After a few days break to get in the mindset for post production, we were ready to get started with our first session. Ollie was booked in for Saturday 16th so we got there early to set up and get used to the equipment again as it had been a while since we used it last. After learning all the foibles in the system we had everything up and running with the mic and T.V. set up in the vocal booth and the projector up and running with the video in pro tools. It all went surprisingly smoothly, perhaps showing how far we’ve come!
I should also mention that the microphone used for the majority of the ADR was the Rode NTG2 boom mic. It may seem like a strange choice of mic considering the number of quality mics available to us through media loans but there was a method to it. As it was the mic we had used for the vast majority of our on set dialogue it would help the films continuity as other microphones would have a different frequency response which could alter the voice characteristics. This would remove the invisible nature of audio in that, if your dialogue / effects recordings aren’t noticed you’ve generally done a good job so it aids with continuity greatly.
Ollie arrived and Luke took the role on the desk operating Pro Tools, we set up levels and got recording as soon as Ollie was comfortable. I explained the process through with him, for example:
‘We’ll put a specific clip of you talking on a loop, so basically try and deliver as accurate a take as possible over your previous line of dialogue. Don’t worry about getting it wrong too many times or if you can’t manage the whole line, we can try and cut it up for you to make it as smooth and easy as possible.”
I also mentioned things like not worrying about delivering a take on each loop as sometimes it was important for the actor to have a pause and listen for the timing. Every time we had a break or were about to start again I asked Ollie if there was anything we could do to make him more comfortable, for example a glass of water or a snack – even the lighting and heating which we can control in the studio! I was also able to tell Ollie how he could improve on a take and improve his delivery as I have quite good control of my voice (being a bit of a singer) so he could match the original dialogue, or even make improvements to it.
Ollie was very professional and although he took a while to get going, the takes recorded at the end of the day already sounded so much better than those recorded on set, even without reverb and processing.
Here’s a screenshot of Harry’s ADR session.We wanted to give ourselves as many opportunities as possible so we finished the session with a ridiculous 530 tracks!
