Movie editing and sound

Movie editing and sound

Introduction

The purpose of sound and editing in film making is supporting the narrative that the film or movie wants to put across. In this case, the use of sound in film making is either direct or indirect. The sound may be used in telling the story directly, or it may be used indirectly to enhance the effects of the movie or film. In film making, sound is utilized in integrating many elements of the movie, and by doing this, good sound in a film must make sure that it draws no attention to itself. It should be understood, however, that the roles of sound and picture in film making may change from one scene to another and even from one moment to another. In the process of making many films, the construction of sound is done post-production, where many pieces of sound are utilized, mixed in a seamless manner, and pieced together to create a whole film. This process is known as sound design. In this paper, therefore, we are going to illustrate the argument that sound and editing are the most profound elements of film or movie making.

Sound In film making.

Vesna (1) argues that in film making, sound design is a technical field is very important and that it enhances the final quality of a film or movie. The coverage of sound design includes or the elements of film making that is non-compositional. The history of sound design can be traced to China and India in about 3000 BC. Scholars argue that perhaps the first utilization of recorded may have been that of a Phonograph that played a baby crying in the year 1890 at a London theatre.  However, the most significant usage of sound design began in earnest in the 1950s when Hollywood directors during the production of Broadway movies. During this time, the film crews had no sound designers, but it was the responsibility of the stage manager to find the sound effects, and it was an electrician who played the recordings during the performances of these films.

Vesna further argues that it is film making that inaugurated the profession of sound design, and since then, new career fields of sound professionals were opened. Therefore, a sound designer is in charge of all of the audio track of a film. Sound with the film is an idea that scholars say started fourteen years even before the motion pictures were invented (Vesna 1).

To further support this argument that sound is a very profound element in film making, Vesna (1) says that sound plays the role of being the grammatical police in film making. Its main work is the provision of a form of continuity, or it becomes the connective tissue that binds films. Vesna (1) continues to explain that sound in film making has two main characteristics. The first characteristic is what is known as hyper-reality, which means that in most cases, during film making, the use of sound is often an exaggeration of reality. If the soundtracks in a film are heard in isolation, they may seem to be over-hyped. However, if they are listened to in context, the sound tracts seem more naturally balanced. The other characteristic is what is commonly known as correlation with a picture. This characteristic implies that often there is an influence that sound has on film pictures. The film’s makers allude that the scenes in a film are different depending on how the sound effects are used in the making of these films. The impact of sound is also profound in that it has a significant effect on the rhythm of the film as well as having an effect of storytelling effect in film making (Vesna 2).

Vesna (2), further explains that sound plays two leading roles in film making. The roles include storytelling and story supporting. According to filmmakers, the most crucial aspect in film making is storytelling since it possible in a film to do dialogues, monologues as well as off narration. On the other hand, story supporting entails the use of sound effects that enhance tension in the film and thus affecting the feelings of the people watching the film. In story supporting, music and special sound effects are the essential tools that are used. The sound utilized in film making may be from recordings, customized sound libraries, and music that can be composed during film making or obtained from pre-existing sources. It, therefore, means that without sound, the story that the filmmaker intended to tell may not be effectively told.

Since the above arguments have established the essentiality of sound in film making, John and (Weis 8), further explains that there are various fundamental techniques that are utilized in sound design. This includes recording, mixing, synchronization, and editing. The aim of recording is to capture every sound that is potentially useful in the process of film making and ensuring that it is processed into the best possible quality. Mixing involves dynamically using the manipulation of the level of controls of various microphones during the recording phase.  Synchronization implies the art of ensuring that in the film, the picture and sound are in the same phase. Also, synchronization may refer to a later recording of sounds to be used in a film in a studio that wouldn’t be recorded on set to achieve the appropriate quality. Editing is the final phase in sound design, and it implies the combining of all the recorded sounds together in order to achieve what is commonly known as sound vision.

Film Editing

According to Gross (4), film editing is regarded as the creative step that is really significant in determining how the finished film will look, which also proves that editing is the second most profound element in film making. Scholars allude that a good editor has the capacity to save a film that was directed poorly. Consequently, a lousy editor also has the ability to mess up the work is even an excellent director. Gross (4) further points out that Director William Friedkin, who was the DirectorDirector of the film “The Exorcist,” can be touted to be one of the pioneers of film editing. Friedkin alludes that the power of storytelling and excellent storytelling ability is contained in film editing. According to Roger Barton, the editor of various films, including “Star Wars,” gives the description of movie editing as being a great responsibility. It is a massive responsibility of being given a large amount of raw film and being requested to come up with a compelling story out of this raw footage. Many filmmakers describe the art of film editing as being a satisfying and rewarding job (Dale and Gaspard 16)

To illustrate how profound movie editing is, Glen Scantlebury, a creative editor of movies, including the transformer, argues that what makes one a great editor is an inspiration. Once one is no longer inspired in film editing, then he is done as an editor. Gross (16), explains that despite the final work of most films that is usually captivating, the editors used various tricks of the trade to come up with the final work. Some of these tricks of the trade include visual and aural rhythm. Many editors point out that if you don’t have rhythm, then the possibility of you making a good film reduces significantly. Movie or film editing is all about rhythm. It is the process of wanting to make the best out of each edited film. The process of editing is also ensuring that each film is character-driven (Reisz and Millar 13). The process of film editing requires that one has highly developed analytical skills so as to come up with an excellent final product (Gross 16).

