Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/933783
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y W I N T E R 2 0 1 8 39 I collaborated with Peter. With Chikara, my role was that of a Foley artist. (Since then), I've been working with Peter more and more and we've been talking about doing sound design one day together. Our normal collaboration is as a Foley artist and mixer/designer, but I feel our approach to sound is very similar. Everybody was very happy about the sound of Chikara and it was obvious from the very beginning that we should work together as supervising sound editors for The Distant Barking of Dogs. And my partner at H5 Film Sound, Pietu Korhonen, was an additional sound editor. We had true collaboration and lots of ideas to work with. And in the end, Peter and I mixed this movie together. How was it working with Simon? It was his first feature length documentary. Was he very involved with sound? PA: Simon really wanted the sound to be a major part of his film. Even the title of the film is about sound, about listening. When I played him a first pass of ambiences for the film early on, his first reaction was: I want more! Simon really wanted the extraordinary environment of the film to come alive through sound, both with background ambiences and Foley. Simon is his own photographer— and a very skilled one! You can feel how he really uses both his eyes and ears when portraying the characters in the film. And on top of that, of course, the whole film is happening in a war zone but you never really see any acts of war—the bombings are all happening off screen and are a very important part of the film. Usually, Simon isn't super specific when he talks about sound—he talks about the moods and vibe he's looking for and then he wants you as a sound designer or mixer to bring suggestions and ideas. But the sounds of the bombs were very important to him and definitely the part of the soundtrack he was most specific about: the timing of bombs, the speed of gunfire, the amount of echo or reverb, the texture of the explosions. Heikki arranged for special military recordings of bombs and guns in Finland and we used those sounds extensively. HK: Simon's work is amazing. I'm still amazed how he created the atmosphere of The Distant Barking of Dogs. It is intense and intimate. He is great with kids as well. His camerawork is astonishing. As a Foley artist, I feel that his cinematographing creates so much delicious Foley moments. He is able to get so close to the main characters, so those little details are very important to add with sound, too. With documentary sound, you quite often miss those things. Talking with Simon about sound was perfect. He told us about his feelings and motives, picking the best scenes for the movie for building sound. He didn't talk at all about sound from a technical point of view; he was talking about the feelings and atmosphere he was looking for. That meant that he trusted us—an ideal situation. My point of view for the sound design process comes through Foley and I really feel that Simon is keen on that approach and respects my work because of that. Sound was so important in this film to establish the mood of a deserted village in the midst of war and to emphasize the isolation of this family. How was that accomplished and what were the difficult challenges for you to create this? PA: As mentioned previously, Simon really wanted the ambiences to be a big part of the film. There's very little human life in this desolate city but there's still a lot of animals, birds, insects, chickens, cows and, of course, dogs. It really gives a special feeling having all this animal life represented on the soundtrack, but not really any human life. It creates a ghostly feeling. It's not lifeless, but it's awkward for sure. And then there are all the different buildings falling apart with things rattling in the wind constantly. I vividly remember Simon telling us that everything should be creaking in this film. Everything. And, so it did! Generally, the production sound of the film was very rough around the edges. Simon did it all himself while he was shooting and directing and it all was recorded with a camera mic and a couple of radio mics. Cleaning that up and making that work was really the most difficult part of the job—big kudos to Pietu Korhonen and dialogue premixer Nicolai Linck. But the creaky sound design and the rough production worked well when going hand in hand. The ambiences and sound FX made the dialogue seem warmer and richer. It's amazing how your ears can be cheated. I love it. HK: There were a few main themes we talked about in the very beginning. The village where Oleg and his grandma are living is like a ghost town and abandoned because of the war. So, everything needs to sound like that. Broken, not used, not taken care of. This texture needs to be possible to almost touch. No traffic can be heard. We need to hear that only animals are still in the village