CinÉireann / Issue 9 51
COLUMN
“We’ll Fix It In Post”
Citing a scene in which two characters are running from the Garda, Blayney recalls that Downey’s use of two radios saved what might be considered a “throwaway” line, but if unusable could have resulted in either costly ADR or removal of the line/shot altogether. Blayney says that because Downey had hidden two radios in different places on the actor’s body, and the receivers were positioned at different locations on the street, the “thud” sounds and clothing rustles (made when actors run with radios on) came at different places in the line. As a result, using Izotope RX and relying on his years of experience cutting dialogue and mixing film and TV, Blayney was able to piece together parts of the line from each radio track and assemble a usable line of dialogue.
Blayney also credits multiple booms and radios with the fact that little or no ADR was required. Though he is quick to point out that, for what little ADR there was, both “Emmet (Kirwan) and Ian (Lloyd Anderson) seemed very comfortable in the ADR session”, possibly because they’d played the brothers in the original theatrical version of Dublin Oldschool, and, as such, were intimately familiar with the material. Blayney mentioned that he was also tasked with recording poet/screenwriter Emmet Kirwan’s extensive spoken word voiceover, stating that he enjoyed having the rare opportunity (for a dialogue editor) to work directly with the show’s lead actor, director, and producers, and said it was an extremely smooth process.
As regards the party, club, and outdoor rave scenes, Blayney felt the dialogue editing for those scenes was not particularly challenging. That appears to be largely down to careful coordination between the location sound team, director Dave Tynan, and his cast. For scenes where music would ultimately be played in the background, the first few takes were all done at full voice with music playing. Then, once the actors were comfortable with their level of projection, the next takes (much to Downey’s relief) were recorded with the actors projecting at full voice, but no music playing (it would be added in post).
Overall, Blayney found the editing of Dublin Oldschool to be an engaging and enjoyable experience, with few unexpected problems. And, while much of that is down to his years of experience in the cutting room, he credits Paddy (Patrick Downey), Simon Murphy, and Naoise Meegan with presenting him with “solid workable tracks”.
In the end, Dublin Oldschool sounds good, and sounds like Dublin. Despite numerous challenges, and a script that asked a lot of the sound team, this is definitely a film worth being listened to.
What do you listen for, and what are you hearing?
Please address your questions, comments, or criticisms to [email protected].
Glenn Kaufmann
Dublin, 2018