Post Production | Cyber Film School

1. Introduction to Post-Production Sound

When it comes to the rich quality of a well-made film that successfully connects with its audience, crappy sound will kill any visual magic you worked so hard to show off.

By Glen Berry
Edited by Stavros C. Stavrides

Bad Sound Equals Bad Movie

Bad sound can undermine every noble effort you’ve made for an otherwise flawless film; your pro camera work takes a nose dive, your crafty editing goes unnoticed, and you wasted your time on that perfect color cast.

Why? Because your audience was distracted. By bad sound.

If you going to forego some effort in the sound department because you can’t afford it, or worse, know little about it, stick with making a finely crafted silent flick that ropes in a crowd.

This cannot be overemphasized. (Really, this cannot be overemphasized).

A filmmaker, whether newbie or crusty old sod, has so many things that deserve their time and attention when making a movie: script, performance, production design, scheduling, budget, image, lighting, crew biting at your heels, the bank rep calling again, the list goes on.

All of these things really need attention and energy, pronto. But amid all that stress, one thing that the filmmaker cannot afford to forget, and the one thing that costs relatively little to get right, and is absolutely essential to the overall vision, is (you heard it) sound.

An audience will walk out of a movie that may have a great image and bad sound. They’ll less likely to walk out of a movie with a rich, layered soundtrack that accompanies a somewhat hurting image.

We cannot treat sound as an afterthought, an item you get to when everything else is done. It’s not something you just hand off to a technician to grind out in the remaining moments before the deadline, with the last 79 cents in your budget.

And be warned: referring to the postproduction sound artists and craftspeople as ‘technicians’, may get you seriously hurt.

David Lynch said, “Films are 50 percent visual and 50 percent sound. Sometimes sound even overplays the visual.”

The Sound Track

It’s a popular misconception for the general public to understand “Sound Track” as the music compilation of pre-recorded songs made for a particular movie. That is a misappropriation by the music industry’s marketing folks. Rightfully, however, the term did begin with “From the soundtrack of…”, then eventually got shortened to the misnomer.

The “soundtrack” is simply the synchronized audio that runs alongside the picture element of the movie. It is comprised of four main elements:

Dialogue (Production Track & ‘ADR’)
Narration
Sound Effects
Music

Dialogue

The Production Track

‘Production Track’ refers to all audio that has been recorded during production, that is delivered to the post-production phase.

Dialogue forms the key element of the Production Track, so we call it Production Dialogue.

Dialogue recorded during production needs to be clean, clear and flawless. This will depend on the location, where we need to deal with background noises, proper microphone selection and placement, even as subjects are on the move.

The well-trained recordist must understand the recording signal strength of audio being laid onto the recording medium while monitoring quality with a pair of highly trained ears.

There’s only one chance to get it right, and that is when the actors deliver their lines on the set. If the dialogue track is muddled, weak or riddled with pops and hisses then it will make it next to impossible to deliver a quality soundtrack.

A certain amount of dialogue track can of course be ‘cleaned’ in post-production needed to remove pops, hums, hisses and other undesirable sounds, but it will sound ‘almost’ good.

The lower quality of the production track that makes it to post-production, the more time you will need to spend in post-production. In most cases, this process of cleaning will work to cover minor and occasional problems. Don’t depend on it.

There will always be issues that need to be fixed, but you want to spend your time in production creating great sound, and not fixing problems in post.

Re-recording dialogue in post-production can be expensive, and never easily matches the authenticity and emotional tone of the moment the actors interacted on set.

However, there are times when it is unavoidable. which brings us to ADR.

This article is drawn from the “Sound” chapter in Cyber Film School’s
Multi-Touch Filmmaking Textbook

‘ADR’ Track

Automatic Dialogue Replacement (ADR), involves bringing an actor into a sound-proof space and re-recording dialogue that was either not recorded in production or was found to be unusable. It is common to need to pick up a line or two of dialogue in post-production.

Shooting next to a stream, in a factory, or on the tarmac at an airport may make it impossible to record decent sound in production. However, the more ADR that is done in post, the more likely it is that lip sync will not be perfect. But in experienced hands, it’s barely noticeable.

Narration

Although narration is not a component of every soundtrack, it should be considered a separate element. In factual work its role is obvious. In fiction work, it could be the voice-over of the protagonist offering a first-person context to the predicament.

The editor’s task when cutting narration into a factual sequence needs to assure good rhythm between picture and narration.

