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SOUNDTRACK www.postmagazine.com 29 POST NOV/DEC 2020 Alchemy's lead Foley artist, Leslie Bloome, recalls that they went to great lengths to communicate the size and weight of the creature, as well as its hybrid nature. "Its tail is massive and its body is covered in oil," notes Bloome. "The sound needed to be gigantic and have an ooz- ing quality. It also eats in a very particular way. Its chewing is not quite animalistic, but it's guttural, gross." Along with Bloome, Alchemy's Foley team included Foley artist Joanna Fang, Foley mixers Ryan Collison and Connor Nagy, and Foley editors Nick Seaman and Laura Heinzinger. Multiple sounds were blended to cre- ate the swish of the mermaid's tail and grinding of her teeth. "Layering was key to virtually all the creature sounds," says Foley mixer Connor Nagy. "It's how we gave each moment the right texture. The subtleties sell the effect and make it shine." A similarly layered sound treatment was used to animate a ghastly, black peli- can — another victim of an oil spill — that bursts out of a man's chest in Episode 4, "New York, New York". "We added the sound of the feathers, the stickiness of the oil, the ripping of the man's flesh and the noise of shattering glass as the bird flies through a window," Nagy recalls. "We created sounds for its beak opening and closing, and its razor-sharp teeth." "The bird was a puppet, controlled by five or six people," adds Foley artist Joanna Fang. "So, even its jowls are mov- ing and had to be covered with sound. It's fantastic work." Alchemy's Foley effects for the scene were blended with sound design created by Hodne, who was working from his home studio due to pandemic restric- tions. At home, Hodne lacked some of the software tools available at Sim, so he was obliged to get creative. "Sounds that I would normally pull from a sound library or other source, I recorded live," he explains. "There's a lot of banging on windows in that scene, and so I recorded myself banging on windows in my apartment." Hodne adds that his home recordings had an organic sound that fit perfectly with the Foley. "Luckily, we were all on the same page," he says. "We were aiming for a soundscape that is dark and creepy. It's rooted in reality, but with an element of the surreal." The show's final episode, "Newark, New Jersey", involves a couple grieving over their missing daughter. They be- come entangled with a fallen angel who, in a late scene, slits its throat and sprays them in blood as they make love. Schnupp says that the moment re- quired specific Foley coverage. He notes, "The blood had to sound viscous, thick and sticky." "We started with water and used a chamois to mimic details on-screen," Fang explains. "Then we did a grapefruit pass, ripping open the fruit to add vio- lence. Afterwards, we pitched the water down to make it feel and thicker. "At one point, the actors use a rug to pat the blood," she adds, "so, it needed to feel especially sticky. We used dish- washer soap and — our secret ingredient — duct tape. I covered my hands in duct tape and peeled it on and off. That gave it an extra oopmh." Bloome says that the series is filled with moments like that. "Each episode had its own challenges and its own vibe," he says. "On most shows, you have established characters and locations, but here every location, every character, every moment was unique and needed unique sound." A real-life pandemic affected the audio post process.