420 The Digital Filmmaking Handbook, 4E

Remember to work on copies of your sequence as you mix down your tracks, in case you need to go back and remix. Refer to your editing software documentation for directions on how to mix down tracks of audio.

Make a copy of your eight-channel split track sequence for each different type of mix you want to create.

nTo create an M&E mix, mix the sync production dialogue down to one track, and the effects and ambience tracks down to another track. Leave the stereo music as is on the last two tracks.

nTo create a stereo mix, you need to mix the dialogue, effects, and stereo music left to channel one, and the dialogue, effects, and stereo music right to channel two. Be sure to balance your levels, since this different configuration can easily result in the dialogue and effects overpowering the music.

nTo create a surround sound mix, use the preset offered by your editing or DVD/Blu-ray authoring application to create standard 5.1 surround sound mix. If you want to customize the balance of audio across the six speakers, things get a lot more complicated. You’ll need extra hardware to monitor it correctly—surround sound speakers and a mixing board to send each audio track out to a separate speaker. If you need a specialized surround sound mix, we recommend hiring a professional mixer.

Make a Textless Master

Earlier, we suggested putting your titles and other text-based elements on a separate video track in your timeline. This makes it easier to create a textless master. The textless master will be used for foreign dubbed and subtitled versions. It’s also good for using as source material for publicity clips and so on. The only text-based element in a textless master is the end credit roll. Typically, this will stay as is for the textless master, and any additional credits for foreign versions will be subtitled over later on. For foreign language versions, take your M&E mix and add it to your textless master.

Export Your Masters

So now you should have two master sequences—a texted master sequence and a textless master sequence. Be sure to render everything before you export.

When you export, you have to choose a codec, and that is a very important decision. The bottom line is that you can’t improve the quality of your original footage, but you can degrade it. So if you shot in a 4:2:2 HD format, then used a 4:2:2 intermediary codec to edit, you will not improve the quality of your film by exporting the final file-based master to a 4:4:4 format. However, if you export it to, say, a 4:2:0 format, you will lose some image quality. So whatever codec you choose, it should be the same as what you started with or better (see Figure 18.4). Higher quality codecs create larger files, but it’s better to have a large file than to accidentally downgrade your image quality.

The good news is that it is digital and if you don’t like the results, you can always do it again.