There is some preplanning that a director can do in regard to titles and credits. Suzanne Welke told us (via email, November 18, 2010):
In regards to planning your shots for the part of the show that is titled: the post supervisor will know the specifications for duration and placement (and also for the “bug” or network logo that often appears in the corner, and the ratings bug). Knowing this comes in handy when you have a lot of close-ups, as you won’t want credits covering up half of your actor’s face, or if you have a lot of quick cuts (a credit will never go “across the cut” or span over two shots), as you don’t want to still be running credits halfway into the show.
You should first review the titles and credits for a previous episode of the show and then consult your postproduction supervisor if you have any questions.
OFFLINE SOUND
Meanwhile the postproduction supervisor is also concerned with sound editing. During your shoot, sound is recorded on different tracks and monitored by the mixer we talked about in Chapter 11. The master of that track is called the O track, for original track, and is always the preferred track when assembling sound because the quality of the sound decreases the further generation you go from the original. In digital recording, in which there is no degradation of quality, the O track is preferred simply because it is the single origination of material. As soon as the EDL is completed, it goes over to the sound house or company so they can start to assemble a time-coded master audiotape or locked digital audio file. But that step is not possible until all the sounds are ready for the final mix. The sounds are the dialog, the sound effects, and the music. Those sounds are edited and assembled by the sound editorial team, and each member will specialize in one of those specific types of sound. So each episode will have a sound effects (SFX) editor1, a dialog editor, and a music editor.
The bulk of your dialog will come from the scenes that were recorded and mixed live during the shoot. But some of that dialog may need to be looped or replaced, which is done at a looping or ADR session. Looping was a process used in filmmaking until the 1970s in which an actor would listen to a physical loop of audiotape repeated over and over (without the picture) and would mimic the line reading, which was then recorded and inserted into the soundtrack of the final product. ADR stands for Automated or Automatic Dialog Replacement. It is done on a looping stage at the sound house where actors watch the VAM while they listen to themselves do the dialog. They then try to repeat their dialog to fit their lip movements. Actors must contractually do these sessions. They are asked to either replace dialog that can’t be heard well or add new dialog. If there is a sizable amount of dialog that needs to be looped, it is a good idea for you to show up at this session so that you can direct your actors.
Mary Lou did this on a series she directed when one of the guest stars gave a great acting performance, but her accent was so thick that it was unintelligible. During the ADR session, Mary Lou had three responsibilities: to listen with fresh ears to dialog to make sure that it was understandable, to see that the lip-syncing looked credible, and to see that the actress maintained her hysterically funny performance without getting frustrated by the many attempts it took to get it.
The principal actors’ dialog is not the only spoken word. There is improvised dialog for textured background atmosphere provided by a loop group or walla group. (“Walla” is a made-up name referring to the wall of sound a large crowd creates.) These are union actors who specialize in this craft. A loop group is necessary because your background artists during production were pantomiming, not speaking aloud, so that the principal actors’ dialog could be recorded clean, or without any extraneous sound. The walla group does many layers of sound to fill in what is missing. They can do an array of things. They can provide the voices for the people chatting next to your hero table in a restaurant or the soldiers dying in pain on a battlefield. Mary Lou’s husband, Charles Dougherty, an actor who specializes in playing Irish characters, supplied the commentator voice for an Irish boxing match on the radio in the background of a Murder She Wrote scene. He also provided extra slobbering sounds for the Saint Bernard in the movie The Sandlot—even though the dog probably did not have Irish ancestry! Loop group actors are a talented lot who are called upon to do many unusual things, including kissing. To augment a kiss sound, a loop group actor will kiss his own hand, making sure that the lip smack provides the appropriate texture: is it quick and light? Or prolonged and wet-sounding?
If there is a sizable amount of dialog that needs to be looped, it is a good idea for you to show up at this session so that you can direct your actors.
The sound effects part of the audio digital file will come from many sources. Some will be sounds recorded on the set or on location while you were filming the scene. Others will be wild sounds recorded after the shoot; that is, the sound is unrelated to a specific picture. Some sounds will come from industry libraries. Still others will be manufactured, either electronically or in a studio.
The ones manufactured in a studio are often ordinary, everyday sounds such as feet walking. These sounds are called foley, named after Jack Foley, the Universal Studios sound effects pioneer. Foley artists duplicate or augment production sounds to make them more specific and audible. A foley stage is an amazing place, with different kinds of flooring, a bin of shoes with different types of soles, a huge array of props, and pits filled with water and sand.
A foley stage is an amazing place, with different kinds of flooring, a bin of shoes with different types of soles, a huge array of props, and pits filled with water and sand.
