How we saved a $15k interview from the rain

Avenue One Productions filmed a $15k interview while heavy rain was pouring outside.. here’s how we saved the audio. In years past, if there was background noise during interviews, video editors would have to spend a few hours in Adobe Audition to try and denoise audio. The results normally sounded close to a robot speaking to you in the English language. Yes, you could also hire out an audio pro, which eats into the production budget and normally isn’t accounted for when pricing out jobs.

In the present day, we have one of the best tools for making out background noise: Adobe Podcast. Adobe Podcast enables editors to take away background noise. Loud fans? Pouring rain? (My favorite, Ambulance sirens!) - That’s all taken care of with adobe Podcast. Also, you can enhance the speech, which helps with uniform audio levels. The best part? It saves time. This all happens within a few minutes. When I was filming an interview when Boston was getting 6 inches of rain, I wasn’t worried about the audio. When the rain was coming down hard AND an ambulance went wailing past the studio…I knew we would have Adobe Podcast in our back pocket to save the day.

Learning how to tackle problems without the easy way out made me a better editor. Learning from tutorials rather than someone else doing it for me made me a better editor. The advice ‘Google it’ has opened more doors than any uplifting advice has. To my mentor, thank you for making me learn the hard way. (And also for the newly formed grey hairs I’ve received from dealing with expert level video editing tasks). For your next video editing project, partner with the experts Avenue One Productions.

- Nick Gould, Owner of Avenue One Productions LLC