In the last chapter, we focused on editing the visual elements in a motion picture and how the shots fit together to create a narrative flow and communicate with the audience. As it turns out, sound requires a similar approach in post-production and is often even more “invisible” than picture editing techniques. (In fact, if there are any sound editors reading this book, they probably noticed that picture editing has a whole chapter, and all they get is this one crumby section. Typical.)
But sound editing is much more than simply joining up the sounds that already exist. It involves creating all of the sounds that weren’t recorded on set to make up the rich soundscape of the finished motion picture. In that sense, it is literally more “creative” than picture editing! (How’s that, sound editors? Feel better now?)
One important bit of post-production sound creation has to do with dialogue. Sometimes, …