Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1279181
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S I 49 sometimes the low frequencies. These are the tricks you learn to make things sound like they should with archival footage. EM: You spoke about wanting any added sounds in documentaries to sound very realistic or like production effects. How did you approach Foley and backgrounds in this show to achieve that? JG: Foley was very limited. We did not work with a separate Foley artist, and that's pretty typical for documentaries. There are certain documentaries where you do want to have a Foley artist, but typically it is not required and very often if you "over Foley" something, that immediately tells me as a listener, "this is manufactured sound." If you're watching archival tape, lots of very clean Foley is going to stick out. That being said, if there's an event that's happening on screen right in front of you, like you're in a bar and someone puts down a glass, then sure, I will add that in. I like to let the project tell me what I should be doing, in terms of "is this natural? Is this something that we'd want to hear at this point?" EM: Did you use fewer layers or tracks when cutting Foley and backgrounds than on a narrative, non-documentary project? JG: Yeah, in general, you don't need as many layers, especially when you're on a severe schedule. That being said, I'm very particular, so if you put the right sound in, I don't need lots of options. If it's not the right sound, then I'm going to go searching until I find what is the right sound or combination of sounds. Certainly in terms of Foley events, it's much more minimal. For instance, in this show there's lots of security camera footage where we see Hernandez's home security videos. It's really grainy, messy, and it's full screen. One could argue that, even though it's security footage, we should hear Foley because it's big on our screen. I disagree. These are moments where composer Jeremy Turner's wonderful score can play, and we can let the footage stand on its own. There was no sound on the original security cam footage, so I thought it was best to keep it that way. EM: Was it difficult to cover the football scenes without glorifying football? JG: Yes. Wide and boisterous crowd reactions were important to initially cut in, but once I mixed the crowd sounds in a realistic way, it immediately became apparent that by making it sound exciting and present, I was, in fact, glorifying the violence of the football game. Our story was about repeated hits to the head and the effect these could have in potentially turning someone into a murderer. Glorifying the football and the violence would've been the wrong way to go. It was great that we had all the sound effects material available, but I added lots of reverb to these sections to make them more dream-like. Along with the whooshy sound design hits, these football moments sounded like flashbacks in Aaron's life. EM: There are a lot of visible crime scene locations in this show. How did you go about enhancing that footage? JG: There are times where we had images that were MOS, so we took some liberties to create sound for moments where you'd see lights flashing. Very often we added in a simple indistinct police radio or siren chirp, and if these are placed at the right spots, these little hints give the viewer the essence of how serious the crime scene is. Without being overly specific, it's more of a suggestion of sound. It's subliminal. As long as it's serving the story, then it's worth trying out sounds for moments like these, even if you end up removing them. I think it's worthwhile as long as you're being true to the story. EM: There were a lot of phone calls from Aaron in prison. Did you do anything to enhance the backgrounds during these calls? JG: We auditioned hints of added sounds with a similar filter as those phone calls, but what we found was that the more sounds of prisoners we heard in the background, the less intimate the conversations Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez on trial