Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – Record editing
Patent
1985-05-20
1986-05-27
Canney, Vincent P.
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
Record editing
360 51, G11B 509, G11B 2702
Patent
active
045919283
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for use in processing signals.
During the production of a film soundtrack, it is often necessary or desirable to replace original dialogue, recorded live at the time of shooting the picture, with dialogue recorded afterwards in the studio, since the original dialogue may be unacceptable because of, for example, a level or type of background noise that cannot be eliminated. The studio recording takes place before the final soundtrack is formed from a mix of dialogue, music and sound effects, and is called post-synchronising or post-synching.
The post-synchronising technique most widely used today is known as the virgin loop system and is operated as follows.
The soundtrack editor breaks down the dialogue scenes to be post-synched into sections of one or two sentences each of up to about 30 seconds in duration. Each section, which consists physically of a length of picture-film and an equal length of magnetic film containing the original dialogue recording, is then made into two endless loops. A third loop (also of the same length) is made up from unrecorded magnetic film. This is the "virgin loop". The loop of magnetic film containing the original dialogue is now called the "guide track".
Each of the actors involved in the scene attends individually at a studio especially designed for postsynching. The picture-film loop is loaded onto a film projector, the guide track is loaded onto a magnetic film reprocucer and the virgin loop is loaded onto a magnetic recorder/reproducer. These three machines are adapted to operate in synchronism. The picture-film loop is projected onto a screen in front of the actor. The guide track is replayed to him over headphones, and he endeavours to speak his lines in synchronism with the original dialogue, his efforts being recorded onto the virgin loop. Guide track cues (bleep tones) or chinagraph cue-marks which the editor has drawn beforehand on the picture-film loop are provided. The actor makes repeated attempts at matching the exact timing and performance of the guide track until the director decides that the result is satisfactory. It is possible at any time to switch the machine with the virgin loop from record to playback in order to check the result on a studio loudspeaker.
Once successfully recorded, the loops are removed from the machines and are replaced with the next set of loops covering the next section of dialogue. The entire operation is then repeated for this new section. An average feature film may require several hundred dialogue loops, each one of which may have to be recorded several times with fresh virgin loops, depending on the number of actors in the scene.
The task facing the actor is difficult, since a difference of one to two film frames from synchronism between words and mouth movements is noticeable to the average viewer but is only 0.05 to 0.1 seconds difference. Inevitably, artistic expression becomes subordinated to the need to speak in synchronism. Frequently, after many attempts a compromise is settled for which is nearly right and which tne soundtrack editor knows from experience will enable him to take the magnetic film back to the editing room and with fine cutting, pull the words into synchronism.
The newly recorded loops are eventually assembled into the places in the dialogue track previously occupied by the original dialogue.
The virgin loop system is laborious and time-consuming, and is greatly disliked by actors. Furthermore, it is a generally held view in the film industry that post-synched dialogue is always inferior to original live dialogue from an acting point of view.
With the development of film transport machines capable of high-speed operation in forward and reverse and having logic control, a method known as Automatic Dialogue Replacement (ADR) has come into use in the newer studios.
One example of such a studio is described by Lionel Strutt in an article entitled "Post-Synchronising Sound: Automated Dialogue Replacment using the Computer" at pages 10 196 to 198 in The BKSTS J
REFERENCES:
patent: 4256924 (1981-03-01), Sakoe
patent: 4271332 (1981-06-01), Anderson
patent: 4384273 (1983-05-01), Ackland et al.
Bloom Phillip J.
Marshall Garth D.
Canney Vincent P.
Wordfit Limited
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