Fix It In the Mix?
Are we editors, or are we miracle workers? Depends on the how much money you have. Our clients go to big-budget summer blockbuster movies, where they see entire environments created by roomfuls of huge computers. Back they come to our humble edit suites, hoping we can fix their flawed raw tapes with the same chicanery. Dream on.
| Sure, anything can be fixed given enough time and money. But with a typical budget, it's much more realistic to get the shot right the first time rather than trying to fix it later. |
Sure, anything can be fixed given enough time and money. But with a typical budget, it's much more realistic to get the shot right the first time rather than trying to fix it later. If you're one who produces and directs your own shooting, then later edits it yourself, you've probably already learned the hard way that it's always better to get it right the first time. You've learned to just do the shot over if a word is flubbed, or if something unsightly finds its way into your frame. You've learned. This editorial is certainly not for you.
This rant is directed toward all those numbskull clients or talent who have spent maybe five minutes in an edit suite, and have seen a word or two substituted or a boom microphone digitally removed. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing for these wanna-bes. Wishing to save time in a shoot, they'll blithely say, "Oh, you can just fix that in post, can't you? You know, fix it in the mix!" Yeah, right. I say, a pox on all who dump on the editor like that! In fact, whenever that annoying, tilted-head smile comes across airheaded clients' faces here at the Midwest Test Facility edit suites, and they ask for me to walk on water and perform miracles, I turn to a special drawer containing my wizard hat. The cone-shaped adornment, festooned with golden stars and topped with a crescent moon dangling from its peak, is ceremoniously placed on top of my clean head, ready to do its magic. Alas, even that is not going to be enough.
But sometimes, monster fixes are unavoidable. For example, not long ago I was charged with editing a fundraising tape for a large university where newsman Ted Koppel was nice enough to be the talent from his news desk in Washington. We were delighted when the tape came to us via special courier, with ABC emblazoned all over it. And there he was, Koppel himself, reading our script, perfectly! Well, almost. When he got to the name of the woman in charge of the entire fundraising effort, the president of the university, Koppel mispronounced her name. Uh-oh. Major uh-oh. We had to fix it. There was no way to get Koppel to do it over for us. There it was, plain as day -- Koppel mispronouncing her last name, pronouncing it Co-hain. It's supposed to be pronounced Co-han. What the heck are we going to do now?, I said to myself. I know, let's find a place where Koppel says a word with that same sound, like the word "and," and substitute that for the last syllable of the woman's name! Yeah. I found that word, with the perfect matching inflection, and did an audio-only drop in, replacing the errant syllable with the correct one. Fixed. Whew! Time spent fixing this: Two hours. But it was absolutely undetectable.
What did I learn from that? Well, first of all, I learned that it's always best when mailing someone a script to phonetically spell any names that might be easily mispronounced. In other words, get it right the first time. Second, I learned that it's always best to be there yourself rather than depend on someone else to direct the shoot. Third, I learned that it takes a long time to fix some tiny little thing that would take just a few seconds to fix during shooting.
Now here I am on the other side, directing a remote shoot that will be edited by a trusted colleague. Will I get it right the first time? Well.... for the most part. But I will take careful notes outlining a plan for each fix along with corresponding time code numbers of anything that's going to be even slightly miracle-like. Some shots just can't be done over. Like if there's only one loaf of bread that's been rising for an hour, and it would take another hour to prepare another one. (Next time, make two or three, like I asked you to!) Punch the bread down, flub a line or two, and voila! I'm in no-retake land! But I devise a plan, write it down, and warn my editor ahead of time. Hey, I know what it's like to be stuck with a fix that only Jesus himself could clean up.
But next time -- I swear -- I'll get it right the first time!
Charlie
White has been writing about digital video editing since it was
the laughingstock of the post-production industry. He's an Emmy award-winning
producer and director for PBS, and producer of this Web site. Do you have
comments or questions? Send Chazz a note at cwhite@digitalmedianet.com.
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