A first-pass narration reading (the ‘scratch track’) of the script by either the performer or a temporary reader can allow the editor to play between the picture and sound when creating the first cut. The scratch track helps get the length of the picture, and the script may be adjusted to suit.

The final narration could be recorded at any point in the post-production process. Although normally recorded in a studio space, narration can be captured in any reasonably sound-proof space.

Sound Effects

Sound effects add richness and depth to the soundtrack and can often include a vast number of tracks.

Although they sometimes come to the foreground, sound effects are often most effective as subtle textures that have a subconscious effect on the viewer.

Sound effects can sync to action on the screen, come as a mixture of background sounds known as ambience or be completely artificial, not found in nature sounds.

A sound designer is tasked with selecting and creating sound effects that will enhance and add to the action taking place onscreen.

Music

For many, a movie without music is not really a movie. Music can emphasize a moment or draw emotion out of a scene. It can change a feeling of an existing scene, thus altering its meaning.

Although an entire song can be used throughout a montage sequence, music is usually used in the movie as a few bars or as a short theme.

Transitions between scenes are common places to use music. The timing of music must be customized for each movie, timed to moments known as ‘cues’. The director ought to have an idea of where his or her musical cues will be and what kind of music to use, or at least the style of music.

The director can then work with the composer to find the right emotional tone for each section of music in a reflection of what is taking place onscreen.

SUMMARY

The first noticeable difference between a beginner’s film and a competent film is often good sound.
A soundtrack contains four elements: dialogue, narration, sound effects, and music.
The importance of music to the emotional impact of your film is grossly disproportionate to the relative investment of time and money. Do not take your music lightly or treat it as an afterthought.

NEXT >>
POST-PRODUCTION SOUND WORKFLOW
Steps in the post-production audio process and the roles involved with each.

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4. Editing the Narrative Short

Make no mistake. Editing is filmmaking. Newbies often mistake editing as a technical task, but the editor is a filmmaker with a strong grasp of visual story-telling. The editor should be able to get an emotional read on the material they are handed.

Contributed By Glen Berry
Edited By Stavros C. Stavrides

Updated July 20, 2022

Important Concepts

The Editor is a Storyteller
Know Thy Footage
See Director’s Intent
The Editor is a Problem-Solver

The Editor’s Creative Role

The job of editing is often mistaken as a technical task, but the editor must have a strong grasp of story-telling and be able to get an emotional read on the material they work with.

Describing the job of the editor from a technical standpoint is simple. The goal is to take the raw materials created in production and deliver an edited picture and dialogue. The more difficult question would be how the editor goes about accomplishing the creative objectives of the director, and what techniques he or she can employ.

First and foremost, the editor should be occupied with telling the story. As with most other positions in production, it is easy to lose sight of that one fundamental objective. The first pursuit of many novice editors is mastery of computer software.

Unfortunately, that is where many get stuck – pushing buttons at the command of a control freak director. As an editor, you don’t want this. Ever.

While an editor certainly must be familiar with the editing platform to accomplish the objectives, the computer is really only a means to an end. And that end is telling the story.

Know Thy Footage

The first step to editing is familiarizing oneself with the footage – ALL of it.

On larger projects, it is easy to allow the assistant editors or editorial interns to do all of the ingesting and logging and that is a normal way to proceed. However, the truth is that the editor needs to spend time viewing all of the material that has been shot. Why?

First, the editor is going to be looking at the footage with different eyes that the director (that’s a good thing!).

Sometimes the most minor details of performance, composition or movement will jump out at the editor and be an invaluable piece of footage to be used later. You never know where these little pieces will be found. Sometimes they come before “action” or after “cut” is called. Maybe a piece of gold is discovered on a take labelled ‘no good’ by the production team.

In the tedium of ingesting mountains of footage, assistants can easily miss these things, especially if they are marked as worthless by the production team. The editor’s responsibility is to ‘know thy footage’.

Make A Mental Game Plan

The other reason is that viewing all of the footage draws parameters around the entire picture and what is available to work with.

Even without a script, viewing the footage should give the editor an idea of the story and a mental game plan for how to put those images together to tell the story should begin to form.

The raw footage also tells a story of what happened in production – seeing the number of takes on each angle, what close-ups are available, and where shots start and end. These give the editor an idea of what was important to the director.

The editor should be able to read the footage and spot the director’s intent. This is why the director need not be in the edit bay for the editor’s first cut.

