All language subtitles for How To

We all know sound is important, right?

Footage
often arrives from production modes

or without sound, where you could also say
without personality.

It's up to the editor

to give the footage character, often
through the use of sound design.

Today we're going to sound design
a sequence from a dark comedy

to make things interesting.

We're going to create two versions.

First, a quick initial pass,
then we'll critique it

and take our time making a second version
where the sound works much better.

All right.

Let's begin.

There are three steps to making your edits
sound awesome.

One score.

Even if a composer will be scoring music
later, it's important to add temp music.

This is going to help you

design your sound effects in context,
and it's also going to help others

to understand your vision,
to ambiance and fully.

We should be able
to hear everything we see.

Remember, nothing is silent, so
even an empty room is going to make noise.

Three.

Finally, we can reinforce moments
with creative sound design.

Not everything needs to sound
the way it looks.

We can even add sounds for things

that we can't see, like thoughts,
feelings, and camera moves.

Let's start by familiarizing ourselves
with the footage

that we're going to be editing here.

It's a short film
by Craig Foster called Over Time.

We'll skip through it a bit quickly.

The movie opens
showing Ralph at work in his office.

Ordinary paperwork
is made to appear menacing.

Then there's some dialog at the end.

Ralph is evidently anxious to get home,

but is delayed when his boss
Simon, arrives with more work.

Q And the movie's main title card.

Alright, without further ado, here's
our initial pass.

Using stock libraries, we've added score,
sound effects and sound design.

Let's take a listen.

SIMON Ralph,

it's a good start,
but there's definitely some issues.

Number one, some elements of the score
match the edit, but some don't.

The beginning sounds good,
but the Q quickly changes into a lighter

hearted melody, more reminiscent
of something like a crime drama.

Number two, we forgot to add ambiance.

During the quiet moments,
the soundscape is noticeably dead

and doesn't contain the hum
and the hiss present in everyday life.

Also, there's not enough variety
in the sound effects.

We've used the same keyboards
sound for every letter typed

and the same pen
sound for every pen stroke.

Moving on.

Once you start adding sound design
to the edit sections that are missing

it become more obvious.

We could definitely cover more of the edit
with creative sound design.

Next treatment and effects on the audio.

A lot of our assets have been recorded
in a studio environment.

They don't have the reverberation that
would be present in a small, boxy room.

And finally, there's definitely some room
for more creativity.

We're missing an opportunity to use

sound to contribute to our story
in non-literal ways.

Let's get to work.

We're going to start with the score.

It's not terrible, but it could be better.

The problem is,

unless a cue has been scored specifically
for your edit, it won't line up.

For example, this staple being
pulled is a great moment.

The cut
builds towards it in our first edit,

but as you can tell, it kind of falls flat
without the support of the score.

So instead of playing the cue straight,

we're going to cut it up to match
our edit.

We'll use the beginning of the cue
cutting before the tone changes

for that opening scare

and then this small section from the end
for the staple being pulled will line

that final hit up with the moment
that the staple gets pulled.

The transition is pretty much invisible
because we've chosen two sections

of the cue that are similar.

Orchestral music without rhythm like this

is really easy to edit
because there are no beats to line up

for the rest of the edit.

We found another cue
from a different artist.

It's simpler than the opening cue.

More of
an ominous drone than any sort of melody

will apply the same principles though
cutting the cue so that hits and dips

along with loud and quiet moments
all fall in the right place.

Now let's work on the ambiance.

We'll mute the score and the sound effects
so that we can hear what's going on.

Unless your film is set in space
where nobody can hear you scream,

every location in a movie
should have ambient sound.

Ralph is working late in a private office
here.

There's not many people around.

So what does an empty office
actually sound like?

We'll use something simple

The hum of an air
conditioner is going to work fine.

We'll add some wind
for the only outside shot.

This pool via the sun setting.

And then don't forget to lower the volume
of any ambiance to a suitable level.

Next, let's address
those repetitive sound effects.

So we're using stock assets.

We found this keystrokes sound effect.

The problem is that I use
the same sound effect every single time.

And like I said before,
we did the same thing with a pen strokes

instead of a single keystroke.

Here's
a clip of typing that last 10 seconds.

It has multiple keystrokes in it,
and each one sounds slightly different.

But we can't use them as they are.

If we add the clip directly

to the timeline, it's
not going to match the onscreen action.

We'll play some cuts
to separate individual keystrokes

and then use each sound
once and line them up.

Editing with waveforms

visible is vital when lighting up the apex
of a sound effect to your edit.

You can add markers to make it easier,

so it's important to be thorough
with your sound design.

Once you start adding sounds,

sections that are missing,
sound effects become very, very obvious.

We'll add some sounds for the blinds
to watch and the knocks on the door.

The staple remover
is going to be a little bit harder.

It's not the kind of thing
that you'd find on stock libraries.

So maybe we can find something
that sounds similar.

It's a metal on metal sound like scissors.

Perfect.

Stock libraries are great,
but with more particular visuals,

it can often be difficult to find
the right sound in those instances.

You can record fully at your desk
straight into your timeline.

The exact procedure is going to vary
between alleles.

But once you're set up,

you'll be able to record audio
while you watch your edit.

Your performance doesn't
need to be perfect.

We can always chop it up afterwards
and match it more carefully to the edit.

Excellent.

The mix is sounding pretty good,
but there's something important missing.

Reverberation.

All our Foley has been recorded in a
studio environment with acoustic baffling.

Ralph's office, on the other hand,
should have some reverb.

