This is a continuation of my reflection but focuses on the problems i had with audio editing.

Audio quality is a very important element in any video production, especially documentaries with interviews because they rely almost entirely on the clarity of speech.

The first problem i had with audio was at the recording location. I recorded the atmos track and noticed there was a small amount of noise despite it being a very quite room. I knew i could fix this in audition so dismissed it. I wasn’t  using a Zoom H2n and i should have borrowed one, but i thought using a friends new Rode shotgun mic would work just fine and cut most of the noise out.

When actually editing the audio I quickly realised the kerfuffle I was in. I captured a ‘noise print’ from the atmos track, then deducted the noise using the ‘noise reduction’ tool in Audition. Unfortunately by doing this it also cut out a lot of the harmonics and made the audio the sound as if it was being listened to though a long tube (like heavy compression on the internet). I applied a few different EQ’s (echoes as well) to beef up the low and high frequencies but it had minimal effect.

As you can see in the above picture, the top right red audio wave was the before noise reduction, underneath is the is after reduction. The purple speckles have been totally removed giving ‘clean’ audio.

So i decided to hide the lost harmonics using music. I had always had the intention of using music to build the sequence but now it was even more important for ‘fixing’ the mediocre interview recordings.

Firstly i placed two music tracks (one ambient) underneath the entirety of the film. The music was integral to the pacing of the video as well as the delivery of the interviewees speech. As a result it would be hard to understand everything that was said on the first and second viewing of the film. I picked up on the illegibility while editing but couldn’t see the extent of it because I had been working with the same audio of many hours.

I did test the audio with headphones on and off  but i didn’t find the right balance between them. I could have added subtitles to the bottom of the video but it would have taken the audience out of the film instead of immersing them.
Reflecting on this project i wish i had of borrowed the Zoom h2N. In future projects i will record on two audio devices just so i have a backup recording