Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500189
84 M PS E . O R G start working on palette-based on the still images. Quite often sounds designed to your first impressions of the artwork make it into the track. I try and listen through production to check for sound nuggets. It happens less and less now, but once in a while, I'm rewarded for giving the production sound due diligence. I then like to record sounds and build palette. Often I'll just make a bunch of sounds before starting to chop them in. Once I get picture, I always do a basic shaping pass and then just keep refining it. I will go for the hardest parts first and work out from there. Personally, I like to work against the quietest sound in the scene so I will often make a basic ambience first. I've always valued realism to ground us in the world we're entering, but I equally value expressionism in sound that wraps around the emotion of the story being told by exploring an aural head space to embrace what we are seeing. How do you prefer working with picture departments—as far as working on design concepts and aesthetics? DW: It's great when you have an open door with editorial. Where possible, I love to feed them a palette of sounds so they are cutting with our material. Over the years, I've learnt to embrace the guide track far more. They work hard at finding the pace and nuances in each scene, so you have to have to consider it carefully. When I first start, I like to have a few weeks to get into a few scenes in the film before sharing a work in progress. I'll then send them weekly WIPs or when they need something in particular. If in the same city, I encourage them to come into the studio for reviews. Overall, I prefer to have the director hear everything before the final mix. Some directors like all the toys in the sandpit and will throw out what they don't want in the mix which makes for a long mix and often a confused soundtrack. I prefer whittling it down to core elements and shaping a minimal track where possible and I've been lucky enough to work with some directors who embrace that approach. A friend suggested that I look into studying sound editing for films. Once I began down that path, I was hooked. –Michelle Child)