EYES GLUED SHUT

So, I finished the basic voice assembly of Eddie K #05.  What does that 
mean, regarding the over-all schedule?  I have no idea.  I hope to make 
some active progress on the "real" editing this week, but I don't know 
where I am, time-wise.  Is there one month left?  Two?  the whole thing 
has become a blur.  And speaking of blurs...

I'm holding on to my coffee cup this morning like a lifeboat.  I 
couldn't fall asleep last night, and Little Bronx woke me up early.  
That's a combination guarranteed to search out and/or create irritation 
and conflict later in the day.  I'm not at my best when sleep-deprived, 
surprise-surprise.  But a completed edit of scene 1 is in my sights, 
and this phase of the operation WILL be completed today, by golly.  By 
gum.  By cracky.

I've been sick with a nasty cold all the past week, and, while I've 
plugged away at this project, it feels like progress has been crawling 
for a long time now.  How do other producers do it?  Seriously, it's a 
mystery to me.  Granted, I'm dissatisfied with many of the voice 
assembly jobs I hear out there, which seem rushed or stale, or even 
incomprehensible.  In fact, some of the most popular shows have such 
bad assembly, it's hard to even listen; voices at all different 
volumes, or at widely-differing EQ settings (generally, an artifact of 
the satelitte recording process), or -- my biggest peave -- stilted 
conversations between characters (which, I believe, mostly comes down 
to timing, or a lack thereof).

Now, Eddie K is ostensibly a comedy, so timing is all-important, but 
ALL conversations, funny or dramatic or even simply idle, have inherant 
timing.  Just throwing character lines one after the other isn't 
enough.  They have to sound like they are talking to each other.  This 
is a function of context and delivery.

One of the major strengths of satellite recording is also one of its 
major weaknesses:

1.)  STRENGTH -- The fact that the actors aren't all in the same room 
allows people displaced in location, or even time, to appear together 
in the same production,

2.)  WEAKNESS -- The fact that the actors aren't all in the same room 
means they have no idea how the others have read or will read their 
lines.

Almost every line has a wide range of possible approaches, and, rare is 
it to hear a satelitte show that mates those up well.  Quite frankly, 
it isn't always well-done even when the actors ARE in the same room.  
This is one reason why I tend to be a loner (at least, for my own 
stuff).  I know how I want the lines read.  Really, without serindipity 
making an appearance, ONLY people who record together can hope to 
manage the proper conversational context with their lines.

This usually means recording in the same physical location, but I'd 
imagine that using some sort of real-time audio communication could 
allow for the same thing from a distance.  Also, if the actors record 
their lines sequentially, one after the other, with the appropriate 
cues being relayed to the next person in line, and lines being 
re-recorded whenever necessary, the same thing could be managed -- 
though, if the cast is large, it would take an age to get it all done.  
Actors who are very familiar with each other might be able to 
anticipate how the others would deliver a line, so that can help.  
Clever editing or writing can help too.

These strike me as tricks, though, not reliable techniques.  Tricks are 
perfectly valid, understand, when they work -- but they don't always.  
Technique is something you can reproduce, over and over, with reliable 
results.  But getting a company of really good actors together in the 
same location (when you're not paying them, that is) can be very 
difficult.  You are usually stuck with whatever talent is in the same 
geographical area, instead of getting the best talent possible.  And, 
like most other things in life -- reliability trumps talent and skill, 
so the people who always show up are the ones who usually get cast, 
regardless of how good they really are.

I'm in no rush to bring the scheduling, reliability, skill, talent, and 
ego issues of other people into my projects.  I have enough trouble 
dealing with my own.  I don't mind working on OTHER people's projects, 
but that's because my responsibility to them is only for myself, and 
I'm only one voice among many.  That can be a comfort sometimes.  In 
fact, it almost always is.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012
(c) 2012 lostnbronx
CC BY-SA 3.0
lostnbronxATgmailDOTcom