Post-Production: Sound!

Tony (Sound Operator) here.

So I finished up the sound mix the other day and here's a quick post of what went down. Firstly, I read through the script and watched the rough edit to help me compile a list of sounds that would be needed (such as chess pieces being placed, footsteps, and sounds of hitting for the murder scene), then booked out the University dubbing suite in order to record them cleanly. There were a number of technical issues in the dubbing suite, and sadly only half the listed sounds were recorded there, with the other half  recorded in our house. Both our Production Designer and Writer helped out a lot with this part, such as helping me decide on useful items for the sound effects and even creating a lot of the sounds while I recorded them.

Once the recording was done, I met up with our Editor and mixed all the sounds into the edit. This took a good two days, as well as a third day just to polish little bits up after I'd gotten feedback from the rest of the crew. The final mix includes a large variety of post sounds, including sound obtained through the internet, such as a ceiling fan, ticking clock, police siren, birds outside and a caged bird for the inside. Overall there are 19 audio tracks, with some points in the film making use of all 19 for a huge multi-layered sound mix. Almost all of the sounds were altered, such as sound levels increasing/decreasing, the pitch being changed for some sound duplicates so they sounded different, and removal of gain on some speech after the levels had been increased.

In terms of the final product, I feel the sound mix turned out very well. I kept many of the sounds very low with the intention of them being subtle and unnoticeable, such as the variety of sounds for the murder scene (there are at least 5 sounds for each hit, including the poker hitting a cushion, a potato being smashed, and a bone cracking sound effect I found online). These sounds add to the overall feel of the film, and give a real sense that this room is busy and filled with life, even though on the day it was actually very quiet.

That's about it for the sound mix, bye bye!