Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1436283
m ot ion p ictu re s o u n d e d i to r s I 45 conversation in the room becomes engulfing as Irene focuses on her husband talking to Clare. There's a paranoia and anxiety that build to a point where she drops the tea set, which seems deafening as it clatters to the ground. Then everything stops for just a few seconds—silence … and then the conversation starts up again. Irene is then speaking with her friend Hugh amidst the hubbub. We are locked in conversation with them. It took us trial and error, and analysis, to find the right sonic choreography—focusing and paring down so audiences would hear the right things at the right time, all from Irene's emotional and physical perspective. A similar trajectory occurred in mixing the final scene in Felice's apartment that also features different points of view that shift back-and-forth. We alternate from Irene's anchor vantage point to Clare's point of view and, at times, to the audience POV, watching and hearing everything omnisciently. Rebecca had a completely specific sense of when it should be which POV. With her guiding the process saying, "This is right, this is not right," that's really how we arrived at what we have. This is all to say that there is much to be said for a mixing process that allows for us to step away, take stock, revisit, and refine. The music was also a big piece of the soundscape—there is a trumpet player who lives on their Harlem block we hear but never see; that's clearly part of the neighborhood ambience. There is a central piece of solo piano music which recurs as score. This very much belongs to Irene—"The Homeless Wanderer" by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. There's obviously the music of the time, there's a dance hall scene and there's a speakeasy scene. So that's jazz from Harlem, late '20s. And then the music from composer Devonté Hynes, who did a kind of very subtle tonal score, along with some piano embellishment. When I say tonal, I mean single low tones or drones that you barely really know are there; they occur maybe three or four times in the movie. So we had those different strands to weave. For example, when they all walk up the four flights of stairs to the party at the end. We hear the piano motif, which brings us up the stairs. And as soon as we get to the party, you're hearing the music of the time playing off a Victrola as the piano motif continues. Eventually, later in the scene, some of the score tones come in as Irene is left alone upstairs. They culminate when she then goes down and bursts through the door, out to the final scene in the courtyard, in the snow. I have many favorite scenes! I love the dream scene toward the end of the movie—talk about going into her head and soul—it's a brief, yet deep journey into her emotional world. That also was a process of elimination. There are dreamier André Holland (Brian) and Tessa Thompson. Photo courtesy of Netflix