Post Magazine

February 2018

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ing mixer Matthew Chan, dialogue/ADR editor Jean Choi Bot and sound effects editor Chris King at Sim Post in Toronto, ON (www.siminternational. com), the computer game featured in the film is actually a real game called Reflex Arena by Australian game developer Turbo Pixel Studios. To create the film's in-game sequences, which total up to roughly 20 minutes, director Procopio choreo- graphed sequences for the players to perform. He captured those sequences in-game using a virtual camera that was recording at a very high frame- rate, over 1,000 frames per second. This allowed Procopio to slow down the footage selectively to make it more comprehensible for the audience. Procopio tasked sound effects editor King with reconstructing all of the in-game sounds using the sound assets from the actual Reflex Arena game, plus adding sonic enhancements to make the sequences feel more cinematic. There were some limitations though. Procopio was an avid Reflex Arena gamer and very aware of how the game should sound. They spent a lot of time working out how to make the in-game sequences sound cinematic while still staying true to the game. King watched hours of gameplay and researched Reflex Arena to learn what sounds should be play- ing at what times. "Because this is a multiplayer game, there is always a lot happening in the back- grounds. The biggest challenge was just the sheer amount of material and trying to remain authentic to the actual game," he says. According to re-recording mixer Chan, King delivered 400 tracks of sound effects to the stage. While there may be hundreds of sounds built into a video game, the game engine automatically prioritizes what the player should be hearing. Chan says, "We don't have that luxury. We have all of the sounds that are happening but we have to priori- tize what's going to be heard. It's a matter of mak- ing sure that the storytelling sounds are clear, and knowing when to be reductive to focus in on the story. Other times, it's okay to let it be chaotic and immersive. It was a challenge to find that balance." For reverb, Chan used Exponential Audio's PhoenixVerb. He says, "It has a way of tracking the input so that if you pan something to the surrounds you only hear early reflections in the surrounds. If it didn't have that feature than any time I panned something I would also have to pan the reverb with it if I wanted it to really sound like it was coming from that speaker. I couldn't have moved through the material as quickly as I did with any other reverb." The in-game sequences sound so immersive and energetic, so when the scene cuts back to the real world, the energy needed to match that. But how do you make kids at keyboards sound exciting? Chan answers, "We pushed background sounds that you might not normally push. Their clubhouse is an abandoned restaurant in a rough part of town so we were able to exaggerate the street noise. Also, we play the Foley louder than usual — anything to make it feel like we weren't coming into a world that sounds flat." Energy levels were also a consideration for the dialogue. Gamers communicate via headsets; it's a close sound so they don't need to yell. They often talk in monotone voices. Initially, the ADR fol- lowed this realistic approach but that didn't play well with the energy and effects in-game. Dialogue/ADR editor Bot notes, "We had to record the ADR again with a little more energy but we had to find a balance there, find an energy that matched the film but didn't feel out of place for these gamers." For reverb in eHero, re-recording mixer Matthew Chan relied on Exponential Audio's PhoenixVerb. The computer game featured in eHero is a real game called Reflex Arena.

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