I recently got a call asking about my availability for the weekend, because they needed an editor that can lay down music. As much as I hate accepting summer weekend gigs, I jumped at the chance. (In case you skipped the first paragraph, let me reiterate: big music nerd here!)

Tonality

This is the most basic form of scoring your sequence, and it’s where a lot of editors call it a day. Picking a piece of music that fits the tone of your edit is of absolute importance. Here, we can reinforce happiness, sadness, comedy, suspense, etc simply by selecting a piece of music that mirrors the feeling of a scene. A lot of folks will drop it in and call it a day, but there is so much more we can do to make the most of music as a storytelling aid.

Phrasing

Like language, music has phrases. Even the most upbeat piece of music will have sections that are faster or slower, maybe a key change, or a build-up of new instruments; it will have different ‘phrases’ that make up the song. A lot of people will listen to the first 10-20 seconds of a music track to decide if it fits tonally. Listen to the entire piece of music! If the tone of the on-screen action changes even slightly, you can underscore this by using a different phrase from the same music track. It’s a great way to subtly add some interest to a scene, and to alert the audience to a new idea.

Orchestration

Have you ever watched film/TV and the music was so over-dramatic that you wanted to light yourself on fire? Yeah, don’t be that guy/girl. If you’re scoring a fairly straightforward scene, chances are that you don’t need an entire brass section to make your point (I’m looking at you, 3rd French Horn)!

Many music libraries will also have what’s called a ‘music stem’, which is an isolated instrument(s) from the original track. Using the percussion mixed one other instrument is a subtle way to add movement to a scene where maybe a full blown orchestral romp isn’t working.

Fin

So, you’re at the end of your scene and you need to transition out of your music track, but you’re not sure how to approach it musically. Here are a few ideas that will hopefully get you started:

1. If the scene ends organically and we’re heading into something completely different, don’t overthink it! Skip to the end of your track and find the downbeat/fade that the track ends on, then match it up to the music at the end of the scene. A straight-forward ending is the easiest way to signal to the audience that we’re done with this scene and it’s on to something new.
2. If the scene spurs into more action, consider fading down your music track under a cymbal swell, then hammering into to a new fast-paced track that begins with a big downbeat. You build a bit of anticipation through the cymbal, and then hit the ground running!
3. If the scene continues, but you want to switch up your music subtly, consider fading out one piece of music at the same time you fade in another. It may not always sound beautiful or seamless, so I try to carefully hide the transition under some dialogue.

Sometimes a music track just won’t work, and that’s okay! Play around with it a bit keeping these tips in mind, then try something new. If you embrace the fun of adding music to your edits, you’ll unlock a whole new language of editing. For editors who are particularly visual, sometimes this can be a challenge. But as my piano teacher always told me: practice, practice, practice!

I recently had the pleasure of contributing a piece for Avid Blogs. Please check it out!

Building Time-Saving Timelines for ‘Brother vs Brother’

The starting point for our reversion: the original locked timeline of BVB302.

The locked reversion of BVB302 for DIY Network.

The general consensus is that comedy is the one of the hardest genres to edit, or at the very least it’s one of the hardest to edit well. In the editing world there is nothing as painful as screening a funny sequence to nothing but dead silence. The playhead comes to a stop at the end of the sequence, the producer turns to you, pauses, and says, “….okay.” Then your insides fall out, you pray for a swift, merciful death and question why you even got up this morning, because you could have sworn that scene was side-splittingly hilarious! And then you remember that editing comedy is hard, but no one seems to have a good answer for why that is.

I don’t have an answer. If I did, I would have monetized it by now. But I have some thoughts after spending the past five plus years working in comedy. Sometimes those thoughts come from the existential crisis at the end of every timeline. Sometimes they come from that morbidly hilarious conversation you had with your best friend that you can never repeat lest someone think you’re actually the devil incarnate. Sometimes, like comedy, it just happens.

First: comedy is hard because everyone has a different sense of humour (please forgive the extraneous “u”, I’m Canadian). You are going to have a different sense of humour than your producers, and they are going to have a different comedic sensibility than the broadcast executives, who are in turn going to find much different things funny than the audience. The first step to good comedy editing is to understand that no one is in the wrong. And just because someone shot down one of your oh-so-hilarious jokes, doesn’t mean they can’t bring something amazing to the table. Comedy, more than any other genre, demands being open to different approaches.

The best way I’ve ever been able to explain the above concisely is: some people think that Paul Blart: Mall Cop is the epitome of humour, and some are more inclined to Monty Python. Look at the popularity of both and you’ll realize that neither are wrong. (For the curious, I come down strongly in favour of Monty Python.) As my mom probably said at one point: different strokes for different folks.

Second: you need to get to the root of why the joke works (or doesn’t work). Comedy is a little bit like magic, we want to know how the trick was done, but we’re scared to spoil the illusion. We like the wonder of not knowing. Knowing will spoil it.

The biggest complaint way back in my film studies course was that boiling movies down to the nitty-gritty ruins them. It spoils their entertainment value to pick them apart and critique them! Fair point. People like their escapism. I’m one of them. But those films that withstand the heavy critique, the ones that hold up to being picked apart layer by layer, we gain a new appreciation for. To me, comedy is the same. Being able to explain why something is funny and figure out how to recreate it, gives me even more respect for those films/tv shows/etc that really nail it.

A well-timed sound effect, the perfect reaction shot, that awkward pause, a ridiculous music cue, contradictory visuals, a deadpan delivery, finely crafted voice-over, or even the classic fart joke are just some of the impliments in the comedy toolbox. Some we have a lot of control over as editors, some we don’t. Some need a ton of crafting, some are hilarious with minimal guidance. As editors, we need to discover why a joke is funny and emphasize that. Where is the funny? Is the funny in what’s being said? Is it in the reaction? Even naturally hilarious moments will fall flat if we don’t find the funny and treat it accordingly.

Third: you need to put your sensibility into it. I’ve been told before that I have a warped sense of humour. Or that I’m sarcastic. Or absurd. Sometimes I’m told that I’m really serious. I am all of those things, and probably more. I have a different sense of humour with my friends, my family, my coworkers and when I’m alone. I like to tap into these different sensibilities with my edits and watch them from the perspective that Friend Rhonda, Daughter/Sister Rhonda, Editor Rhonda and Solo Rhonda might adopt. Ultimately each comedy piece that you edit will have its own personality, and you have to figure out how to approach it in the same way you naturally fall into a certain comedic sensibility in different contexts. Chances are you probably tell more sex jokes with your friends than with your parents. So don’t force cheesy sound effects into deadpan comedy.

Or do. Maybe it’s funnier that way. How the hell should I know? Editing comedy is hard, after all.

So I’ve built my own website for the first time since Geocities and Angelfire were competing to host my awesome Star Wars fan site. This is also my first attempt at blogging since my embarrassing foray into LiveJournal back in 2004… yikes!

Having also recently listened to my very first podcast this month, July 2015 is shaping up to be my slow journey back into the present. I’ve made it a goal to start listening to post-production podcasts on my walk to and from work. Now seems like the right time to give a shout-out to Track Matte Moment and Command+Edit, my go-tos at the moment. Definitely looking for more suggestions as I claw my way toward relevant technology.

Anyways, please feel free to let me know if I’ve made any glaring errors in creating my own little corner of the internet.