The First Take

    When the actors come out of makeup, the crew will have completed preparations for the first shot. Now is the time for the director and the actors to polish the performance. While they are doing this, the crew will fine-tune their work as well. There is usually a noticeable difference in the actors when they are in full costume and makeup. The scene becomes real for the first time. It may be that only one or two walk-through are necessary before shooting the first take. While the actors are walking through their final rehearsals, the director of photography is fine-tuning the lights, double-checking exposure, and making last-minute adjustments. The sound mixer is adjusting levels on the recorder. The camera operator, assistant cameraman, and dolly grip are practicing their moves as the actors walk through the scene. The beauty of this system is that everyone works together, fine-tuning their special areas of responsibility, targeting on a mutual goal.

    When the director feels that the actors are on the verge of a polished performance, he should go for a take. There is a grave danger in the performance becoming stale if it is over rehearsed. Remember that there is a certain magic that takes over when the cameras roll, and especially when they roll for the first take. Steven Spielberg has said that he considers this magic important enough to print the first take of every scene regardless of any problems there may have been during that take.

    When everything is ready to roll, the first assistant director calls “Quiet on the set, roll sound and roll camera.” The director then calls “Action”. If the director doesn’t call “cut” before the end of the scene, he may have a good first take. On the other hand, the dolly might have hit a bump, or the sound mixer might have picked up a car honking in the distance, or the camera assistant might have missed a focus mark, or…. With all of the possibilities for error, it’s amazing it ever goes smoothly, even with all the specialists at work. If there are problems with the first take, shoot a second take, and a third, and a fourth, and so on until it is right. Then move on to the next setup.

    It is important to run through the entire action for each setup before the camera, lighting, and sound crews move into position. The reason for this is to communicate precisely which portion of the scene will take place during the shot. It may be that only a very small segment will be covered by a particular setup and the crew will move much more efficiently if they limit their work to covering only that segment of the scene.

    Follow this process, beginning with your largest shot and working down to the smallest shot until you’ve completed the scene. Then move on to the next scene and begin the process again. Continue this for each scene in the schedule until you’ve finished the film.

    Production Sound

    In addition to recording a clean, full dialogue track, the sound mixer must also record room tone, production sound effects, and wild lines.

    Room tone is the ambient, background sound of each location. Each location will have a unique tone. It will be used to fill any holes in the dialogue tracks and to smooth out differences in level and equalization between voices in the final mix.

    Production sound effects are sounds the mixer records for scenes in which there is no dialogue. For these scenes, he will record sync sound effects that may be used in the finished picture or used as a guide track for the sound effects editor.

    In addition to sync sound effects, the mixer will record wild sound effects that can be cut to match the picture during the editing. Examples of wild sound effects are footsteps, dog barks, shattering glass, body hits, tire squeals, and gunshots. Production sound effects such as these are often more effective than stock library effects.

    Wild lines are short words or phrases such as “Halt”, “Let’s go”, or “Good day”, which are often recorded “wild” (that is, off camera) when the quality of the sync recording is questionable. Also, if a character in a film such as a bank robber wears a mask, his lines will often be rerecorded wild after the sync take for better intelligibility. Wild lines must also be recorded for off-camera dialogue, such as a character’s rambling thoughts in a dream sequence in which we don’t see the actor speaking. Often these lines can be recorded during production, saving time and money in postproduction.