Back in March when we were editing Souvenir November 2001, we spent some grim days dealing with sound. We'd recorded audio on the DV camera and on Mini-Disc (not DAT), using slate (not timecodes) to sync the sound. Then at the last minute we had problems loading the MD's into Final Cut Pro and had to transfer them to CD. Sync'ing the audio was supposed to be easy, but it was a huge pain. Why mention this now?
In the newest issue of Filmmaker Magazine, there's a roundtable with Steven Soderbergh's team from Full Frontal where they talk shop. Here's what Susan Littenberg (1st asst. ed.) says they did (note: they had two Final Cut Pro systems, which sounds luxe.):
In the last paragraph: "Is there anything that you can think of that filmmakers should avoid? Any advice you can give filmmakers before they get started on a project like Full Frontal?"
"Don't sync audio to video in Final Cut! Take the extra time up front to do the sync dailies and reload them."
Two takeaways: 1) We're doin' it more Soderbergh-style than we'd imagined (or wanted to, frankly), and 2) Finish the article before you start typing your weblog entry.
