Sound is a secondary medium by nature, but it can greatly influence the mood and aesthetic of your scene. Visuals may give us the foundation, but sound is what aids in building a scene that truly transports us. A static shot can be elevated by the soft crunch of walking through a forest, or the threat of the long hall shot by footsteps behind you. Even a lack of sound can help snap a scene to life where a cut can’t. You may work closely with a sound designer or an editor can do it themselves, but be mindful of every element of sound to contribute to the emotional rhythm of the scene.
One thing that should always be the same in all dialogue intensive productions is the fact that dialogue should be the cleanest, clearest thing in your mix. This is the way to keep your audience engaged with your film; by making sure they never have to struggle to hear what’s being said. Noise reduction, EQ and level matching should be standard tools in any sound editors arsenal to keep your voices balanced with the rest of the mix, and automated gain tools should be used to match levels frame by frame if necessary. Ducking and side chain compression should be used when dialogue plays back over music or effects to make sure the dialogue stays clear while the rest of your mix stays full.
Similarly, we use ambient sound and foley to support the visual image. A lot of the time, you won’t even realize that these elements are present, but if they weren’t, the scene would feel lifeless. An ambient pass may include the sounds of traffic going by, the rustling of wind, or the murmur of a room. Foley is all about the little noises our bodies make while interacting with the physical world. The sound of feet walking on gravel, clothes moving, or doors shutting and opening, are all examples of foley. These sounds are created in a studio, and are timed to match the on-screen action. They are added to the scene to create a more engaging experience for the viewer. In the edit, we can automate the levels of our foley and ambient tracks to bring them up or down at certain points in the scene. By appropriately balancing these tracks with dialogue, we can create the illusion that the world beyond the edges of the frame is continuing on as expected, and that our edits are cutting between moments in time with a consistent physical presence.
Music is used to subtly influence the way that viewers respond emotionally to many videos. It might be a grand orchestral crescendo that fills out an epic win or a simple piano pattern that backs up a moment of contemplation. The hits and swells are timed so that they match up with cuts and dissolves. The cuts are often timed to match up with the music, too. If the music is driving the editing, the picture tends to cut to the beat. If the picture is driving the editing, the music is there to enhance, but not overpower. The music may be licensed or bespoke. But either way, it should feel as if the music always belonged with the image.
The relationship of all these audio elements to each other comprise the overall audio “tone” of a project that separates pros from novices. An editor will construct their audio mix in layers: dialogue, FX and foley, and music — all while listening back frequently on various audio platforms to make sure it sounds good from the computer speakers to headphones to a cinema. Other considerations, such as using reverb to create distance, panning to expand the audio field, and maintaining dynamics to keep long-form content from getting monotonous are other factors to take into consideration. When done well, audio should not be noticed and the viewer should not be distracted by it — but should rather be absorbed by the narrative of the project. All of these steps, no matter how large or small, go a long way to the invisible work that video editors do, and it is often the case that the things the viewer “feels” more is based on the audio than the picture.