Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1504731
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 33 Sound effects and music are con- stantly fighting each other. Music always wins. The most important element of sound editing is dialogue. If you don't know what they're say- ing, you don't have a story. You have to hear the dialogue no matter what the circumstances are, even in the middle of a tornado! I was working on a movie where there were soldiers walking in the desert and they are ambushed. They have no idea where the attack is coming from, so they're ducking and shooting at nothing. I was super- vising this movie. I wanted music to work with the attack. I told the composer to have the music heard while they were walking and talking. I wanted the music to build up so subtly that you don't know that something's going to happen. Then all of a sudden in the attack, all the music drops out. It's all sound ef- fects! And then when it's all over, we bring the music back. The director was very happy with that, and was not expecting that at all BF: What can you tell us about Foley sync—tips and tricks? SSS: Conceptually, sync is always two to four frames late. Everything is late. Life is two to four frames late. We forgive late, but we cannot forgive early. If it's early, it's just completely wrong and out of sync. But if it's a little bit late, we're more forgiving. In the process of footsteps or hand claps, when you're clapping your hands, the actual clap is heard the frame before you see it. Don't ask me why. I don't know. If you hear the clap when the hands are closed, it is late. Never cut a footstep on the down of the foot. You cut the footstep Bucket list #1, Solange capturing the Northern Lights in Reykjavik, Iceland. September 2022. Below, Bucket list #2, Solange on Alaskan cruise, Glacier Bay in background, May 2023.