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Editing: Audio for Video - Using Radio Edit Techniques

As for actors, many of them come from humble beginnings and are good for making more with less. If you should be lucky enough to have both good writers and good actors, you're going to get great dialog and action. Assuming you can capture the performances in the manner that enhances these qualities, the edit should be a real joy. But, where do you begin?

One strategy for editing most any type of production is to do a "radio" edit. Focusing your cuts and the assembly of your timeline on the dialog places the content of the story as the highest priority. You see this time and time again in commercial TV production. From script to final edit, what is said in a 30-second spot will have a great impact on the viewer. Every second counts and every syllable is rehearsed.

Even in feature films - where time is less constrictive - the rhythm and flow of dialog help punctuate character and plot. All this is the art of editing. So, let's spend less time on shot takes and more time on dialog to drive our story. But remember, it's all the same principle of creating a rhythm and building audience anticipation.

You can treat dialog just like music. You can edit lines into syncopated beats and build pauses to create a rhythm. The frequency of edits will determine the pacing of the sequence. Fast-action scenes will have dialog between characters trimmed closely together. Think of the fast-paced dialog edit as a tennis match. The exchange of lines between characters goes back and forth. When there's not much to be said, such as a chase scene, you can use sounds as beats to fill in the "dead air" between lines. For example, two bicyclists are competing in a race to reach the final stretch. The antagonist takes the lead and taunts the protagonist with a line of dialog. Our calm hero says nothing. To keep the pacing quick, the editor will throw in some sound effects to keep the dialog beat alive, perhaps a few loud cheers from the crowd or a horn blow along with the obvious sound effects of bike gears spinning, tires scraping the concrete, and the windy whir of the racers as they rush by. Then we hear a grunt from our protagonist as he surges forward. The antagonist says, "It's too late, I've already beat you!" Then there's a sound effect of a tire exploding and a scream from the antagonist. Next, add some cheers from the crowd. That's a quick fast-paced radio edit with just two lines of dialog from the characters and a whole lot of beats supplied by sound effects. The best part is that the sound effects also really help build the environment of the scene. Just mix in your visuals, and you're done.

When you are using a multi-track timeline, it's sometimes easiest to put each character on a separate track. This way you can nudge sections together more easily. When you're manipulating time like this, it can become tricky to find visuals that match. If you're lucky, you'll have some cutaways to work with. It's also critical that you have room tone. Room tone is usually a 30-second audio clip (sometimes longer) of the "ambiance" of a room or whatever location you're shooting in. You instruct the talent and crew not to make a noise while you capture the room tone. Use the room tone clip to fill in the blank spaces between audio clip edits, so that these areas don't become completely "dead air."

The L-cut is when the audio track of the first clip continues after the edit into the visual of the second clip, replacing the audio of the second clip for a good portion of time. A cutaway is a classic example of an L-cut. You can use the L-cut to help match visuals when you're in a pinch. For example, clip one shows a closeup of a character who delivers a line of dialog followed by a pause and then another line of dialog. You decide to cut the second line of dialog after the pause and put in a different line. To sell this edit visually, you cut to a cutaway (i.e., a clip of a reaction shot of another character) just a few seconds before the end of the first line of dialog. The cutaway clip lasts a few seconds, simulating the pause, and we move to the next clip with the new line of dialog. The L-cut helps keep our pacing moving without any visual hitches. Using pacing tricks like introducing sound effects (or more talkative characters for that matter) and using quick and efficient cuts like the L-cut will help create pacing that is a right fit for your scene.