Synchronised Sound and Picture
We have so far considered ways by which non sync tracks can be synchronised to picture in the cutting room. If the film you are cutting has been shot with synchronised sound for every scene you will be able to cut sound and picture simultaneously using either a synchroniser or a motorised editing machine. Comparatively few films are shot with sync sound for every scene and you will often find that you have some sound shots and some which are mute. We have seen how you prepare sound effects for the mute shots. How do you handle sync sound takes in the cutting room?
Synchronising rushes
After logging the rushes you must first synchronise sound and picture. First refer to the sound and camera report sheets and see which scenes have been shot with synchronised sound and which have not. Next, wind down the picture film on a synchroniser and find the start of the first synchronised sound take. If the camera crew have done their job properly there will be a clapper board (often referred to as a slate) on either the head or the end of the take. If it is at the end it should be held upside down. When you see a board upside down you will immediately know that it refers to the scene which precedes it and not the one which follows. To synchronise sound and picture, wind the picture down and find the point where the two parts of the board actually bang together. When you have found the precise frame — it will only be one frame — mark it with a wax pencil cross. The parts of the board may remain together for several frames but that does not really concern us. We are concerned with the frame where the two parts first bang together — the point where the sound is produced. Find that frame and mark it with a one frame cross, using a wax pencil. Alongside the cross note the shot and take number.
Next, temporarily ignore the picture and turn your attention to the track of separate perforated magnetic sound. Wind it, too, down on the synchroniser and listen until you hear the sound identification of the same shot. You should hear someone say “Scene 10 Take 1”, or whatever it is, followed by a bang — the bang where the two parts of the board were actuality banged together. Identify that one precise frame and mark it with a cross. All you have to do now is put the cross on the soundtrack and the cross on the picture alongside each other in two tracks of the synchroniser and wind down. Sound and picture should now be synchronised.
An assistant reads scene and take numbers and bangs the two parts of the clapper board together. The point at which the top and bottom of the board first bang together (B) is recorded by the camera lens (C). A microphone (A) simultaneously records the sound. Sound reaches the film (E) via an amplifier (D). To synchronise sound and picture align the one frame where the board first bangs together with the frame where the sound bang starts.