Editing Cures for the Common Cold

I’ve been editing some long-form interviews today for a client. Not exactly podcasts .. these are talks from a conference in their entirety for the benefit of the people who weren’t able to go.

One of these interviews was something I haven’t had to deal with in a while .. the speaker had a cold. By the time I was finished with him, all his coughs, sneezes and sniffles were gone.

That’s just one example of some the things I listen for when I’m editing. My philosophy of editing is to have the person sound as natural as possible, but also the best as possible. Just as you’d correct the lighting, make sure the person looks good before shooting a publicity photo, you also want to make sure the person you’re editing sounds the best they can.

For me, this means …

* cutting out many of the verbal “extras” such as ums — I will leave an occasional um in if it’s so closely attached to the next word that the next syllable or vowel would sound like it’s been cut.

* tightening up the pacing … sometimes I’ll encounter a person who leaves large gaps between her/his words. Or conversely, doesn’t leave enough space. In a case like this I will play with time to make the piece flow more smoothly

* compressing/limiting the voice – compressors and limiters are built in to most computer programs and are standard pieces of gear in sound studios. What they do is minimize the dynamic variation (loud and soft) in the voice. I try not to do this too much — because the dynamic range is partly what makes the voice musical and beautiful. But you don’t want so much dynamic variation that your listener can’t set a constant volume. I only use it when there are real extremes in the person’s voice .

* equalization — Equalization is when you adjust the frequencies (soprano, alto, tenor, bass). Sometimes you might want to tweak the voice just because you know there is some glorious bass in there that the mike isn’t picking up. For me, this has to be a subtle thing. You don’t want to change the voice .. you want your audience to hear the person at her/his most natural. What you’re doing is enhancing the voice to make your person sound the best.

Sometimes, when I’m talking to other broad/pod casters, the question will be asked “shouldn’t you just play a recording exactly as it happened?” My position is to be as natural as possible, but to also make the person sound their best. A little bit of enhancement is a good thing … and I think the person with the cold will appreciate it that I made him sound better than he felt … instead of leaving in his coughs and sniffles.

No Words Wasted

I am taking a little time out from editing a podcast for a client.  This one is comprised of “streeters”, what we broadcasters call a piece made up with “person the street” snippets of information.

It is supposed to be 90 minutes long, and I am reminded about how much more difficult and time consuming it is to do short-short format pieces.

You might think that short takes less time.    I remember back to when I used to do Arts Reports for CBC Radio .. and the maximum story could only be 90 minutes.  Some of them even had to be shorter.  And you still had to work in background sound and 1 actuality in the mix.

The challenge is that you don’t have much time to tell the story. Which means that every single word has to be there for a reason … and there are lots of other words that have to be cut out.  Making the editorial decisions about what to leave in and what to take out is a big job.

And then, there is the pacing.  The short-short form piece has no time to sit still.  It has to move.  In the case of this particular streeter, there are several voices to integrate.  Rhythm becomes important … give one person too much time and it starts to sound unbalanced.   You don’t want one or two people to dominate. Yet some people have more valuable information to share with the listeners.

So it’s a process filled with many judgements, much playing around with the material.

In the end, I spend as much time editing a 90 minute piece as I do a five minute piece.   Shorter in not necessarily easier.