Post Production- Editing

Firstly i began editing by collecting all my clips onto my timeline and using the razor tool to cut down my footage to ensure all the clips flow together correctly and smoothly. I then began adding my title sequence in by creating a new title and typing the name of my movie in the box that was provided( i used a website called da.font to find the perfect font style for my title). I then moved and scaled the position of my title to where i wanted it by going into the effects panel on the title and enabling scale and position. Furthermore i continued to create other effects such as a few titles to help introduce the movie. I added a cross dissolve onto one of the titles to help make the transition more effective and smooth rather than the title just disappearing.

The importance of sound editing

There are plenty of reasons to why there is a need to edit sound recordings and I will go through a few within this assignment along with the specific areas editing audio is crucial and some examples. Firstly, you can edit audio to compress and summaries a sound recording to fit a specific space and this is done to ensure that any audio that is needed can fit the requirements you need it to or that someone else needs it to if you are working for someone. In addition, you also want to eliminate any flaws, repetitive, superfluous, uninteresting, irrelevant material from a recorded clip. A main reason to edit audio that you have recorded is to allow yourself to create impact by adding sound effects and/ or music between pieces of recorded speech.

 ADR automated dialogue replacement is an essential part of sound editing when editing a movie because it is used to re-record actors lines and add them into the scene during post production and the reason this is done is to increase the effectiveness of the characters emotions, For example in A league of their own (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M8szlSa-8o)this scene has ADR in it because the female actors crying was quiet in actual production so they’re done the scene in a studio however they needed Tom Hanks there as well because they were overlapping each other. This was extremely effective and is done by placing the new audio over the characters speaking in the scene and matching it up.  This technique is extremely effective and allows the atmosphere in the scene and in the movie to be enhanced by sound and this will allow the audience to enjoy the movie more because of how much the sound makes them feel in scenes. Another example of how sound is used to enhance a movies story telling is Spiderman.( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN-FpMyBLLk)This clip shows several examples of scenes I Spiderman with and without sound and I personally think this shows very well how significant the use of sound is during film production because of how it can enhance a story just by using audio and different sounds to help bring scenes and even characters to life.

Fictional content can be edited by speeding up the speed of the audio that is played or slowing it down. Doing this creates an intense atmosphere to the product that is being used for example in movies the audio is usually sped up to create a sense of suspense and engage the audience more into the story, although this can also be done by spacing the audio out and this can create mystery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TWPToeLdj4in this clip it shows how the non-diegetic soundtrack builds up as the confrontation becomes more intense and the soundtrack helps build the tension by slowly making the music more dramatic and suspenseful. A common reason people edit fictional audio is because they need to remove unwanted noise from the clips to ensure the audio is clean and understandable, this allows them to apply the necessary level of creative storytelling to facilitate the narrative. Fading is also used whilst editing fictional content because it enhances the dramatic effect on the audience who is listening to the audio whilst producing dramatic sounds that is accepted by the director as it shows them that the suspense is increasing. Overdubbing is also used to add in more clear audio for the actor in the scene and this is used in specific scenes and the reason it is done is so it sounds more clean and clear for the audience which means they will not disengage from the audio. Sound bridging is a unique effect which is used to create a smooth and clean transition between scenes and this is done to enhance the story telling but also have something unique about that product because sound bridging is not that common. Retaining ambient background to recordings is done to ensure there is not a faint noise whilst the audio is playing and it becomes distracting. Editing in spot effects to match the directors needs but also engaging the audience into the product in which the audio is attached to. Adjusting the gain of the audio allows for the audio to be louder of quieter than other audio tracks that is playing and this could be used to make a certain audio clip to stand out from others or to be suppressed. For example, if you were doing a radio drama and the main character was hiding then you would turn the audio gain down to make them seem really quite. During film making a producer may stich together sound bites from various parts of a speech or conversation to make them sound as if they all happened in sequence. This can be risky because audio lacks the ellipses used in writing, listeners may believe the sentences were spoken in exactly that order. Some producers believe the technique is ok, so long as it doesn’t distort the speaker’s meaning. Others consider it deceptive editing.

When editing using shortcuts can increase productivity time as well as decrease any unnecessary time for example when I was working on my radio drama when I was editing together the audio clips I used command c to copy a clip and command v to paste it instead of right clicking and selecting copy and paste. Overall this increased my productivity and the pace I was working at. Other commands such as command and shift are helpful when using logic pro because it allows you to cut an audio clip without wasting time selecting but it in the menus, using shortcuts is extremely helpful if you have a deadline or want to increase your flow of work. However shortcuts vary on different platforms for example only on Logic Pro is command shift helpful but on other audio editing software that shortcut rarely exists most editing software vary in the shortcuts they contain however command v and command c are in all audio editing softwares. The reason knowing all shortcuts will increase ur work flow on all editing platforms rather than just one and this would be an excellent skill to have.

