On Mon, 13 Jun 1994, Daniel Pisano wrote: > > You looped what? > What is this 'looping'? > > ...just to keep on the technical side of this reply thread. > Daniel With a marketing-eye in the direction of television, it is common practice to "cover" the potentially offensive words with replacements rather than have the censor totally remove the audio and have the "drop" in the soundtrack. It's best(and cheapest), to record these alternative words at the same time as you shoot the scene so that room presence and performance remain the same. Words that are replaced later, at a sound studio, NEVER sound right. The term "looping" refers to the now antiquated process of dialog replacement whereby the words or phrases to be replaced were actually a piece of magnetic film or recording tape that was spliced end-to-end. In a sound proof stage, the actor listens to the recording through a headset while watching the picture on a screen or video monitor. The actor watches and listens several times in order to get a sense of the rhythm of the words. Then, over the headset, the actor hears a series of beeps or tones, usually three with an imaginary fourth tone. The same as saying, "1, 2, 3, go." A microphone records the new words and a sound editor cuts this new audio material into the sound track so the words come out of the actor's mouth when they're supposed to. Nowdays a new system called Automatic Dialog Replacement, or ADR, makes the process easier. Using computers and time coded video tape, the new material is electronically syncronized with the picture without an editor having to cut the sound into a track. Even though most post-production on features these days is done with the aid of ADR equipment, the term "Looping" is still used. You would loop sound for a lot of reasons: poor performance, a technical glitch, noisy backgrounds and to be able to "split" dialog in scenes with several people. A lot of other reasons too, including getting rid of them "bad" words. The "Hollywood" system places a lot of emphasis on the often total replacement of dialog and production effects in a film. (Keeps a lot of people on the payroll!) Sets I've visited in Europe are quite different. And their approach to production and post-production sound is different too. Uh, oh, the techno-bore strikes again. If you have any more questions about this subject, give me a jingle. ____________________________________________________________________________ ---------------->from John G. Thomas ([log in to unmask]) <------------------- ____________________________________________________________________________