How do you seamlessly edit dialogue together from different takes?...

[Dave Draper]

If filming a conversation between two people, using one camera and one boom mic, where you have, say, two over-shoulder angles, and one wideshot encompassing both people, how do you *seamlessly* edit that scene's dialogue together from the multiple angles / takes you've shot, without the audio sounding like it's been stitched together from those different angles / takes?

DD.

 

[Richard J. Johnson]

Room tone. This helps greatly when jumping between edits. Never not get room tone. I learned the hard way. what NLE do you use?

 

[AwakenedFilms]

Dave,
I have found there is a magical combination of crossfades, level correction and eq that makes even the toughest audio edits sound pretty seamless and believable.

Sometimes the producer wants something that will not sound good no matter what. I have learned that it is better to give them the badness they want rather than argue the point. In these cases, I still have the power to eliminate that section from my demo reel.


Jason

 

[John Willett]

If filming a conversation between two people, using one camera and one boom mic, where you have, say, two over-shoulder angles, and one wideshot encompassing both people, how do you *seamlessly* edit that scene's dialogue together from the multiple angles / takes you've shot, without the audio sounding like it's been stitched together from those different angles / takes?

By miking it up properly in the first place.

By using the mic. off-camera and an experienced sound operator.

Otherwise, loads of wildtrack to run in the background to cover the edots.

 

[ptalsky]

Another thing that helps is to avoid overlapping dialog, especially in the singles. It makes things a bit harder on the actors, but will save you tons of grief in the editing room.

Phil

 

[RandomHero]

I'm going with John. If you can, make sure your audio is being recorded into a portable mixer or field audio recorder, have a sound guy listening to and adjusting while you roll, and if everyone is miked properly then you should be fine. I personally wouldn't recommend compromising script continuity just to make it so there's no overlapping dialog, as that's just one more thing that could make your actors seem more natural.

 

[ptalsky]

I'm not sure how you compromise continuity by asking the actors not to overlap when you're shooting singles. And, given that on many large budget projects when they shoot the singles, the other actor may not even be on the set, this is a pretty standard practice.

Now, I agree that if you have poor actors, and if you're not a very experienced director, this may be an issue, but it really shouldn't be. I've done it on many projects (working on both sides of the camera) with great success.

Phil

 

[RandomHero]

I'm not sure how you compromise continuity by asking the actors not to overlap when you're shooting singles. And, given that on many large budget projects when they shoot the singles, the other actor may not even be on the set, this is a pretty standard practice.

Now, I agree that if you have poor actors, and if you're not a very experienced director, this may be an issue, but it really shouldn't be. I've done it on many projects (working on both sides of the camera) with great success.

Phil

All that I meant by that was that if your script is calling for dialog that overlaps, for instance being interrupted or extremely quick exchanges, singles may not be the best way to go. If you can, that's great. But I meant that if it would chop up the lines too much from the original to facilitate singles like that, I wouldn't do it.

 

[rick3000]

I always try to cut the audio so it overlaps, but this can be hard to do if the people are speaking quickly and there isn't enough time to have an overlap, which is where room noise can come in handy. Just play with it, and you'll eventually get it where you want, it just takes time.

 

[Noiz2]

Audio Postproduction.

You need to have recorded it decently and it's always nice to have the picture editor to do what they can but nothing comes close to actual audio post. Room tone, for instance, is filling the holes in the dialog not for giving you the background. All the noise making things that you turned off for the shoot (you did of course...) get added back. Traffic outside the window etc, etc. Once you have filled to the space you can almost eliminate the room tone and your dialog will still be smooth.

There are, unfortunately, idiot directors & producers who get married to the sound of the picture edit or are in love with some particular bit for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the end product. You do what you can but....