Wild Track:
When on location, you should always record a ‘wild track’.
This should be a few minutes of the ambient noise from your location (the sound
of traffic, chirping of birds etc.). In the edit it is very useful (and often
absolutely required) to keep a wild track running in the background to smooth
over the changes from cut to cut. A wild track is an audio only recording of an
actor’s lines while the camera is not rolling. These wild recordings are used
to replace a dialogue from a filmed take that may be un-usable for various
reasons. Perhaps a plane flew over during the scene. It will be used in part or
in whole to replace the on-camera dialogue. It is also used for off- camera
lines that need to be recorded on mic. So make sure you don’t forget to record
a wild track on set.
