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Narratives w/ large BG cheering crowds & dialogue


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I feel like I know the answer to this, but for some reason I can't seem to properly wrap my mind around this.

I understand when there's music, partying, and dancing and what not, that the BG is quiet and dialogue is done. Then you record your BG walla (or post inserts their own) and the scene is done. I've done plenty of those that have turned out great.

Now, What happens when you have on-screen dialogue along with people clapping and cheering in BG? For instance, a scene with a politician walk and talk through a crowd, or someone at the podium in front of a crowd. Whenever I see these scenes in a movie or TV, I feel like there is no possible way those people are fake clapping.

After quite a few years of doing this, I have yet to encounter the situation even while working for other mixers. So I'm looking to my fellow mixers for some information on what seems to be the normal protocol.

Cheers... literally.

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Or, really good fake clapping if you can get the background to pull it off. I absolutely HATE it when you try and get the BG to clap quietly and you have some extra wildly flapping their hands in front of their face, so obviously NOT clapping. I have done lots and lots of movie scenes where we have to deal with this and there have been some times when some principle words have had to be looped.

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wild lines?

+1

Have them run the dialog with background clapping but not shouting (if possible, they can pantomime the vocal portion of it)... then, if you're not confident the actor dialog to background noise ratio is high enough, have them run wild lines right after the last set-up for the scene. The timing will likely be close enough to use with vocalign or Pluraleyes... and the performance will be WAY better than a looping session several months later -- when the actors have gone on to play other characters, and have completely forgotten the scene in question.

~tt

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  • 3 weeks later...

There are occasions where extras just don't understand what pantomime means. You can tell them like you're talking to a child, "Don't say anything, just mouth it/pantomime it." They will nod their head and say, "Okay", but then go right on talking during the next take.

I agree with Tom on getting wild lines. Getting the actor to do the lines at the same location with the same in-the-moment feel will sound much better than ADR. Of course, if they ad lib or do a lot of awkward pauses they may not even know what they said and won't be able to repeat themselves.

I edited dialog for a TV series pilot and used some wild lines that worked great. The actors were very consistent and did not vary from the script much. A little bit of VocAlign and it looks and sounds like the production take.

Mark O.

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I once had to call for a few cuts because the extras at the bar wouldn't keep mumbling during an (of course:) extra quiet dialogue scene. It was hilarious. The director wouldn't get it, the extras wouldn't get it, and everyone looked at me as if I asked them to do terrible, unspeakable things.

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Guest Hockwork

Feat the worker to do the lines at the said position with the one in-the-moment property faculty stable some change than ADR. Of teaching, if they ad lib or do a lot of clumsy pauses they may not still mate what they said and won't be able to tell themselves.

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