It was our first week of predubs last week & we finished Ambience predub in 2.5 days & then did 5 reels of Foley predubs by the end of the week…. Foley predub finished by Monday lunchtime, now we’re into FX Predubs & it seems I am out to set some kind of personal record for the number of FX stems required; we’re out to ten 5.1 stems already & suspect by the time we finish we’ll need another two or three… Each FX source session is a 32 output PT session per stem, so we dont have to keep repatching the outputs to the Euphonix desk. So this week we’re predubbing:
- FX A,B,C (misc FX) will be predubbed down to 3 x 5.1 stems
- FX D,E,F (movement, swords, violence) to 3 x 5.1 stems

Then I have a week off from mixing while the Dialogue/Crowds/Music predubs happen (on two mix stages) which gives me a chance to do my final pass on sound design elements plus VFX updates….

Then we’ll do another week of FX predubs:
- FX G,H, I (guns, background guns, impacts)
- FX J, K, L (fires, misc x 2 for VFX updates)
- Sound Design – virtual predub via automation (so material that might conflict with music is easy to manipulate/pitch/move)

Then the final mix!!!!!

Some statistics so far:
- Ambience PT Session = 12.89 GB (19,362 fades)
- Foley PT Session = 5,38 GB (8,601fades)
- FX ABC PT Session = 6.04 GB (4236 fades)
- FX DEF PT Session = 6.53 GB (4798 fades)

Obviously each of these sessions has come from far bigger libraries of material, since the sessions we take to the mix contain ONLY what was used. I noted the number of fades as it really helps illustrate how much work is done over the many weeks (this is my week 19) of development & editing, prior to the final predubs.

And god bless Conformalizer! Without it we would still be trying to update to the last picture cut!!! But the one aspect of conforming that people like to forget is that while the conforming might be quick & painless, there is still a lot of careful work involved patching & updating the sessions after the conform! My worst reel was reel 5, where there is a lot of action both on adn offscreen & it took my a day and a half to get it patched after the last conform. Patching onscreen action is not so bad since it is tied to the picture cut but offscreen can be very time consuming, as its relationship to the onscreen image (& conform) can be far more abstract, and there are times when I still resort to a manual conform of moments and/or whole scenes…

Onwards!

Phew what a monster!!! This has been the biggest temp mix I have ever done, just check out the two PT sessions we were running live – I’ll explain the whys & wherefores below…

Temp Mix FX and Foley Session (click here for fullsize)

Temp Mix Atmos and Fixes Session (click here for fullsize)

So we ran all six reels in one session – I prefer working this way when editing as well as mixing as it makes it so much easier to refer to moments elsewhere in the film… Its only since getting PT HD and an Intel Mac (with 4GB of RAM) that this has been possible… but it makes for a BIG PT session; the PT session file above is 22MB and my editing session back at the studio is even larger as it has all the source material for the film in it (on library tracks etc) whereas the session I bring to the mix stage has only the material we are using…
The FX session is organised into sets of tracks/predubs which I am busing to 5.1 auxiliarys, which are then fed to the Euphonix desk… Because this temp is so complex, there is too much material to go through panning every source track on the mix stage so I spent a lot of time panning in 5.1 beforehand. I was a little worried as to how this would translate from my edit room to the mix stage but we did some tests the week before the temp mix & it sounded great so I went ahead & did as much panning as I had time to do…. and I am so glad I did – theres nothing better than doing a first play down of the tracks on the mix stage and sounds are placed and/or moving as they should…
I had originally thought I might print 5.1 stems instead of run it all live via auxiliarys but it became apparent we would be getting VFX/picture updates through out the mix & accordingly I would need to be updating the source material for the mix… In the end I was happy about that too as it meant I could keep editing rather than stop and spend a day or two printing stems before the temp mix….
Ok, I’m almost ready for some time out…. and archiving…. and checking the print… and checking the stitch & layback to HD… and checking the blu ray disks… and then having a rest… and THEN starting the next stage in developing the sound design for this movie – YEHAR!