How much ADR?
- Thread starter Boz Uriel
- Start date
On high budget movies about 70% of the location sound is replaced.
Well I must admit I'm getting very comfortable with doing ADR. Having a pro sound man with expensive mics is wonderful. I've always heard that you lose the dynamics in actor's voices when you ADR but I'm finding that this isn't the case. I'm using local talent, most of them never had an acting class in their life. I suppose is would take a seasoned pro to know.
The reason why I try to never do ADR is due to the actors. I, too, have an experienced sound recordist who has great mics and a nice little studio, but I've found that many actors just can't do ADR well. I've never had a problem with losing dynamics in the voice, but I do have a lot of problems with performance. The less experienced the actor, the worse the performance is.
One thing I do a lot is have the actor do another take right on the spot - bring in the mic nice and close and just do the whole scene again. I've found the replaced dialogue sounds much better because it's done in the exact environment, the actor is more comfortable because it's just doing another take and it's actually pretty to match the audio in post.
One thing I do a lot is have the actor do another take right on the spot - bring in the mic nice and close and just do the whole scene again. I've found the replaced dialogue sounds much better because it's done in the exact environment, the actor is more comfortable because it's just doing another take and it's actually pretty to match the audio in post.
UGh! This subject is close to my heart.
We shot Left For Dead on an XL1s (DV). Because we forgot to hit one little button which stopped the sound from topping out (at this point I question why this button even exists and this isn't a set feature but hey) a lot of our sound was unusable.
So for a low - budget action feature we had to ADR around 20% of the film. Which in cost terms is a hell of a lot and almost doubled our post production costs.
Oh and we forgot to shoot wildtrack as well which again added to the cost.
There is a lesson here!!!
We shot Left For Dead on an XL1s (DV). Because we forgot to hit one little button which stopped the sound from topping out (at this point I question why this button even exists and this isn't a set feature but hey) a lot of our sound was unusable.
So for a low - budget action feature we had to ADR around 20% of the film. Which in cost terms is a hell of a lot and almost doubled our post production costs.
Oh and we forgot to shoot wildtrack as well which again added to the cost.
There is a lesson here!!!
Excellent advice. It's kinda along the same lines as simulating a 3 camera setup with using only 1 camera. I'm gonna have to try this for our next project.
Thanks. It was a sound recordist on my fifth feature that suggested doing that. I've used him on most of my shows, but even when I don't, I still use that little trick. I don't quite understand what you mean about simulating a three camera set up using only one camera. Can you elaborate?
Sure, as in when you only have 1 camera and you have the actor repeat the shot (or part of the shot) and place the camera in different position. That way in post you can make it appear as if you had multiple cameras.