Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1448505
we had to invent most of the sounds during the post-production. Beyond the boundaries of visibility, the machines were not working, the vehicles were not moving, so they had no sound. Some of the characters did not speak the languages or had a recognizably bad accent. The continuous noise world that dominated the film was not present during the filming. At the end of the film, the swim across the river was recorded with a camera mounted on a motorized raft; the sound of this scene had to be built from scratch during the post-production. Thus, the most important task during the filming was to record and preserve the on- site dialogue of the main characters. CM: During the editorial process, how closely did you work with the picture editing team and director? Did they provide specific direction to you at the onset of your involvement, and how did that evolve as the process unfolded? TZ: Picture editing team was one person, Matthieu Taponier, a friend of László who originally graduated as a film director. Because the film consists of long settings (there are about 85 edits in total), they were able to work relatively quickly. Filmed in the summer of 2014, we already had a rough cut in September, and on October 1, we started the sound post with a soft lock. During September, László and Matthieu came to me in the studio where I showed them how to manage the SFX library (Basehead or Soundminer, I don't remember). Finally, they collected a lot of temporary sound effects and atmospheres for image editing. I still remember a simple but important sound from those they found: an atmosphere of a deep, roaring real mine. This sound was later used by me in the final sound design in various transformed ways. I formed from this the basic atmosphere of the crematorium in the quiet parts. When László and I started working on the sound post-production, Matthieu often came, helped, gave ideas, took part in the group ADR recordings. Film and also the sound were important, he later accompanied me to the Golden Reel Award ceremony as well. Anyway, during the development of the sound image, the director sat next to me almost every day, and when I was just editing a Foley sync, he continued to search the SFX library or organize the native human sounds sent by foreign actors. We had a really great little creative team! CM: Did you find that music impacted sound choices that were made for the film? It is very intimate—was that something that was predetermined going into the sound mix, or was it a result of having all the components direct that sort of aesthetic outcome? TZ: In sound choices, usually, I'm not influenced by music, however, one of the main features of a sound designer is, in my opinion, the musical tonal hearing and sense of rhythm, and also the intuitive imaginative and associative audio skills. So in that sense, music and tonal sound design can come into contact with each other. I remember when the composer of the Son of Saul, László Melis, who passed away with tragic unexpectedness in 2018, once listened to the sound design in the making, his eyes flashed at one point and he said: The sound of this elevator is in E flat, right? We knew right away that we were on the same wavelength in this film. The director did not want specific score music for the film, only diegetic (source) music, so with László Melis, we recorded short musical textures with a string of five and some percussion instruments (big drums, rain rods) that were suitable for further tonal sound design manipulations. These are what we have called the hidden music of the Son of Saul, who thus became part of the noise world. CM: Were there any dramatic moments in the film that you feel were particularly well executed with your teams' sound contributions? And did you have any moments that