"Uniformed"? He wears a uniform?
BTW, not a good idea to trash someone you have been working with, especially in a public forum. As far as I can remember he didn't say one bad word about you.
With the raw data I could probably do a very nice pass at the dialog. It would be smooth and - aside from the accents - intelligible. This would be especially true if I have access to all of the audio from the unused takes. It takes time and patience to do all of the things that a dialog/sound editor does - checkerboarding, NR, EQ, etc. It takes even more time to learn how a dialog/sound editor does his/her job.
As far as tone is concerned grabbing bits and pieces to create a continuous ambience rarely works well, especially in an active outdoors environment. You really need to record at least one minute tone (I prefer five minutes) on the day of the shoot; it will not be the same tone if recorded at a later date.
Mike suggests a sound guy should call cut. This sounds highly suspect to me, totally amateur hour, and I would like to hear Alcoves take on this. I cant imagine anyone but the director having that responsibility
Actually, when sound was first introduced, the production sound mixer was given the power to yell "Cut!" if the sound was bad. This held true until WWII. A few of the new crop of directors - Tarrantino for example - have given this power back to the PSM.
The PSM should cut a scene for poor sound quality, say if there is a major technical problem or a loud sound like a plane or motorcycle or lawnmower is actually obscuring the dialog. And as to having big name stars being upset by calling a take for technical reasons the truly talented, truly dedicated stars understand; they'll be even more upset if they have to reshoot because someone FUBARed on a technical level. There's a world of difference between calling attention to a serious technical problem and screwing up during a take (your Bale example).
Other than major audio problems a competent PSM keeps notes on the audio log for all other audio issues - a dropped prop, a mumbled line, a distant plane, etc. As to making "eye contact" with the director or crew member they have their own job on which to concentrate, sound is YOUR job as PSM. If the issue is serious enough it's your job to make the call, not have someone else confirm it for you. BTW, if the rest of the crew has headphones like they are supposed to they will hear what's going on for themselves.
At the low/no/mini/micro budget level you have to make all sorts of compromises; sometimes that means letting some audio issues get by as you do not have the time, personnel, budget, etc. This is mostly because the PSM is also swinging the boom and has to concentrate on that part of the job more than the others, so things will get by. As an audio post guy I understand that, which is also why I preach such incredible on-set production sound discipline.
I have no idea of your actual skill level, but based upon your attitudes I would hesitate to work with you. You are just as uniformed - oops, I mean uninformed - and misguided as the person you are trashing so publicly. At least he is asking for advice and taking his public beating like a man.
