Dialogue Editing

CHAPTER 16
Editing Production Sound
for Documentaries
If dialogue occasionally assumes a supporting role in dramatic fi lm sound
editing—quietly toiling away in the shadow of its sexier sound effects, music,
and Foley colleagues—it’s at center stage when it comes to documentary
fi lms. Documentary is a hopelessly broad genre, including anything from
straightforward news docs to wildly stylized fi lms that are largely recreations,
from concerts to cinéma vérité glimpses into someone’s life. Nevertheless,
although they cover a wide spectrum, documentaries are for the most
part overwhelmingly dialogue driven. Many have soundtracks that consist
of little more than production sound, however edited it may be.
Documentary Sound Challenges
Dialogue editing is dialogue editing, so documentaries require the same
basic sound editing tools as do dramatic features. You have to organize the
tracks to understand the material and create the circumstances for an easy
mix. You have to smooth the transitions between shots to create the impression
of a living scene that feels real. And you have to remove unwanted noises
and anything that calls attention to the fi lming process.
Still, documentaries present a variety of special challenges for the dialogue
editor.
• Often there’ll be few or no backgrounds or SFX added to a scene, so
the dialogue must carry the entire soundtrack, which places it under
much greater scrutiny.
• Rarely are there second takes in a documentary, so fi nding alternate
material to fi x overlaps, remove noises, and correct improperly
terminated sentences is more diffi cult.
• Documentary fi lm editors regularly construct voiceover sentences
from disconnected sections of an interview, leaving it to you to make
them sound like normal language by repairing cadence, pitch, and
energy with very limited resources.
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