LO3 Audio Editing

 Audio Editing 

We filmed all the scenes within our documentary outside. This mean that external factors, such as the weather impacted the audio so during the editing process we needed to ensure that all the spoken audio is heard clearly. To make certain that all the important information is heard clearly, we altered the audio bar on premier pro by making it louder so that all the details are audible. One major problem that we faced was dictating whether to keep the background sound for the title screen. We didn't know whether it would be necessary to keep the sound as it had no relevance to the documentary. However, on discussion we decided to keep the audio unmuted to establish the location that we were in, which also allowed us to create an environment for our audience to imagine. Adding on to that point, The external noise is frequent throughout our documentary due to the outdoor location that we filmed in, so to keep the audio consistent the decision to maintain the background noise within the title screen was decided.

During the editing process, we saw it quite vital to focus on the audience being able to hear the information clearly. So, as soon as the actors began to talk to the camera we needed to alter the audio so that every piece of information is heard, the background noise isn't too off putting, the sound is at a uniform volume throughout and to ensure that the audio isn’t generally  too loud or too quiet. This was done by selecting the individual video clips and then navigating to the audio section on premiere pro. After this I went onto the SFX setting as this will allow me to either turn up the volume or turn it down depending on the original volume as it is vital for all the relevant information to be accessed. In some cases, the video itself would be at a significantly lower volume in comparison to others, meaning the SFX was increased, which is done by altering the dB. Furthermore, in some clips we had to tackle the other external factors within our audio such as birds, on goers and weather, which significantly impacted the audio and how well the actors could be heard. To ensure that the outside noise was not as impactful to the overall audio, editing effects such as audio repair needed to be used. this would allow me to block out this unnecessary noise so that details were audible. Audio repair in particular, allowed us to remove this background noise as well as keeping the vital information, which ultimately meant that we maintained the conventions of a documentary.

Another important factor in creating a documentary in terms of audio is making sure that the volume and the speech within each clip is at the same level, which is a similar process to when I altered the volume for the dB. By compressing the audio, the volume will be uniform, ultimately meaning that audio that is at a higher volume will be made quieter and vice versa. once most of the clips have become compressed, the final product will have audio that reaches the same level instead of fluctuating sound. The most important factor within our short film –the speech- will become excessively clearer In the final edit, increasing our overall quality if the documentary. Premiere pro also has an audio equaliser, which is a bar that can be used to adjust the audio’s quality. Whenever our audio lost quality, I adjusted the audio equaliser bar so that the audio’s quality increased substantially. This results in a more professional, clean cut final edit And will ensure that every detail within documentary is Specified to the audience.

When editing so much audio content for a short film, it can be very time consuming and it can become difficult, especially if that are a lot of clips. Despite this, nesting can make this particular problem manageable, because it allowed me to edit multiple clips with similar features at the same time. This also allowed me to manage my edited audio easier and also meant that the audio for the documentary was completed quicker. To be more specific in terms of my documentary, the opening scenes it didn't contain any audio and needed the background noise to be altered. Nesting allowed me to edit both at the same time and alter the audio so that the volume wasn't as loud. This also helped further on imagine process when there were two or more videos that needed the same effect being added to them which made the overall audio editing process more simple and meant that we could meet a deadline.