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Originally Posted by Lipflap  I agree with Gary - and probably most mixers and dialogue editors: there's nothing like the original production sound. I'll often spot the ADR pretty aggressively, "just in case" I can get a decent read to sort out a problem I couldn't successfully resolve with alt takes, wild dialogue lines, or voodoo. My initial list can be pretty giant. The I run through my picks with the mixer (who in my case is often the ADR engineer, too) to see if he thinks he can save some of the lines I've called (hence, we don't need to loop those lines), or lines that he feels will he hopeless matches (no point beating a dead horse). Next, I review the list with the production to see how much of it they can afford to loop. That further narrows down the field.
We loop what we can or must. Still, despite being reasonably focused in what we actually record, a HUGE percentage of the lines end up getting dumped in the mix. Frustrating for me, but that's life.
At the end of the day, a vibrant, effective production performance that is cursed with some noise problems will always win out over a technically correct, in-sync, well-matched performance that doesn't shine like the original production sound. |
Years ago when I was an ADR mixer I did see some incredible work done when the director stood in front of the actors and fed lines to them and interacted with them so that the actor had a real person to respond to instead of just just trying to match the on screen line. The sync wasn't the best, but the performances were superb and because the ADR editor was really good, they were able to cut it into decent sync. Sometimes if the performance is strong enough, the audience will filter out minor sync problems because the delivery is so compelling. This however was a very rare experience and was so dependent on an extremely deep and trusting relationship between the director and the actor. I believe that most of the time when I saw this dynamic, the director had worked as an actor at one time. Also, when the director encouraged the actor to move while delivering the line seemed to help. It made for a less than pristine recording, but often a more authentic performance.