Dialogue Editing

Making Sense of a Scene 171
These messes come in all shapes and sizes, and it’s up to you to sort them
out. If you inherit such an unfocused scene from the picture department,
don’t start polishing it right off the bat. Solo each shot, one by one, and fi gure
out what the editor had in mind with it. If you can make this sound work,
do it. But if the shot is better served by replacing the sound with another take,
go through the alternates to fi nd a shot more focused.
Nothing is sacred, and as long as you honor the intentions of the editor and
director you’re on safe ground. Remember, they were trying to enhance the
scene using the available resources, often for a temp mix or just to fi gure out
where the heart of the scene lies. This sonic collision wasn’t intended to stand
the test of time but rather to give direction. It’s up to you to make something
permanent.
Start by thinning and simplifying. Analyze each sound, keeping the ones that
contribute to the scene and stowing away the ones that are superfl uous, confusing,
or useless. Make the scene work at its most basic. Get the levels right.
Fix the transitions. Make it behave. Then you’ll know the scene better and be
in a position to make sense of it. In the case of our giddy little girls, fi rst make
the scene work with no frills. Make it accurate and believable and then see
how you can toss in a single girl’s voice from time to time to add to the fun.
Repeat this with each of the girls, taking care never to allow any of the three
to talk “on top” of herself.
Excitement is not about constant yelling or car revving or crying. It’s about
well-timed dynamics. Screams and shouts and laughs lack excitement when
there’s no point of reference, just as a rock-and-roll concert at a constant
“eleven” is boring. What draws us into the girls’ ecstatic laughing isn’t its
brute-force volume but the swells and ebbs, the story told by their sounds.
Find a way to create a dynamic within their voices and you’re on your way
to drawing the viewer’s attention closer to the scene.
You can accentuate a loud sound by “clearing” a quieter space just before the
crescendo. An 85 dB slap to the face isn’t terribly impressive when sitting on
an 84 dB noise fl oor, but a naturally created quiet section just before the
slap—built through believable swells and holes in the underlying dialogue
elements—will make the insult seem much louder. The increased dynamic
range will tell your ears as much. The drop in the surrounding noise just
prior to the slap gives the viewer the impression that the gods themselves
made room for the ensuing whack. Making space for a loud noise is mostly
a mix issue, but it’s also your concern because sounds that end naturally are
more effective than quiet created with fader moves.