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together with three Pro Tools system. Coppola's re-recording mix partner, Michael Perricone, handled the sound effects, background and Foley. Lotus Post "has a really nice facility that's perfect for independent film. Stage 1 is 40-feet wide and 60-feet deep with a high ceiling. You get a real theatrical experience." WARM BODIES Love can fix anything, even your zombie boyfriend. Warm Bodies is a heart-warming romantic "zomedy" slated for theatrical release this February, just in time for Valentine's Day! The main zombie, R (Nicholas Hoult), falls in love with the girlfriend of one of his victims, and she reanimates his heart. Eventually, he becomes more human, and the change spreads to the other zombies, transforming their world. "It has a lot of heart, and in the end, the message is that love will deal with anything," says Chris David. David, re-recording mixer/president of LA's Wildfire Post (www.wildfirepost.com), Wildfire Post's Chris David (inset) and Martyn Zub worked with writer/ director Jonathan Levine to craft post-apocalyptic sound for Warm Bodies. 42 and supervising sound editor Martyn Zub worked closely with writer/director Jonathan Levine to craft post-apocalyptic sound. The first challenge was to create three definitively different "worlds" in the film: the outside world where zombies and nasty zombies called Bonies live, the zombie-free zone inside the wall, and then the world before it all happened. Another challenge was making the overall feel of the sound transition from the cold harsh world of zombies to a warmer place, to reflect the change that occurs as love gradually restores the zombies to humans. "From a vocal point of view at the beginning of the movie, you get nothing more than a grunt from the zombies, but by the end they can talk like human beings. The transition slowly evolves during the movie." The biggest challenge was creating the zombie vocals. There are two distinct zombie Post•January2013 Post0113_038-40,42-AudioRAV8FINALREAD.indd 42 classes: the human-like zombies and the Bonies, which are a group of mean, skeletal creatures who are more like monsters. To create the sound of the Bonies, Zub began by playing around with screeches and scrapes, animal noises and ape sounds. "One of the main characteristics to the Bonies' sound was using a dolphin screech that was sped up and played with a human element as well. There was a lot of back and forth between the director and editor Nancy Richardson until we found a happy medium that we could start moving forward on." Zub then created a dialogue signal chain that contained the EQs and pitch shifter that were added to the Bonies' vocalizations. "We were very mindful of trying to steer away from the classic zombie sound that everyone knows and associates themselves with. Bonies have unique characteristics about them, and I think we achieved that sound pretty well." In addition to the vocal sounds for the CG Bonies, Zub also worked with Foley artist Ellen Heuer to create their sound movements. "We weren't too sure what type of surfaces they would be touching, or what type of skin they would have. Because they're called Bonies, we played around with the idea of, every time they move or step down, you'd hear a knuckle break, or a knee click, or a bone snap, or something like that with some sort of dry, leather skintype movement." The CG Bonies also kept Foley editor Brian Dunlop busy. With the visual effects being updated throughout the post process, Dunlop spent a lot of time re-syncing the Foley to the new picture. There were a lot of footsteps, with packs of zombies walking through airports and various streets in the abandoned postapocalyptic city. "There is a lot of shuffling and dragging of feet," jokes Zub. The human-like zombie sound incorporates a combination of human sounds and animal noises. On the ADR stage, Zub performed many of the human sounding elements that were added to the zombie vocals. "Back in the day when I was a young teenager in Australia, I'd do the singing/screaming type of vocals you'd hear in metal bands. Now I can just get on the ADR stage here and record a whole heap of various screams. I then manipulated those and combined them with animal sounds." He says the goal was to keep the sound more organic and to feel as real as possible because there was a love story element to the film. "We did a lot of layering of voices as opposed to manipu- lating it digitally with processors." Since several of the human-like zombies gradually transitioned back into human beings, David needed the actors to perform a series of zombie sounds that ranged from grunts and groans, to almost talking but still sounding like a zombie, and finally to sounding normal. "On top of that, we had a whole range of treatments on those performances to give us different types of zombie sounds." While most of the zombie sounds recorded on-set were later replaced in post, the lead characters' zombie sounds were the original on-set performances. One challenging scene, David recalls, was when the girlfriend, Julie (Teresa Palmer), was trapped with R on an airplane grounded on a derelict runway, which was essentially his home. Julie tries to leave, but she attracts the zombies surrounding the plane. R comes to her rescue, and helps her escape. "Getting the right blends of zombie vocals was a difficult thing because the zombies had to notice her, and then hone in on her, and then get threatening, and then kind of lose the thread when R helps her. That whole thing, with the different flavors of zombie vocal work, was really quite challenging." Wildfire, which handles all aspects of post — from picture edit and visual effects to the sound design, Foley, ADR and final mix — caters to indie films. The audio post side of the business offers two dub stages with Harrison MPC4-D consoles. Pre-mixing and editing is done in Pro Tools 10, so they're able to undo anything that makes it to the dub stage, which now houses Meyer EXP series speakers. They use the Acheron 80s for L, C and R, 12 HMS-10 surround speakers configured in four sets of three speakers for L and R side surrounds and L and R rear surrounds. They also use five X-800C subwoofers. Their loudspeaker management is controlled by two Meyer Galileo 408s. Keeping everyone in the facility on the same page helps the post process run smoothly. Since the approval process in independent filmmaking is so streamlined, being able to meet in the hall for a quick chat, or having the director step in for a quick listen (and approval) is one reason why Wildfire is ideal for indies. "We can get focused on the project without distraction from other things," explains David. "You end up in very close contact with the filmmakers, the picture editor and the director." Zub agrees: "Having access to the editor, the director and everyone on the same floor of the building, that was a huge advantage. In continued on page 46 www.postmagazine.com 12/21/12 7:34 PM