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This is kind of a follow up to a previous question I had asked about audio cleanup.

Some tips to soften wind noise.

The director has asked me my thoughts on doing ADR for some of the scenes/shots in which there is really heavy wind noise. My initial response to the first set of clips she sent me was, instead of adr, we should just reshoot it. Both of the clips are very simple, man on a boat explaining some things.

She has sent me another clip which would be almost impossible to recreate, so now ADR is back on the table.

Here are my concerns with ADR. For starters, I am not really experienced much in adr. Second, it is non actors, so I am not sure how well they will fair with looping things. Third is that I have no facility to do this in. I am currently editing out of my house, All of the rooms are large and wooden and very very very live. The Scene takes place out on the water, so I feel that anything I record at my house will not ever sit within the scene.

I'm not really sure what I am asking, I just do not know what to do, or how to do adr to fit in an ext scene. There is also some weird part of me that feels morally wrong for looping a documentary haha.

Should I maybe find some other studio here that has the facilities to loop and then refer her to them for adr?

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Do you have a field recording kit, or some sort of field recorder? You could loop the interview somewhere (preferably quiet) outside. It will probably match production better than a super clean studio recording anyway. I wouldn't try this in a live, non-treated room. The human ear is super sensitive to early reflections, and it will be pretty obvious that the line is looped.

A good idea when looping is to play the offending interview back in headphones (line by line if you can), so the subject can get an idea of the rhythm and tone of what they said, and mimic it back to you. Even if you think they nailed it, you'll probably have a bunch of editing to do to get it to sync up later.

Looping is done all the time in documentaries, I wouldn't sweat it.

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  • @Justin Yeah thats probably what I will end up doing. Now to find somewhere quiet :P
    – Michael Gilbert
    Commented Nov 21, 2011 at 21:39
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    Wherever you record it, don't forget to capture plenty of ambiant sound on-location. This will be essential when editing together different takes of the ADR and the original soundtrack. Also, try at all costs to use the same mic that was used on the shoot.
    – Colin Hunter
    Commented Nov 22, 2011 at 11:29
  • @Colin Using the same mic is just out of the question. I believe she started with on board camera mics on the 7d and then eventually upgraded to the built in zoom h4n mics. That is why there is so many problems with the audio quality. Interviews have auto gain pumping the pres, wind noise all over anything outside. Original audio will just be disregarded and I will have to completely recreate the scenes.
    – Michael Gilbert
    Commented Nov 22, 2011 at 17:08
  • @Michael OK if you are going to have to ADR all scenes then the identical mic issue won't be applicable. But the other point I made is still relevent. You may need to cut together different takes and having an ambiant track recorded at the same time of day, at the same location will come in very handy.
    – Colin Hunter
    Commented Nov 23, 2011 at 9:28
  • I think its morally wrong,rather i would have done a subtitling for it.I don't know what exactly the shot is but as far as your description of the shot is concerned sometimes usage of the original sound might go with the feel of the shot.
    – chrisnanny
    Commented Nov 24, 2011 at 7:00

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