Week 2: Sound editing for a documentary: Ch 2 - July 14th to July 21st - Part 1

Following my first submission for Dean off chapter 2, some of the key feedback I received was in regard to adding more detail, such as cars, speeches and actions been articulated such as shovelling and footsteps.

I initially went with a more abstract impressionistic strategy, however, within this I had made it more stripped back than the vision required. Electing for subtle mood enhancement through sound sound design, however the vision required more binding to the audio to create more viewer engagement. Much of this is largely due to pacing or structural  issues. 

The documentary has pacing largely determined by the picture editor and like a lot of film and television works the sound becomes a last consideration (also often on a tight guideline). The vision had a particular rhythmn to it, however, some spots were very slow and dialogue heavy, whilst other sections were full of dynamic burst of action shots, requiring more sound. I asked Dean about this and he said that every project is different and that in this particular case all the video was largely pre-determined and as such their was not a lot of conversation between the sound and video department as there might be on other projects.

Chapter 2 as opposed to chapter 1, had a lot more dialogue, and men in suits sitting in boardrooms. This required a more minimal approach, which still utilised detail. As such it was actually more challenging to score the slow scenes as opposed to some of the busier sequences. In our meetings Dean and I spoke a lot about energy and creating little pockets of energy to add pepper to the picture and foster a feeling of engagement over the arc of the picture.

After spending much of Week 1 arguing with Pro Tools about working out timecode issues, by Week 2 I started to pick up the pace on chapter 2, by watching tutorials videos, googling issues and asking Dean about specific questions and procedures.
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Chapter 2 Examples
This a shot of Ruby killing Harvey Oswalt. I found some of the original audio from the event, I then used a recording of 45. Colt, the same gun as Ruby used, and bolstered the audio in Pro Tools using EQ and harmonic saturation, to create more impact and feeling.

This a sequence of my isolated additive SFX audio in a recreated montage of JFK been shot by Oswalt.
I used a recording of Lincoln engine, which was the same model  as the car which Kennedy used. I then cut up different parts of the recording, utilising reverb, harmonic saturation, and a vinyl effect, to give the feeling of space and wear. Other considerations were using synchronisation to splice together audio and vision on cuts, and pacing to use audio to create a feeling of dynamics, contrast and energy.