Fred Brennan has worked in every aspect of sound editing over 28 years in Toronto. As a supervising editor, he specializes in dialogue and ADR editing. He has won Genies for his contributions to Sunshine, Love Come Down and Max, and he recently was supervising dialogue editor on Being Julia.

Upstream. Think salmon fighting to get back to where it all starts. Upstream. Think sound editors being heard during preproduction with their sound notes. Think each department of the production helping to protect the original sound tracks during filming. Upstream sound editing – fighting to get back to where the sound all starts.

It starts with the script. When I read a script, I hear the voices of the characters. When I read the scene descriptions, I can anticipate the problems the location recordist will have in capturing those voices.

Below are examples of notes I made for recent productions. A stage direction from the script is in quotes, followed by my note.

EXT. PARK – DAY: ‘…Ben jogs, Amy follows’

Radio mics and jogging are not usually a happy combination. Plan on looping these jogging scenes.

INT. COFFEE HOUSE – NIGHT: ‘…poet reading into the mic’

Please record the stage mic on a separate track. It will be very useful to have as a separate element to add to the radio/boom combo that you may be using on the actor.

INT. DRAWING STUDIO: ‘…Audrey is drawing, loud pencil strokes, scratching sounds’

Drawing sounds are hard to do well on the foley stage. They are hard to get in sync and as such are rarely convincing. Please do everything you can to ensure you get good recordings of these drawing sounds.

INT. APARTMENT: ‘…angle on a TV screen, Jason + Donna in foreground’

Please record a line feed from the video playback machine onto track two of your Nagra or DAT. Please turn off the audio from the TV itself and record the dialogue in the scene on track one. This will give us control of both the TV sound and the actors’ original readings.

As a dialogue editor, I spend a lot of time in audio post fixing the problems in the original sync recordings. The majority of events that ruin the original sound tracks are totally predictable and happen over and over, show after show, year after year.

But if I can start sound editing upstream, then I can help anticipate and avoid these problems or ensure that the budget allows for ADR to fix the problems when we come to audio post. And more than just anticipating problems, these notes from the sound editor can help a production maximize the sound recording on set.

During production, in addition to the efforts of the sound recordist, each department can do many things to protect the original sound. An Internet article entitled ‘An Open Letter from Your Sound Department’ provides some suggestions. The piece was written by John Coffey of Hollywood audio sales and rental house Coffey Sound & Communications with the input of audio professionals, and is quoted here with permission. (The complete text is available at www.coffeysound.com; click on ‘The Letter’ under the ‘Community’ page.) Here are some examples:

Location department: Make sure the electric department can cable the set and still keep the windows, doors and openings closed.

Art department: Inject foam into constructed stairs and steps to get rid of hollow footsteps over dialog. Whenever possible, carpet the sets to deaden echo and live rooms. Especially consider taking this step in rooms where the majority of dialog takes place.

Assistant directors: Enforce silent pantomiming from the background extras and honor the request to do a wild recording of the background voices. Please record the wild track in stereo.

Camera department: When shooting practical car scenes, try to consider the sound problems. Light so that windows can be closed where possible.

Special effects department: When using fireplaces, try to limit the hissing gas sound.

Props department: In kitchen scenes, put down a dampening cloth where dish noises will occur.

Wardrobe department: Ask the actors to avoid silk underclothing. Cotton T-shirts should be put on actors when possible to help avoid clothes rustling against the radio mics.

Grip department: Use all reasonable measures to reduce dolly squeaks. Put talcum powder around the rubber wheels. Put a dance floor down if the floors creak.

Reading a script and making notes for the production takes a sound editor just a few hours work. For each department on set it takes only a few moments to think about how their work affects the sound recording. These are the moments and hours that comprise upstream sound editing. The more it can be done, the better the work in audio post will be, and the better the pictures will sound.

fred.brennan@sympatico.ca