Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1353865
With that in mind, the environment in Erath County is a radical shift from the usual locations we are in. You really get this sense of unease. Loop group again plays a big role in this. Once we settle into the scene and Captain Kidd starts to win over the crowd, we have another shift into a raucous crowd. The flow is fantastic. How did you go about achieving this? RT: This was a key area for crowd. Durand is where the film depicts some of the worst horrors of this emerging world, the mass slaughter of the buffalo, the slavery, the rage and anger, the sheer hopelessness of the workers. This is exacerbated as we arrive at the night scene, the drunken hoards, crazy laughs, shouts, jeers all around them. The camera even takes a lower position, almost adopting Johanna's POV for some of these walk-through shots. We knew we had to look at the crowd as if through Johanna's eyes—as disjointed, as almost overwhelmingly oppressive, as it would be to her. We used immersive panning and edgy EQs to make the voices swirl and leap out at you as we move through the town. We threaded in Cantonese and Spanish for the workers, as those nations did provide a large amount of manual labour at that Opposite page, top left: Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd and Johanna Leonberger (Helena Zengel). Photo: Bruce W. Talamon/Universal Pictures. Top: Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd & horse. Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures Above: Hanks and Zengel. Photo: Bruce W. Talamon/Universal Pictures time. As Kidd begins his reading, we fade the chaotic crowd into the background but never really lose it until the townsfolk become truly immersed in the news story. Kidd skillfully conjures an uprising, enough to start a mass brawl that works as a distraction to aid Kidd and Johanna's getaway. As Johanna is pushed to the floor, we make full use of the height in the surrounds, building the crowd up and around the viewer to create a sense of claustrophobia and peril. The cut to near silence on the B-side helps to emphasise the dramatic culmination of the scene even further.