Overview

This standard is about editing sound material to meet production requirements.

It involves assessing the material to decide what sort of edit should be used, and dealing with difficulties in making the required edit. It is about selecting appropriate edit points, making technically accurate edits, assessing finished edits, and completing them by the deadlines you have been given. You may sometimes be working to tight deadlines and under pressure.

This standard should apply to anyone who is involved with editing sound.

 

Performance Criteria 

You must be able to:

  1. check and confirm the technical, creative and commercial requirements for sound editing from reliable sources
  2. carry out an assessment of the material to determine the type of edit to be made
  3. explain to relevant people the implications to original material of recording with data reduced compression techniques
  4. suggest solutions to decision makers to combat any difficulties in completing proposed edits
  5. organise tracks and materials in an appropriate manner to carry out your work
  6. select edit points which create required transitions and offer the greatest potential for meeting client or production requirements
  7. select edit points that achieve required duration, rhythm, pace, information and background; and when applicable support pictures
  8. use an editing style that is appropriate to the material
  9. retain any required synchronisation in the edit
  10. select and mark edit points in an accurate and clear way
  11. use a type of edit to meet requirements
  12. make edits which are technically accurate, clean and artistically effective
  13. confirm that edits made meet client or production requirements
  14. complete editing within agreed deadlines and budget
  15. mark any trims and unlabelled source material in line with company systems, and store them so that they can be recovered if required
  16. confirm that non-volatile storage of edit data is kept up to date
  17. confirm that required back-ups are maintained to preserve the integrity of audio and data
  18. confirm that the original material is protected
  19. produce paperwork and labelling in the format required
  20. maintain security for files and other materials in line with legal and organisational requirements

 

Knowledge and understanding

You need to know and understand:  

  1. the post production requirements of the client or production
  2. the material to be edited, what the editing requirements are, and what types of edit are possible
  3. the legal limits and standards for sound files for distribution and delivery especially in relation to loudness, immersive audio and metadata and how to work creatively within them
  4. the importance of audibility of dialogue especially with regards to the impaired hearing of an ageing population
  5. effective strategies to enhance dialogue audibility
  6. where to acquire source materials
  7. the timescale and budget for the edit
  8. the documentation and format requirements
  9. any synchronisation requirements and their implications in the production process
  10. the implications for editing where sound supports picture
  11. edit point selection criteria, and how they are used to identify edit points
  12. criteria for assessing the technical and artistic effectiveness of edits
  13. degrees of editing difficulty, and how to recognise and resolve them
  14. the editing techniques appropriate to specific media
  15. the implications of destructive and non-destructive editing
  16. the principles of ADR
  17. the principles of Foley
  18. typical types of audible defects in analogue and digital technologies
  19. common data reduction formats and techniques
  20. the implications of using and dealing with data-reduced compression techniques
  21. the implications for the edit of using multi-track, mono, stereo, or multi-channel
  22. basic musical form and nomenclature including, note, beat, bar, and phrase
  23. how to manage and back up audio and data
  24. how to conform with edit data lists and source media
  25. how to preserve metadata
  26. how to identify trims and unlabelled source materials, and how to store them securely
  27. the importance of safe working with display screens
  28. the principles of basic electronics as they apply to sound, including impedance, attenuation networks, phantom powering, and signal-to-noise ratios
  29. the principles of acoustics and how they apply
  30. the performance characteristics of microphones including: size, weight, maximum output level, pick up pattern, sensitivity and susceptibility to handling noise
  31. the characteristics of amplifiers and loudspeakers
  32. the different types of recording and playback equipment
  33. legal and organisational requirements for storage, back up and security of files and other materials