AUDIO problems with interview and cutaways.

[spudgun]

Boy, are you all going to laugh at this one. I have quite a lot of experience NLE editing, but in the past I have simply applied backing music to the footage, having never needed audio dialogue.

Alas, I now have to do a couple of filmed interviews, where the foootage of the interviewee, will be interspersed with cut aways to subjects about which they are speaking. Now, never having done this kind of thing before, (although I'm more than confident in garnering the audio itself), I'm concerned that I'm not sure of the best way to maintain absolute synched audio. To my mind, if I am going to cut and edit the interview, I am obviously going to insert additional actuality or other footage, whilst the interviewees voice continues. However, to my thinking, when I cut to another scene, away from the interviewee, I will also cut the AUDIO to that scene. So I am figuring that I will have to create a SEPERATE file for the audio and run it through the timeline.

My problem is; when I do cut back to the interviewee, how do I ensure that their voice is still in perfect synch with their mouth? Alternatively, can I use the SECOND layer of Video in Videostudio 11+ for the cut aways, whilst still keeping the audio?

When you guys have finished the mirth, I'd love some advice!!

[sjj1805]

It is in fact very simple and easy and its the stuff you see every day on the TV - especially on the news.

1. You place one video on the time line and the other on an overlay track - resized to fill the screen. The one on the overlay track will mask out the one on the video track, however you will hear both sound tracks.

2. It is easier to keep one sound track and mute the other, so mute the overlay track. You now have the sound from the video track.

3. Next.... cut away unwanted parts of the video on the overlay track, thus allowing the video underneath to show through. This gives you a "cut" from one video to the other and because you are sticking to one audio track everything seems right.

You can fool the eyes but not the ears.

[spudgun]

It is in fact very simple and easy and its the stuff you see every day on the TV - especially on the news.

1. You place one video on the time line and the other on an overlay track - resized to fill the screen. The one on the overlay track will mask out the one on the video track, however you will hear both sound tracks.

2. It is easier to keep one sound track and mute the other, so mute the overlay track. You now have the sound from the video track.

3. Next.... cut away unwanted parts of the video on the overlay track, thus allowing the video underneath to show through. This gives you a "cut" from one video to the other and because you are sticking to one audio track everything seems right.

You can fool the eyes but not the ears.

Thank you so much for your advice. Sadly, despite several years of editing, I have NEVER used overlays! Would it be possible, rather than to MUTE the overlay track, to simply reduce its volume?

Many thanks again.
Spud

[renx]

Yes, it is possible to either mute or adjust the volume of each overlay track. Simply click on the audio view button . Your timeline will provide a graphic reference to the audio wave profile for each clip that does have sound. You may click on each overlay and modify the sound levels with the slider bar located under the surround sound mixer tab. Or, you may play with effects such as fade in and out by clicking on the attributes tab.