Original subtitles

We all know sound is important, right?

Footage often arrives from production modes

or without sound, where you could also say without personality.

It's up to the editor

to give the footage character, often through the use of sound design.

Today we're going to sound design a sequence from a dark comedy

to make things interesting.

We're going to create two versions.

First, a quick initial pass, then we'll critique it

and take our time making a second version where the sound works much better.

All right.

Let's begin.

There are three steps to making your edits sound awesome.

One score.

Even if a composer will be scoring music later, it's important to add temp music.

This is going to help you

design your sound effects in context, and it's also going to help others

to understand your vision, to ambiance and fully.

We should be able to hear everything we see.

Remember, nothing is silent, so even an empty room is going to make noise.

Three.

Finally, we can reinforce moments with creative sound design.

Not everything needs to sound the way it looks.

We can even add sounds for things

that we can't see, like thoughts, feelings, and camera moves.

Let's start by familiarizing ourselves with the footage

that we're going to be editing here.

It's a short film by Craig Foster called Over Time.

We'll skip through it a bit quickly.

The movie opens showing Ralph at work in his office.

Ordinary paperwork is made to appear menacing.

Then there's some dialog at the end.

Ralph is evidently anxious to get home,

but is delayed when his boss Simon, arrives with more work.

Q And the movie's main title card.

Alright, without further ado, here's our initial pass.

Using stock libraries, we've added score, sound effects and sound design.

Let's take a listen.

SIMON Ralph,

it's a good start, but there's definitely some issues.

Number one, some elements of the score match the edit, but some don't.

The beginning sounds good, but the Q quickly changes into a lighter

hearted melody, more reminiscent of something like a crime drama.

Number two, we forgot to add ambiance.

During the quiet moments, the soundscape is noticeably dead

and doesn't contain the hum and the hiss present in everyday life.

Also, there's not enough variety in the sound effects.

We've used the same keyboards sound for every letter typed

and the same pen sound for every pen stroke.

Moving on.

Once you start adding sound design to the edit sections that are missing

it become more obvious.

We could definitely cover more of the edit with creative sound design.

Next treatment and effects on the audio.

A lot of our assets have been recorded in a studio environment.

They don't have the reverberation that would be present in a small, boxy room.

And finally, there's definitely some room for more creativity.

We're missing an opportunity to use

sound to contribute to our story in non-literal ways.

Let's get to work.

We're going to start with the score.

It's not terrible, but it could be better.

The problem is,

unless a cue has been scored specifically for your edit, it won't line up.

For example, this staple being pulled is a great moment.

The cut builds towards it in our first edit,

but as you can tell, it kind of falls flat without the support of the score.

So instead of playing the cue straight,

we're going to cut it up to match our edit.

We'll use the beginning of the cue cutting before the tone changes

for that opening scare

and then this small section from the end for the staple being pulled will line

that final hit up with the moment that the staple gets pulled.

The transition is pretty much invisible because we've chosen two sections

of the cue that are similar.

Orchestral music without rhythm like this

is really easy to edit because there are no beats to line up

for the rest of the edit.

We found another cue from a different artist.

It's simpler than the opening cue.

More of an ominous drone than any sort of melody

will apply the same principles though cutting the cue so that hits and dips

along with loud and quiet moments all fall in the right place.

Now let's work on the ambiance.

We'll mute the score and the sound effects so that we can hear what's going on.

Unless your film is set in space where nobody can hear you scream,

every location in a movie should have ambient sound.

Ralph is working late in a private office here.

There's not many people around.

So what does an empty office actually sound like?

We'll use something simple

The hum of an air conditioner is going to work fine.

We'll add some wind for the only outside shot.

This pool via the sun setting.

And then don't forget to lower the volume of any ambiance to a suitable level.

Next, let's address those repetitive sound effects.

So we're using stock assets.

We found this keystrokes sound effect.

The problem is that I use the same sound effect every single time.

And like I said before, we did the same thing with a pen strokes

instead of a single keystroke.

Here's a clip of typing that last 10 seconds.

It has multiple keystrokes in it, and each one sounds slightly different.

But we can't use them as they are.

If we add the clip directly

to the timeline, it's not going to match the onscreen action.

We'll play some cuts to separate individual keystrokes

and then use each sound once and line them up.

Editing with waveforms

visible is vital when lighting up the apex of a sound effect to your edit.

You can add markers to make it easier,

so it's important to be thorough with your sound design.

Once you start adding sounds,

sections that are missing, sound effects become very, very obvious.

We'll add some sounds for the blinds to watch and the knocks on the door.

The staple remover is going to be a little bit harder.

It's not the kind of thing that you'd find on stock libraries.

So maybe we can find something that sounds similar.

It's a metal on metal sound like scissors.

Perfect.

Stock libraries are great, but with more particular visuals,

it can often be difficult to find the right sound in those instances.

You can record fully at your desk straight into your timeline.

The exact procedure is going to vary between alleles.

But once you're set up,

you'll be able to record audio while you watch your edit.

Your performance doesn't need to be perfect.

We can always chop it up afterwards and match it more carefully to the edit.

Excellent.

The mix is sounding pretty good, but there's something important missing.

Reverberation.

All our Foley has been recorded in a studio environment with acoustic baffling.

Ralph's office, on the other hand, should have some reverb.

Here's what a section of Foley sounded like before A bit of environmental reverb.

And here's what it sounded like after

much more natural sounding and fitting of the character's environment.

