SOUND EDITING
WHY IS SOUND EDITING IMPORTANT?
Sound editing is important because it can make the film seem more realistic
by adding in sound effects, music and even human voice. It may be added to
distract the viewers from intended content, or it could be used to heighten a
mood in a scene. Sounds and dialogue must be perfectly sync with the actions
in a film and they must sound the way they look. If something doesn’t match,
it will look unprofessional and can draw viewers away from the film and
would not look as realistic.
Sound can also be something that can make something easily recognizable,
such as Jaws theme with the tension in the music which symbolizes that
danger is near, when this piece of music is played the audience will
immediately realise that there is a shark that is approaching someone or
something.
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE - MARILYN MANSON
INTERVIEW
To change the chronological or logical order of a series of
sounds or speech:
In the interview of Marilyn Manson in Bowling for Columbine,
segments of Manson's music is added between the interviews to
show his music videos and how his songs may have impacted
some people. It has been edited in to show examples and to put
his point across to show the audience how his music may have
influenced peoples behaviours.
THOM YORKE ON NEIL
YOUNG (INTERVIEW)
To eliminate flawed, repetitive, irrelevant material from
a recorded clip:
In this interview, the first minute consists of irrelevant
material. It contains outtakes and conversations which
are not relevant to the interview, and parts where the
camera crew is adjusting Yorke's microphone. The entire
footage raw, it hasn’t been edited so there are many
parts that wouldn’t be needed and would need to be cut.
COUNTDOWN
To ensure any indecent or inappropriate
language is edited out:
In this episode of Countdown, inappropriate
language is censored as the original unedited
content included certain words that needed to be
edited out. This also protects younger audiences
from hearing indecent language.
EMMERDALE
To compress and summarise a sound recording to
fit a specific space:
In this episode of Emmerdale, the entire episode
has been cut into 12-13 minutes each to fit the 30
minute slot which allows the adverts to fit in for
the breaks. Therefore any sounds used have been
chopped to fit the space. This is typical with TV
programmes as they all have to keep the schedule.
EASTENDERS
To create impact by adding sound effects and/or
music between pieces of recorded speech:
In this episode of EastEnders, ambient sound is
created with the radio sounds in the background.
It makes the scene seem more realistic when the
background noise is edited in and could cancel
out any distracting background noise and can
get the audience to focus more on the actors
conversation and makes it seem like they are in
the café.
QUIET SOUND
EXAMPLE
To enable recorded speech to remain legal:
In this clip, the sound is very quiet and would
not be able to be aired on TV. The volume was
needed to be turned up very high in order to
hear the speech properly. TV noise should be
around 70dB for it to be safe for the audiences.
When editing sound, it would need to be at an
appropriate volume where everything is audible
and the audience can hear it.
FACTUAL SOUND
EDITING
WHY IS SOUND EDITING IMPORTANT IN
FACTUAL CONTENT?
Sound editing is important in factual content because some imperfections in
the audio can distract the intended content. The sound levels also affect the
audiences emotions and would need clarity where the audio would match the
actions on screen.
For example:
News stories – location reports, studio presenter dialogue
Documentary – retaining the original intention and resisting the desire to
introduce misrepresentation for the sake of continuity
PARIS IS BURNING (1990)
In the beginning of Paris is Burning, the first shot is a title
which informs the audience of when and where the following
shots would be located. It begins with a shot of the city from far
where there is nearly no sound, apart from the airplane flying
across the city. The next shot is more closer to the city, where it
captures more ambient sounds such as the faint car sounds. The
next shot then takes the audience closer where we hear the
sounds of the city more clearer, such as the cars and music
coming from buildings. As the shots gets closer inside the city,
the sounds are more intensified as if a person has been walking
into the city. There are ambient sounds of cars, music and people
talking as the camera is near the front of a building.
We get a narrative in the beginning and throughout the first cut
we get cuts into an ambient sound in the location which is
diegetic as the music is coming from the ball.
The interview in the beginning of the documentary, the up-tempo
music in the first cut is faded at just the last second of the
interview scene to help things flow.
There is also ambient sound of the city in another scene where a
man is interviewed, where we hear cars and people.
BOWLING FOR
COLUMBINE (2002)
The interview is an example of using unethical
techniques to show a biased point of view, the
interview is not in chronological order and the
information is presented in a way that Michael
Moore wants it to.
