Sound editing

Sound is one of the most important part of the movie, it is used to establish the mood, builds suspense, and adds realism.

The sound editor is responsible for everything you hear in a movie. The job is sometimes called Sound Design because they are essentially creating an ‘Aural Landscape’ from scratch. They must select and balance audio from hundred of different sources to create a desired effect, anywhere from realism to an otherworldly fantasy.

The job begins after the movie and all dialogue has already been filmed. This is called audio post-production. This is also where special effects are added.

The first step in the editors job is to clean up the dialogue. When shooting a film sound is usually recorded separately using a digital recorder, so that it is clear and easy to understand. After making sure that the audio matches or syncs with the picture, the sound editor has to carefully remove any background noises from the dialogue, like a dog barking etc. Once the dialogue is finalized they start on the sound effects. There are three types of sound effects in films, background effects, hard effects and Foley effects.

Background effects are sounds that you would commonly associate with a place setting. These are used to create mood, ambiance or realism. For instance in an office the background effects could be phones ringing or typing on keyboards. They usually get these sounds from CDs that they can buy that have all the sounds pre-recorded.

Hard effects are any load sounds, so gunshots, punches, door slams, etc. These can also be bought on CDs or they can be made by Foley artists.

A Foley artist is someone that uses unconventional techniques to recreate realistic sounds that sync with the onscreen action. For instance they might crumple a bag from some crisps to recreate a crackle of a fire.

I would use this in projects where I have to make a film, and make the sounds in it more realistic.