Why ADR is an Opportunity for your Film

As a filmmaker, every time you’re on set, you know how important it is to remain quiet when you signal action. However, there will always be some sounds that you can’t control no matter how hard you try: planes flying over you, unexpected crew or cast sneezes, car horns… The list goes on.

These sounds essentially force you to re-record some parts and some sounds, as the on Set Quality is definitely not as pristine as you need it. So, what do you need to do? ADR is here to help.

What is ADR?

Automated dialogue replacement, or ADR, is the process of re-recording audio in a controlled environment, like a studio, to replace the dialogue lines that were recorded on set.

As you might already know, this can be done for a number of reasons. Perhaps you faced several technical problems with the location audio. For example, and as mentioned above, a plane flew overhead during your best take, or perhaps one of the mics was capturing more sounds than usual, or one of the actors wasn’t on-axis during the take.

In the vast majority of cases, ADR is used to replace the talent’s vocal performance. This is more common in musical projects where a super talented singer replaces an actor’s interpretation of a lyrical piece. Something Marni Nixon would do for several of the most renowned actresses of our time: Marylin Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and more.

You may also need to resort to ADR to manipulate a specific scene to make it TV-friendly and even airline-friendly. And some other times ADR is just an amazing technique used solely for creative purposes. Marlon Brando, for instance, asserted that he purposely mumbled all his way through his lines when shooting The Godfather so that he could give his 100% at a later stage in post-production.

However, in the world of low-budget and independent filmmaking, ADR is always considered as something that needs to be avoided at all costs, but it shouldn’t necessarily be the case. In fact, audio post-production sound if done with purpose and with a well-established workflow can actually be a pivotal tool for independent and low budget films.

ADR in film

If you talked to most independent filmmakers they would agree that ADR is something that should be avoided. Of course, if you’re on a tight budget then ADR seems like the last of your choices during post-production, as having one more unexpected expense is something you’re trying to avoid at all costs.

But the fact is, as we all learned from directors in the 1930s, ADR and post synchronized sound can be, to some extent, liberating for your project. And in fact, there are plenty of ways you can DIY an ADR process for your film.

Given the type of locations most independent films shot on, the raw audio files always come with a lot of unwanted noises. Unless you have a lot of experience working with audio and cleaning up audio files, it is recommendable to replace the audio for the most important scenes.

Partial ADR

If you don’t want to replace the whole audio for an entire scene and you want to focus on replacing a line here or there, focus on getting the same type of microphone, matching the same mic placement, and trying to replicate the environmental conditions and reverberance of the original location on which you recorded, which you can do either physically or with your digital audio workstation.

Bear in mind that audiences are wise enough to realize or spot when a scene or a line has been dubbed over, so really pay attention to both technical and environmental conditions when replacing audio.

When it comes to ADR, there are two common practices, and audio post-production sessions often use both of them depending on the nature of the project and the kind of line that needs replacement.

Visual ADR

We call visual ADR when you have your talent or an actor listens to a line of dialogue so that they can visually match the lines and lip-sync with no sound.

Audio ADR

Audio ADR is when the talent listens to a line of dialogue and then recites the dialogue along with the original audio recording. This technique is the most common one because it allows you to get more exact and accurate results lip sync-wise, as there is a lot of repetition involved.

ADR in a film is an opportunity

So, to wrap up, sound, and the way your talent delivers dialogue is an art. They are the ones who bring your audiovisual project to life, so if they realize further down the line that there is something odd with the way they delivered some lines and they want to give an entirely new performance, you should allow them to do so.

ADR can definitely enhance and improve the quality of a specific scene and provide your project with, perhaps, unexplored layers of interpretation you haven’t realized yet. And as you can see, there are plenty of ways to do without spending lots of money.

*The images used on this post are taken from Pexels.com