Letting go of perfectionism (Post-Production Day #8)

I don't know why I thought that editing the sound for the scene would be any different than editing the sign for literally every other scene in the short film. Like always I started off very optimistic about my ability to quickly edit the audio levels; there was enough wind like to hide transitions and the audio picked up by the internal mic of the camera was very decent, pretty good odds in my eyes! However things turned out to be a little more complicated than I expected, the mic picked up the audio differently because of the positioning of the camera (which is common sense) so it made it really hard to match the audio levels to sound cohesive. I thought of an easy fix for the switch was just use the external recordings like I did for the beach scene, the problem was that most of the recordings were messed up or missing because Jakoob (Bryce) didn't know how to operate the boom. He was kind enough to volunteer to record the sound while Jake was acting, but there was little I can do with the final audio product. 

I started doing the best that I could of fading the audios together so that they sounded more cohesive. In order to properly do that, I had to change some of the shots that Jake had chosen for the scene and I had to replace some of the audios with the few external audios

that came out good. I went from my frame and repeated sentences and words hundreds of times to ensure everything lined up properly and the flow of the scene and the dialogue was right. I have listened to this dialogue enough times for it to be torture. No joke, I have literally had nightmares with this scene; I've gone to sleep and dreamt of this scene. But that's what it takes sometimes to make sure everything is the best I can be. 

My next step was to build the soundscape composed of background noises that are appropriate to the situation. My hope with the soundscape was not only to increase the

realism of the scene but also to add a consistent element that could trick the audience into thinking the audio is more cohesive than it probably is. For the soundscapes, I used the sound of kids talking in the schoolyard and nature Sounds because they're outside. The sounds game starts prominent and then just completely fades in order to show movement from the crowd is that it doesn't feel like time is frozen; things are happening around them people are moving they're not alone in the courtyard. 

I had to get really creative with the audio leveling the same, and it's nowhere near where I would like it to be, but I also recognize that we're not working with professional equipment and that it's hard for it to be the quality I'd like just through editing. And that realization is a big step for me, as a perfectionist I always want everything to be just right, so recognizing that it's good but that there are clear problems with it still is out of my comfort zone. 

I’ll continue working on this scene whenever I have a bit of free time to see how I can improve it further, but I'm glad to have finished editing it for the most part. 

Signing off,