Unit 24 Sound Editing

Why do we edit sound?

Sound editing is used in cinema to create better environments for scenes. If in cinema we didn't edit sounds then there could be a lot of unwanted audio that could distract the audience from what's important. For example in Unit 20 I used sound editing to remove background noise of the wind blowing into the mic. If I had left the wind blowing in the background then it would have been difficult for the audience to focus on what was important.

Furthermore sound editing can be used to help create better environments for scenes through the use of artificial audio. In films such as Star Wars fictional sounds had to be manufactured by sound editors so that the sound of lightsabers and lasers could match up with the props. Obviously laser guns aren't real which is why they had to make them separately.

Sound Editing Presentation

This is a sound editing presentation that I participated in making with the help of my peers (Tyler Nation and Rob Batson). In this presentation we went over Factual and Fictional sounds. We also looked at some of the ethical dilemmas that can occur when editing sounds.

Wild Tracks

A wild track is when audio is recorded separately and synced up with a recorded scene in editing. This may be used in films because the sounds that were recorded at the time didn't sound good or were too quiet to be used.

Wild sound example

This is an example of a wild sound that I created to show someone knocking on a door. The recording of the door and sound used were separately recorded as in the original footage of the door the audio was corrupted. The sound of the knock was created using a wooden table. The knocking rhythm that I collected was based on the flow of the recording of the door. The reason that I had to be specific with the rhythm of the knock was to make the recording and audio look synced. It is important in cinema that when wild tracks are used that the audio and video match so that the audience don't notice. If sounds and video are not synced then the illusion of the film can be damaged.

Factual sounds

Factual sounds are sounds that have originally come from what has been recorded. An example would be recording a car driving along a road and keeping the sound and recording together. These types of sounds are important in television programmes such as documentaries as they don't mislead the audience about what is being documented.

Factual sound example

This is an example of where a factual sound has been used for documentary purposes. The sound of the bird that is being documented in the video is completely real with no alterations. It is important that the sound has no alterations as the documentary is focusing on the sound of the bird in particular so alterations would be misleading to the audience.

Fictional sounds

Fictional sounds are sounds that are synthetic and added to a pre recorded setting. An example would be recording a forest and adding the sounds of magical creatures to the footage. These types of sounds are good when fictional things such as dinosaurs are shown in productions.

Fictional sound example

This is an example of where a fictional sound has been created in order to fit a brief for a fictional creature. Dinosaurs have been extinct for thousands of years now so it's impossible for any factual sounds of them to be recorded. The only way a film with dinosaurs can be created now are synthetically with sound editing techniques and special effects.

Digital editing equipment

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro is a video editing app that was developed by Adobe Systems and published as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud licensing programme. It was first launched in 2003 and was based on Adobe Premiere which was first launched in 1991. Adobe Premiere Pro is aimed at professional video editing while Adobe Premiere is aimed at the consumers market. Large media companies like CNN and the BBC have been known to use Premiere Pro and recent feature films such as Deadpool have used it for editing.

Adobe Premiere Pro is good for sound editors as it allows them to playback sounds on top of video footage. This feature is important for someone editing sounds in a film as they need to be able to create the sound based on the video in order to build tension in the audience. For example if there was horror film that had a scene of someone slowly approaching a closet the sound editor would need to be able to see the video in order to sync the audio to build tension and then climax at the right time. If they were instructed to create a sound that built tension and lead to a jumpscare they have to know how long the video scene is in order to make the right sounds over it.

Horror tension jumpscare

In this video the audio is slowly built up over a period of 27 seconds with a 2 second climax at the end. If this was to be used in a horror scene where tension was required with an ending jumpscare then the video would have to be created based on the audio's timing which could prove difficult. This is why video audio editing software is good because the audio can be created on top of pre existing video footage. It's easier to make a video and then add audio than it is to make audio and then make a video that fits the timing afterwards.

Audacity

Audacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. It was developed by a group of volunteers as open source. This type of audio editing equipment is perfect for amatuer experimental music artists as the application is free and easy to use. This type of editing software only focuses on the editing of sounds which is why it's easier to use that other applications such as Adobe Premiere Pro because there is no confusion between video and audio editing.

The software focuses only on audio editing as you can see in the picture.