At the end of the interview, there is narration that
tells us about the right to maintain guns in their
homes for people to live in Virgin. There follows a
montage of many people with guns ranging from
little kids and old people, with a sort of relaxing
uplifting music in the back while people are showing
violence with the gun, with the diegetic sounds of
the gunshots.
LIFE THAT GLOWS (2016)
In the beginning of the documentary, there are non-diegetic
sounds within it that both the animals and Attenborough
himself cannot hear, it is soft background music. There are
also ambient sounds of the location, the leaves rustling and
the fireflies flying around. The music flows with the images
that are displayed as it is atmospheric and relaxing and the
music may distract the audience from the content. When
Attenborough is speaking, the music is quieter in order for
the audience to be able to hear what he is saying, but the
music is still going on in the background. After the short
introduction of the documentary, the music gets louder when
the title of the documentary slowly zooms into the screen.
We are shown a short montage of the different living
creatures that glow to somewhat capture the audiences
attention and show them what they look like in order for
them to continue watching, the non-diegetic music in the
background is uplifting and relaxing and covers the actual
sound of what is going on in real life, which would be
revealed later on during the documentary.
JAMIE OLIVER INTERVIEW
This interview is an example of studio presenter dialogue.
Throughout the interview, the whole intended meaning is
kept while the length is kept to a point where it fits with
the allocated time frame.
At the start of the clip, the presenter introduces the
audience to the subject and then gives us a brief
explanation, including edited clips of Theresa May when
he speaks about the government. The editing of this clip
helps the audience understand what is happening and
also provides us evidence to what happened. The
presenter then goes on to introduce Jamie Oliver by
saying "So I asked him for his reaction to the Tory's
manifesto pledge." This is then followed by Jamie Oliver
responding to the question straight after with "Oh its
awful". When the clips of Theresa May is shown, a split
second from the beginning of Oliver's interview is
overlapped into the clip which helps things flow.
FICTIONAL SOUND
EDITING
BABY DRIVER (2017)
In Baby Driver, editing skills have been used to produce
dramatic sound by including diegetic sound from the
main character, Baby. He is able to hear his music from
his MP3 player and some ambient noise in the back,
such as police sirens, gunshots and people screaming in
the bank. The music that Baby is listening to makes the
car chase scene more intense and epic as the soundtrack
matches the fast pace of the scene, with the guitar
sounds adding a more fun atmosphere to it. The ambient
sounds of the cars make it seem more realistic and is
appropriate with the situation as it is intense.
In the beginning of the scene, the sound has been edited
to match what Baby is hearing, as the loudest sound is
the music he is listening to. The sounds coming from
inside the building is muffled and the sound of the police
siren fades in and fades out as it drives past him.
MULAN (1998)
In the scene in Mulan where she makes her decision to take
her fathers place in the war, the music in the background
changes from a soft, sad tone which then changes and
becomes more louder and intense. The change in music is
symbolic of how Mulan is feeling, she goes from a sad,
worried mood when she is sitting outside in the rain before
she finally decides to sacrifice herself for her fathers safety.
At the end of the montage, the music comes to a sudden
stop when Mulan leaves her house while on her horse. The
loud music in the background is powerful due to its
loudness and it shows her bravery. It makes the audience go
through different emotions as there is no dialogue included,
just some sound effects such as the sword and the lightning.
GET OUT (2017)
In the teacup scene, sound is edited in a way where the
hypnotic noise of the teacup is the only sound that is focused
in the background, suggesting that the noise that is slowly
taking over Chris' mind as Missy is stirring her teacup. The
constant sound of the stirring in the background throughout
the whole hypnosis process shows repetitiveness and tries to
get the viewers sleepy.
As the hypnosis process begins, slow and eerie non-
diegetic music starts to play in the background that fades
into the scene which begins quietly and slowly gets more
louder, which could show the process of the hypnosis is
working and also create tension for the audiences as Missy is
slowly getting Chris to explain the horrible events he went
through as a child.
When the hypnotism is complete, the music takes a small
pause before Chris is taken to the "Sunken place" in which
the music takes a dramatic drop and becomes loud. The
dramatic music when Chris goes to the Sunken place, the
audience is able to see that he is in trouble due to him falling
into darkness and a place where he is unable to control.