Here's what a section of Foley sounded
like before A bit of environmental reverb.

And here's what it sounded like after

much more natural sounding and fitting
of the character's environment.

Instead of adding reverb

to each individual clip, we'll route
all our Foley tracks through a sub mix.

Sometimes called the Bus,
by adding a reverb effect to that sub mix.

We can apply it to all of our Foley
in one go.

The next problem that we're going to
tackle

is the lack of creativity in general.

Sound is most powerful
when we use it to communicate things

that the audience cannot see.

We're not talking about action
that's off screen.

What we're actually talking about
are things like emotions and feelings.

This is probably the single biggest way
that our edit can improve.

So it's time to get creative
and use sound design

to communicate the abstract
instead of the obvious.

The opening

credits don't feel right
playing out in complete silence.

We'll add some chimes
to match the text reveal.

And a drone is a precursor

to the first musical Cue
the wonderous sound of the chimes

mixed with the uncertainty of the drone
sets the perfect tone here.

Now let's add a reverse impact
to the stapling moment

to make it a little bit more sinister.

Perfect. All right.

This middle section feels pretty good
with all the key strikes, the pen strokes

and the like.

So we're going to skip to a section
at the end that feels a bit

empty at the moment, ripe
for creative sound design work.

So we don't want the tone to be too
dark here because this is also a comedy.

Wishes can add levity to moments
and help reinforce the comedic nature

of the movie. Think Hot Fuzz.

So we'll add wishes to all of Ralph's
quick movements

in this section
and to this camera move at the end.

Next hits make things more dramatic.

For example, placing a box of files on a
desk in itself, not particularly dramatic,

but adding a reverberating hit here
tells our audience

that this box has more severe consequences
than we might realize.

Very cool.

So there's lots of other moments
that we can sound designed to remember.

Sound design is an iterative process.

You're not going to get it
all right in just one pass.

For example, we can emphasize parts of
the score with additional sound effects.

I'm going to add an impact
to the first musical stab.

Let's add some horrifying bone
crunching to the staple remover.

Layering

sounds is a great way
of making your soundscape richer.

Stationary
definitely doesn't sound like that,

but because of these crunching
and squelching

sound effects are similar in tone
and frequency to the natural

sounds of the staple remover
and the shredder,

we can actually integrate them
pretty naturally into the mix.

These definitely make the scene
more intriguing,

a little uneasy, and they heighten
the audience's curiosity.

And of course, also foreshadow things
that are going to come later in the film.

This is a very stylized edit,
so the wishes, the hits

and the other sound effects
fit right in with other styles of editing.

They might be pretty out of place.

Now, important point here.

Once you've committed to a style,
it's important to be consistent

throughout the piece.

Sometimes moments worthy of sound,
accenting are obvious,

like our paper box drop and also like
these quick character movements.

But others can be more subtle

and we need to learn how to recognize them
and then how to treat them.

As a general rule, both visual movement
and lighting changes should clue

you into the fact that you might have
that type of moment on your hands.

For example, look at this sundown.

If we added a reverse
symbol leading up to the code

and layer it with a

bass drop that starts right on the cut,

you've now effectively accented a moment
that might have otherwise

been a missed opportunity.

The end result is that you've got
a more consistently styled piece

which a more novice editor
might not have been able to achieve.

Now there's one last important point

about sound design
that we want to share with you.

Not every moment needs to be accented

and not every accented
moment needs to be maximum intensity.

You need to be balanced.

Let's look at an example
of what we mean by this.

If we overload this moment too far,
we create problems.

Have a listen.

SIMON Ralph,

those two pieces of sound design,
the bass drop

and the hit

are far too intense
for a soft moment like this

that isn't confined to one single frame
and isn't even the climax of the scene.

The movement, when the hand is pulled
back, is meant to be a momentary pause

in the tension versus
a major, impactful event.

Ralph is about to go home

and this is the moment
when he realizes that he can't do that.

Identify key moments.

If you try to make every moment special,
none of them will be special.

This moment still deserve sound design,
just something subtler.

Have a look.

With the hits turned off,
leaving only the symbol stuck.

Simon Ralph.

Much better and more appropriate.

Now let's look at the actual climax.

We've already lined the score up.

We'll add a reverse symbol,
also known as a suck back

and a boom.

Combined with the score, this now signals

the resolution of the scene
and the set up of the next.

Okay,

so the pieces are there,
but the levels are all over the place.

It's time to mix the audio.

We need to make sure that the score dialog
and sound effects

all play at the correct levels
in relation to each other.

When using your audio
meters, here's kind of a rough guide.

Make sure that nothing peaks in
for dialog around -12 DB.

It tends to be one of the loudest things
in our mix.

This obviously is because we want people
to be able to understand the dialog

and follow the story
depending on what they are.

Sound effects will be anywhere
from negative ten DB to -30 DB,

and then the score or the music itself
tends to sit around -20 to -30. DB.

All right,
now let's see how it all sounds.

Simon Ralph

Not bad.

Sound design is an iterative process,
like building a brick wall.

Good sound
design is made up of many small touches

that when you step back,
make something truly awesome.

Start with the foundations, score
ambiance fully,

and then keep on building
with more and more creativity.

Well-built layers add sophistication
and interest

to the entire audio,
then follow a consistent workflow.

Yes, but creatively
try to think outside the box.

And of course, remember

these techniques are applicable
no matter what software that you work in.

All right, now go.

Sound design something.

It'll be fun, I promise.

Hey there.

For tons more free editing training.

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like cutting awesome movie trailers,
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I'll see you next time.