Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1316380
72 I M PS E . O R G screenwriter, he had put in a lot of effort to master the subject. I knew this would be the start of an intense and exciting collaboration. I learned that Darius's brother (who co-wrote the screenplay) is also a musician and the idea of a potential musical collaboration was brought up. Darius came to spend a week in Paris and we spent a lot of time together watching movie scenes, listening to music, and just talking and laughing. Our cinematographer, Daniel Bouquet, joined us and we started brainstorming on the image and sound balance of the film. As a sound designer, it's quite unusual to be integrated in a project before shooting and I actually think it's the key to doing a great job when you have a limited budget. It's one of the battles I try to wage on all my projects, so it was especially nice to have it won before I had to start fighting it. Darius had many specific ideas. For instance, he didn't want the two main actors and musicians, Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke, to play their music on playback. So they spent six months learning to sing and play the guitar Sound of Metal A film always starts with a phone call or a text message and when the message comes from across the Atlantic, it always instantly arouses my curiosity. This call came from director Darius Marder, who wrote the script for A Place Beyond the Pines, which I remember being a very interesting film. Ahead of our Skype appointment, I was a bit jittery because English is far from being my first language. But as soon as I spoke with Darius, I knew his friendly nature was going to make things very easy. BY NICOLAS BECKER The subject of his film was fascinating. It was an initiatory film; a spiritual quest inspired by this strange guru named Gurdjeff. I happened to know it well and knew he was a major influence on the French poet René Daumal. Daumal was best known for his unfinished novel The Mount Analogue which inspired Alejandro Jodorowsky's cult film The Sacred Mountain. Darius had already given a lot of thought to the sound of his film. He obviously had a real understanding of the culture of sound which he had documented. Like any good