Gemma Nicholson made the leap from being a busy sound editor to a successful post production supervisor. It is not a typical career path, but it gives her insight into the sound work done on any given project. This differentiates her from many other post supervisors, that might not have this built-in knowledge. In this interview she gives us her advice on how to get the most out of a working relationship with your post production supervisor. We discuss how to ask for more budget, how to set...

285 - The Sound Of Arrival by Tonebenders Podcast

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the kind of film that feels like anything can happen at any time. The wild sound design plays a large role is setting up that feeling of comedic unease. Supervising Sound Editor Jimmy Boyle, Re-Recording Mixers Chris Burdon & Gilbert Lake, Supervising Dialogue Editor Buster Flaws and Music Consultant & Arranger Mike Higham, join the podcast to talk about their bizarre adventures to create the sounds of Beetlejuice BeetleJuice. From re-creating classic rock...

The Palme D’or winner from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Anora is the latest film from director Sean Baker. Anora is also one of my favourite movies of the year so far. Co-supervising sound editors (and also the re-recording mixers) Andy Hay and John Warrin discuss how they molded the sound of this film. The film was largely shot docu-style with lots of overlapping dialogue and real life sound obtrusions, and a significant amount takes place in dance clubs with loud music blaring. These...

"Best Score" Oscar winner and Grammy "Album of the Year" winner, Jon Batiste joins Tonebenders to talk about his score for the Jason Reitman film, Saturday Night. He discusses the unusual way the music was recoded. It was captured on the set of the film during the evenings, after shooting was wrapped up each day. He also explains the way this idea came together and the people he collaborated with in order to pull it off. Make sure you check out this episode's companion with the sound team...

At the premier of Saturday Night at The Toronto International Film Festival, Director Jason Reitman made a special point of telling the audience that the sound team "put in a lot of work into making it feel like they didn't do any work at all". This is not the kind of film that you would think would have tricky sound obstacles, but that was not the case at all. Supervising Sound Editors Will Files, Lee Gilmore and David Butler, join production sound mixer Steven Morrow and music editor Chris...

The Sounding Board 4.0 has just been announced by The Cinema Audio Society and The Motion Picture Sound Editors! So that makes it a great time to push out this talk from last year's Sounding Board, that was moderated by Tonebenders' host Tim Muirhead. We have all heard many interviews with Re-Recording Mixers, so as a contrast, this panel focuses on the rest of the important mixers involved in the audio post process. Foley Mixer Gary DeLeone (and his Foley Artist, Michell Kohen), ADR/Loop...

Inside Out 2 takes the foundation of the original film and pushes those ideas even further, especially with sound design. Coya Elliot and Ren Klyce join the show to discuss how the glass memory balls became a much more important sound in this sequel and how they recorded and designed sounds for all the hockey sequences. They also talk about the lessons they learned from the first film as their dialog treatments went from mix theatre to real world cinemas, and the adjustments to their approach...

Kneecap is a film chock full of manic energy, about an Irish hip-hop group swept up into a political grassroots movement almost against their will. This perfect mix of the music, multiple languages and madcap sound design fuels the chaos around our main characters. The Audio Post team of Louise Burton (Dialog Supervisor), Richard Armstrong (Music Editor), Aza Hand (Re-Recording Mixer) and Brendan Rehill (Supervising Sound Editor) tell us about recording ADR for live music performances,...

Today we are going to be talking about field recording for the National Parks Service with recordist Chris Trevino. He tells us about his recent recording gig at Isle Royale Nation Park in Michigan, where he had his mics rolling in the park for 2 summer weeks. His goal was to capture the natural sounds of the pristine environment and the animals that call it home.  Chris discusses how he got the contract with the Parks Service, how he prepared for 2 weeks with no power and what it took to...

Deadpool & Wolverine is the biggest film of summer. It combines action and comedy in a rapid fire pace. The sound team behind the film joins me today to talk about how they managed dialog tracks where the main character is speaking behind a fabric mask and the importance of the interplay between iconic music drops that play over massive sound effects sequences. Supervising Sound Editors Ryan Cole and Craig Henighan are joined by re-recording mixer Lora Hirschberg and music editor Dan...

