Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521235
hum) I experimented with using VX Clarity Pro but it took out too much of the ambient movement. Another discussion we had was the sound that the Deaf actors make while signing (which Hilari refers to as "body percussion," a term coined by Kubilay Uner, Hilari's composer on her first film, See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary. I could hear some slaps, claps, and hand movements in the production track, so I found something to "top" the production and put a little reverb on it to put it in the stage space. It reminded me of when Foley began to be used more in films and if there was a dancing scene and the Foley artist was not a dancer, the Foley wouldn't sound accurate! I remember hiring dancers to do Foley for those kinds of sequences. Fred Astaire performed his own tap dancing and had his own music editor cut in his taps. I think if I were to Foley Not Another Deaf Story, I would get a Deaf actor to provide the sounds for the body percussion. What looked like a face slap to me, Hilari would demonstrate and say, "No, it's not a slap. It's just touching the face. It doesn't make that big of a sound." I learned a lot about ASL while editing this project. ASL has its own grammatical rules and linguistic syntax, so the timing of the ASL and English sometimes differs. Hilari guided me with the timing of the spoken dialgue since the captions/ my students about WHY we put in certain sounds and why we might leave them out. Do we want to hear every sound a character makes? Do we want to hear their footsteps if someone is stealthily walking down a hallway? We are so used to hearing every little thing that someone walking without hearing their footsteps seems odd to our ears these days. Our final test screening included Hilari, Chase, myself, and a core group of hearing, Deaf and CODAs (Child of Deaf Adults), and included actor Justin Jackerson, associate producer Nick Zerlentes, Paul Raci (CODA), Laura Ripplinger (CODA), and post re-recording mixer Karol Urban. The sound design, score, picture, dialogue, and captions worked for everyone equally! To mix the film, Karol graciously took my massive session and created both a 5.1 mix and a stereo mix, and enhanced the sound effects and mix taking it to a whole new level. For the 5.1 mix, she leaned into the low bass cues that were mindfully scored for the Deaf audience to feel during the scary moments of the play. spoken English often differ in length from the ASL since it's a completely different language. I designed some cool sounds—like when one character tells a story about being in a dank, dark tunnel. So of course, I had to put in cave drips! And cave wind. And butterfly wings. And an eerie, bassy room tone. Our talented composer, Madison Anglin, with additional music by Simon Li, created some great cues, including the ghost girl theme. I complemented the scored sound effects with some additions and I was able to choose sounds that worked with her score, which was nice. Another story, called Silent Lake, was about a water monster in a lake and the story was told through a Deaf perspective. I had cut in some cool loon calls and when I played it for Hilari, she said, "It was called Silent Lake for a reason!" I would have never thought that way, even though the story is all about the lake monster who is sensitive to loud sounds and drags people and things underwater if they make noise. We all need projects that challenge our senses. I've always discussed with M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 21 Karol Urban MPSE, re-recording mixer; Nick Zerlentes, associate producer; Chase Chambers, film editor; Vickie Sampson, sound editor; Hilari Scarl, director; Justin Jackerson, actor, Laura Ripplinger, interpreter; and Paul Raci (friend/supporter) at test screening at Aura.