Frankenbites 101: Reality TV Editing

We all know reality TV isn't exactly... well, reality.  Sure, the drama is real, but the way it's presented is heavily edited to craft a cohesive narrative.  

Ever ramble on in a conversation and then think, "Wow, that could have been two sentences"?  

That's the reality TV editor's life!  

They take snippets of dialogue and meticulously stitch them together to create a smooth flow.

There's some creative license involved, of course, but most of the work is about creating grammatically correct sentences.  

The challenge?  

These "frankenbites" often come from different parts of the interview, with varying tones and inflections.  So, how do we create a cohesive sentence that doesn't scream "franken-edit"?

The Magic of Timing: A Breath Can Make All the Difference

If the speaker isn't on camera, timing adjustments can work wonders.  

Sometimes, all it takes is adding a breath or nudging a few words closer together to create a natural pace.

Play around with the timing of your edits. A well-placed breath or a slightly tighter edit can make a world of difference in how natural the sentence sounds.

Creative Fades: Your Weapon Against Unwanted Syllables

Sometimes, edits can feel "clipped" or you might hear leftover syllables from the surrounding audio. Here's where creative fades come in!

Experiment with fade timing, length, and type. You might not need to move the desired words themselves, just the surrounding syllables. Adjusting your crossfades can yield surprisingly effective results.

If even after fading you still hear remnants of unwanted audio, consider inserting a tiny bit of dialogue fill to bridge the gap with a crossfade.

Still no luck?  RX can be your friend.  

Use Spectral Repair or Ambience Match to "paint out" those pesky leftover bits of audio.

Time Stretching: Finding the Perfect Pace

Let's say a string of words is delivered too slowly or too quickly, throwing off the flow of the sentence.  Again, if the speaker is off-screen, you have some flexibility with timing.

Use time stretching as needed, but remember: don't stretch the audio more than 2 frames! 

Anything more will sound unnatural and easily detectable.

Before time stretching, create some "handles" for your desired section.  

This gives you room for crossfades that don't sound repetitive. You can always trim the audio after processing.

Pitch-Shifting: When Inflection Needs a Tweak

We've addressed natural flow, but what about when the speaker's inflection is all over the place?  There are two main approaches:

Melodyne ARA (for recent Pro Tools versions):

With this method, you can use Melodyne directly within a clip. Right-click the clip, select Melodyne > Edit, and adjust the pitch of individual words or syllables to achieve better alignment. 

Once you're happy, remember to render your edits! Otherwise, your changes won't be reflected on other systems without Melodyne ARA.

While Melodyne offers a powerful solution, I've found it can struggle with maintaining a natural sound. For that reason, my next go-to is usually Izotope's Dialogue Contour.

Izotope's Dialogue Contour

This plugin often delivers the best results for subtle inflection adjustments, but it can be finicky. 

A word of warning: smaller audio samples seem to increase the likelihood of Izotope crashing. Make sure you have some audio length before previewing changes, or you might lose your work.

When it comes to settings, aim for a slightly rounded curve, but avoid going overboard. A range between 0.5 and 1.3 on the curve adjustment usually works well.

If one word has a higher pitch than the next, try to find a middle ground rather than forcing one to completely match the other. 

Be especially cautious with consonants, as they can sound strange when pitched up or down.

Finally, whenever possible, try to gradually return the pitch to its original state over the course of the frankenbite.

Remember, subtlety is key.  

A few well-placed adjustments are far better than edits riddled with artifacts.  

The audience might forgive slight variations in inflection, but robotic-sounding dialogue is a surefire turnoff.

So there you have it! A glimpse into the world of frankenbiting and the unsung heroes of reality TV editing – the dialogue editors who work tirelessly to make "reality" seem, well, real-ish. 

And if you want to see me work my magic in real-time, consider shadowing me at Post Audio Pro! I encounter frankenbites in nearly every session, and I fancy myself a wizard for creating cohesion in these edits, at least that’s what my clients tell me 😉

I hope to see you there!