Interview with Ben

An interview with Ben who is a dubbing editor, about what he does and how he got there...

Day 3 at Big Bang

Another good day at Big Bang today, I arrived and was thrown straight into to sit with Fred who is an Online editor. Fred was working on the same show that Ben the sound dubber had been doing, so it was interesting to see the different stages and processes of the same edit. As an online editor Fred ensures that everything is finalosed and ready for Broadcast this includes, checking to see the colour is in correct order and changing aspect ratios to match each other ready for broadcast. It is in this part of the edit where he adds the titles and some motion to the edit for example today he was working on 'Deadly 60' so when the voice over was talking about a specific animal he paused the video on the animal and used key frames to highlight it and make it more interesting. Fred was using Final Cut Pro which was good because he was able to teach me some of the key frame techniques and also a good way of enhancing title texts using 'Boris' in final cut, which is something I will be looking to use in the future. Fred also showed me how adding various layers of the same clip and adding different effects can create a good aesthetic appeal and you can create some interesting shots. As the online editor he was sending out the finalised video edit of the piece after it had been colour corrected, sound will be linked back up to the video at the BBC as Fred only works to the guide sound track. Fred also explained how the edit was an edit for a multi national show so he then had to copy all the graphics and title sequences (basically anything with text) again at the end with no text added to it so that different companies in different countries can add the text of there language in.

After a morning in the Final Cut Pro suite i spent a bit of time with the runners and my first duty was to drop off a finalised tape and DVD to the BBC, so it was important I got it there safely. I was pleased with the trust they gave me to go and do it. With not a lot going on in the afternoon my last task of the day was to pop to the bank with there spare change to cash it up and then off to sainsbury's I went to stock up on fruit and milk for the next day, after this I was aloud to go home early whooop!

Day 2, Big Bang

Day 2 was a lot better than the first day. I arrived at 10 and was instantly set a task of collecting some stuff from the BBC which is just around the corner, so I kept my coat on and popped over, experiencing the rude security men to get my task done. This was good for me because I had no idea where the BBC was so therefore useful to find out.

Once back from the BBC I delivered the package and then was sent to sit in on the Colour Grading room, where the man ( I forget his name now) was using a piece of equipment called Baselight. This was a large piece of kit

worth thousands of pounds in value. The colour grader would scroll

through the edit matching up the shots so that they look similar and as if they were filmed at the same time. He was editing a natural history programme called 'Gorillas' so there were a lot of interesting jungle shots in which he could enhance the colour to make it look really good. When going through the edit he realised the voice over mentioning that a storm was brewing, so he took this opportunity to change the grading to a darker moodier look so th

at it tied in with the fact that there was a storm brewing, this highlighted to me the importance of listening to the voice over and watching the show so that you are able to gain a feel for it, and have a good idea on what to do. Whilst in the room he explained to me how he usually gets about 30minutes worth done in one day, depending on the programme, he also told me that at the beginning of the edit quite often a producer will sit in with him so they can chat about the look and feel they are going for and then he shows them an example and they

usually say "yes thats good" and then let him get on with the edit. I really enjoyed the colour grading suite, it was interesting to see just how much grading can really improve the look and feel of a show.

After an hour and a half in a dark room colour grading I was sent on the lunch round, still in a daze from the dark room, I left to collect the lunch stepping out on the road and nearly being hit by a car, were talking inches away from being hospitalised, thinking this wasn't a good idea Idecided to from then on look both ways whilst crossing the road!!!!!!

Back from lunch I was sent to go and sit in with Ben again in the dubbing suite, this time he had just started a new episode of "deadly 60" this was a good opportunity because I had missed the beginning of his edit the previous day, Ben was just starting on the dialogue and was scrolling through the sound making it perfect, he was picking up on things I wasn't even noticing such as small clicks in the tracks which he was able to edit out, from now on I will have to learn to keep my ears open and listening very carefully when dubbing my own work.

Overall a good day at Big Bang with lots learned and taken in, and the best thing about it was I only had to make one cup of tea all day!!!!!

Day 1 at the Big Bang

Things didn't really kick off with a big bang in all honesty, as it was a quiet morning in a small production company, after arriving I sat and spoke with Laura Morris who is the runner/ receptionist at Big Bang, she asked me the kinds of things I was interested in so that she could set me up with some things of interest. My morning was mainly made up of tea runs and trips to the shops, (I can now make coffee) but whilst on my duties of supplying drinks to the higher beings I had a great chance to look around and see what goes on at Big Bang. They have several editing sweets some which run Final Cut and some that run Avid, they have specific editors for each piece of software. They also have a sound recording room where voice overs are recorded as well as foley sounds. At 1 o'clock it was time for some lunch and was given an hour of standing outside in the rain, after an hours soaking I was back to my tea and coffee runs, as you can guess I am now a dab hand in the hot drinks department, Just as I was thinking I better not be doing this all week Ben, one of the sound dubbers came in as I was washing up and said I was more than welcome to sit in with him as he was editing some sounds to "Deadly 60" which is a CBBC animal programme.



So once the drying up was finished I went and sat with Ben in his editing suite. He was halfway through his edit but he explained to me the process he had taken so far, firstly he said that he gets all the dialogue in place, and separates everything on to there individual tracks for example music on one track and dialogue on the other. He then goes through the edit each scene by scene firstly adding the atmos sounds and including any other sounds that were necessary. As he was going through the edit he was explaining each move he made which was very interesting and useful for me for future reference. We arrived to a piece in the edit where I plucked up the courage to suggest something to him, which to my shock he agreed with and added it to the edit, at this point in time I was pretty chuffed. I found the sound designing very interesting and Ben had a real knack for it and could visualise sounds in his head, I though that this would be a good technique to use for myself, he was also very quick with the key board shortcuts and got things done at a rapid pace even tho his computer was playing up, this highlighted the importance of finding quicker ways to do things. All in all a slow start to the day at Big Bang but did learn a lot not only about hot drinks but also sound design and how production companies work.