Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512183
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 67 reactions during a game. Modern fans are much more aggressive, use drums, horns, and we couldn't record the desired sounds for a 1960s match. And they didn't want to stay separately. Hiring 200 extras and taking them to a quiet location wasn't in the film's budget. However, I negotiated with producers of two other films—one about hockey and another a historical drama with a large crowd. We decided to share the recording expenses among our studio and the three movies. The recording happened! I lost my voice and could barely whisper, but in five hours, we managed to produce a lot of great and active recordings. In 2010, in Nikita Mikhalkov's film Burnt by the Sun 2, there was a scene depicting an attack by Junkers 87 Stuka aircraft. I revisited all the iconic sounds from the chronicles, trying to recreate the terrifying wailing sound of the diving sirens on the landing gear. Eventually, we discovered a hand-operated siren in a museum. We accelerated a microbus with an open side door, then turned off the engine, and I would manually operate the siren as we passed by microphones at high speed. When the podcast about the sound for Dunkirk was released, I realized that their team faced the same challenge. Going through that experience myself, I could better relate to their journey. The same problems, struggles, and searches over and over. You think you've nailed it, you listen to the archival recording, but it still seems more terrifying and authentic, whereas yours sounds like a distorted meow of a spring cat. You have to start over. I even turned to Aztec death whistles, but I never achieved perfection. Recording what you see in the frame I call a direct association. Mosfilm "Old Moscow set" where we wererecording old city life walla and props. Moscow 2019, Mosfilm © Recording burning drops of plastic to simulate the sound of a Nebelwerfer flyby for Stalingrad (2013). Abandoned factory in the suburbs of Moscow. Aleksandr Volodin, Pavel Doreuli. Atmosfera Studio © It's logical to start there, but I've always preferred to seek out and record a second tier of associations, what the sound resembles, guiding the viewer's associations in the desired direction, adding organic elements, dissonance or conversely, consonance, and expanding its impact into the emotional realm usually monopolized by music. Yes, if we need to demolish a house, let's do that and record it. But that's just the first step. The house might collapse with a moan followed by an exhale in the last cloud of dust. That would be much more effective. Many people who have witnessed rare and large-scale sound phenomena describe them differently to what we extrapolate from our daily experiences, which, paradoxically for modern people, are often based solely on movies. A vicious cycle. I always try to incorporate a tactile