Another
issue occurred in certain sequences where James was being
recorded too far from the mic, as though a single shotgun
mic was trying to cross shoot both him and Claire without
re-aiming itself at each one in turn. This resulted in a
strange echo-y sound to his voice that wasn't up to the
fairly crisp quality in other parts of film. Claire stayed
clear throughout, however; possibly due to a woman's higher
timbre and lack of bass. These issues can be cleared up
with a good redub of those segments.
However,
some other issues in audio popped up due to current redub
issues. Apparently certain shots that couldn't be mic'd
properly were redubbed or they tried to make use of an unused
take's audio. This was most noticeable in a conversation
between Nick and Claire that's held on the inside of the
coat room, but shot through the glass doors. The sync varies
from a little bit off to noticeably off for the entire conversation.
In fact, eventually, there's one section where Nick drinks
from a bottle of booze while the dialogue track has him
saying, "I hate…" Obviously, that last comment
needs to be lopped off entirely, but the other segments
are a bit trickier.
One
way is to have a professional audio person work with the
dialogue tracks until they sync up properly, which can be
a time consuming and costly. (Note to the Director:
If you go to the links page,
though, you'll see that Oakwood Sound Design, which already
has extremely modest rates, is giving Microfilmmakers an
additional 10% off post-production audio, redubbing, and
sync-finessing, so you might want to have him just redub
the few issues with James' audio at the same time.)
The
other method for getting better sync from off-sync dubbing
and second-take audio is by using SynchroArts VocAlign.
Basically, Vocalign takes your original audio, which
didn't sound good enough and will allow you to sync up a
dub track with it. It will stretch and conform your new
audio to the original voiceprint without distorting it.
While this does sound awesome, it isn't perfect. It can
only do a line at a time and it won't work if you're in
a situation in which NO audio was recorded the first time.
However, with that in mind, it might be a good thing to
check out.
If you're
interested in this software, it comes in both a basic standalone
variety and as a higher grade, more professional plug-in
for ProTools LE and ProTools. While these
aren't real cheap, they might be a good investment for this
film and future films that need dubbing. The standalone
version runs $375 and the Professional version for ProTools
runs $699. You can download a demo from http://www.synchroarts.com
and see if it would work.
Use
of Budget
Considering how much was covered in this film and how creative
they had to be, they did an amazingly good job budgeting
their money. While it could be argued that there are really
only two main characters stuck in a coatroom, much of the
movie is also told through sequences in the museum, in outside
environs, in a car, and in James' home. All that adds up
to some pretty good cash-flow management.
Lasting
Appeal
Much in the way that Clerks and Garden State
have a lasting rewatchability, The Coatroom is very
rewatchable and has a lasting appeal. I have now seen it
three times and enjoyed it more the last two times than
I did the first time. If the few issues I have already addressed
are dealt with, this is a film that could be bought and
theatrically distributed immediately.
