Editing a phone conversation

technel · Mar 12, 2009

I have a phone convo between two characters. I was thinking of cutting it so that for the first few lines (which are rather short), we only see Person #1 and just hear a voiceover for Person #2 (to avoid rapid cuts). Then intercut for each line until Person #2 gets to the main point of their part of the conversation. Then, Person #1 asks a series of shorter questions. Would it be strange if I showed only Person #2 and did a voiceover for Person #1 during this part?

I don't recall ever seeing a phone conversation being edited in such a way that at some point both people are heard as a voiceover, and I am concerned that this might throw the audience off.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

duder23 · Mar 12, 2009

well... as long as you establish that those are the only two people talking on the phone i dont think it will throw the audience off..

ive seen editing where person 1 and person 2 were both voiceovers and neither of them were on the screen but the audience could still understand that their conversation was still going while the visuals were taking place...

there shouldnt be a problem with this editing... but make sure you triple check the whole scene after its done to make sure it makes sense.... because what you see and hear can be different than someone in the audience because you created it... you know the story in and out... the audience doesnt..

M1chae1 · Mar 12, 2009

I think you have a lot of freedom here, as long as you establish who's voice is who's in the beginning. Then you can cut around where ever you want. You don't always need to see the person talking when their voice is heard, and visa-versa.

A question you'll want to ask yourself is whether you want the VO to have a phone effect on it, or a standard, clear VO.

Depending on your story, you can be as enigmatic about the other party, or as open with each character as you want. In a standard situation, I think it's completely up to the editor when they want to cut for reaction, or for talking.

Have fun.

technel · Mar 12, 2009

I will be using a phone call sound transformation effect. But that helps a lot, thank you both!

Motorstorm · Mar 12, 2009

use the phone fft filter in adobe audition thats useful

DRthunderMD · Mar 12, 2009

I'm also have a question about editing phone conversations. In my movie I have a character talking on the phone in a moving car. I used just a regular phone call on speaker phone. The voice comes through clear as day, the only problem I have is trying to hear the caller's voice over the sound of a moving car. I plan on purchasing sony vegas next week and was curious what strategies I could approach this problem with. Is there any way to increase the volume of the audio during the parts where the caller talks? Or if possible could I quiet the noise of the car using vegas? Any suggestions?

M1chae1 · Mar 13, 2009

DRthunderMD said:
I'm also have a question about editing phone conversations. In my movie I have a character talking on the phone in a moving car. I used just a regular phone call on speaker phone. The voice comes through clear as day, the only problem I have is trying to hear the caller's voice over the sound of a moving car. I plan on purchasing sony vegas next week and was curious what strategies I could approach this problem with. Is there any way to increase the volume of the audio during the parts where the caller talks? Or if possible could I quiet the noise of the car using vegas? Any suggestions?

I would have them in separate audio tracks--get nat sound of the car, and keep that soft on your timeline. Then put the caller audio in another timeline and dial that up to where you need it. And if the actor in the car talks, make sure you boom him close-up, so you can use that in another timeline and dial it up to match the phone voice.

Make sense?

Good luck.

barnaclelapse · Mar 13, 2009

That sounds reasonable.

Personally, every script I've written so far as either had just the voice on the other line, or just the person I'm focusing on responding to whatever the person on the other end of the line is saying.

It just seems easier to me to go about it like that. I have no idea if I'm actually right to just stick to one of those approaches.

M1chae1 · Mar 13, 2009

I don't do a lot of editing...so there may be a better way.

DRthunderMD · Mar 15, 2009

M1chae1 said:
I would have them in separate audio tracks--get nat sound of the car, and keep that soft on your timeline. Then put the caller audio in another timeline and dial that up to where you need it. And if the actor in the car talks, make sure you boom him close-up, so you can use that in another timeline and dial it up to match the phone voice.

Make sense?

Good luck.

The problem with that strategy is that I don't use an external mic. Yes, I know I know. I'm only 18 so I have to pay the bills and my movies on $9 an hour. So I didn't exactly have the budget to get a camera that could plug an external mic into it. I guess I'll just have to do some experimenting in sony vegas and hopefully figure it out before I resort to just having the caller's regular voice standing out of view of the camera and saying his lines. It's a new problem everyday with filmmaking, but isn't it SO satisfying when you can overcome those problems and make something you're proud of.