Dialogue Editing

300 EDITING PRODUCTION SOUND FOR DOCUMENTARIES
The fact that this turns justice on its head isn’t your problem, but you’re left
to fi x the mess and turn “I shot him” into a strong, believable declaration. In
its current state, the sentence is bound to sound unconvincing because the
liaison between “him” and “as” will corrupt the ending of the new phrase.
Plus, a statement as direct as “I shot him” deserves a confi dent ending. You
have to fi nd a strong, terminal “him” spoken by this character in the same
interview environment. If you do fi nd such a sound, consider yourself lucky
and don’t ask too many questions.
It’s more likely, however, that you’ll have to settle for a terminal m sound and
then splice that onto your existing “him.” Given enough time and will, you
can usually fi nd an adequate ending. Sometimes though, you won’t be able
to solve the problem by editing. In such desperate circumstances, use pitch
shifting, time expansion, and clever addition of room tone to generate the
best termination possible. Use whatever sound effects or Foley gimmicks are
appropriate to mask the edit.
Production Sound Effects
Whether because of ethics or because of the fi lmmaker’s artistic or philosophical
concerns, your production soundtrack may end up being the sole
sound element in a documentary fi lm. No added sound effects, backgrounds,
Foley, or music—just production sound. This puts far greater pressure on
your tracks to tell a complete story, maintain a steady and interesting room
tone, and fl awlessly move from shot to shot with nothing to hide behind.
Thankfully, audiences are far more forgiving of sound bumps in documentaries
than they are when watching dramas. Documentaries are, by defi nition,
real, and suspension of disbelief is almost a forgone conclusion. Thus,
bumps that would destroy the effectiveness of a drama scene are readily
overlooked.
But if you’re responsible for the entire soundtrack, you’ll have more on your
hands than just smoothing out the picture editor’s cuts. You’ll need effects,
backgrounds, and perhaps wild voice elements to bring scenes to life. Look
through the sound reports, if they exist. If you’re lucky, they’ll tell you something
about the shooting sequence and where room tone, wild recordings,
and backgrounds are hiding. If you don’t have sound reports, which is often
the case with documentary sound recording, go to the last recording for each
shooting location, where wild elements are the most likely to be.
Don’t be afraid to ask the fi lm editor—she’s far more familiar with the footage
than you’ll ever be. And if you’re in contact with the production during the