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Lucas' Star Wars: Episode 1, The Phantom Menace was not only the newest installment in the firmament of adventurous film-making, but also heralded some new discoveries in Field Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) Recording and post-production editing. And Lucas' Vasco da Gama was Chief ADR Recordist Matthew Wood. His mission? Set up a traveling audio recording and editing system. |
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Traveling Man
In the olden days, in a galaxy far, far away, film studios used to run their ADR or looping through equipment like video tape decks, analog 24-track recorders, mixing consoles, and video playbacks with countdown mechanisms. But those methods were far too primitive for what Wood had in mind for a film as intense and remotely shot as The Phantom Menace. So Wood designed and built a Mac-based, portable ADR set-up that would run the film in a high resolution, QuickTime format, and easily sync it up with the just-recorded ADR on the PowerBook G3 300. But would it work? |
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 "Working closely with Mark Gilbert and Vanessa J. Hall of Gallery in London [a Mac-only software developer], we were able to
take advantage of the Macintosh using Digidesign's ProTools, and Gallery's
ADRStudio Recording software," says Wood. "We were able to record about
80% of the movie at various locations, bringing this setup with us." All
in all, the result was 1400 loops produced over a 2-month period from February
to March. |
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Yup
Hand-in-hand with Digidesign's ProTools, Wood and the sound folks at Skywalker Sound used the G3 PowerBook on location for all of their ADR. "We used the PowerBook as a key piece of equipment in the mobile recording setup for post-production of this film," says Wood. "All of the post-production sound for this project, as well as editorial, was done on Macs." And the Field ADR system for The Phantom Menace had various hardware components for the audio path from the Mac that allowed a direct link between the actor, the recordist, and the director. |
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Proof of the Pudding
The trilogy of G3s, ProTools, and a Magma chassis allowed Lucas Digital to transcend the limits of a single studio location for audio recording and editing. And while they weren't sure the new audio set-up would work at first, after putting Mac to the test, Wood notes, "I was able to prove that the G3 system works, and as a result we were authorized to purchase and use G3s for all ADR recording and editing. Without which we could not of pulled off the recording," Wood says. "The PowerBook was crucial." Surprise, surprise.
—Stephanie Jorgl
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