Recording Director's Commentary Tracks

kirkilj wrote on 1/6/2006, 10:02 PM

I've been working on a DVD of a high school theatre production of "It's a Wonderful Life" and would like to include a director's commentary track. From researching other threads, I understand that the comments would be recorded on their own track and the audio of the main track would be ducked where appropriate. I'd then render out a new mixed-down AC3 commentary track for DVDA.

What recording set-up works best for such projects? I guess it's possible to sit the director in front of a laptop with a mic, have them watch a pre-rendered version of the production in Vegas' video preview window or external monitor and record their comments straight into Vegas while they monitor the audio on headphones hooked up to the laptop. Do you think Vegas could keep up on a 1.7GHz PC with 1.5GB of RAM if I terminated as many stray processes as possible beforehand? Also what type of mic setup would be best? lapel?

I'm also wondering if, with a little training, I could sit the director down and have them record their commentary themselves - showing them just enough of Vegas to record, pause, re-record, etc. and I'd lock down or hide everything except for what they'd need to perform this specific task. I know it would depend a lot on the director. Anything you could share from your own experiences would be helpful.

Thanks,

John

Comments

GaryKleiner wrote on 1/6/2006, 10:15 PM

It depends on how complicated you are willing to make it. If you are going to allow multiple takes and lots of tweaks, that can be a real can of worms (e.g. MUCH more time in post).

Your laptop should be able to handle it.

Another method is to make a window dub of your project (time code showing on screen), then while the director is viewing it, record the commentary using a camcorder pointed at the monitor. That way you have the narration married to the timecode so you can sync back to your project.

Gary

ushere wrote on 1/6/2006, 10:28 PM

i have found garys method using tc window dub works great - mind you, i used it extensively PRE nle, but after playing with a few other options, still find it the best. however, i usually send the talent away with the window dub for them to get it right (ha!) before we go to tape (or rather, hd)

leslie