Lucy Johnstone is a freelance Sound Editor and Sound Designer and we were given the privilege to have a guest lecture from her. She has worked on many programmes such as Eastenders, Top Gear and Strictly Come Dancing; Both Track Laying and Editing the sound. Track Laying is identifying the best audio to use and what needs to be edited so it is ready for the mixing stage.
Lucy explained the key differences in the sound editing process between TV Drama and Factual TV:
>Money
>1/2 a day to record a VO
>1 day to pre-mix
>1 Day to have a final mix
Because there is less money in Factual TV, it means that you are more pushed for time and have to prioritise your sound. This means you have to figure what needs to be edited more than something else.
Know your studio was a key point that Lucy made. Have a checklist before you start your work. Know your:
>Microphone/ Microphone Pre amp set up
>Headphone feed set up
>Talkback feed
>Any possible echo coming from your microphone set up
After this you should be all set to go about your work.
Lucy made it clear that all these work techniques aren’t always the right ones. These work for her and make her workload easier. She then described how she works with Atmosphere tracks and SFX tracks for documentaries and factual TV shows.
>Don’t have too many tracks. This eases up work flow and allows you to organise and priorities your session well
>Have a close relationship with the Mixing engineer
>Duplicate tracks so that you have the originals to go back to
>Priorities your audio. What is important to the picture? are there sounds that are necessary and can be cut?
>Spot Effects need to be in mono as they can be panned
>Sound Design in stereo
Lucy ended the Lecture by explaining how she got into the industry. How work experience is vital. Having a degree is great but having both is essential. Having your work up online and having a presence on social media is fantastic for networking. The Difference between In-house and Freelance work. Both are challenging and ways to build up your network base and cliental.
Overall this lecture was a great way of showing us an insight of to what to expect if we want to go into sound editing for film and TV. Very glad we had the opportunity to have an industry professional explaining what to expect in the industry and to ask questions at the end.