As I mentioned in a previous post, I’d been struggling a lot with trying to bring together all of the elements in the Anderson-Yeoman scene (as well as the Aronofsky-Libatique scene). The edit still isn’t up to scratch, but it’s better than what it was.
What made this edit come together better was the sound. I didn’t realise how much of the general disconnect in the scene was attributable to the disconnected, variegated sound – wayward volume levels among different clips, lack of sound for some clips, alternating room tones etc. I used Pro Tools to clean the sound up and even it out. I balanced the dialogue volumes for each character and clip. I added footsteps (but they’re not very good). I added a couple of sound effects like the foley of a cigarette packet being handled (I’d actually recorded this for another project), lighter click, smoke exhale.
I built a constant ambient tone that would disguise the changes in room tone between clips – especially to disguise the harshest natural room tone recorded with dialogue – by slicing up clean moments of the harshest recorded room tone, mixing it together with crossfades, duplicating it, layering it to cover the whole scene. I also put a couple of “distant traffic” ambient tracks underneath for some variation. It’s not the best ambient tone – it’s basically just constant noise – but its purpose is to maintain a regularity. To disguise the unnatural changes in audio that would normally distract from the scene and remove whatever power the scene might otherwise have. It’s just another variable to try to control so that we can concentrate on the effect of the visuals.
That being said, I did notice that the dialogue and sound effects kind of acted like visual transitions. Like cuts. Beats. There was a lacking ‘flow’ or something before I levelled up the dialogue and before I added those few sound effects. When I did this, these little changes in audio were something like changes in image. I’d always vaguely thought that sound is probably as responsible for rhythm/pacing as visuals are, but I’d just never really played with the difference before. I’ve also often claimed that movement within and of the frame is part of pacing, but I hadn’t paid much attention to how much the complementary/natural sound (not necessarily exaggerated) accents these visual changes. I guess that rhythm is all about change, and change is the essential make-up of sound and moving image.
I didn’t do too much more with the visuals. I cut some shots even shorter. I sped up some actions, while trying to keep it subtle/natural. But I was actually surprised by how much these tiny alterations helped. It’s difficult – sometimes taking a tiny slice off the end of a shot does nothing, and sometimes it does everything. It’s a process of discovery… A process that would be far more efficient if I had a better natural editing instinct.
As I mentioned in the shoot reflection, I didn’t overly concern myself with continuity on the shoot day. And I knew I would pay for it in the edit. Things like performance continuity, eye-line, props, lighting and so on are hilariously obvious in the edit. But, since I’m able to overlook them and focus on the larger scene, I have faith that it won’t detract too much from any other viewer’s digestion of the scene in the broader context of the investigation.
There is one pressing issue I have to solve at some point: image combing. It kills me. I hate it. I don’t understand it. None of the YouTube tutorial videos on how to get rid of it work for me. I need to figure out how to avoid image combing and then cling onto that precious method forever.
https://drive.google.com/a/rmit.edu.au/file/d/0B1L4VsojczZFZlZXQWlLaGw1R28/view?usp=sharing