Dialogue

Dialogue encompasses what the on-screen talent says out loud (often based on scripted lines) – and is seen and recorded doing so by the cameras and microphones. Generically applied, dialogue can also refer to any intelligible vocal sounds made by persons seen uttering those sounds. A monologue may be a very long, typically uninterrupted speech made by a character in a fictional narrative film, but it may also refer to a lone host addressing the camera in non-fiction programming (such as in a game show, cooking show, talk show, etc.).

Room Tone/Natural Sound (NATS)/Ambience

Although there are differences of opinion around which term applies to which description, these three terms basically refer to a recording that captures the “sound” of the environment where video was recorded. Every place where the production team record picture and sound assets has its own unique “soundscape” that exists in the background – pretty much always there, but not necessarily noted on the conscious level by any listener. A city street, a business office, a hospital emergency room, a farmer’s field, the cabin of a lobster boat: all of these locations have a relatively constant “buzz” of sounds going on within and around them all of the time. Dialogue happens over them and despite them. In controlled environments (especially with narrative filmmaking) when a crowd scene is recorded, the crowd are typically silent in the background and only instructed to make sounds (often called “walla”) when asked to do so by the production team.

Room tone is traditionally done as a special recording of the filming environment immediately after the scene or interview has completed, but before any of the talent or crew leave the location. Everything is left just as it was (film lights on, windows closed, and, with inexpensive digital video cameras, the camera also running) and the sound recordist (or sound mixer) voice slates and records at least 30 seconds of the room’s tone while everyone holds the work and no one speaks.

Room tone, natural sound (NATS), and ambience audio clips can be used during the edit to even out the background sounds of dialogue tracks recorded in those spaces but at different times during different takes. If additional talent voice looping (also known as ADR – see later in this section) is required for the program, then these clean, studio-recorded audio tracks can be mixed with the original tone or ambience of the locations and edited in as though they were recorded on set with the other actual dialogue clips.

Wild Sounds

Although not part of the synchronous sound created while video cameras and digital audio recorders are rolling simultaneously on set during production, wild sounds are, typically, the responsibility of the sound department. A sound mixer (and maybe the boom operator) will go around the location where the scenes, interviews, or B-roll were visually recorded and capture the audio of specific things. He or she can record the sound of the sliding doors at a storefront, a particular refrigeration unit, the beeping of a crosswalk signal, birds in the trees, etc. These types of sounds fall between ambience and spot sound effects and can be used during the edit to help to fill in the sound bed and enhance the “reality” of the location seen on screen.

Soundtracks (Musical)

Usually thought of as music elements placed into the audio tracks during post-production, if the movie or real-life event being recorded has an actual music performance (a concert, an art gallery opening with musical performance, a live band at a bar, etc.), then these are part of the production video and audio as well. They are sometimes called “source music.” They can be edited straight into the sequence’s audio tracks as diegetic sounds or as an element in the non-fiction program’s audio bed.

Narration/Voice-Over

Often, non-fiction (and occasionally fiction) programs require a voice-only track. These lines of monologue are typically recorded in a sound booth or other quiet, controlled studio environment with very good microphones. The narration is usually scripted and is written by the producers, et al. after the rough cut of the show is edited together – filling holes in the story, providing data dumps or time jump explanations required for program clarity and flow.

Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR)/Looping

There are times when the recordings of production audio of the talent’s dialogue may be of poor quality or otherwise unacceptable. In these cases, it can be very beneficial to have the talent return to the studio and re-record fresh, clear, or differently intoned lines of dialogue. These new audio clips are then hand synced into the sequence taking the place of the discarded production tracks. The clean audio from automated dialgue replacement (ADR) is mixed over the ambience or room tone in order to make the new material match with the soundscape of the overall scene.

Ambience/Tonal Tracks

These audio tracks may be lifted from the production audio of background ambience or room tone, but there are entire collections of pre-created ambience audio files available in libraries. Ambience does not have to sound exactly like an airport or a high school gymnasium during a basketball game. It can sound more like a general mood-setting track. Tonal tracks fall into this category. An eerie cave where the evil monster might be dwelling may not have a specific ambience, but it can have a deep, bassy, and echoey tonal quality to it (almost musical but not quite). These tracks are less about lending “reality” to a filmed location and more about generating an emotional and psychological response within the audience. These tones can elicit visceral reactions and have profound effects when mixed into horror and sci-fi films and some video game audio tracks as well.

Sound Effects (SFX)/Spot Effects

Typically, a sound effect is added to the sound mix to enhance the reality of the sound that a filmed object is supposedly making. Often, the microphones on a set are placed to just record very clean, clear, and present talent voice performance. Although certain actions and interactions with other objects may be occurring, the sound just does not get picked up by the mics very well. Sound effects are selected and hand synced into the sequence by the editor or sound editor.

