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[HOPE AND FEAR] : BEHIND-THE-SCENESPost-production: |
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Additional commentary by production staff is in this colour.
On 11th March 1998 the shot scenes end up in Paramount's editing rooms, second floor, Haggar Building (for the 'dailies' editing procedure see also The quantum slipstream effect). When the messenger arrives from Editel with the daily tape an editing assistant loads it into the Avid system.
Daryl Baskin: "The main formula for editing Voyager is very specific. We open every scene with the master shot so the audience can see where we are and who's in the room. Then we go in tighter. Then, depending on the scene, you kind of open back up to the master and let it play. There may or may not be some close-ups mixed in there. And that's the formula. (Giving an example) On Scene 96, the master goes all the way through. Rick Kolbe shot it twice, but he printed only the second one. That makes my job easy, but if I should find something wrong in the print, I can call to have any part of the other one printed. We call that unprinted film 'B-Negative. He explains that the timing of Scene 101, when Arturis grabs his gun and Janeway dematerialises, is odd because we see Arturis grab the gun. He explains that every Starfleet beam-out is timed at four seconds long. Since the visual-effects "sparkles" will not be added until later, the editor generally adds a four-second temporary sound effect so that the producers will understand what is happening when they screen the footage. This time, however, that four seconds isn't long enough to allow for all the action. "I don't want to show Janeway beaming out before Arturis grabs his weapon, but in the time allotted, she has to. If she doesn't, she really would get hurt."
He tries several variations of the material but eventually he head-trims the shot, cutting off the beginning of the action and not showing the alien pick up the weapon at all. "Now when we see him, he already has it in his hand. So when Janeway says, 'Come with me, it's not too late,' we hang on her for a beat and the beam-out starts. When Arturis turns around and the audience sees Janeway again, it's the last half second. She's already gone, and it'll just be sparkles. It's the only way to make the timing work."
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| Janeway tells Arturis, "Come with us. It's not too late." The transporter beam starts to take her as Arturis grabs a gun. | |
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| "It is for you!" cries Arturis, but he fires his weapon too late. Janeway has been beamed to Voyager. | |
On 18th March Daryl Baskin and Supervising Editor J.P. Farrell assemble the first rough cut, called the off-line cut, of the entire episode (43 minutes' worth of scenes). Where they encounter missing visual-effects shots, they insert holes, and write a chyron message on each such as
EXTERIOR. NORMAL SPACE. VOYAGER COMES OUT OF
SLIPSTREAM AND BANKS TO STARBOARD.
The chyron provides only an approximation of the visual that will be inserted in the hole. The length of the hole (the number of frames at 24 frames per second) matches the length the visual-effect will be.
The compiled information, namely the time-codes of the first and last frames of each edit, onto a computer zip disk. This off-line cut has numerous bumps in the edits, as well as odd sounds in the audio. Those imperfections will be corrected, or on-lined, after the Director, Producers and post-production staff have screened it.
On 30th March there is a pre-screening of the episode's off-line cut before Peter Lauritson, Dan Curry, Ronald B. Moore, Dawn Velazquez and J.P. Farrell. They fast-forward between each visual effect, stopping at the "holes" to discuss how Dan Curry and Ron Moore expect each effect to look. They take notes which will be included with the show when it is sent to Rick Berman for screening. Once Rick Berman approves the show, Dawn Velazquez will send it to Editel for on-lining.
Dawn Velazquez: "An 'on-line' is simply a clean form of the show. The on-line editors reproduce the show from the D-2 master so that it all looks nice."
On 7th April Supervising Sound Editor Bill Estrom, several of his staff and Dawn Velazquez meet for a Special Effects department "sound-spotting" session. Everyone present has seen the on-line cut and has listed his or her opinions of the audio needs or additions. Now they compare lists.
Dawn Velazquez: "We watch the show from the beginning and decide such things as what the alien bridge noises should sound like, whether there should be static anywhere, whether we need to electronically treat a character's voice, and whether there are lines that need to be 'looped,' or re-recorded by the actors. It's an alien ship with new alien technology so it needs a different ship rumble, different beeps, all different sounds."
9th April is the first of several automated dialogue replacement sessions, known as ADR or looping sessions. One by one, the actors report to Modern Sound, a Hollywood audio studio a few blocks away from the Paramount lot, to re-record any problematic words, lines, or speeches. The sessions are scheduled around each actor's availability, but work must be completed within three weeks from the end of photography.
The final scenes require only a small number of looping fixes. As predicted during filming, all the dialogue in the Dauntless' engine room needs to be replaced. And in Scene 96, Kate Mulgrew has to read all her lines from the master shot onwards as she was so far back in it that it it would have been impossible to record her and for tv viewers not to see the microphone. Later in the shot, when the ship shakes, she is asked to record a new "Uh!" The original, done on the set, was inaudible, and the monosyllable has been deemed necessary.
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