Dubbing: Procedure
Although you will prepare the soundtracks which have to be dubbed the mix will be done by a dubbing mixer. He does not know your film or your tracks so you must tell him what each track consists of and how you want each sound to start and end. The normal way to do this is to use a dubbing cue sheet.
Dubbing cue sheets
Cue sheets are divided into columns — one column for each track and one for action cues. At the top of the sheet you should write the title of the film and the reel number. The rest of the sheet should be used to tell the mixer about your tracks. List each track and show where you want each sound to start and end. If you want sound to cut in, draw a straight line across the column referring to the track. Starting footages should go above the line at the start of the sound and finishing footages beneath the line at the end of it. So, on the cue sheet illustrated, at 10 1/2ft Track 1 cuts in, at 14ft it cuts out. It is normal practice to measure the footages from the first frame of picture, right at the end of the leader.
If you do not want sound to cut in or out you can arrange for it to be faded in or mixed with other sounds. To mark a fade in you use an elongated letter V the wrong way up. The narrow part is where the fade in will start. The wide part indicates the point at which the sound will be fully faded up. So, at 14ft Track 4 starts to fade in, and by 16 feet it is fully up. If you use a V the other way up as I have done on Track 2 at 45 feet you will be indicating a fade out. So, on Track 2 at 45 feet a fade out begins and is completed by 47ft. If you fade out one track and simultaneously fade in another you are in effect mixing from one track to another. This is known as a cross fade (or a cross mix). At 36ft we cross fade from Track 3 to Track 4.
You will notice that the commentary of the film shown on the cue sheet has been pre-recorded and laid to picture. The commentary is Track 1. Always keep commentary on a separate track. It will make the mixer’s job easier and if you want to make foreign language versions it will help you to pre-mix the other tracks. When you mark the commentary on a cue sheet it is worth writing the last words of each sentence before the out-point in each case.
Cue sheets can be vertical or horizontal. They should state whether each sound cuts in and out and give instructions for mixes and fades using footages to indicate the starting and finishing points. Straight lines indicate cuts. Track 3 cuts in at 47ft and out at 53ft. A fade indicated on track 4 starts at 36ft. St is fully faded in by 38ft. The same track fades out between 47ft and 49ft. Footages are normally calculated from the first frame of picture, hence ‘zero first frame’.