There can be a lot of creativity involved with sound gathering and sound effects editing. Although numerous collections of sound effects exist online (and on CDs, if you remember what those are), it can be fun to customize your own. A doorknob turning can sound like a doorknob turning, but what does a magical wand that pulses out fireballs sound like? Combining known sounds with other, unrelated sounds can generate new sounds that conjure the feeling or essence of these oftentimes fictional things that make noises in our films. Non-fiction programming (especially for kids’ shows or more fanciful, lighter fare) will employ sound effects like “swooshes,” “boings,” and other sounds that are not meant to sound “real” but are there to augment the audio tracks and generate a playful, fun mood.

Foley Effects

A particular kind of spot effect is the Foley effect, named after the Hollywood film legend Jack Foley, who popularized the technique. Special performers, Foley artists, precisely reproduce the movements of actors (with props and sound-making gizmos, etc.) while they watch the movie projected on a screen in a special sound-recording studio. Footsteps, leather jacket creaks, fabric rustling during a tussle, and brushing crumbs off a tablecloth can all be reproduced by these artists with the aid of numerous and often strange implements. These carefully performed and recorded sounds are hand synced into the sequence where the associated, on-screen physical actions occur in the narrative.

Soundtracks (Music)

Similar to the same item listed above, these audio files are typically popular music tracks of well-known songs that play in the movie or show. These songs customarily only appear for a brief period in the motion picture (a fraction of their full three minutes-plus duration), but will be heard fully, as a collection of songs and music, on the movie soundtrack sold separately online and in shops.

Stings/Stingers

Stings (or stingers) are very short pieces of music, often only a few seconds in length, that are placed in the mix to draw attention to certain dramatic, shocking, or comic moments. These are mostly used in television programming and have become a bit of a cliché or an inside joke to some media producers. Stings are also often found at the end of scenes or acts and signal the coming transition to commercials or new material (sometimes called a “bumper”).

Score

A score is original music composed specifically for the program being edited. Computer technologies and music production apps have allowed amateur musicians and composers the opportunity to score their own short web videos. Iconic motion picture scores (typically orchestral) conjure up vivid memories of our favorite scenes in so many movies. Humans are quickly moved along emotionally charged levels of story interaction by the use of music that fits the tone of the scenes. Epic battles, tense action, and romantic engagements are enhanced and enlivened by the sweeping strings, blaring horns, or resonating kettledrums. Customized scores are an excellent way to engage and manipulate the audience’s emotions and imagination.

Sync Sound

This refers to synchronous sound sources: audio information, typically recorded on set during production, that can be attributed to some source in the visible, on-screen environment.

The term “sync” (short for “synchronized” or “synchronous”) has been used in filmmaking for a very long time. It usually refers to the synchronization between the picture track of the film and the sound track(s). If there is a mismatch in the sync, then the actor’s mouth moves to say words but the words are not heard on the audio track at the same time. They are out of sync. Achieving and maintaining sync is a very important aspect of editing film and video.

Emulsion film motion pictures are shot with a camera that only captures the pictures on a strip of light-sensitive flexible plastic. A separate device is required to record the audio (now chiefly on digital recorders). This process is sometimes called dual-system recording. These separate elements of picture and sound are eventually captured onto the computer and “married” together or “synched up” for the editing process. That is why we use the slate clapsticks to mark the sync point for the film image and the audio recording at the beginning of each take (head slate) – or, occasionally, at the end of a video clip after the main action has been recorded, as in a documentary or news event (tail slate) (Figure 3.1). Although video cameras have the capacity to capture both the picture and audio data into media files (or on tape), many video-originated productions choose to record dual system as well – for quality control over all production audio elements and for keeping camera and sound departments unencumbered by crossing responsibilities.

It should be noted that productions sometimes record motion imagery with no additional sound recording. The video camera will still capture the head slate information, but the camera assistant or “clapper” does not actually close the slate’s clapsticks. In fact, three fingers are placed between the slate sticks (kind of looking like an “M”) so that an editor can tell from the beginning that no corresponding audio track for this scene and take number was recorded. The shorthand reference for this kind of video-only clip is MOS. This acronym has many possible (and debated) origins and meanings, but the film industry unanimously uses it to mean a shot recorded without sync sound. (See our Glossary to learn more about MOS.)

FIGURE 3.1 A slate is used primarily during motion media production when two separate devices record picture and sound information. A – a traditional head slate; B – a tail slate; C – an MOS head slate (where audio is not recorded); D – audio waveform “spike” showing where slate sticks clap together.

