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37 Q3 2017 / CINEMONTAGE would be out," she says. In addition to era-accurate tennis sounds, Lee also had to consider phones, cameras, televisions and more. "With all the reporters, we were trying to stay away from stereotypic camera sounds and use film camera sounds," explains Lee. "We also had to pay attention to TVs with their clunky remote controls and high-pitch tones, and even sirens in the background when Bobby Riggs is in New York City." At the airport, when the female tennis players gather around an old-fashioned personal TV screen, Lee not only had to create sounds of the game, commentary and audience coming from the small TV, but also sounds that convinced audiences they were in an airport. Battle of the Sexes also features a kind of subliminal sound effect called AMSR (autonomous sensory meridian response). Dayton and Faris wanted that kind of effect when Billie Jean and hairstylist Marilyn are together for the first time, and their romantic feelings are ignited. "They wanted it to be close and intimate," Lee says. "Once Jonathan mentioned AMSR, I began to research how to achieve that. In that scene, Marilyn is cutting Billie Jean's hair, so I recorded the hair being cut and brushed, and the breathing, all very close up. It was hard to do because it's typically a very quiet environment with a very close-up sound. We can't do that with speakers, so I tried to improvise and record the sounds very close up and then, in the movie, if I could, slowly pan in the mix so you feel like it's more in Bottom: Ai-Ling Lee recording the sounds of tennis balls being hit with wood and aluminum rackets by Chad Strawderman, who helped with additional sound recordings, at the Vermont Canyon tennis courts in Griffith Park. Courtesy of Chad Strawderman Top: Battle of the Sexes. Fox Searchlight Pictures