Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/997235
www.postmagazine.com 19 POST JUNE 2018 SUMMER MOVIES quiet. Quiet scenes often cue the audience into listening carefully for auditor clues, like where the raptor is in relation to our heroes. Boyes says, "As mixers and sound designers, we have to remember that loudness is useful at times but too much of it can really hurt a film because people tend to peel back and disengage. The beauty of J.A.'s approach was that he's courageous enough to allow the film to get quiet and it's very effective." Even for the loud, chaotic moments, like the eruption of the whole volcanic island that sends every dinosaur running for its life, the sound team looked for ways to find quiet moments to coun- terpoint the loud ones so that the long sequence wasn't a barrage of sound. But it wasn't an easy feat. In fact, Boyes admits, "It was really torturous to mix. It nearly broke me at 3am at one point until somebody pulled the plug. We had to keep the beats of comedic dialogue, and the music moments where the sound effects played in parity with the score, and at the same time have this cat- aclysmic drama unfolding in the physical realm." One of the most difficult moments to mix in that sequence was after Owen yells, "Run!" He's just seen the volcano's peak explode and it's crashing down on them. Effects-wise, there was a mas- sive rumble, dinosaur vocals, and big smashing, crashing, and crunching sounds as everything flees in terror. Boyes made several attempts at mixing all of those loud elements together but ultimately it didn't result in the dynamic sound they were looking for. "Then I realized that loudness is not our friend here and that pushing harder is going to give you less rather than more," says Boyes. So he took everything out. Then, he soaked the dinosaurs' vocals, footsteps, and impact sounds in deep reverb and "let them live in this ethereal world," says Boyes. Next, he slowly brought in the rumble but he didn't want it to get too loud. "I just let it be the predominant sound and all the vocaliza- tions and hard sounds that we would normally hear were in reverb. It sort of tells the audience that this rumble is so huge that all the sounds you normally hear are muffled and held back because of it. That worked quite well." Director Bayona and picture editor Bernat Vilaplana were very attuned to the balance of the sound elements, how all the sounds played together to create the ebb and flow of the soundtrack. "They weren't just focused on what a dinosaur sounded like but what that dinosaur sounded like in this environment in this scenario with these elements involved," says Nelson. This led to a rolling mix. As the scenes were being designed in sound editorial, Horner would quickly mix the dialogue, music and effects to- gether before presenting the scenes to Bayona and his team. "That's a little unusual for the work- flow on a film like this, but it really helped them to understand how the pieces would fit together and how we should craft the scenes. So even prior to the first temp mix, I was doing quick temps that they would listen to and give us pretty detailed notes that would help guide us to the finished product," says Horner. "What makes the soundtrack so special is that it goes to extremes," says Nelson. It builds to a huge peak of sound effects and then it goes to near silence. Its extreme dynamic range was craft- ed specifically for the theater environment. "From a sound design perspective, you can't just put explosion on top of explosion on top of explosion. The more stuff you pile on, the smaller it sounds. We had to figure out how to play perspective and constantly reset the sound to make it sound new and bigger," says Nelson. Horner adds, "This film in particular fully used the Atmos speakers and the full dynamic range that you get in the theater. You don't get that on your home setup, because the mix is being squashed through a couple of speakers. In a theater, you get the subtlety and the quiet and the loud jump-scares and the excitement of it. This track, in particular, is designed to play in the theater." It's not just the sound that makes Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom theater-worthy. The level of visual detail is also meant for the big screen. Audiences aren't leaning in to see what's hap- pening. Instead, they're leaning in on those quiet moments that precede the dino jump-scares. It's an experience that's more fun when shared with friends and family. "To see it on the big screen and to hear it with John Williams' themes and Michael Giacchino composing and all these cool sounds, it's an experience that can't be matched by any- thing at home, not even on a really good home theater. This is the kind of film that you want to enjoy in the theater and come away feeling like you really had a journey, an experience that was fun and exciting, and scary, and everything in between. This is a perfect film for the theater," concludes Boyes. The Dolby Atmos surround field was used to define space. Quiet scenes cue the audience to listen closely. Nelson Boyes Horner