Dialogue Editing

180 IMAGE, DEPTH, AND PERSPECTIVE
giggling and gossiping, largely at the expense of one of them—let’s call her
New Girl. All dialogue between the girls in the circle is prepared and mixed
in a normal way, so nothing initially seems wrong to an outsider. But the
teasing intensifi es, and New Girl becomes increasingly frustrated. To make
a point, we force perspective on the sounds of the other girls when the camera
cuts to New Girl. We begin to experience the badgering from her point of
view.
The sounds of the provokers become wetter, lower in level, and maybe a
bit darker, all to show the increasing separation between New Girl and the
group. When we cut back to the other girls, the sound is normal again,
further stressing the frustration of the victim. Not only is she subjected to
the other girls’ taunts but, worse, she’s separated from the society she so
wants to be a part of. By the end of the scene, we may have lost all sound
when we share New Girl’s viewpoint. She gives up and tunes out. Most
of the emotional message of the scene is delivered through sound
manipulation.
Perspective cuts to emphasize emotional separation need not be delivered
with a hammer blow. The ones I used to divide Mom and dying Son aren’t
severe—just a 2 dB level drop, a little EQ, and a tiny bit of reverb. Few people
will notice, but this subterfuge makes a difference. Other times, when you
want to stress distance, separation, or fear, you can apply aggressive
perspective.
Remember, leave the equalization, dynamics processing, and reverb for the
mix. Plan the subtle storytelling, then organize your tracks so that it’s easy
to develop your ideas with the rerecording mixer.
The Telephone Split
If you stand beside someone who’s talking on the phone, you hear only one
side of the conversation. Of the person at the other end you hear, at most,
occasional squawks and clicks. You won’t be able to follow the exchange.
Often this is what happens in a fi lm. If the fi lmmaker doesn’t want the viewer
to know what’s up on the other end of the line or wants a realistic feeling,
you’ll get a straight, realistic scene like this.
However, another convention in fi lm language allows us to hear both sides
of the conversation, as though we were listening in. This trick, unrealistic as
it is, can be useful as an effi cient way to kill off exposition and other essential
information, and it serves to electronically bring together two characters, all
the while keeping them physically separate.