LO4: Post production Edits to sound track

Basic editing of different sounds 

I added my audio clips to the production by importing the folder I put all my audio files into. This meant that those audio clips appeared in the project window so that I could listen to them, and then drag and drop them onto the track in place.

After placing my audio onto the track, I had to make sure it fit into the short film seamlessly. I used the razor tool to cut up the individual audio clips by using the razor tool to get rid of any unwanted silence/extra dialogue/noise.

I also added the effects fade in/out onto the added audio clips. That way the audio would feel as if its naturally entering the scene instead of the sound effect instantly playing. I did this by right clicking on the beginning/end of the clip and then applying the default transitions. I then could adjust the length of the transition by sliding the transition bar closer to the end of the clip to make the fade in faster.

Audio control/manipulation 

In my short film it's important to make sure my audience don't have their suspension of disbelief broken by being pulled out of the immersion and narrative by visual or audio errors. As part of the narrative of my short film my protagonist is talking over the phone to her mother throughout the movie. I recorded these lines separately and added them in post production instead of having my actress actually speak over the phone. This is because I didn't want to run into any issues with the microphone picking up the phone audio, as well as having overall audio quality to be unclear/distorted. This meant that in post production it was important for me to edit the audio to make sure it feels authentic, as if the characters are actually talking over the phone. 

I did this by accessing the effects window and searching for the effect 'highpass' which is used to make audio sound more as if it's coming from an electronic device.

 I then dragged and dropped it on to each audio clip which applied the effect.

 After then listening to the sound, I noticed that the effect made the audio much quieter, so I right clicked on it, went to 'Audio Gain' and then increased audio gain by 15. This made the audio much easier to hear. 

In this specific scene our character is on the phone further away from the camera than in most scenes. To make it sound like the phone is further away I also added the effect 'lowpass' to these specific audio clips through the same application of effects method. 

Another important effect I added to almost all clips that greatly improved my short film was the DeNoise effect. Whilst editing my colour grading of each clip I noticed that in most clips there was background noise that often pulled the viewer right out of the immersion of the scene as a loud distracting buzzing noise could be heard, however I wasn't aware of how I would be able to fix this issue. This was especially distracting in scenes which switched between shots with low buzzing and high buzzing noises. After gathering audience feedback via survey a peer said that to fix this I should apply the 'DeNoise' effect which reduced the audio of that background noise so that my audience wouldn't be distracted. This also allowed me to conform to my horror genre conventions as the completely silent atmosphere in the house now created with this effect means that the audience hang on every sound that happens, waiting for something to break the silence and tension felt in the air of the agonisingly drawn out shots.