Editing Process

I have now got three strong interviews that I'm going to use in my 7 minute radio documentary, and I have started the editing process on Adobe Audition. These are two case studies, Alex Mees and Quinn Savard, and psychology professor, Dr Christia Brown.

Selecting Clips

For each interview I have found a selection of 7-10 clips that I want to feature in the documentary. These clips need to be cut down even further and I probably won't use all of them but this was a good starting point for me. I have found it particularly challenging to cut down Alex's interview as I recorded 30 minutes of audio but I found so much of the interview to be engaging that I struggled to select the best bits that I could put in the documentary. I decided to step away from his interview for a few days and when I came back to it I found it easier to select which clips I wanted to use.

As I knew Alex's interview was particularly long, I made sure to keep Quinn and Christia's interviews to 15-20 minutes so I wouldn't have the same struggle. This helped as I have managed to cut down their interviews a lot quicker.

Audio Quality

When listening back to Quinn's interview I have noticed there is a slight hissing noise in the background, which is more noticeable when you listen back with headphones. I have used the 'noise reduction' effect on Audition to try and reduce this, which has helped slightly. Quinn's interview is very strong and the background noise doesn't prevent the listener from hearing what she has to say so I decided it was not worth re-recording the interview.

BBC Radio 4 Style

Whilst I have been editing I have kept in mind the style of BBC Radio 4 documentaries, which is my targeted broadcaster for the documentary. This has meant I have left space for some music at the beginning and end of the piece to lift and conclude it. I also haven't been too strict when it comes to how tight my interview clips are, so I have left in a few breaths and pauses.

Voiceover

Once I have cut down the clips I want to use I am going to write my voiceover. In terms of structure I want to start with Alex's and Quinn's interviews with them explaining how they came to raise their children gender neutral. I then want to have Dr Christia Brown in the middle to break up the interviews with the case studies and I want to end with Alex and Quinn describing any concerns they have about the future for their children.

#interview #bbcradio4 #genderneutral #documentary