Within that one space, the artist can create the sounds of a horse running, an arrow leaving a bow, or the ping of a table knife against a glass as the actor calls for attention in the scene playing on a screen at the front of the stage. The artist watches the picture and attempts to sync his motions to it. If adjustment is needed, the sound editor will physically manipulate (edit) the sound element to put it in its rightful place. In addition to foley, there may be bigger sounds to edit or add to the soundtrack, like explosions and crashes or smaller constant sounds like room tone or a crackling fire. No matter where the sound effects come from, they must be organized according to time code to be ready for the mix, or dub, which is the process of putting all the sounds together.
Meanwhile, the music requirements for the episode are being addressed. As soon as the composer received the EDL, he began writing all the music cues for the episode after screening the show with the post supervisor and/or possibly the showrunner. The composer writes underscore, which is music played along with a scene to lend emotional impact. Cues can be as short as three seconds (known as a sting, this is usually for an act-out) or cover an entire scene. Almost all act-ins and actouts will be scored. The job of the composer is an integral one to the success of the final product because the music almost functions as one of the characters, communicating to the audience how they should feel. After the composer writes the music, it will be recorded by hired musicians on a soundstage with natural instruments, or it may be a synthesized track created with a digital keyboard played by the composer himself, or it may be a combination of the two. Some music in the show may be a song that has been cleared for use in the episode as we talked about in the last chapter. Wherever the music comes from, each cue has a start and stop, or a point when the music begins and ends that is matched to the picture. The starts and stops are precisely coordinated with the time code of the picture by the music editor.
ASSEMBLING THE DUB
After all three of the sound components are ready, they get assembled together in what is called the mix or dub, which is when the postproduction sound mixer assembles all the sounds in relation to each other. It is when you determine at what levels your music, dialog, and sound effects will be heard. The mixer also can sweeten any and all of the sounds. Sweetening might include using noise filters that can reduce certain sounds and enhance others. It might be boosting low or high end sounds or adding an echo or rever
b to others. The goal is to make it sound the best it can and make our ears happy. The postproduction supervisor is present for the dub to add, subtract, balance, and refine all the audio elements. The showrunner may listen to a preview of the mix to give final approval. Just like the video online product, the sound dub should be seamless so that the audience views it and hears it and is aware only of following the story, rather than noticing the techniques that were used to create the episode.
Once the tracks have been mixed down, the sound mixer will take care of Dolby, surround sound, and stereo components of the mix. When all of these aspects are complete, the audio portion of the episode is added to visual part: the layback.
Scoring the Scene
Record a scene and mute the existing sound. Find piece of music that you think would fit the mood and dynamic of the scene. Play them simultaneously.
AFTER THE LAYBACK
Once the layback is done, you have a final air master. It needs to be closed-captioned. If you don’t personally use this option when watching television, you may not know that it exists. But it is there. And it is required by law so that people with hearing disabilities have equal access to public information, which is why the people who do this in post have access to the script and the VAM, and then also check to make sure that they have the dialog correct after ADR. They even add and descriptions of other sounds when applicable.
Postproduction is not an afterthought, just because it comes at the end. It is the part of the process that polishes the jewel.
Once the closed-captioning is done, copies must be made or dubbed for distribution. Where do they go to get broadcast? They go to the network, which has a license and is federally regulated. Each network might have different specifications and limitations. It is the post supervisor’s job to know these are. Suzanne Welke shared some specific examples:
The SyFy channel requires that the running times for each act must be at least six minutes. So if, in your director’s cut, you want to change where an act break is, postproduction may tell you that you cannot do that, as it will make the act too short. The overall length may be different for the syndicated version versus network/broadcast version. So when you see the show in syndication, know that the production company does not always control this trimming; it is sometimes handled by the studio and their own set of editors. Another example in this area is zooming in on a shot or “blowing it up.” In the director’s cut, you may want to get in closer by blowing up a shot. You might be told that you cannot go in as much as you’d like because it will get bounced back by international. The post supervisor would know that once the “international” master is made, that particular shot would not be technically accepted.
She also cautions directors to not “fall in love” with songs used as temporary tracks. Music is just not clearable for any number of reasons: it may not be available, or permission may not be granted, or it may be too expensive to license.
Once the networks receive their copies, they send them out to their stations and affiliates, who broadcast it in the specified times. Just to give you an idea of the scope of a network: the ABC television network is an American television network made up of 10 owned and operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates. The broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and CW) can be seen by nearly 100 percent of the population, delivered for free over the airwaves. The cable networks (such as USA, TNT, Lifetime, and Spike) could reach nearly that many, but their services must be picked up by distributors. Pay cable channels (HBO, Showtime) require viewers to pay for their service.2 Once you have directed a show, it requires distribution of some kind to an audience. Those opportunities are growing. The Internet is the new media, delivering previously unthinkable paradigms for audience viewership with downloading and live streaming.
