actor chatting on the mobile with a pre-recorded voice that's gonna be used in the final film

[jimmycat]

There're a couple of scenes in my coming project with the main actor chatting on his mobile with an actress whose voice has been recorded in another country. The reason we pre-recorded it is that the director wants the main actor to hear the actress' actual voice "IN THE MOBILE" rather than having someone of the crew to deliver the actress' lines on set. During the pre-production, the director will ask the actor to converse with the actress' pre-recorded lines to confirm each break he needs to say his lines and will create audio files scene by scene with enough space for the main actor for his lines. So the overlapping shouldn't be an issue. For playing back the audio file to the actor, obviously an earbud via a G3 kind of receiver is an option, but I'm worried about the shots when the camera angles or movements reveal both of his ears. I'm also worried about the relatively short distance of G3 transmission. When shooing in restricted locations, the directing dept., who is in charge of the playing back, can be far away from the actor.

 

So I'm asking for any suggestion from my dear sound fellows with similar experience. And one further question: I wonder if there's a way for iphones to send an line-in audio file to the receiving end when making a call. That seems to be a perfect solution. I did try the following kind of adaptor(lightning breaking out to 2 TRS jacks, one for external mic, one for external earphone), but somehow it only works with the line-in recording. When making calls, the iphone just automatically ignores the 3.5mm microphone jack and insists the build-in microphone to be on. Any experience with it? 

https://www.amazon.com/Cubilux-Lightning-Microphone-Monitoring-Compatible/dp/B08Q38FVQP?th=1

 

Thanks in advance.

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

I think you've got the right idea sending audio through an actual phone call.  I think your wiring may be wrong; there's no way iPhones don't have the capability to accept headset audio for voice calls, so you just need to figure out how to trick the iPhone into thinking your audio input is a headset rather than a recording mic.  I suspect the dongle you are using is wrong for your application:  You probably need a TRRS dongle that is designed for a headset rather than professional recording.  But I'm not an iPhone expert... maybe there's a software solution as well...

[JesseF]

This type of silly complication is always hilarious to me.  Using playback tracks instead of a script supervisor or some such person to read lines on set causes so many unnecessary problems for so many people.  Mostly sound department.  But anyway...

 

I've used a TRRS on several occasions to send audio to an iphone mic input.  The problem is that most newer phones need a lightning adapter now, and that adapter (as far as I remember) renders the TRRS cable useless.  That being said, if you have an iphone 8 lying around, or an off-brand android phone maybe, you can run a cable into one of those.

 

The TRRS cable does work on macbooks, so maybe a facetime call from a macbook would work as well.

 

I feel your pain.  I would personally suggest hiring a playback operator with a Phonak earpiece to handle this whole thing, but maybe thats not an option for you budget wise.  IDK.

[Izen Ears]

Have someone offset with the wav file call the cell phone and just play it back.  Hold the phone up to the speaker of a labtop.  I suggest the person who green lit the whole phone thing would be a great playback operator!

[tourtelot]

36 minutes ago, Izen Ears said:

Have someone offset with the wav file call the cell phone and just play it back.  Hold the phone up to the speaker of a labtop.  I suggest the person who green lit the whole phone thing would be a great playback operator!

This!  And this!  Make the folks that make work, work.

 

D.

[Philip Perkins]

As was said, I'd be tempted to just set my phone down on a powered speaker playing the lines off a laptop and call it a day.

You can take a feed from the laptop to your rig for dailies.  For playback you might consider "QLAB" which will allow you to

trigger the lines separately with a spacebar (or other) hit. The free version of QLAB will only output via the computer's

headphone jack but that would be fine for this.

[JeHe]

We use an 'iRig' interface as an audio input for a phone. Than make the actual call. Be aware that there is enough phone reception on the location! More professional option is the Daptor Three from JK Audio.

 

This way we can improve the actors' performance.

[tourtelot]

54 minutes ago, Sinussound said:

This way we can improve the actors' performance.

They are ACTORS for goodness sakes!

 

D.

[BAB414]

I remember reading an article or interview with someone attached to the Netflix film The Guilty. I don't recall if the calls were prerecorded or live but I'm sure there's some helpful info in there if anyone knows what I'm talking about.

[johngooch]

Endorsement for Q-lab...   When you need more features than is provided by the free version, you can lease them for short period of time if needed.