Editing a Documentary - Need a Strategy

Rock Punk!

Rock Punk!

Well-known member
What's the best way to approach a 60 to 90 minute documentary where I'm essentially mixing together interviews and live action?

The subjects in the interviews were mic'd for the most part and the sound for live action was captured via the DVX - essentially levels and tonality are all over the place.

Do I go with multiple video tracks and mute/solo the tracks using an envelope (for example, when an interview subject is talking over the live action shot)? Do I attempt to use a single video track and multiple audio tracks?

Once it's all spliced together, how do you attack the audio? Do you attack it track by track in SoundForge - if so, how do get consistency?

I just want to start off on the right foot.
 
Editing is both art and science. The science is knowing the NLE tools and how to us them. The Art is building the the story clip by clip in a way in which the pacing and information flow builds an interesting story. Sound is 50% of the story and video/visuals are the other.

If the live sound on the DVX clips adds to the meaningfulness of the story it should come through. If a narrative track is laid over the clip audio you will have to put the clip audio under the v/o but how low is subject.

For example if you have a clip of a waterfall the viewer will expect to here the roar of the water. The clip audio should drop in decibels as the the v/0 comes in and would rise agin as the v/o fades out.

Ambient noise is also critical as it is present everywhere. Just placing a camera in a room and turning it on will record ambient sound that would be visible on a VU meter let alone if you are recording outside. It may be low frequency but its there and if you deaden the track in different places to allow for the v/o you will actually draw attention to this. This is a problem with the noise gate filters.

I would lay you clips down and build you story in a rough edit first. Concentrate on trimming the clips and pacing . Then lay down the appropriate narrative for each segment. Position these audio clips so the come in and end in the right places in each DVX clip.

Once all is assembled determine what background levels should be when the narrative comes in. Sweeten the audio to eliminate any "noise" using EQ and and careful application of band filters like a noise gate.

Do the same with the v/o tracks building the bass or treble and eliminating any "essess" "pops or plosives" and breath noise.

THis is only touching the surface but don't kill tracks completely unless there's a noise or glitch that requires it. Use filters and audio envelopes to make the audio a meaningful part of the finished product.

S Cannon
 
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Ive always found problems using filters and audio fx because the documentation/help files dont cover the seperate fx plugins even thought the plugin comes as part of Vegas. Till date dont know what noise gate is or does ?
 
Thanks David, and what is a non real time audio fx. Means id have to only render to hear its effect on the audio track ?
 
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