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www.postmagazine.com 29 POST FEBRUARY 2017 AUDIO FOR INDIE FILMS For Life, Animated, Williams earned a 'Directing Award' at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The doc- umentary, now available on DVD or digital down- load, is also nominated for a 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In Life, Animated it's revealed that Owen feels more connected with the Disney sidekicks then he does with the heroes. In his mind, he creates a special place called "The Land of the Lost Sidekicks." Director Williams used animat- ed sequences to actualize Owen's vision. Sound designer Al Nelson, at Skywalker Sound, collaborat- ed with composers Dylan Stark and T. Griffin. They exchanged sound and music elements between themselves, and with the animation team in France. The sound and animation teams worked concur- rently on these sequences, and Nelson continued working with the composers right through the final mix. In their approach, Nelson says, they "tried to channel Owen's imagination and his autism. As an autistic man, sound and overall stimulus of Owen's world is so exaggerated. We tried to present that in these animated sequences." Nelson notes the storm sequence, with thunder crashing and flashes of lightening, the creaking of the stairs as a young, animated Owen runs down them. Outside there's the sound of the forest and the introduction of Owen's nemesis Fuzzbutch, whose superpower involves blowing smoke into people's heads to confuse them. "All those sounds are hyper-exaggerated. As far as processing, be- cause this is presented as a bit of a dream, we used echo liberally. Other very effective layers in those sequences were the many voices calling Owen's name, which Pete [Horner] deserves credit for cre- ating," says Nelson. To create the vocal layers, Horner mined the production tracks for instances of Owen's family and other people saying his name. Through editing and layering in Pro Tools 12, EQ filtering and pitch manipulation via Serato's Pitch n' Time plug-in, Horner created a layer of garbled voices to repre- sent how Owen was processing speech. "We were trying to create that sense of what it must be like. Owen had family who were trying to reach out to him, but his brain was not allowing him to process the language," says Horner. Horner was also the re-recording mixer on Life, Animated. On the Orson Wells stage at Skywalker Sound, Horner mixed the documentary in 5.1 using an Avid S6 console. The films vérité segments showing Owen's day-to-day life juxtapose animat- ed sequences that explain how he interprets his world. While the vérité scenes were mixed front and center, Horner fully utilized the 5.1 surround field to help the animated sequences stand out. And there were also a number of other sequences where he used the 5.1 surrounds, such as when Owen is being bullied, and during the discussion of Owen 'slipping away.' Horner says, "Even though it's a documenta- ry, there's definitely a subjectivity to our principal character's experience of the world. Anytime we were tipping out of reality, we definitely employed the entire surround field." During the final mix playback at Skywalker Sound, director Williams says he, producer Julie Goldman and picture editor Teague all had tears in their eyes. "It was the first time we experienced the full mix and it was overwhelming. I can't tell you how many times I'd seen the film within that year that we were editing but that first playback in Skywalker's amazing screening room was magical. It was unbelievable," Williams says. "It was my dream to work with Skywalker, and to work with Al [Nelson] and Pete [Horner]. I had the best team ever. One of the most rewarding parts of the process was to work with them on sound." In Rockland County, New York, the community is in conflict over the fate of the East Ramapo School District. Religious, racial, and socio-eco- nomic divisions split the pop- ulace, and bribery seems the only way to achieve political ends. Director John Marco Lopez's dramatic indie feature The Hudson Tribes is based on these true events happening in New York's Hudson Valley. New York City's HOBO Audio (www. hoboaudio.com) handled the audio post on the film. Visit us online at postmagazine.com to read more. THE HUDSON TRIBES Life, Animated ROGER ROSS WILLIAMS