The editor should be able to see what has been shot and be able to form a clear idea of the pathway through the scene. The director leaves markers along a trail for the editor, the editor needs only to see and follow them.

Solve Problems

It is common for beginner editors to watch the raw footage and throw up their arms in exasperation. The pathway is often unclear. The material described in the script may not be present.

Many of the shots may contain problems that need to be cut around; audio problems, focus, undesirable camera moves, continuity errors, errant objects on the screen, and bad performance. Oftentimes, there is insufficient coverage or the action from shot to shot does not overlap.

This post is a support article for the chapter “Five Phases of Film Production” in
Cyber Film School’s Multi-Touch Filmmaking Textbook.

Even at the professional level, the production team is always going to deliver at least a few problems. Often, independent films are much more difficult to edit than studio pictures.

The production team is under-resourced and shoots quickly – a combo that often produces materials that are less than perfect. The editor’s job is to find a solution to every problem.

These solutions require creativity. Sometimes the solution is as extreme as moving away from continuity editing (where each shot connects logically to the next to form an unbroken sequence of action through the scene) to a montage where a collection of shots convey the story in a metaphorical sequence.

Editing Is Filmmaking

If we are dealing with footage that is less than perfect, it is easy to get preoccupied with solving problems and not telling the story. The story is the most important thing.

The longer you spend with the edit, the more sensitized you will become to technical problems. Issues arise like continuity, perspective problems, or poor quality image. Remember that you are cutting for the audience, not another editor.

On his or her first cut, the editor is as much a filmmaker as is a director, making decisions about shot selection and shot order. You cover a scene from different angles, visualizing the angles you want to use for parts of a scene.

Many extraordinary directors began as editors, which makes sense. When a director breaks down a scene from the script, she or he imagines how the shot would cut together.

The edit is already visualized before the camera rolls. An editor can learn to direct by reading the director’s intent and seeing how he or she created the materials for the scene.

Getting To Fine Cut

As an editor, when you select which shots you will use for the rough cut, choose the ones that tell the story in the best way possible. You may have to live with a bad edit or poor image to convey the emotion of the scene.

You should always select good images over bad, compromise on an imperfect image if you need it to tell the story and reject footage if the quality is so poor that it would distract the audience from the story.

The director enters to guide you in this part of the decision-making process. Once you have a rough cut assembled that plays to your satisfaction from start to finish, bring in your director and screen it for him or her.

Show the director areas that concern you, and ask for input. Offer solutions to issues with the edit, and play back different versions of those solutions. The director will make decisions on how they want the project to develop, and provide you with a plan for moving forward.

Once you have selected the shots you wish to use to cover the action in a scene, seek to find the best transitions possible and hide your edits.

We discussed this in “Six Transition Points For Seamless Edits” – bookmark that page and use it as your guide to making your handiwork invisible as you move forward from rough cut to fine cut.

The audience should never notice an edit, but rather they should be cleverly hidden so the audience is fully absorbed in the story.

Tighten It Up

Trim the heads and tails of your shots so only the fresh, relevant material in the shot is included. Cut out all the stale parts of the shots that occur before and after the main action. This is called “starting late and ending early”.

As you move forward with this process, your movie should get tighter, play smoother, and emerge as a watchable, engaging story. Screen it for people who have never seen a cut and know nothing about the movie.

Watch them carefully. Where do they shift in their chairs? When do their eyes wander? What is the expression on their face? This will tell you where you still have issues with the project and what you need to address.

Fine-tuning is the name of the game at this stage. Find a way to make every sequence work to your satisfaction and (of course) the satisfaction of the director.

When you have arrived at the point where the cut cannot be improved (or you are at your deadline), then it is time to lock the picture and move to the next stage in post-production.

Summary

• Don’t be fooled by the technical requirements of the job. An editor must understand how to tell a story or they will forever be confined to twisting knobs for someone else

• The editor must see everything that has been shot, you never know what you can use for the project.

• The movie has been shot around a director’s plan for the final product. An editor must be able to see that plan in the footage and follow the path left for them by the director.

• Editors solve problems. There will be problems with the footage – both in beginner films and pro; there may be numerous issues. There are solutions, and the editor is obligated to find them.

NEXT>>>
THREE PITFALLS OF THE EDITOR
Three common pitfalls to which the editor can become
the victim and how to avoid them.

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POST-PRODUCTION ‘RULES OF THUMB’
Some perspectives on post-production, along with a few parameters around schedule and budget.