A good example that supports the argument that editing is one of the most vital elements in film making can be found in the making of the film “The Exorcist”. Gross (4) narrates that the DirectorDirector of the film, William Friedkin, looked at the unedited footage of the film are realized, what a lousy job that had been done. He actually called the work that had been done garbage. At this point, Friedkin came up with a plan of recruiting an anonymous editor whom he commissioned with the work of salvaging the film through editing. He sought the help of a talented editor by the name Bud S. Smith. Fortunately, the intervention by Friedkin finally paid off since the end product after Smith edited the film was brilliant to the extent that Friedman labels the work as being genius. The “Exorcist” ended up being a great horror film courtesy of the great work of editing. The example is an excellent support of the argument that film editing is one of the most significant elements of film making since work which had been labelled to be mediocre, was finally salvaged by a great editor (Gross 4).

Gross concludes by examining that what makes editing and sound the greatest elements in film making is the fact that they deal with the essential aspects of film making- that is images, as well as sound.

The utilization of editing and sound in film.

Christopher (3), Argues that the magic in a film is enhanced by their ability to lift the audience through the filmic medium and transfer them into another world, era or galaxy. To sustain this argument, Christopher argues that great sound and film or movie editing is essential. Christopher (11), further argues that the making of movies and film is often based on theory and one of the theories of film making is the contemporary film theory. This theory, includes the principles of psychoanalysis, linguistics as well as philosophy. Despite the different theoretical approaches that filmmakers employ, many don’t emphasize the role that sound plays in the process of film making. To their own peril, many early film theoreticians did not put into much consideration the importance of sound when coming up with the theories of film making. Their main focus was on the visual representation. However, Christopher (12), further argues that as time went by, things started to change. In his explanation, Joseph Anderson, on sound and Image together, says when the visual images in movies are perceived by audiences in a simultaneous manner with sound, then the perception of the two will be done as a unit. This explanation underscores the importance of sound and editing in the art of film or movie making. It, therefore, goes without saying that for any effective movie combination of sound and images has to be used. Great images in film making can only be achieved if the editor of the film or movie is well versed with his work.

A good example of great utilization of sound and editing can be found in the movie “Star Wars”. In this movie, sound, in the form of music, is used to establish location. In this particular case, the accompaniment of music, not only establishes the characters and articulates the overall tone of the movie, but it also serves the purpose of providing the audience with a significant degree of sonic orientation and this eliminates confusion. In starts wars, Christopher (28) emphasizes the importance of great editing and usage of sound. He argues that there are many films that are found to be disorienting since they are found to be either too big or visually; they are not distinctive enough from other sets. Therefore, Christopher (28) argues that this confusion can be eliminated through the proper use of music and great editing. This is a point that the movie “Star Wars” admirably proves.

Conclusion

The essay gives us a great glimpse of the art of sound and editing in motion pictures. It articulates that editing in film making is very important, but it is bound to be different from one film to another depending on the story that the film intends to tell as well as the desired outcome that the directors and editors want to achieve. It is also clear that in every film that is produced, there is always a creative soul that is behind it in the name of an editor. Various techniques like jump cut and montage are often employed during the editing process so as to come up with the perfect end product. It should be understood that an excellent editor can save a film that was directed in a mediocre way, and on the other hand, and bad editor can also spoil a film that was done by an expert director.

On the other hand, sound plays the roles of storytelling and story supporting. According to filmmakers, the most important aspect in film making is storytelling since it possible in a film to do dialogues, monologues as well as off narration. On the other hand, story supporting entails the use of sound effects that enhance tension in the film and thus affecting the feelings of the people watching the film. Indeed, no film can be said to be great if the sound and images that are used during the production of the film are not of superior quality. There the audio part of the film is taken care of by the use of great sound, and the image part of the film is taken care of by the use of brilliant editing and together when used effectively, they become the greatest elements in film production.

Works Cited.

Dakic, Vesna. “Sound Design for Film and Television.” (2009): 2014.

Gross, Daniel. “Making a story move: The art of film editing.” (2009).

Schweitzer, Dennis Christopher. Ton & Traum: A Critical Analysis Of The Use Of Sound Effects   And Music In Contemporary Narrative Film. Diss. Ohio University, 2004,

Christopher

Belton, John, and Elisabeth Weis, eds. Film sound: Theory and practice. Columbia University      Press, 1985.

Newton, Dale, and John Gaspard. Digital filmmaking 101: an essential guide to producing low-    budget movies. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2001.

Reisz, Karel, and Gavin Millar. “The technique of film editing.” (1971).