This thread has been dead for a while but I’m about to bring it back to life with THE dumbest delivery requirement to date. Delivering a 22 minute show that contains an on camera host with on camera dialog. The other parts of the show are animated with character dialog as well as host VO over some dialog.
The network specifically requested we treat the on camera host dialog as VO and thus deliver an undipped mix minus VO and an undipped music stem and fx stem. They don’t require an M&E.
Here’s the problem I have with all of this.
1. The relationship of dialog to music and FX changes drastically when the VO is talking over dialog but the MX and FX has to stay a bit louder to help sell the animation jokes. Therefore, mixing with a DME fader does not help.
2. Treating the on camera Host as VO completely eliminates the rule of keeping music and FX dipped under sync dialog since this “VO” is sync dialog!
I get there isn’t always one way to skin a cat but seriously these networks need to conform to ONE way that will work for every territory in the world.
9 out of 10 shows I mix don’t even know what a fully filled M&E is.
