SOUND EFFECTS EDITING
Sound Effects editing deals with all the sounds that are not part of the dialogue and music tracks.
Interiors have their own unique sound and the sound crew has to provide extra "room noise" (ambient sound) for every location used. When all the scenes are shot at each and every location, the sound person must ask for "quite on the set" and proceed to record one to three minutes of "sound," even though there seems to be nothing there to record!
You'd be surprised if you ever did a line in a studio and then tried to mix it in with production sound that you recorded when you were on the set.
The production recording sounds normal, then you come to the line recorded in the studio and suddenly the ambiance of the background noise drops noticeably!
You must also keep in mind that you can't leave any blank spots in your sound track when you go to the mix stage. Blank mag or filler reproduces as "white noise" when screened. There must be some kind of sound on every sound roll of your mixed track!
By laying a piece of "room tone" on the sound effects track (EFX track,) opposite (and in sync) with the line, you won't hear any difference in ambiance when you mix the dialogue with the EFX tracks.
Room noise contains refrigerator sound, neon lights noise, heaters, air conditioner, all kinds of electronic hum or whatever gadgets are present that produce noise.
Exteriors have their own ambiance: wind, rustle of leaves and branches, crickets at night, birds, or whatever ambient sound from farming or industrial equipment there may be in the air. All these sounds have to be added to various EFX tracks, because when you add layers of distinct sounds you may wish to keep them on separate tracks, so that they can be easier to equalize and filter when mixing.
Foley is the sound that is created in the studio, to match sounds of actors feet or other body parts in motion or rubbing against different surfaces, such as gravel, concrete, asphalt, cobblestones, sand, snow, leather, furniture, beds, sheets and what have you. This is all done in order that the sound you record in the studio can be mixed with the foley and sound "real" and match the location sound. You could save yourself a lot of money if you make your sound crew record you everything while you're on a shoot, because you never know when you might need some line to be re-recorded in the studio, and when you do that you've got to lay authentic-sounding ambiance to your EFX track. Otherwise, you have to pay Foley "artists" to create sound for you at studio-recording rates!
And now, we take up the most important aspect of sound effects editing. The most obvious sound effects that the audience hears.
Traffic shots or establishing shots of cities, with cars, buses and airplanes are usually provided MOS (usually by the second unit.) You've got to supply plausible sounds for the kind of vehicles on the street in your shots. In the case of foreign cities, the cars and everything sounds a little different. A street in Manhattan sounds different than a street in Beverly Hills!
If you've recorded doors in a studio, the doors may have been mounted flimsily (they usually are,) and the sound of such a door closing is awful from a sound recording perspective. So you got to be sure to have "good" door closing sounds. Again record them early on. Tell your sound person to go to some real doors and record several bits of door sounds.
Car doors all sound different. A jaguar door closely gently, with a "neat click." An old Chevy pick-up sounds "like a rock!"
How car engines sound are important. On car interior shots, if you were driving slow, (so that your actors could do their lines safely, without going off the rode,) as you were directing and they were being distracted in different ways, your sound track may not sound right. You'll need to add engine sound at a bit louder and more normal level. You don't want to be adding the sound of a four cylinder engine to the shot of a car that is an obviously V-8 automobile. If your actor is driving a Ferrari and you didn't get enough Ferrari sounds during production, (here's a tip for you,) you might convince your "Producer" to rent one for the purpose of recording some authentic Ferrari sounds. Volunteer for the job. It might take you a week or two, so rent it for a month, just to be safe! (You do like driving Ferraris don't you?) It happened to me ... only, I was the Producer. Go ahead, laugh, laugh....
Punches in movies are an old staple of sound EFX editing. Only the very first time they did a fight scene in Hollywood, they used real punches. I'm not kidding, I read that the other day, in an old book about movies in the early days. Of course you can't expect actors to create their own sound effects. All punches and hits have to be done by the sound EFX department. Clint Eastwood movies have great punching sound EFX, don't they? The best way to do punch sounds is (and I'll tell you, I've never done this, but I'm told it's the best way -- it sounds like it might be, so here it goes): you buy a half-side of beef, you put it in a heavy burlap sack and you get somebody who's a good boxer and have him commence punching the sack in all different places, to simulate the sound of bone-crunching, jaw-smashing, kidney punches and -- well, you get the idea, every kind of punch sounds different; you record everything and use them in your movies.
You can also use bags with different substances to create sounds of punches and hits. Use sawdust, Styrofoam, wood chips, sand and mixtures of different things to create punching bags.
There are millions of sounds, there's no point in mentioning them; but, you should record as much as possible during production, because the sound EFX editor must find the appropriate sound EFX for everything that's in the picture.
You've got to be ingenious about it. Go out with a tape recorder and play around with different materials. Scratch, scrape, rub materials against materials; record and playback sounds at different speeds and in reverse; and record and re-record sounds as you explore all kinds of possibilities and unexpected results. Be super creative. Use your judgment in the way things sound, but be critical.
Now, you've no doubt seen Hong Kong marital arts movies, especially if you like that genre. You'll notice most of the hits and punches in martial arts movies sound the same. Ever wondered why? One common technique they use in Hong Kong dubbing studios is they have a couple of guys (experts) with wooden clogs strapped to their hands watching the (MOS) action sequences, and every time there's a punch, they clap the clogs together. They work as a team, each taking on the sounds for certain performers. They dub the whole movie in real time practically. They're so good at what they do that they rarely need to redo something. Pop-pop-pop! Who can hear the difference? A martial arts expert friend of mine saw it with his own eyes, and I believe him; that's how those movie sound!
If you should ever make martial arts movies, or just action movies, like a boxing movie or whatever, be sure to utilize first rate sound EFX, because these genres' production value lies in such techniques.
There are a lot of sound EFX that deal with emotional, musically produced sounds, such as "spikes," "stingers" and a myriad of sound bites created by early movies, and heavily used in radio dramas of old, and TV, even to this day. I'll be honest with you, these sounds make movies sound dated, and I personally don't like them and never use them. Having said that, you shouldn't ignore them all together, because they can be effectively and appropriately used, with moderation.