February 2, 1998

This afternoon I took the DATs from the August sound mix to Robin's office, where she edited the end of reel one to the beginning of reel two to check whether they matched. Sure enough, the jarring sound cut I've been hearing on the last video copy was a mistake that happened way back at the sound mix stage, and has nothing to do with the transfer at Nice Shoes. Which means that the problem is on the optical track and the print also....

I'm not sure how much effort and money I should expend on this problem. Robin fooled with the sound levels of the two DATs, and she was able to make the sound levels match pretty well across the cut. This means that an audio postproduction house might be able to transfer the DATs to the D2 again, changing the sound level at the right moment to minimize the problem. I don't know exactly who to go to for this work or how much it will cost--I'll have to make some calls before making a decision. If I want to fix the problem on the print as well, I have to make a new reel two DAT with the fix, then make a new optical track for reel two, then print reel two again. This process will be expensive and time-consuming, and I probably won't go through it just now.

I'm feeling discouraged that all these problems should happen just as I'm finishing. Postproduction is starting to seem like the bourne from which no traveler returns.

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