1.3 Basic principles of audiovision in post production

The higher the envisaged quality of the film production, the more care is taken recording the image with the camera and the sound with the sound recorder, because both already anticipate the post-production, where a primary and secondary processing of the sounds occurs. In the montage, the images and sounds are primarily combined and in a secondary phase enriched with additional sounds that do not originate from the film location. This means that all sounds recorded in post-production are later processed, but it also means that new, additional sounds are created. In doing so, several different areas of work can be determined.

The synchronization of speech with synchronized lip movement (ADR, automated dialogue replacement or automated dialogue recording) using computer-aided sound recordings in the studio which today enables the lip-sync replacement of dialogue passages or the whole dialogue and the adaptation of dialects, or the post-synchronization of foreign productions.

The sound designers (Foley artists, Foley mixers, named after the American Jack Foley who shaped the profession as the pioneer of sound film) are responsible for the sounds created in the studio such as steps (Foley walker).

Effects (FX) are special individual sounds on the audio track, some of which are new and have been recorded specially or added as wild sound. The special effects (SFX) are made up of combinations of individual sounds on one soundtrack (such as the lightsabers in Star Wars or the heavy footsteps of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park) or artificially produced sound montages used in particular by David Lynch.

The previously mentioned atmos can be remixed in stereo and manipulated or filtered using software applications.

Archival sounds are additional sounds (noises, atmos such as the sound of a helicopter heard from inside or from outside), drawn from different Sound Effects Libraries in order to supplement or replace existing sounds.

For the music, pieces are used that either originate from sound recording mediums and/or compositions that have been produced especially for the film. During the editing process, preliminary layout-music is used, which among other things serves as the baseline for the rhythm of the edit but is replaced before the sound mixing.