Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1335010
76 W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y band. Quite early on, I started to record my own songs with a 4-track recorder. After high school, I got a job as an assistant recording engineer in a music studio and started building my career as a recording engineer and mixer. I ended up working as a front of house mixer for several bands and toured with them as well. During my media assistant studies, I became more interested in cinema audio, and when H5 was seeking a Foley mixer, I applied for the job and got it. Your credits span a variety of genres in both film and television. Does your spotting process change when working in various genres? For example, is the process different when working on a musically dense piece such as Sound of Metal versus a science fiction project like Ad Astra? Would you choose to spot a certain element in one project that would be omitted in a different genre? HEIKKI: I feel that every project has its own challenges. At the same time, the demand of building a presence for characters and objects is the same. One thing that obviously differs between projects is budget. A larger budget gives you more days to walk. Spotting is a really important part of the process where we plan things. When spotting, I always say that you need to have the sound inside your head and try to imagine how it feels and what else it needs. With a very tight budget, it's challenging when you try to reach out into the real "art" while there is still a bunch of feet, props, and cloth rustle you need to do. In those cases, I always try to talk with the supervising sound editor and figure out if there are sequences where they need less Foley. If so, we can give more effort for Foley which can be closer to the sound FX but still made by using Foley techniques. For example, with Ad Astra, I had a great creative talk with supervisors Doug Murray and Robert Hein where we decided to keep space quiet from Foley and save that time to create Roy McBride's presence inside the spacesuit. On Sound of Metal, the supervising sound editor, Nicolas Becker, created a really good plan during the picture editing on how to use the subjective sounds inside Ruben's head when he loses his hearing. So, we focused on that for those moments and tried to create the body resonance of the character [instead of focusing on] everything else. We didn't do any double work for realistic and subjective worlds. We made the decisions before I walked. Basically, every sound I'm doing, I do to help the story. PIETU: It changes a bit on every film we work on. It's about the budget and time that we have. On a walk-and-talk film, it is very often about "covering" everything. Depending on the budget, we might be able to do some atmospheric tracks, too, such as restaurant backgrounds with dishes and such. On more action-filled films, it is maybe even more important to really focus on the stuff we want to hear. And then there are films like Sound of Metal. I spotted all the "realistic" sounds and then made different cues to sounds we hear as Ruben hears and feels them through his weakening hearing and through his body, too. It was really interesting to find out how weakening happens. For example, we tried to focus on many attacking, nasty, and bright sounds that really got through everything and made his hearing ring and even distort. Little by little, we made more and more muffled sounds where Heikki and Kari recorded these layers with contact and stethoscope microphones. I think it worked really well to mix these different layers together and make an immersion of hearing loss and really get to Ruben's mind and body. How do you ensure that the Foley performances you create are recorded to fit the director and sound supervisor's visions for the project? What types of questions do you ask them to understand Foley's role in the project's overall sound design? HEIKKI: I am the kind of person that wants to trust my first experience when watching the version of the film we start working with. I'm interested in story points and a character's subjective world; creating different textures for locations. I'm always interested in those things and would like to hear the director's feelings whenever it's possible. Sometimes, only one sentence is enough, like when we worked with (director) Gore Verbinski on A Cure for Wellness. Gore told me, "Heikki, this film is 70 percent sound. We are counting on you and the team to come up with something delicious." I knew immediately that there is a huge understanding for sound and that there is space for details. One rule that Foley has is that it has to fit the production track. It's good to check where they want to emphasize it and where they want to get rid of it. It's also good to know about the heavy ADR moments. Sometimes, Foley needs to be loud to come through with other heavy sound FX. With tight budgets, it's also good to have a word or two about backgrounds and hear what the supervisors' thoughts are about background Foleys. PIETU: Communication is the key to make us work efficiently in the right direction. Good guide tracks are the first thing we see that give us some idea what we are working with. We need information on whether there are scenes that really don't need Foley, or if something is covered already with FX or production sound. Many things become clear if the stems are in a good place, but if we are working on a documentary with only offline stereo sound, it is really hard sometimes to know what needs to be done. Those are places where we need exact information. Heikki Kossi and Pietu Korhonen review Foley performances at H5 Film Sound.