wild lines plus ADR - very satisfying. Many find it tedious and boring. Again, it's a matter of perspective.
Also after few takes, actors were also not that interested as they were on the set.
The actors, especially inexperienced actors, are not as invested in their character. Many find it a waste of time, tedious and boring; "I've already done this, invested all that time and emotional energy; why do I have to go through this all over again?" The other issue is that the actors have to give a performance very similar to what is already there; they are no longer in the moment, reacting to other actors and their environment. Experienced actors on well budgeted projects know, without doubt, that they will be doing ADR after the shoot is complete, it's in their contracts. They also know that, if they are not invested in the process, it just extends the amount of time they will spend in a studio redoing all their lines, so they get into the proper mindset even before they enter the studio.
Also how to work with actors during the ADR process?
It is the job of the ADR recordist and the director to get the actors into the proper mindset. Every ADR recordist, with the compliance of the director, has their own way of accomplishing this. There are numerous methods to accomplish this and various technical ways to facilitate this process. Some ADR studios are large enough that they will use a boom-op to follow the actor around while the actor recreates the scene, although this is not a usual scenario. In my personal process I get the actor to recreate the tone and pacing of the lines while watching the scene, then turn off the visual playback and try to get the actor emotionally invested. The key to the art of ADR recording is knowing which ADRed lines can be sliced and diced to fit, then fine tuned with VocAlign (my personal choice) or other vocal alignment plug-in.
I am just curious, on an average, on a 90 minute feature film, how much % would be ADR?
This, of course, is going to depend upon the quality of the production sound and the budget of the film. On "Hollywood" budgets it is not at all unusual to ADR the entire film. This is more of a budgetary/logistical/scheduling decision; it is cheaper to get the actor in and ADR the entire film in one set of sessions rather than recalling the actor time after time, paying for travel, lodging, etc. each time, to do fixes. However (depending upon the film, of course), the ADR is not used for much of the film, all of that ADR is there for use "just in case." The dialog editor will use the existing production sound from ALL of the takes to construct the line deliveries, next using the dialog wilds recorded on the set and dipping into the ADR as a last resort. I have constructed a single line of dialog from two or three takes of production sound. The next line may be a combination of production sound and wilds, the next constructed of ADR. Action sequences, with their noisy sets, are almost always wilds and ADR. The variations are endless, which is why dialog editing is an art unto itself - just like every other aspect of filmmaking.
I hope that this has given you some insight into the process and the need for capturing quality production sound.
Peace,
Bob