synch or swim

[twister!]

What are the problems associated with recording dialogue seperately and synching it with footage later?

I've read quite a few posts, on this forum, saying that it's a nightmare. Why is that so? I've not actually attempted it myself but surely if you use a clapperboard and a non-distorting sound recording device there should be no problems... Anyone have any answers/solutions/explanations?

------------------

[twister!]

Surely someone must have some advice/experience concerning this...

Pretty please.

------------------

[untamed_aggression]

It's not exactly the same situation, but I had a complete bastard of a time synching sound to my footage.

I filmed my school's production of Grease earlier this yearI filmed it myself over three nights from three different angles.
The first 2 nights I was at the back of the hall so the sound was useless. 3rd night, I was front row centre so I extracted the sound from this and synched up the other nights' footage to this.

Each night, the lines were said differently, tones and gestures varied wildly and the lines changed on some occassions. The musical numbers were also played at varying tempos each night, which meant that nothing synched when I tried to edit it all together.

Hmmm....this post is getting a bit long. Moral of the story, shoot synch sound if at all possible. If not, make sure your actors are robots and say the lines exactly the same on each take.

Inceidentally, some of it turned out pretty good. Check out the video of "Greased Lightinin'" on my website. Link below. Sorry about the length.

------------------
For weird and crazy crap, visit my homepage, at http://www.untamedaggression.iofm.net

[Vlad the Impaler]

ok, i'm really new to all of this...
but i'm reading rebel without a crew at the moment (purchased at amazon, with a nice speedy delivery! :-) ) so I am picking some stuff up from that, and from this forum.

Anyway, most of the time (?) if you use a clapper board and record sound seperately then its ok when you're synching this up.
But sometimes the camera speed varies slightly from time to time unlike a crystal sync speed motor which keeps it at a constant speed.

So if you haven't got a crystal sync speed motor in your camera, and a crystal sync tape recorder you sometimes get the problem that even though the sound is synched at the start of the scene by the end of the scene it is way out.

Ok, now I just re-read ur question and I think I answered it wrong, so all that rambling was for nothing... in answer to ur question,

if you're on about recording sound "wild" which means no reference to the scene at all, and basically getting your actors to act it out again with u sticking a mic next to them then you are going to have to synch it manually...

this can mean line by line if it isn't synching up as a whole. Robert Rodriguez did it line by line in some important scenes but where it didn't match up he cleverly edited it so it cut away from the actor speaking to something else at that point.

Anyway hope this helped and don't forget to quote Chance's phrase- (I think) i'm a "rebel without a clue" so if I'm wrong in anyway just point and laugh at me, and then tell me the right way ;-)

bye

------------------


[This message has been edited by Vlad the Impaler (edited November 20, 2001).]

[twister!]

hmmm sounds like this IS actually difficult to do. For instance, if two people were shot talking on a busy street - it would be ideal to record the dialogue later and synch it with the images (to avoid the noise from the busy street) - There would be not only the problem of the sound drifting but also actually making it start at the right time (a clapperboard would be of no use because the sound from the actual shoot is not being used).

Do any of the veterans of this board (come on Chance, Miker and Eddie) have any advice on these problems...

------------------

[eddie]

I think getting clean sound on location can be difficult.
You need to record the background noise (what is supposed to be silent) for a couple of minutes, then shoot the scene.
You can then 'subract' the background noise from the recorded dialog, which makes for cleaner sound. Or have button mikes on the actors.

Ive found synching speech to be a nightmare, but only because my software drifts for some reason. Actually matching up speech with mouth movements is pretty straightforward, even without a clapper board.

Besides you can always cut away.

But that doesnt answer your question!
I think you need very experienced actors to dub voices afterwards. Its MUCH easier (even with the problems above) to record the sound live. Its just more hassle organising everyone to come back in and spend ages trying to synch up voices, and make it realistic.
So it goes - good luck

------------------

[rpguk]

I have no advice for you (sorry) but I have to congratulate you on a brilliant title for this topic, well done

------------------