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INDIE FILMS FRONT AND CENTER www.postmagazine.com 36 POST FEBRUARY 2016 He starts by removing pops or mic bumps, filling in gaps, and lowering the level of noise between the lines. Then, if necessary, cleans up the low-end using EQ. Shatz also employs the iZotope RX tools, but with caution. "If you go too far you can make the dialogue sound pump- ing or phasey. If you let the track be a little bit noisier, that probably ends up being the right amount of noise reduc- tion. What you end up with, in a movie like this, is a track that sounds real and gritty," Shatz says. While many directors choose to forgo ADR, either for budget reasons or per- sonal taste, Shatz feels that ADR is just another tool that can improve a film's quality, like color correction. "ADR is bad only if you know it's ADR; if it sticks out. I try to encourage filmmakers to not com- pletely reject ADR," says Shatz. While there was ADR in Triple 9, Shatz says it was mainly to improve story clarity. For music and sound effects, Triple 9's soundtrack is heavily influenced by a remixing technique known as 'chopped and screwed' — developed in Houston's hip hop scene of the 1990s by DJ Screw, which uses pitch shifting, time shifting, and stutter edits to slow a sample down, creating a deep, dark vibe. Working his effects against the backdrop of composer Atticus Ross' music beds and pads, Shatz used delay and pitch processing to create a 'chopped and screwed' feel. Since sirens play an important role, Shatz makes note of the soundtrack's climax, which he calls a symphony of sirens. "John [Hillcoat] wanted the most up-to-date sirens. Since I live in New York, I was able to collect this really amazing set of sirens and emer- gency vehicle sounds, including ones I never heard before, like 'the rumbler.' We blended sirens into the music, and used them throughout the track." Triple 9 — mixed in 5.1 at Wildfire Post in Los Angeles and at PostWorks NY — hits theaters February 26 th with a star-studded cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Winslet, Aaron Paul, Norman Reedus and Woody Harrelson. SWISS ARMY MAN If you're looking for an indie film with kooky characters and a storyline that's so askew it's downright twisted, then check out Swiss Army Man — a Sundance en- trant by directors 'the Daniels', i.e. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Stranded on a desert island, a man (Paul Dano) discov- ers a washed up corpse (Daniel Radcliff), which seemingly comes to life by twitching and farting. Using the flatulent corpse as an organic jet ski of sorts, the man escapes his isolation by navigating to safety with the help of an impromptu compass — the corpse's steadfast erec- tion. According to reports from Sundance, the Daniels say their inspiration for Swiss Army Man was a fart joke. Supervising sound editor Brent Kiser of Unbridled Sound in Los Angeles (un- bridledsound.com), has been a longtime collaborator with the Daniels, and so, had a good idea of what he was in for with Swiss Army Man. Just before the film went into picture edit, he and the Daniels recorded six-hours of fart sounds. "We had dry farts, windy farts, airy farts, wet farts and everything under the sun, to build this little fart library for the editor to have when he cut the picture, so they could have everything exactly how they wanted. It had to be funny yet not car- toony," details Kiser. Other sound design highlights include sound designer Andrew Twite's knuckles cracking to represent the corpse's rigor mortis — every time the corpse was moved, the directors wanted to hear it, and the boner-compass sound which signaled they were headed in the right direction. "Initially, the directors went with a magnetic sound in the edit, but we found that a Geiger counter worked better to convey that his boner was pointing the way home," says Kiser. The film's score, created by the Atlanta-based musical duo Manchester Orchestra, was a major force in the film's soundtrack. During pre-production, the directors and Manchester Orchestra developed original songs for the actors to sing or hum on-camera. Those perfor- mances were captured on-set by sound mixer Stephen Nelson. The production performances were then combined with the actors' studio performances to create what re-recording mixer Beau Borders, who handled the dialogue and effects, calls a "crazy, vocally-driven a cappella orchestra. As Paul Dano's character goes over to the corpse, he is humming a tune, Leslie Shatz served as supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer on Triple 9. Pennington, Borders and Kiser all contribut- ed to Swiss Army Man, which received a Dolby Atmos mix