How do you turn over a locked cut to sound?

How to turn over to sound

Lock picture and organise your audio so each kind of sound sits on its own tracks. Then export an AAF with handles, plus a reference video with burned-in timecode that matches it exactly. Include the production sound reports and tell the sound editor how the tracks are laid out. Ask the sound facility for their spec first, and send a short test before the full turnover.

Turnover is the moment the sound team inherits your timeline. A clean turnover means they spend their first day listening. A messy one means they spend it working out what you did.

Step by step

Lock picture properly. Agree with the producer that the cut is locked. Changes after turnover are possible, but each one costs the sound team time.
Duplicate the sequence. Do your tidying on a copy, so your working cut stays as it was.
Organise the tracks. Put dialogue on the top tracks and music at the bottom, with effects in between. Keep each kind on its own tracks, and keep the layout the same from reel to reel or episode to episode.
Name the tracks. “Boom” and “Radio mic, Sam” are far more useful than a list of numbers.
Leave in every production channel. You may have cut using only the boom. The sound editor will want the radio mics too, so keep them on the timeline, muted if you prefer.
Clear out what does not belong. Remove disabled clips and stray temp effects you do not want them to inherit. Keep temp music if they need to hear what the producer approved.
Add a start mark. Most facilities expect the programme to start at a set timecode, often with a sync pop before it. Ask what they use.
Export the AAF with handles. Handles are extra frames either side of each clip. Ask how many they want.
Export a reference video. It must match the AAF frame for frame, with timecode burned in.
Send the paperwork. Include sound reports and a note on the track layout. Add a list of anything unusual, such as a scene where a radio mic failed.

After turnover

If picture changes, do not send a fresh AAF and hope. Send a change list that says exactly what moved, plus a new reference video. The sound editor can then update their session without redoing work that is already finished.

Common mistakes

Track layouts that differ between reels, so dialogue is on one track in the first reel and a different one in the next.
A reference video that is out from the AAF by a frame.
Production channels left out because the editor only used one.

How B/side handles it

B/side exports AAF and EDL, and it makes change lists for when picture moves after turnover. With the free desktop helper it also exports ProRes for the reference video.

Mic names are already on the tracks. Each channel of a multitrack sound file shows the name the sound mixer gave it, and those names travel to the mix and to the files you hand off.

Hand-off formats are part of the Editor seat and Production plans.

When something else is better

If your sound facility has a written turnover spec, follow it to the letter, whatever editor you cut in. Their spec beats any general checklist, this one included.