Instead of adding reverb

to each individual clip, we'll route all our Foley tracks through a sub mix.

Sometimes called the Bus, by adding a reverb effect to that sub mix.

We can apply it to all of our Foley in one go.

The next problem that we're going to tackle

is the lack of creativity in general.

Sound is most powerful when we use it to communicate things

that the audience cannot see.

We're not talking about action that's off screen.

What we're actually talking about are things like emotions and feelings.

This is probably the single biggest way that our edit can improve.

So it's time to get creative and use sound design

to communicate the abstract instead of the obvious.

The opening

credits don't feel right playing out in complete silence.

We'll add some chimes to match the text reveal.

And a drone is a precursor

to the first musical Cue the wonderous sound of the chimes

mixed with the uncertainty of the drone sets the perfect tone here.

Now let's add a reverse impact to the stapling moment

to make it a little bit more sinister.

Perfect. All right.

This middle section feels pretty good with all the key strikes, the pen strokes

and the like.

So we're going to skip to a section at the end that feels a bit

empty at the moment, ripe for creative sound design work.

So we don't want the tone to be too dark here because this is also a comedy.

Wishes can add levity to moments and help reinforce the comedic nature

of the movie. Think Hot Fuzz.

So we'll add wishes to all of Ralph's quick movements

in this section and to this camera move at the end.

Next hits make things more dramatic.

For example, placing a box of files on a desk in itself, not particularly dramatic,

but adding a reverberating hit here tells our audience

that this box has more severe consequences than we might realize.

Very cool.

So there's lots of other moments that we can sound designed to remember.

Sound design is an iterative process.

You're not going to get it all right in just one pass.

For example, we can emphasize parts of the score with additional sound effects.

I'm going to add an impact to the first musical stab.

Let's add some horrifying bone crunching to the staple remover.

Layering

sounds is a great way of making your soundscape richer.

Stationary definitely doesn't sound like that,

but because of these crunching and squelching

sound effects are similar in tone and frequency to the natural

sounds of the staple remover and the shredder,

we can actually integrate them pretty naturally into the mix.

These definitely make the scene more intriguing,

a little uneasy, and they heighten the audience's curiosity.

And of course, also foreshadow things that are going to come later in the film.

This is a very stylized edit, so the wishes, the hits

and the other sound effects fit right in with other styles of editing.

They might be pretty out of place.

Now, important point here.

Once you've committed to a style, it's important to be consistent

throughout the piece.

Sometimes moments worthy of sound, accenting are obvious,

like our paper box drop and also like these quick character movements.

But others can be more subtle

and we need to learn how to recognize them and then how to treat them.

As a general rule, both visual movement and lighting changes should clue

you into the fact that you might have that type of moment on your hands.

For example, look at this sundown.

If we added a reverse symbol leading up to the code

and layer it with a

bass drop that starts right on the cut,

you've now effectively accented a moment that might have otherwise

been a missed opportunity.

The end result is that you've got a more consistently styled piece

which a more novice editor might not have been able to achieve.

Now there's one last important point

about sound design that we want to share with you.

Not every moment needs to be accented

and not every accented moment needs to be maximum intensity.

You need to be balanced.

Let's look at an example of what we mean by this.

If we overload this moment too far, we create problems.

Have a listen.

SIMON Ralph,

those two pieces of sound design, the bass drop

and the hit

are far too intense for a soft moment like this

that isn't confined to one single frame and isn't even the climax of the scene.

The movement, when the hand is pulled back, is meant to be a momentary pause

in the tension versus a major, impactful event.

Ralph is about to go home

and this is the moment when he realizes that he can't do that.

Identify key moments.

If you try to make every moment special, none of them will be special.

This moment still deserve sound design, just something subtler.

Have a look.

With the hits turned off, leaving only the symbol stuck.

Simon Ralph.

Much better and more appropriate.

Now let's look at the actual climax.

We've already lined the score up.

We'll add a reverse symbol, also known as a suck back

and a boom.

Combined with the score, this now signals

the resolution of the scene and the set up of the next.

Okay,

so the pieces are there, but the levels are all over the place.

It's time to mix the audio.

We need to make sure that the score dialog and sound effects

all play at the correct levels in relation to each other.

When using your audio meters, here's kind of a rough guide.

Make sure that nothing peaks in for dialog around -12 DB.

It tends to be one of the loudest things in our mix.

This obviously is because we want people to be able to understand the dialog

and follow the story depending on what they are.

Sound effects will be anywhere from negative ten DB to -30 DB,

and then the score or the music itself tends to sit around -20 to -30. DB.

All right, now let's see how it all sounds.

Simon Ralph

Not bad.

Sound design is an iterative process, like building a brick wall.

Good sound design is made up of many small touches

that when you step back, make something truly awesome.

Start with the foundations, score ambiance fully,

and then keep on building with more and more creativity.

Well-built layers add sophistication and interest

to the entire audio, then follow a consistent workflow.

Yes, but creatively try to think outside the box.

And of course, remember

these techniques are applicable no matter what software that you work in.

All right, now go.

Sound design something.

It'll be fun, I promise.

Hey there.

For tons more free editing training.

Head over to our website at film editing protocol.

Slash free training.

Here you can download free editing guides along with high quality video

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Our tutorials cover a wide range of editing topics

like cutting awesome movie trailers, editing action scenes,

how to work with music and sound design, and a lot more.

All of these free guides and videos are available

at film editing pro ecom slash free training.

I'll see you next time.