Why You need an M&E for Foreign Film Distribution
Once your picture is locked, color graded, and sound mixed, you're feeling pretty good. Maybe even have a distributor lined up. Well, if your delivery specs call for a "Fully Filled" M&E, you're going to need to know what that means.
What does "Fully Filled" M&E Mean?
When delivering an M&E (Music and Effects), it needs to contain all of the sounds in the mix besides the English dialogue. Once your dialogue track is removed, you should have no gaps in your M&E. For example, if the actor sets down a cup while talking, the sound of the cup hitting the table should be on your M&E track as well.
An often-used approach to create an M&E is to mute all the dialogue and keep the music and sound effects that were already in the timeline. A Fully Filled M&E, however, requires a total reconstruction of the sonic environment.
Here's what you should have in your M&E:
- Foley Recording: Synchronized performative audio such as footsteps, clothes, and props that the actors use in the picture.
- Ambient Backgrounds: Air, room tone, city noise, and background sounds that are used throughout the scenes and remain consistent.
- Incidental Sounds: Sounds such as door slams, car engines, and weather elements that were originally captured by the dialogue microphone.
- Sound Design & Sound Effects: Non-foley sound effects created to picture. Such as custom sound design, impacts, explosions, vehicles, creatures, weapons, and sci-fi elements.
When a foreign studio dubs your film using your M&E track, you want them to be able to make your film sound exactly how you made it, just in a different language.
For indie filmmakers, this is where it can get tricky. If you didn't plan an M&E track for your film, you are going to run into issues. It can become very costly and take up a lot of time.
1. Why Do Distributors Need an M&E Track?
Your distributor wants to sell your movie to other countries. The film will need to be dubbed into another language. They won't be able to sell your film to a foreign company if you don't have a proper M&E track.
2. Why Does an M&E Need Foley?
On a film set, your dialogue mic picks up more than just the actors speaking. It picks up the sounds of their shoes hitting the ground, chair movements, etc.
Once the dialogue tracks are muted to create the M&E, all of those physical sounds disappear. You're left with digital silence, a void where there should be movement and sound. If you didn't record dedicated Foley or heavy sound design during the edit, your film will sound like a hollow shell the moment the voices are gone.
3. What is Included in an M&E?
When mixing a film, some might just mute the dialogue and call it an M&E. However, this is not considered a fully-filled standard M&E. When building your M&E, you will want to:
- Harvest PFX: Scour the raw production audio to find "clean" sound elements that happened between lines of dialogue.
- Perform Foley: Every footstep, hand touch, and clothing rustle needs to be re-recorded in a studio to replace what was lost.
- Layer Ambiance: You have to rebuild the "air" of every room and outdoor ambiances so there's never a total drop-out of sound.
- Handle Non-Verbals: Decisions have to be made on screams, breaths, and laughs. Do they stay or do they go?
4. Music With Lyrics | The issue
Music is another common hurdle for an M&E. If your film features songs with lyrics, those vocals are technically "dialogue." In many international markets, those lyrics need to be removed or translated.
If you didn't secure the instrumental stems from your composer or music supervisor during the initial deal, you're stuck. Trying to remove vocals out of a finished song after the fact usually results in a muddy, unusable mess that won't pass quality control. Just like the main dialogue, these vocals often need to be removed and overdubbed for foreign markets.
5. Hidden Costs of Foley in The Indie Budget
One of the most jarring realizations for an indie filmmaker comes during this final delivery phase. You've already spent your budget on the shoot, the edit, and the color grade. Now, you realize your film is missing 70% of its physical sound because it was all buried under the dialogue.
To fix this, you need Foley. For a full-length feature, professional Foley can easily run into the thousands of dollars. It requires a specialized studio, a prop warehouse, and artists who perform these sounds in sync with your picture.
If you didn't account for this during production, it can quickly become an unexpected expense because the film budget has already been used up. Many filmmakers find themselves in a catch-22: they need the distribution deal to get paid, but they can't afford the M&E required to sign the deal.
Don't Let Your Distribution Deal Stall
If you discover late in the process that your soundtrack isn't ready for international delivery, you can still fix it, but it will require experienced audio post-production. TravSonic helps filmmakers build M&E tracks that meet professional delivery requirements and keep distribution plans moving.
FAQs Covered in this Article
Q: When should you create your M&E?
A: As soon as you begin your dialogue edit, you should be creating your pre-dubs. Once you reach your final mix, it's best to have all your dialogue, music, and SFX split up on their own tracks. If you don't, you'll be spending that time creating pre-dubs.
Q: Can't you just mute dialogue on your final stereo master?
A: Typically, your final master will have all of your dialogue, music, and SFX baked into one stereo or 5.1 file. You will hear gaps when muting your dialogue track on your final mix. That's why M&Es need to be built from individual pre-dub tracks. Dialogue, Production FX, Foley, and Music should all be isolated.
Q: What will cause a Distributor to fail your M&E during QC?
A: "Spill". Your edited audio tracks may contain dialogue that was not cleaned properly. Room mics and rushed dialogue editing can create a lot of spill. If your QC person can hear any of your dialogue while testing your M&E against foreign dialogue, they will send it back.
Q: What are option tracks and why are they useful when creating M&Es?
A: Once you pull all of your English dialogue from your master, there will probably be some important native pops you want to keep. These could be a character's grunt or breath. Having these on an option track will allow for easier replacement when working with your foreign actors.