In addition to the copies that go to the network, the postproduction supervisor also sees that you get a copy of the show, usually on DVD, which is guaranteed by your DGA contract. You will usually get it the day after the show airs for the first time. And when you watch it, you should notice all that went into completing it after you finished your cut. Postproduction is not an afterthought, just because it comes at the end. It is the part of the process that polishes the jewel.
Insider Info
How Do You Interact with Directors?
Because time in post is so short for episodic television, I usually limit my discussions with directors to their post schedule. We discuss the editing timeline: when the editor’s assembly will be ready for the director to work on, how long they have with the episode, and when the director’s cut needs to be scheduled for the producers to screen.
What Would You Like Directors to Know About Postproduction?
I think directors might be interested in what happens to the show once they deliver their cut. Briefly, each episode goes through the editing process with the showrunner and writer/producer. It is sent to the studio and network for their notes then locked and onlined.
It is spotted for music, dialog, and sound effects. It goes through color correction, visual effects, titling, and dirt fixes. At the same time, we are doing our sound effects and dialog editing as well as ADR. We then spend two days on the dub stage mixing the episode, then playback for producers and do final fixes. We layback the mix to final picture, go through another QC [quality control check], caption it, and make our dubs, then deliver it to the network and elsewhere.
What is Your Advice for New Directors?
We can jump back and forth between drama, mystery, and comedy all within a single scene, and that can be a minefield for a new director. The director needs to get inside the writer’s head and understand his intentions as much as possible.
I think it is important for a new director to understand that in television, it is usually the writer’s vision that has to be considered first and foremost. Although one might want to shoot an episode of television that is visually engaging and uniquely imaginative, it is essential to keep in mind not only the words but also the intentions of the writers as they are channeled through the characters.
I would suggest that if you want to direct episodic television, always know who is calling the shots. It is usually the writer/producer/showrunner with whom you need to be in collaboration.
Stephanie Hagen
Producer
Desperate Housewives
Vocabulary
ADR
blowing it up
clean
closed-captioning
color corrected
colorist
CTM
dub
dubbed
EDL
final air master
foley
layback
looped
mix
track
soundstage
start and stop
sting
sweeten
titles
underscore
VAM
walla group
wild sounds
1. In production, SFX is Special Effects, but in post-production, SFX is Sound Effects.
2. http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/overview.html.
Section Three Review
Post
During post, the director gets a final chance to reinterpret the script by creating the director’s cut. During the postproduction period, you work closely with the editor to refine his assembly, and then the rest of the tasks are taken over by the postproduction supervisor, who sees that the final version of the episode is readied for delivery so that it can be shown or broadcast.
While you have been shooting, the editor has been working on his assembly. It is helpful that you know the editor’s vocabulary and process in order to best use your time together. It is important to be open to what the editor has done. Together, you will cut for story, cut for time, and then add temp music and sound effects. This cut will be viewed by the executive producer, who may do another pass at editing it down closer to time, often removing entire scenes
or chunks of scenes to shorten the episode. The network will approve a final cut before the episode goes through the final stages of post.
Further postproduction processes include offline and online editing. Video processes such as creating a VAM and color correcting and audio processes such as ADR (where you may want to supervise), foley, adding the music cues, and doing the mix are done separately and then assembled back together in what is called the layback.
Finally, the postproduction supervisor sees to the closed captioning, dubbing, and delivery. If you are shooting anything other than episodic TV, you will stay with your project to completion. If you’re an episodic director, you will probably depart the show after delivery of your cut.
Section Four
Being a Director
Overview
What does it mean to be a director? To be a director, you need a passion for storytelling and an ability to be a leader. You need to have a rich aesthetic sense so that you can judge what is good from what is bad. It means having good taste.
To be a director, you need to able to handle the rigorous demands of the job both mentally and physically.
Finally, and most fundamentally, you need someone to give you a job: to hire you to direct!
Chapter 16
Being a Director
Bethany tells this story about the first Hollywood director with whom she worked: “His name was Jackie Cooper. He had been a child star in the 1930s and 1940s, and by the time I met him, in 1978, he was a grizzled cowboy, wearing boots, rodeo-type silver belt buckle through the loops of his jeans, smoking a Cuban stogie. He was loud and brash and totally sure of himself. He was the director of the first show I worked on, called The White Shadow, which was about a white basketball coach teaching at an inner-city high school. Jackie was a fantastic director, especially for the young men who were the actors on the show; he gave them a lot of tough love, using cuss words and confrontation to get what he needed from them. He made a huge impression on me. I thought every director was or should be like Jackie. So that was kind of a problem for me when I started directing. A soft-spoken 28-year-old woman is no Jackie Cooper.”
Directors Tell the Story Page 26