The Film Editing Room Handbook: How to Tame the Chaos of the Editing Room, Fourth Edition

11. Sound Editing

There’s a little secret in the sound editing world right now: The jobs an assistant sound editor normally handles are being taken over by the sound editors themselves. Sound houses are increasingly getting by with one assistant who is doing fewer tasks for more and sound editors.

But, regardless of who is handling those tasks, they are going to continue to exist, and it is important to be able to organize, understand, and execute them. So, let’s talk about what the sound editing crew (made up of Chuck, Betty, and a few other people we’ve met) does while you are finishing up your picture editing duties.

A number of pieces make up the sound editing puzzle—sound effects (including hard effects, backgrounds, and foley), looping, ...