Our story for this post is
We’re going to talk about the logic of natural sound.
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Natural sound helps with action and reaction
Natural sound can help grab the viewers attention
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Natural sound can act like an adverb
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Natural sound can act like punctuation
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Natural sound at the beginning of reporter track or sound bites can help change location
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Natural sound when appropriate, reinforces a reporter track or soundbite
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Natural sound can help with the rhythm of a story
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Natural sound should be relevant to the story
The story starts with an action [:01] of a woman screaming, “get me down.”
Followed by a reaction of a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) member at [:02] telling the woman, “I need you to be strong.”
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Simple action and reaction
Followed by another woman screaming at [:03], “Find my daughter please somebody!”
With those 3 pieces of natural sound, I have set up the entire story. I’ve also grabbed the viewers attention. Viewers aren’t always paying attention to the television or a website when a story starts. If they’re not looking, making their ears perk up and look is a good attention grabber.
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Natural sound is a good way to grab the viewers attention
The first track from the reporter is
The screams are real.
When I think of natural sound here, I think of it as an adverb in a sentence. What’s an adverb?
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An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
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Adverbs generally answer one of four questions: how, when, where, or to what extent.
A simple sentence with an adverb is; He ran fast. Now think of this in the world of stories you’re going to edit. The reporter track is, “He ran.” You follow that with a piece of natural sound of a person running fast. You’re natural sound is acting like an adverb.
In our story the first reporter track at [:06] is
The screams are real.
I then use a women screaming “Help.” It’s kinda of like modifying the verb screams in the sentence, like an adverb would in the written world.
The next reporter track at [:07] is
The injuries and the blood are not.
I follow that sentence with a women sighing at [:10].
This piece of natural sound is acting more like an exclamation mark.
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Exclamation marks are used at the end of a sentences or a short phrase which expresses very strong feeling
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An exclamation can accompany mimetically produced sounds
In a story you might right read “The lion went roar!, and I ran away.”
In the world of stories you are editing you might have a reporter track “The lion roared,” and then you’d have natural sound of the lion roaring. That would make your natural sound an exclamation mark.
At [:10] I have a women saying
It’s scary for us
I break up her sentence with the natural sound of a woman saying “I don’t wanna go down, I don’t wanna go again.”
Here, the natural sound is acting like a comma.
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a comma can be used to connect independent clauses, as in My friend, wearing green pants, is playing football outside.
The sentence in this part of the story would read; “Its scary for us, I don’t wanna go down I don’t wanna go again, but we need to learn in this kind of exercise, 3, so that when a real one happens that we’re prepared.
Just like in sentence structure, you don’t randomly put words or punctuation in right? If you apply that same logic to natural sound, I think it’ll greatly enhance your use and logic of natural sound.
Watch the story again. Now notice the placement of natural sound. Think about sentence structure. Notice I don’t break up a sentence from either the reporter or a soundbite unless there is a natural pause, like adding a comma.
Notice when the natural sound comes at the end of a sentence from the reporter or a soundbite it’s acting more like an exclamation mark.
At [:19] I use the woman on the backboard before a sentence.
She moans. Using natural sound this way I’m changing location. As you can see they are now outside the arena.
DISCLAIMER
- These are guidelines to using natural sound
- These are not rules
I don’t follow these guidelines every time I edit. Sometimes I add natural sound by feel. Stories have a rhythm. Sometimes I add natural sound just to keep the rhythm going, like a drum in a song.
At [:24] I have a CERT volunteer laying down a tarp. You hear the natural sound of him putting it down on the ground.
This natural sound is not an adverb, a comma, an exclamation mark, or a location change. It’s simply there to help with the rhythm of the story. You see him and the tarp later in the story. So, it’s relevant to the story. It’s just not relevant at this moment. This brings me to another topic of natural sound.
Ask yourself when you’re editing a story. Why is that natural sound there? Just cause isn’t a good enough answer. It’s relevant to what’s going on is a good answer. If you were there, you’d hear that is a good answer. It’s helping tell the story is a good answer.
- Relevant natural sound is simply sound that helps tell the story and not some random piece of noise just cause.
Back to our story
At [:27] I use natural sound again to change location. The natural sound of the horse gate opening is taking us inside the barn. Then the reporter track is
They are real life neighbors learning how to manage emergencies.
The natural sound that follow is reinforcing the reporter track. I have a woman asking a girl on a backboard “Is that painful?” What is she doing? She’s managing the emergency.
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I love when natural sound reinforces a track or soundbite
After her natural sound action, I have a natural sound reaction of the girl on the backboard saying “yes!” Then I have a CERT volunteer picking her up saying “on the count of three.” This is a natural sound sequence.
At [:36] is the natural sound of the CERT volunteer saying, “Is everybody good,” I’m using that natural sound like a comma.
At [1:00] the natural sound is used to change location. At [1:02] the natural sound is used to change location again. Again at [1:05] with the woman screaming “Mommy where’s Lexi.”
I love using natural sound. I love when I can use one shot and all the natural sound within it. At [1:05] is a prime example is me milking a shot for all it’s worth.
I start the shot with the woman screaming “Mommy where’s Lexi.” I back time the next time she says “Mommy,” and a natural pause in the reporter track. Then, I start the soundbite and wait for a natural pause in her sentence at [1:14]. Natural sound acting like commas.
Natural sound comes, well very naturally to me. With time I hope it comes naturally to you.
This was a story I edited in one hour.
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on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 1:03 pm Filed under Deadline Editing and.
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