Once all of the dual-system files are on the editing computer, the editor or assistant will have to sync them. There will be one frame of video that shows the clapsticks fully closed (making contact) and there will be one “frame” of audio that has the sound of those sticks closing. The editor matches the picture “clap” frame with the audio “clap” frame and joins the clips together (sometimes forming a new reference master clip that contains the picture and all sync sound tracks). From that point forward, the sync picture/ sound master clip can be edited, together, anywhere in the timeline.

Unfortunately for the editor, there are occasions when the production team either forget to head slate a take, frame the shot poorly and do not record the two sides of the “sticks” actually closing, or feel that slating is an unnecessary waste of time (which it never is) and do not do it all. If no clap slate has been used, then the editor must search through the video source clip for a unique “event” that shows something happening (like a hand clap, sneeze, door slam, etc.) and then listen to the corresponding audio clip to hear that same something. This picture/sound event will become the sync point for these media files. If no such picture/sound event is present in the video source clip, then the editor must hand sync the audio tracks to the picture track – a very time-consuming and rarely precisely effective method of syncing up production material.

Although video cameras do record both picture and sound tracks, these elements are captured into your editing computer as separate media files. These media files have references to one another and remain in sync for playback and editing. The software usually unites them by their timecode associations, but it is still your responsibility to keep them in sync while you edit. Depending on your software settings, trimming only one side of an edit with the video track selected but not its corresponding audio tracks will cause this loss of sync. The mismatch becomes the exact number of frames that you remove from or add to the video but do not also simultaneously remove from or add to the audio. You’ve changed time for one element but not both. To fix a sync shift like this, that exact number of frames could be removed from or added to the audio tracks only at that cut point in your sequence. Depending on your editing software, this exact number of “out-of-sync” frames may be noted in the timeline around the clips that have lost sync.

It should be noted, that just like with blurry images, audiences very much dislike out-of-sync videos. As the editor, it will be in your best interest to ensure proper sync for all audio elements in your edited program.

Diegetic Sounds

Sometimes referred to as “actual” or “literal” sounds, diegetic sounds are generated by persons, objects, or environments that exist within the world depicted in the story. The word is derived from the Greek word “diegesis,” which means “narration” or a “recited story.” Sound generators (anything that makes or causes sounds to occur) that live within the “reality” of the film space create diegetic sound. Whether these things are seen on screen or exist off screen does not matter because they are still within the diegesis or story world.

This does not mean, however, that the actual sound of the said persons, objects, or environments comes directly from production audio sources (such as ambience or wild sound tracks). Any applicable source may be placed on the audio track to fill in for the “real” sound of these sound generators. As such, it is important to give these sounds the tone quality, presence, and perspective that match the size, number, and proximity of the items that are supposed to be generating these sounds – in order to establish a relatable “reality” within the audience’s experience.

From our list, thus far, sources such as dialogue, soundtrack (music from within the recorded experience), natural sound, and Foley sound effects may be considered diegetic.

Non-Diegetic Sounds

Also called “non-literal” or “commentary” sounds, non-diegetic sounds are sounds placed in your sequence’s audio tracks that cannot be attributed to any source found as an element within the film’s “reality.” In other words, nothing in the film space is causing these sounds to occur, and no one in the film space can hear them. Non-diegetic sounds are typically used for dramatic purposes and are designed to emotionally and psychologically manipulate the audience.

Musical score/orchestration, soundtrack music (not emanating from a source in the film world), certain ambience and tonal tracks, and certain “non-realistic” sound effects may fall into the non-diegetic category. Voice-over narration is also sometimes placed within this grouping depending on whose thoughts are being voiced and what narrative technique is being used.

Sound Design

Every motion media piece should have some significant level of attention paid to the audio tracks that play back with the images. A 15-second web video or a three-hour epic motion picture can both benefit from having richly layered, genre-appropriate, “reality”-enhancing, emotion-inducing audio clips in their sequences. Sound design is employed in both fiction and non-fiction filmmaking and television programming.

Sound design is often associated with narrative film post-production, where a sound designer or a sound effects editor gather sounds together and through creative combinations, filtering and mixing, generate sounds that enhance the “reality” of the images and actions on screen. These augmented sounds can also reflect the thoughts and emotions being experienced by the characters and therefore allow for the audience to more deeply relate to the story. Spot effects, Foley effects, ambience, tonal tracks, etc. are all elements that combine together to form the auditory experience.

Sound Motifs

A sound motif is a musical “sting” or particular sound effect that is purposely associated with a particular character, object, or environment. Its use and reoccurrence in a single film or across a series of videos will signal (to the audience) the presence of that entity or location. It may be considered part of the sound design for the show. An obvious example is the breathy, echoey “Ja-ay-son Ah-ah-ah” announcing the arrival of Jason in the Friday the 13 ^th franchise.