Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/600849
49 FALL 2015 / CINEMONTAGE HAVE QUESTIONS? CALL THE TEAM AT AID FOR A FREE Q & A www.AIDinc.com | sales@aidinc.com | 323 845-1155 A ROOM! GIVE US SOME SPACE WE'LL GIVE YOU period, with accurate traffic sounds and ambiences," Minkler says. "We also needed to dirty up our sound to match the mono sound of contemporary archive footage, as we transitioned between stock footage of the Trumbo trials; the voiceover also had to be treated to sound authentic." "Alan Baumgarten certainly helped define our direction with the soundtrack," Sanders confirms. "The trick was to stay out of the way, to be invisible. We wanted to recreate the world of the 1930s and '40s — a world that sounded a lot different back then, with less traffic and other extraneous noises. I also wanted each of the cars to have its own individual character, with different horns and V8 engine noise." Sanders cites one example of a car carrying government agents who plan to interrupt Trumbo's family picnic in order to serve him with a summons. "There are several shots of the car traveling on its way, intercut with the family at the picnic," he says. "The vehicle's character is foreboding and helps play some tension in the intercuts. The car finally pulls up, and the engine's character and brake squeaks serve to break the jovial mood of the picnic. Another example is Otto Preminger's arrival at Trumbo's house; the sound of his Rolls Royce in the close-up is huge, clean and slick; it helps foreshadow the director's larger-than-life character that we meet shortly after that scene." Backgrounds were carefully designed to offer a richness "that we thought would support the story set in that time period," Sanders continues. "I also developed a characteristic sound for Trumbo's typewriter, which is used in several scenes. And I went back to the production track to salvage practical sounds from the set." Foley became a sound character too, Christian Minkler.