Today we looked at dialogue editing in films. This is an important part of the post-production process which hones in on cleaning up all the sound issues from the set and smoothing out all the actor’s vocal performances. This must occur as smooth and articulate dialogue is one of the foundations of any movie and the first step that goes into a sound mix.
In class, we were tasked with editing 2 scenes from a short film. After loading in our aaf file from week two and lining up the timecodes, I organise all the tracks and audio clips by copying them into groups and subgroups, using the shortcut ctrl + option while dragging clips so that I am able to keep the original copies of the aaf that I can compare back to as well as retrieve a fresh unedited clip if I were to make a mistake. This shortcut also has the added benefit of locking the clips in place, so as I drag them to a new track the clips have no chance of going out of sync. This will be useful for me to organise and clean up my pro tools session, makinge my mixing process easier in the long run, especially since I’m working with a strict time constraint in each studio session. It will also make it a breeze to export separate audio stems since all the audio is organised into the correct subgroup.
Dialogue editing is not always an easy process, but it’s a crucial and necessary one. You will spend a great amount of time selecting the best microphone sources, smoothing background noise from cut to cut, and removing non-dialogue production sound effects for use on their own tracks. Empty spaces are filled with room tone, and unwanted sounds like heavy mouth clicks or noises that distract from the viewing experience are taken out.
Through research, I discovered a book to help guide my workflow. Titled “Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures: A Guide to the Invisible Art”, this book by John Purcell provides a detailed breakdown of the dialogue editing process. Starting the preparation for the edit to finalising dialogue tracks. The book has helped me understand not only the “how” but also the “why” behind each step in the editing process.
For example in this passage he discusses shot balancing, which is a key aspect of dialogue editing that ensures the dialogue sounds consistent, even when recorded in different environments or conditions. The focus on creating a “living scene” reinforces the idea that dialogue editing is as much about storytelling as it is about technical precision. Effective shot balancing removes the “mechanics of filmmaking” to immerse the audience fully in the story. It highlights how editing choices influence the audience’s perception of the dialogue, ensuring it feels natural and contributes to the scene’s authenticity.
This is a piece of information I called back to numerous times while mixing my dialogue editing artefacts. I was able to use it as a guide for my editing process, since it was the first time I had taken on such a task, it was a key asset in giving me an initial image of what I had to do, bypassing my creative block and helping me to produce a believable dialogue edit mix.
Purcell, J. (2015). Dialogue editing for motion pictures: a guide to the invisible art. Focal Press.
Enhanced Media. (n.d.). What is dialogue editing and why is it important for your film? | Enhanced Media – Audio Post Production Company. [online] Available at: https://enhanced.media/blog/2021/10/6/what-is-dialogue-editing-and-why-is-it-important-for-your-film.