Editing And Sound In A Film

Sound editing is an essential part of filmmaking. The errors in any of the sound effects used in a film are caught and corrected during this stage of finalizing films. As a result, this step plays an essential part in the production of an error-free film.

The process of sound editing is divided into further sub-stages. The first stage begins just after the picture lock. Various roles are assigned to people during this time. However, if the film is produced on a smaller scale, one person may assume many roles. The steps of sound editing are as follows:

Location Mixing

During the production of the film, multiple mics are used to record the sound. The input from all these mics is then assorted to a single mono or stereo input. With advancements in technology, the mixer records separate tracks being received from the many mics so that they can be edited and engaged appropriately.

Automatic Dialogue Replacement (ADR)

This stage is where the incorrect dialogue is replaced with the correct one. A lot of care is required during this step to ensure that the newly recorded dialogue is in perfect sync with the video.

Group Looping

This stage refers to adding sounds pertaining to a certain group of people. In a movie scene, often several students are shown in a classroom talking. During this stage, the sounds of these students will be added.

Edition of Dialogues

Although this step seems similar to the ADR stage, it has some distinctions. The picture locked cut given to the sound editor still consists some rough edges which have to be smoothed out. The process itself entails the removal of any and all undesired sounds such as director’s cues and others. The sound editor has to make sure such noises are removed from the final copy so that the end product is perfect.

Sound Effects

The sound editor adds sound effects to certain scenes in the movie as per requirement of the movie.

Music

This is an essential part of movies nowadays. The music is essentially created by the composer but the composer does not take the responsibility to insert the music into the film where needed. As a result, the composer works closely with the sound editor until the music is finalized.

Re-recording Mix

In this stage, the separate components, such as ADR, group sounds, music and other are joined together to create the final cut to be presented.

Hence, all these stages play a vital role in making the movie the emotional, powerful and motivational amalgamation of audio and video that we see in cinemas.