Working can be difficult sometimes because you may only be familiar with one editing software When the Company you are working for uses a software you have never used.This also Apply’s to what computer the company uses because a company could use a Mac or a Pc which are both industry standard but you might  only be familiar with One which means you’d have to learn new programs for editing if you used logic pro because that only works on Mac but audition works on Mac and Pc. furthermore, controls for shortcuts are different on Pc to Mac which will decrease your productivity time and work pace as you learn a new software or commands.

Although, If you are freelance you work with what you are comfortable with and most will use a Pc because you can buy a high spec Pc for the same price or lower than a basic Mac. Being freelance allows you to Be comfortable with using one type of software and commands and not having the worry of having no work because you are only familiar with one software. This will definitely increase productivity and work pace by because using software you are familiar with allows you to flow through the work not worrying about how to do something.

Factual content can be edited in the same way as fictional however it serves a different purpose for example during a wild life documentary you see a lion fighting its dinner and because of safety reasons the crew cannot hold a boom mic over the top of the lion so whilst recording the fight the crew were rustling leaves in a bush trying to mimic the sounds that were occurring in the fight to enhance the action and to show the real experience to the audience. Furthermore, most factual content is likely to be recorded outside which means the microphones need to be set up in the correct position and with the right amount of audio gain to ensure there is little ambient noise coming through to the system and this technique of placing the microphone correctly or adjusting the gain is mainly done on news broadcasts and documentaries which are mainly outside. However, when editing audio for news reports some agree that when a reporter records a report for broadcast, it’s fine to edit out stumbles and errors. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3UewDtB_hk) Although some believe it is involving the practice of many journalists regarding written quotes. The key thing, they believe is for the audio to fairly convey what the speaker said. Furthermore, most news outlets allow standard procedures like equalization and minimizing of telephone line noises to improve the quality and understanding of audio cuts. However, there could be an issue in taking a voice over static-filled line and making it sound crystal-clear: listeners may be confused over whether the person was speaking from a remote location or in your own studio. 

There are plenty types of sound editing equipment that ranges from analog to digital. The first piece of equipment Is Adobe Audition CC, this software is best suited for the editors with a big budget for audio.Audition can function both as a single-track audio editor, and as a multi-track mixer for recording and layering sounds. The app can be used as a fully-fledged digital audio workstation with support for recording multiple sources at once as well as external plugins. Adobe also added best-in-class audio restoration tools, allowing you to grab a sample of "noise" in your recording, then remove that unwanted range of sound from the entire file. You can also use adaptive noise reduction (which intelligently detects undesirable sound for you) and automatic or spot healing to remove pops and clicks. However, the best audio editing software to use for multi-track editing and recording for free is Audacity.A basic and slightly clunky interface lets it down compared to some of its rivals.It provides users with a full set of editing and mastering tools, including destructive waveform and multi-track editing. You can't record multiple audio sources at once or perform non-destructive edits. 

There are several ways to edit sound and most of them follow the same principal, how to fix it and how to make it better. The reason you want to fix the audio is to remove any unwanted sounds which appear in the recording and this can range from ambient noise to helicopters. Usually there is a tool called “silent” on most editing software or has a similar name which removes unwanted background noise. However, having unwanted noise in the background in just one of many things that can go wrong for example you could have unnecessary dialogue which you want to remove or some audio could be too quiet so you need to increase the volume to make it more clear. Before beginning the recording, you want to ensure you use the right microphone for the audio you are about to capture because the type of mic effects the audio massively.

Once you have fixed the audio then you look to make it better and this can include increasing or decreasing the volume of certain audio clips to enhance what is being told or to make it more clear to the audience. Inputting sound effects or sounds track is an effective way of making scenes better because they help bring the scenes to life and help bring an atmosphere to the audience that you cannot get anywhere else. Increasing the speed and volume of a soundtrack can create tension or excitement amongst the audience and make them really involved and engaged within the piece of material that they are watching and listening too.

When editing sound depending on what the sound is edited for you should use headphones. For example, if you are editing sound for a radio drama then you should edit the sound using headphones because that is the most common form of how the audience consume radio dramas. The benefit of using headphones will allow you to hear the audio clearly so when you are adjusting the audio levels and cutting audio it will make it much clearer for you as you edit it. Knowing keyboard shortcuts when editing would be beneficial because it will allow you to be efficient with your time for example using the command key in logic pro to cut a track saves you time having to keeping moving your mouse and potentially losing the place you wanted to cut the audio. When moving from the recording studio to the editing studio you need to ensure you have multiple copies of the audio you have just gathered and that is it organized in multiple films because this will allow you to be much more organized and time efficient when it comes to editing the sound because you will know where all your films are located and where the backups are. Furthermore, when importing clips, you need to ensure you import the right audio clips because if not then this could mess up your time line and waste your time when you are trying to fix it which is not a good thing therefore linking back in to being organized and labelling your tracks can save you so much time and allow more time in adding effects to the audio such as adding start and end points to help delete unwanted audio.