Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/491542
www.postmagazine.com 30 POST APRIL 2015 AUDIO FOR ANIMATION flying sound becomes a hybrid of Gorg tonal drones and Boov bubbling. "That was one of the bigger challenges we had — to make the Slushious cool and then taking it to a whole other level once the two technologies are combined," Myers elaborates. The Boov characters have six feet, and when you have a herd of Boov, that sound could easily get out of control. The Foley team needed to create Boov footsteps that were interesting but not overwhelming. "The Foley team did a fantastic job, both our walkers and our editors," says Myers. He describes the footsteps as a soft patting sound which, in certain instances, is accented with a little wetness. "For scenes where they are sneaking around, we gave it a little squeak or wetness, but we weren't tied to that for every scene because that would get annoying. We were able to play around and make it a little more fun. We had the freedom to play things not so literal. Tim was open to suggestions." Even though Home is action-packed and includes scenes of large-scale de- struction, such as Paris being destroyed by an inverted Eiffel Tower, director Johnson wanted the sound to highlight the comedic or fun elements in each scene. "He always wanted us to bear in mind that he wanted kids to lean into the screen and not be pushed back from it, not be averted from it. We had to try and find a balance between portraying what you are seeing on-screen and not having it be too scary or threatening," says Myers. AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE Holy Handbanana! New episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the longest running original series on Adult Swim, will be airing early this summer — stay tuned for a specific date. Michael Kohler, composer/sound designer/mixer and founder of Bluetube in Atlanta, GA (www.bluetube.com) has been apart of the Aqua Teen family since the end of Season 3. He notes that all work for Aqua Teen Hunger Force — the writing, sound, and animation — happen in Adult Swim's hometown of Atlanta. "Our sister com- pany, Awesome, Incorporated, is right upstairs; they animate the show. I can always run up and see what the charac- ters are looking like and what's going on before it comes to me for audio," says Kohler. Bluetube is involved in every aspect of creating the final soundtrack — dialogue record and edit, sweetening, occasionally some music, Foley, sound design, and final mix. The post process for Aqua Teen Hunger Force often happens on non-se- quential episodes due in part to the availability of guest actors. "We could be working on Episode 3 first because they were able to schedule everyone's record for that show. We tend to skip around," says Kohler. As the season progresses and air dates are set, the schedule starts to level out. In working on every aspect of the sound, Kohler notes it's nice to have that knowledge of the episode, and access to all the recordings done for the show. He's able to grab any unscripted material they captured, like someone laughing, cough- ing, or making a one-off comment, and use that to accent a joke. Recording the dialogue also gives Kohler a head start on collecting Foley props before design- ing the sound. "I'll know if I have a robot character that rolls on little tiny wheels and bashes things, for example, and can plan for it," he says. That's especially important for a show where anything, literally, can and will happen. "What Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro write is just crazy. They're so amazing at doing it, and they're really into the audio side of the experience as well." For Willis and Maiellaro, there is no such thing as too much with this show, reports Kohler, who is often left to his own devices to create a bizarre array of creatures, devices and characters. For example, while working on the feature film, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007), Kohler was tasked with sound designing the Bluetube's Michael Kohler joined Aqua Teen (right) in Season 3.