Marion Street studio records Hollywood stars

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This article was published 21/04/2020 (2227 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From small-scale films to major Hollywood productions, a local audio hub serves them all.

Precursor Productions, located at 218 Marion St., started off as a music studio 20 years ago. Since then, it has expanded to offer other services, leading to a growing demand for its post-production audio expertise for film and television.

In particular, the studio’s dubbing process called ADR (automated dialog replacement) continues to gain momentum.

“Whenever there’s an actor shooting a production, they’ve usually worked on other films or movies that are in post-production. Often they’ll need to replace some of the lines that the actor has done for various reasons,” said Precursor Productions partner Andrew Yankiwski.

“We quite randomly started getting calls from Hollywood productions asking if we could bring someone into the studio to dub some of their lines for something they are working on in post-production.”

On March 2, Liam Neeson walked through the doors of Precursor for an ADR session.

“He’s the most high-profile actor that we’ve had. It was exciting and scary for us. We did a session and everything went well,” Yankiwski said.

“He was the lead in the movie, so we actually got to record a number of lines that will be featured in the movie that we worked on with him.”

The process begins with a phone call or email from someone in Hollywood looking for a Winnipeg studio that can do ADR. If they decide to go ahead, the Hollywood picture department will provide a current edit of the show or movie they’re working on.

“In the case with Liam Neeson, they sent us the entire edit of the movie,” Yankiwski said.

“It wasn’t quite finished but it was near completion, so obviously there’s quite a lot of trust there.”

The Hollywood team sends audio tracks of dialogue, music and sound effects in their current state of edit. They’ll also provide a cue sheet or script that indicates lines to be replaced.

The actor then enters a sound-isolated recording booth equipped with microphones as well as a monitor to see the movie and headphones to hear it.

Using a software product called Source Connect, the local studio connects with a sound stage in Hollywood.

“Whenever I hit play on my workstation, their movie will play back simultaneously with mine, even though they’re thousands of kilometres away,” Yankiwski said.

“They’ll be able to see the movie in real time and watch the lips of the actor move on screen and hear the actor’s voice synchronously. They can direct the actor remotely too, so it’s as if they’re in the room with the actor.”

Precursor records multiple takes and then converts the audio files into a format that the Hollywood team can use.

“I will send it to them via the internet, so within an hour they’ve got their high-resolution audio of the actor’s voice. Then they can go through the takes on their end and decide which ones they’re going to use,” he said.

“This gives us an opportunity to do some small bits and pieces on much more significant productions than what we usually get to do here in Winnipeg.”

It’s an interesting dichotomy to work on smaller local productions all the way up to major motion pictures, he added.

“The local stuff is our bread and butter, and we also get a little window into Hollywood,” Yankiwski said.

“Sometimes we work with Winnipeg actors and other times it’s more prominent actors like Liam Neeson, so we’re a little bit like a secret hideout.”