The Interference of Sound

We all know that sound is at least half the film-watching experience, but it's also very important to the film editing process. Specifically I find sound can be a considerable distraction. As "picture editors" we have to disregard audio problems and let the sound people deal with that, as it should be, but even minor flaws such as background noise and breaks in room tone have a strong effect on our subconscious. Just the fact that we have to ignore these problems and know that they will be fixed later is actually distracting us from the real effects of our cuts.

The technique I found to solve this problem is to cut with playback at a very low volume, so that I can only hear major audio, such as dialogue and music. This leaves those distractions unnoticeable, and allows me to better feel the rhythm of my cuts. Of course you don't want to cut like that all the time, because you do need to consider those problems before handing it over to the sound mixer- don't just assume everything can be fixed! I usually reserve the low volume technique for fine-cutting, when attention to detail is critical, and really feeling your visual timing will make or break a moment or scene.