Editing Interview Audio for Efficiency

You want meticulously edited interviews as fast as humanly possible? While a strictly chronological workflow might get you there fast, it often comes at the cost of sonic quality. The key to achieving pristine interview edits while staying time-efficient lies in a strategic layer-by-layer approach.

But what exactly does that look like in practice? 

Organize Your Tracks by Talent

Imagine this: you spend a good five minutes meticulously crafting the perfect natural room tone for an interviewee's voice. Sounds great, right? Now, picture having to repeat that process every single time that interviewee speaks throughout the show when working chronologically. 

 Ugh. Not exactly ideal, especially when efficiency is key.

This is where a streamlined interview workflow is paramount. 

When creating your interview tracks, your template might have it organized by Int A, B, C, D... or 1, 2, 3, 4... While that sounds good in theory, prep your interview tracks to be segmented by talent. In my Pro Tools template, I have my interview tracks organized as:

1. Int A BOOM

2. Int A LAV

3. Int B BOOM

4. Int B LAV

Each talent has two dedicated tracks, because more often than not, they will have two mic sources. I go through all the interview bites and segment by talent, making duplicate Int A Boom & Lav tracks for each new interviewee introduced. So by the end of the show, my interview tracks should now look like:

1. Luke BOOM

2. Luke LAV

3. Leia BOOM

4. Leia LAV

5. Hans BOOM

6. Hans LAV

And so on and so forth. This process should take you no more than 10 minutes. 

The Art of the Blanket Clip Gain Pass 

Let's face it, interview clip gain levels can fluctuate in your AAF. Traditionally, you might meticulously adjust the level of each individual clip to achieve a consistent overall volume as you come across it to hit your target volume. However, this can be incredibly time-consuming. Especially when some editors make adjustment clip by clip.

Here's a more efficient solution: the blanket clip gain pass.

Finding the Sweet Spot

First, reset the clip gain of all the dialogue for that talent track. You can acheive this by hitting "ctrl + shift + B" to zero out all clip gain. Then, while selecting all the dialogue clips in that track, identify a general clip gain level that works well for the majority of the interviewee's dialogue. It should be averaging your target LUFS volume overall. It's okay if it's a little over/under at times. Since the interviewee will, for the most part, have a consistent speaking volume throughout their shoot, this becomes your baseline. 

Fine-Tuning as Needed  

Remember, there will always be exceptions. If you encounter specific clips that fall outside the established gain level, simply fine-tune them individually.

Building Your Pristine Production Dialogue Fill Arsenal

Your next step would be to create production dialogue fill for each interviewee. By dedicating some focused time upfront to creating a good length room tone fill, you save yourself a ton of time down the line. Here's how it works:

Isolating the Gold 

Identify sections of the interview with clean, natural room tone –  no dialogue, breaths, or clothing shuffle. These are your golden nuggets. It's okay if it has some clicks, you can easily RX some small imperfections away. 

Building Your Arsenal

Select these clean sections, fade them all into each other, consolidate, and copy them to your clipboard. Now, you have a readily available pristine fill specifically tailored to each interviewee's noise floor.

Then, edit one talent at a time. You can now simply paste these pre-made fills wherever needed. This way, you ensure consistent and high-quality room tone throughout the entire interview, without wasting precious editing time crafting it from scratch each time when working chronologically for all interviews.

The Importance of a Vigilant Ear (and File Names!)

We've established the power of the production dialogue fill, but there's a crucial detail to consider: variable noise floor. While it might be subtle, even slight variations in noise floor can become noticeable when patching in room tone fills throughout the edit. 

Here's where vigilance comes in:

Listen Closely

Before pasting in your pristine fill, take a moment to compare it to the surrounding audio. Does the noise floor match seamlessly? Even minor inconsistencies can create an audible mismatch when the fill is pasted in. 

These can include a fan turning on and creating noise in that portion of the shoot. A generator hum. Maybe a boom mic got moved around at some point because the natural light started moving and started creating an unwanted shadow in the frame creating a change of room tone characteristics. 

Whatever it may be, don't take for granted that your fill you perfected in the beginning of the talent's edit will be consistent throughout the show. 

The Power of File Names 

This is where those detailed file names from your location sound mixer become heroes. Often, mixers include the recording date in the file name. Use this information to your advantage! By referencing dates, you can ensure you're selecting fills recorded on the same day as the specific section you're editing. This helps maintain a consistent, accurate noise floor throughout the interview. 

Volume Bumps and Dips

Here's a crucial part: when you're pasting in those meticulously crafted production dialogue fills, make sure they match the clip gain level of the surrounding audio! Even the slightest volume discrepancies can create unwanted dips or bumps in the final edit.

Remember that point I mentioned earlier about having to adjust your clip gain when needed? Make sure you're adjusting the fill pasted along with it. 

What I like to do, especially when I have consolidated fill, is to change the file name to add whatever the clip gain level was for that clip. So if my blanket clip gain pass increased the clip gain to +11db, then I would amend my clip file name to say "+11db". This way, even if I forgot what the original noise floor volume was, I can do simple math to make sure they match without having to remember what the original clip gain was. 

Remember, clear and consistent room tone fills are a cornerstone of professional interview edits. By keeping a watchful ear on noise floor variations and volumes, as well ass utilizing informative file names, you'll be well on your way to achieving seamless audio transitions.

So, the next time you face an interview edit, remember: work in passes/layers, not just linear timelines, and watch your audio soar!