ADR & Foley: the goal is seamless sound

Post, June, 2005 by David John Farinella

In the audio post production world, where transparency is the goal, those working in the markets of Foley and ADR know that a job well done is when their work is practically invisible. "Our job is to make you think you're hearing what you're seeing," says Universal Studios Foley artist Dean Minnerly. "If you think you are hearing what you are seeing, then we've snowed you and we win." The same can be said for those working in the ADR world, where the goal is making viewers believe that actors always speak clearly and there's no such thing as set noise.

Depending on the format--features or television--the demands for both Foley and ADR are high thanks to the highly attuned ears of consumers. The quality of sound systems at theaters is well documented, and with the continuing surge of surround sound systems in the home, each and every sound is carefully scrutinized. In fact, more and more advertisements are finding their way beyond canned sound effects to dates on a Foley stage to make sure audio quality doesn't suffer during those expensive two minutes.

Certainly technology helps when it comes to sliding a dialogue track into synch, getting just the right pitch on a sound, or generally "fixing it in post," but that does not give these pros permission to provide shoddy sounds to editors. Rather, those working in these fields are finding that careful preparation is saving time on the mixing stages, and that gives them greater freedom (within reason) to get the sounds correct at the outset. At the same time, as with any other post production service, schedules depend upon whether the tracks will end up on a feature or a television show.

This month Post checks in on a half dozen audio post pros providing ADR and Foley to find out what they are working on and what new techniques they are using.

READY-TO-GO ADR

There will always be a certain amount of ADR required to get any kind of feature film or television program ready to air, especially as more and more productions are moving overseas. That's the recent experience of Wilshire Stages' ADR mixer Eric Thompson, C.A.S. "It's hard to say if there's more or less ADR these days," he reports. "Basically a lot of shows are being shot in Romania and the Czech Republic and places like that, so we are having to do a lot of dialogue replacement on a lot of those films because they usually use people that are a little less experienced than Americans."

In addition to overseas productions, Los Angeles-based Wilshire Stages (www.wilshirestages.com) has seen its share of features come through the door that require ADR for other reasons. "I'm working on Aeon Flux with Charlize Theron; it takes place in the future. They needed all the dialogue replaced on that show because of greenscreens and generators and various things like that," he says. "I'm also working on The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3D for Robert Rodriguez, and we also did his Sin City."

Because there is less time on the mix stages, Thompson is seeing that mixers want the tracks set up by the time they arrive on the stage. This comes down to mic positioning when capturing Foley performances. "A lot of times they're going in for just one line in the middle of the scene, so if the guy is walking across the hallway and it's off-mic to on-mic and back and forth, we need to match that," he says. "So, sometimes we are actually trying to shoot it so it does sound on-mic or off-mic or on-axis or off-axis. We try to make it fit so that when the mixer gets it he just pushes the fader up and it's pretty close."

From Thompson's perspective a lot of that is done via mic choice and placement. "I try to find out from the production mixer what kind of mic he used, because in a lot of cases you can use a generic mic like a Neumann KMR 81 or a Schoeps, but they sound so different," he says. "For example, on Jersey Girl they used a Sennheiser MKH 50 and that has a completely different sound than a KMR 81 or a Schoeps--even with EQ it doesn't have that tonal quality." If he can't get that information he'll turn to a Schoeps, a KMR 81 or a Sanken CLS 11 lavalier microphone.

Thompson, who puts his tracks on a Digidesign Pro Tools 6.4.1 system, uses a recordist for his sessions. "I feel that's really important," he says. "A lot of people these days aren't using recordists and the mixer is doing everything himself, but I find to allow me to work with the actor and pay attention to the producer's requests--and all the things going on with the sound and previewing the scene--it's an optimal way to work. My recordist is recording and labeling and putting the select track in that the editor wanted," he says. "It really helps things move along with two people."

While the right microphone and people in the session is important, Thompson believes that setting the right mood for the actor is crucial. "When they come into the ADR stage, a lot of actors will shut themselves down and have this mental attitude that it's not going to work. I find that the actors that don't do that, the ones that come in and say that it's a part of their job, are better. I try to tell them that at worst we can use the production audio, but this is a chance to improve on what they've done," he says. "There are some lines we have to get, but there are some that are shot just in case and are used if they are better."