Absolutely!

Always record 60 to 90 seconds of "room tone" for each scene and location. If you didn't, you can pull some from the recorded tracks where ever there is a pause. this can be a pain in the ass and often results in strange sounds.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

To get rid of the strange sounds you speak of when creating a room tone track from snippets try a tiny crossfade between each piece to smooth it out a little better.

What? $1000!! That's crazy talk!!

does anyone know if the are overdubs in the movies we see in the theater and on dvd because the quality of the sound just sounds too too clean there cant be a mic out there thats that good !!! i used 2 audio technica shotgun mics on my last set and when i brought the audio into pro tools it was good had some AMBIENT issues that were ridiculous one time there was a bug so loud that it almost over powered the conversation and consequently that had to be the take the director used and the actors were pretty inconsistent with their parts so its almost impossible to match the good takes with it any suggestions or maybe back to my original question (studio voice overs)

Each 1 Teach 1

Wow. Nothing like seeing a three year old thread again!

While many scenes in movies are "looped" or "ADR" don't completely dismiss the skill, talent and experience of the mixer and boom op on a professional set. Or experienced actors who aren't quite as inconsistent. There are mics that are very, very good, and in the hands of pros excellent, usable, clean dialogue tracks are possible.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Depending on the type of film you are seeing in the theater, up to 80% of the film could be ADR. Does that mean you should go and record all your actor's dialogue in the studio? Unless your actors are familiar with ADR sessions, I would say no.

A talented production recordist will capture dialogue that can be used in the final mix. On the other hand, an unskilled production recordist could force you to ADR every line of dialogue on a production.

If you run two microphones on a shoot that capture the same dialogue, make sure one is padded -5dB to -10dB than the other. This helps in case there is a peak noise (like a scream or yell). One mic might distort and the other one that is set to -10dB will pick it up a little cleaner.

David Schatanoff
D Studios Productions

I read somewhere (probably on this board) that Lord of the Rings did 100% ADR. Because of the problems with so many exteriors it was just easier to not worry about missing takes over sound issues. ADR also makes it easier to isolate your dialogue track from your sound effects track.

But back to room-tone. I found it incredibly difficult to keep my cast and crew silent for 90 seconds. It's amazing and annoying and I'm gonna have to make do with smaller snippets.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

It is difficult to get everyone quiet for that amount of time. But you need to treat it like any other scene you need to shoot. Lock down the set, call to roll sound, call action and have the sound guy tell you when you're clear and then call cut.

David Schatanoff
D Studios Productions

If there is one thing I've learned, it's that sound is (sometimes) more important than the picture. If you mess up your sound, the audience will not forgive you. When I first started, I did quite a lot of boom work. I realized some people disregard the sound crew and find out later they made a boo-boo. Do not make this mistake. You can't fix sound in post unless you do ADR. But speaking from experience, once your production wraps, it's very difficult (and expensive) to get your actors back for a loop.

Do not go skimpy on the sound. Get a great boom guy. Pay attention to these folks during production.

www.filmmakingstuff.com

One thing that I've done in the past when shooting is to make sure to get the best, noise free audio possible for that scene (I don't know why someone wouldn't), and then in post, I'll take some custom ambience that I've made from individual sound effects and lay it on the scenes. That way the noise free ambience can help to mask any flaws, noise, or blank spots in the original audio. It also lets you have control over each individual sound effect.