There are four basic elements of a motion picture or video soundtrack: narration, music, sound effects, and dialogue.
Narration can be recorded sync to picture, where the narrator comments on what is being projected, as it is being projected. The other method, which is the preferred way of doing things, is to record the narration wild from a script and to edit the lines in opposite the appropriate footage.
Narration can be recorded sync to picture, where the narrator comments on what is being projected, as it is being projected. The other method, which is the preferred way of doing things, is to record the narration wild from a script and to edit the lines in opposite the appropriate footage.
Music provides an emotional backdrop to a film. Music can be acquired from a music library ("canned") or it can be an original score.
Sound effects are either frame accurate ("hard") or wild. FX can come from a library, or can be recorded on the shooting set (either sync or wild). Effects can be recorded later during editing, or they can be created & synthesized. Footsteps and other sync sound effects can be recorded in a Foley session.
Dialogue consists of either lip-synch or wild lines. It can be recorded on the set, or looped back at the studio by means of A.D.R.
Production sound is the complex craft of recording live dialogue and sound effects on the set during principal production. Usually it is raw material for the editors, but sometimes it can be the end product itself.
Classic film sound editing includes: transfer of dailies; syncing picture & sound; screening the dailies; picture edit with production track; sound edit; pre-dubs; and final mixdown.
Video sound editing includes: playback of composite picture with sound; off-line picture edit; on-line picture edit complete with visual effects; laydown for audio sweetening; building tracks on multi-track; mixdown; layback to completed videotape.
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