Walter Murch - Marlon Brando's analysis of the ADR process (261/266)

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To listen to more of Walter Murch’s stories, go to the playlist: • Walter Murch (Film-maker)
Walter Scott Murch (b. 1943) is widely recognised as one of the leading authorities in the field of film editing, as well as one of the few film editors equally active in both picture and sound. [Listener: Christopher Sykes; date recorded: 2016]
TRANSCRIPT: I remember I was on '[The] Godfather' I. I was working with Francis [Ford Coppola]. I was the ADR supervisor for some of that film, and-in addition to other things-and we were working with Marlon Brando. And we had gotten, perhaps, halfway through the film, he... There wasn't a lot to do, but it was significant. And at... but at the halfway point, Francis suddenly stood up and said, 'Well, this is going great. I have to go somewhere else now, so you guys continue', and he was gone. And suddenly, I found myself in a dark room with Marlon Brando, doing ADR for 'The Godfather'. And we finished the reel that we were working on. And the technicians, at the end of that, they have to take down everything and rethread everything up for the next section, and so there's a five minute break in between. We were sitting there in the dark. And then I suddenly heard this voice out of the darkness. Marlon Brando, he said, 'Some people say I mumble', and I had to think very quickly what the correct answer to this was. I was 26 years old at the time, or something. And I said, 'That's right, some people do say that you mumble.' And I wondered, 'What he's going to say now?' And he said, 'They're right, I do mumble, and I'll tell you why. Because - now they were threading the film up, he said - I don't know, when we shoot these films, I don't know whether that scene is going to be in the film or out. And if it's in the film, I don't know whether it's going to be in the position it was in the screenplay or somewhere else. I don't know that it's not going to be cut in half, and the first half will be put with the second. So, when I see this finished film, I sometimes say to myself, if I knew you were going to do that, I would've said something different, or I would've said it in a different way. So, in self-defence, when we shoot these films, I don't move my lips very much. I keep my mouth kind of closed so that, when I see the film before we finish it, I can change the dialogue and make it better. If I move my lips a lot like that, I can't... you can't... It's harder to change the dialogue, so I don't move my lips very much.'
So that was his analysis of the ADR process. And he enjoyed it. I mean, some actors hate it. They just... They have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, or even refuse to do it. But Brando, in fact, likes the... It does... If you accept it, even though it's technically challenging, if you accept it, it allows you, kind of, an escape clause, you can modify things at the last minute.

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@tiffsaver 6 жыл бұрын

Totally agree. Overdubbing (or, "looping") can actually HELP a scene. But many actors, particularly Method ones, HATE it. "Not being in the moment," etc., etc. In any case, during the course of a movie, it must be done, like it or not, so why not simply accept the fact?? Actors are a sensitive breed. On this same topic, however, it's interesting to note that back in the Sergio Leone "spaghetti western" days, they had no such thing as simultaneous voice recording, so all the actors you see in those films were ALL overdubbed, from the first word to the last. Quite a feat! Whenever I watch "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," I am constantly amazed at their ability to do it so well. It's not easy.