Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/933783
40 W I N T E R 2 0 1 8 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y like the distant barking dogs. There are only three scenes where we actually see dogs. Another thing was the drama of war—when we hear it and how we hear it. Is it close or more distant? Who is shooting where? Every scene had its own drama. Simon's description about the physical experience was really important, like feeling the bombing deep inside his body. Heikki, you are mainly known for your Foley work, but I know you do much more. Can you talk about your work in sound design, editing, and mixing for this project? HK: As I mentioned earlier, my approach to sound design comes through Foley. But even more, it comes through storytelling. My approach doing Foley is always related with the story, picture, and other sounds. I just want to help those elements. This time, it was possible for me to think about it from a different point of view. I was able to think more carefully about what was coming from Foley and what we needed from FX. Maybe the most important thing was that I was completely aware of the little details of production sound and the Foley. So, we were able to integrate Foley, the production track, and FX tightly together. Most of the sound editing was done by Pietu Korhonen and FX editor Mikkel Nielsen. At the same time, all three supervising editors, Peter, Pietu, and myself were able to inspire each other and follow the process before the mix. At the mix, it was just an adventure with Peter and Simon. With Peter, it was our first time mixing together and we didn't have any disagreements. I think we were pretty efficient. We mixed everything together. When we started working with one sequence, I went through the dialogue and Foley. Peter took over with ambiences and the FX. Peter was also in charge of integrating music with other sounds. Also, Uno Halmarson and Erik Enocksson composed such amazing music for the movie. Peter, we spoke during the mix about the different style of mixing you were using for this documentary—more like a feature film. Could you tell me a bit more about that? PA: There's certainly a lot of different views on how much manipulation you're allowed to do with sound for a documentary. In my opinion, the director has chosen to point the camera in a specific direction and prioritize the material and edit the story in a certain way and this means that reality has already been severely manipulated. Why shouldn't I be allowed to manipulate the sound, then? This doesn't mean that I'm going to do a big action slam-bang soundtrack for a small quiet documentary. Of course, I spend a lot of time creating a sonic world that feels right for the film and true to the story, the environment, and the characters. I always utilize local recordings as much as possible and, on this film, we had access to a lot of Ukrainian ambiences. But at the same time, I often have several subjective sound moments in the documentaries I do. We all listen to the world in a subjective way so why should we try to be objective when telling stories? What is objectivity? No film is objective. It's always a filmmaker's personal vision. For this film, Heikki did a lot of Foley for each and every scene, but when you see the film, you hopefully won't notice how much was created during post. It should feel natural. It should feel true. But the number of tracks we had, around 150 of them, was definitely more like a fiction film than a classic documentary. What kind of equipment did you find valuable in using for this project? What kind of re-recording setup do you have at your studio? [Filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont] 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. –Heikki Kossi " "