With the COVID-19 lockdown temporarily closing ADR studios around the world, sound post supervisors and editors have been creating ingenious ways of recording their ADR.
Some, including SpaceCrate, have provided a studio that is used solely by the actor, setting up the recordist in a separate room. Others have configured laptops with Pro Tools and EdiPrompt and shipped these with mics to actor’s homes where they are controlled remotely. Another clever option has been to use Todd-AO’s Actors Mobile ADR.
At its heart, Actors Mobile ADR is an iOS app that is installed on an iPhone or iPad to record ADR in an actor’s home or anywhere that is suitable. Video files embedded with cue data are loaded into the device and allow the actor to play the original line and record a take with visual and audio cues.
Recently a client that uses EdiCue asked me if there was a way of streamlining the process of creating the videos for Actors Mobile ADR and a way to use the ADR cue data from EdiCue. I remembered creating an Export Movie window in EdiCue v2 five years ago for a client that was never released. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to use this hidden feature, so I contacted Todd-AO and we worked out a way to integrate our apps to allow editors to prepare their movie files in minutes, rather than hours. As it turned out, Todd-AO had already provided the option to load the EdiCue data via an Excel file into the desktop app Actors Mobile EDITOR. This is their app that prepares the video files for their iOS app.
Export Movies Window
To generate the movies for Actors Mobile EDITOR, EdiCue v3.2 now contains an Export Movie window.
One or more source movies are loaded into the top list, the characters that you wish to export movies for are selected in the lower list, and a handful of settings are configured on the right. These include the option to export an Excel file containing all the cue data for Actors Mobile ADR, as well as configure a watermark for all exports that can contain the actor’s name.
EdiCue exports the movie files named with the cue number in separate character folders along with the Excel file. To load the files into Actor Mobile EDITOR, simply drag and drop the character folder onto the app.
Note: Actors Mobile EDITOR requires a Pro license to load the EdiCue Excel file into it.
With all the movies loaded for a character, the cue data can be embedded into each movie and encrypted ready for the record session. See the Actor Mobile ADR website for more information.
Export WAV Files Window
Since writing the original Export Movie window in EdiCue v2, I have been keen to update the window to load and export WAV files. Why would you want to export all of these WAVs? Well, for actors recording in an ADR studio that love to parrot their lines, as in hear the line, say the line.
By loading the location sound for only each cue into a sampler, the location dialogue can be played at any point during a recording. This allows the ADR recordist to create a single recording containing several takes where the sample is played before each take to provide a timing and performance reference for the actor. This allows anyone to record several takes quickly, especially useful for those short lines that don’t need to be recorded to picture.
So while resurrecting the Export Movie window, it felt like a good time to add this new feature.
This window works the same way as the Export Movies window with some small changes to the settings area. WAV files are exported into character folders in the same way as the movies.
Demo Video
To see both of these EdiCue windows and Todd-AO’s Actors Mobile EDITOR in action, watch the following demo video:
I trust these new windows and integration with Actors Mobile ADR help you to cue and record your ADR more efficiently in these changing times.