Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1401019
m ot ion p ictu re s o u n d e d i to r s I 63 this film. THERE IS NO MUSIC! Sound design plays a big part in filling the musical gap. Robert, this is an initial question for you, was that the plan from the get- go or is this something that you developed as you went along? RM: My dad was a music teacher growing up and he introduced me to John Cage very early on as a child, which I was very drawn to, and other records and artists that were musical as well. But I was always kind of drawn back to what Cage had done. And so, when Rodrigo and I made our first short film together, we didn't have any audio equipment to be able to record. So, we had to do all of the Foley and all of the sound design work. And that was really the foundation for us. It was like adding cicadas in a scene to cause tension as opposed to music. And it was pretty foundational from the get-go. And until the film that Peter and I are working on right now, I haven't ever really used music in any kind of traditional aspect, because sometimes I struggle with the fact that the music in many ways can just be redundant to what's occurring. Even Walter Murch suggests using it when the performance is bad, and you need to get an emotion that maybe the actor wasn't able to achieve. And I've never liked the idea of using it that way. I love music. I was always frustrated that it was the last thought process. And so, with The Killing of Two Lovers specifically, when I reached out to Peter, even early in the script aspect of it, we discussed it and I told him I was going to shoot it in a way that allows these big windows to where maybe somebody might be tempted to put music in, but we were going to do it via sound design instead. MA: That's fantastic. Seeing the first shot of the film we have an expectation of what kind of film we are in for and what kind of soundtrack and mix style that is likely to go with it but very quickly things take a turn in a very interesting direction. We hear sounds of metal groans, footsteps, car doors, and a gun cocking taking the place of a music cue. This fully immersive world comes to an abrupt end at the closing of David's car door where he stashes the gun. This really sets the tone for what we are in for. Can you walk us through the concept for this opening design? PA: I think this was one of the very first sequences that I did sound design for. Robert sent me a first cut that he had done. And we talked about having some kind of sound there when David's running. Then I had this idea because so much of the film is taking place around the car, or in the car. The car is such a big part of David's life it's almost like a character in the film. So, I was thinking, "Okay, let's try and go with sounds from the car and use those as his inner sounds." And then Robert had this thing that it should be rhythmical somehow, so instead of just using a drone or tone, then trying to build up things rhythmically. This whole concept came up using car doors and then adding in a lot of different metal sounds from different car recordings that my assistant and I had done. A few years back, we did a monster movie where there was a sequence taking place in the car where this car gets smashed up by a monster and we went to the scrap yard and just smashed up a car and recorded that. So there's all of these different elements playing together. And when I had done that collage, the first part of it, I sent that to Robert and I remember being super nervous because I was thinking, "Okay, this is pretty crazy. What will Robert think?" And it took a couple of days before Robert got back to me and I was thinking, "Okay, now I'm going to get fired or something." And Robert then sent me a new version of the cut where this collage was cut in like at least five different places in the film or something like that, so suddenly it became a really integrated part of the DNA of the film and it was in places that I would have never thought of putting it. It was really inspiring in that sense. And that's often how this goes, someone gets a crazy idea and then tries something out and then the other one comes in and we develop. The whole sonic signature of the film is something that we very much developed together. But, yeah, it was really one of the very first sounds made for the film. MA: As we make our way through the film with David in various locations and emotional states, you can hear new elements adding into the theme of this inner turmoil sound design. Can you talk a little bit about the different sequences and challenges with that? PA: We made it so that there's some development. It's a little bit like a musical theme that someone writes and then you start out playing it on the banjo and then comes in the guitar and then the piano and then the full symphony orchestra at the end. So that's a development of this sonic motif. It kind of goes in and out of different approaches to how we use the sounds. Sometimes it's very upfront. Sometimes it's very subtle. We also tried to do it in a dynamic way. Once you get into the full mix of these scenes, it's often very subjective. Sometimes you'd see David standing next to someone else, you see a person talking, but you don't hear any words and then suddenly, there's someone talking that you can hear. That was something that we kept on developing also throughout the creative process. This was really something that just kept on refining throughout the process and trying new things out. And something that I also talked with Dave Barber about in our very first conversation was that something that's really important in the way that we work is that that we're not afraid of experimenting. Even when we are mixing, if you get a crazy idea, it's probably a good idea or maybe it's very bad. [laughter] But you have to do it and try it out. And not be afraid of trying it out. I think there's a lot of processes in the movie