Less is more: cutting for keeps

When should you cut stumbles, stammers, and ums and when should you leave them? What about if your guest makes a weird gulpy breathing sound or snort-laughs like they got milk up their nose or says “like” a lot? Should you cut those?  The answer: sometimes. 

We often cut tape for time or because we’re worried it will annoy or distract listeners but it’s all too easy to lose track of the intricacies that give our conversations life. If you’re just a beginner or even if you’ve been cutting tape for a while now and are struggling to make your characters sing, this online workshop with engineer and producer Michael Raphael will help you to sharpen your ears and learn to decide with confidence what to cut and what to keep.  

Michael will demonstrate the power of voice and explain how our cadence, accents and patterns of speech are one of the last bastions of regionalism in the world. He’ll teach you the finer points of dialogue editing for reported pieces and interviews and you’ll leave class with a solid understanding of how you can preserve these powerful and critical identifiers of who we are and how we tell stories.

*This class is sold out