As a longtime fan of the Alien franchise, I have been looking forward to seeing director Fede Alvarez's latest instalment Alien: Romulus. The sound team was tasked with designing an audible world that fit in with the original 1979 film but still lives in today's definition of what blockbusters should sound like. Supervising Sound Editors, Will Files and Lee Gilmore, are joined by Dialog/ADR supervisor Polly McKinnon and Sound Designer Chris Terhune to talk about the sounds of the Xenomorphs,...

Tonebenders' listeners are simply the best. Back when I asked people to submit their favourite field recording stories, I never dreamed there would be enough sent in for two full episodes!? In this instalment you can hear recordings of cannons firing, beautiful feedback loops, plumbing pipes going entirely wrong, and lots of animals and nature. Big thanks to Carlos Honc, Matt Glenn, Ben Reichstein, Kelly Walker, Laurens Lemmers, Johan Krist, Hervé Girardin, Dmitry Chernov, & Chris...

Shōgun is an epic series that covers the struggle for power in mid 1600s Japan. The show features excellent sound work. From the extremely detailed foley to the fury of earthquakes, every moment feels like it has a sonic signature. Five members of the audio post production team join the podcast, to discuss how they brought the world of Shōgun to life with sound. Supervising Sound Editor Brian Armstrong, Sound Designers Jim Gallivan & Ben Cook, Dialog Editor John Creed and Foley Artist...

Vancouver based Eugenio Battaglia joins us to go over his work as Supervising Sound Editor, Sound Designer and Re-Recording Mixer on Longlegs. The films amazingly successful theatrical run was fuelled by the unique sounds that drive this movie. Eugenio was instructed by director, Oz Perkins, that he wanted the film's soundscape to feel like rock & roll, so the film is infused with subtle sounds of vinyl records, things going backwards, and a vibe of being gritty and unhinged. There are a...

Charles Maynes and Frank Bry have been friends and admirers of each other's work for decades. They combined forces for the new sound effects library BLAST, that featuresincredible explosion recordings. They talk about the process of recording Tannerite, dynamite, debris and lots more. Plus they discuss their thoughts on 32bit recording, the importance of creativity in field recording and what is gained after years of practice with recorders and microphones. Please take a few minutes to help...

We asked our listeners to submit their favourite field recordings and tell us the stories behind how they were captured, and we got some really great submissions. These stories prove that sound design is not for the weak of heart, as people are mauled by dogs or accidentally lit on fire. Other stories are tales of pure luck, by being in the right place at the right time. Listen to these adventures in sound submitted by Brad Nayman, Mark Mangini, Katrine Amsler, Ken Cain, Florian Abou Yehia,...

The sound design community lost one of its brightest stars this week, with the passing of Ann Kroeber. Ann was a legendary field recordists and she left a legacy of amazing sound work. Her talent especially soared with animal recordings. Her sounds are the basis of countless Hollywood creatures and animal characters. Tonebenders' host Tim Muirhead starts this episode with a few stories of his interactions with Ann that illustrate what a great person she was. Then we will roll into the...

Creating sound for an installation in a physical space, like a museum or for an art piece, is a whole different world then tackling the sound of a film or game. There are so many variables it can make your head explode, exhibition space acoustics need to be accounted for, speaker placement can be any arrangement you can dream up, client expectations need to be met and managed, playback systems must be designed from scratch. Every installation project is an entirely new animal, with very...

When working on a project that features horses on screen, the sound design can be broken up into 3 main categories: Their hooves, Saddle/Bridle, and their Vocalizations and Breathing. None of these are easy to design the sound for. Luckily we have some of the most talented people working in audio post-production chiming in, to tell us how they approach horses in their work. Paula Fairfield, George Haddad, Wylie Statemen, Gary Hecker, Mandell Winter, Robert Stambler, Don Sylvester and Sandra...

Have you ever been watching a stand-up comedy special and felt like you were in the room the day it was recorded? A lot of that energy relies on the sound of the crowd as they laugh and react to what the performer is doing on stage. Vinny Alfano has worked on the audio post-production on stand-up specials from Mike Birbiglia, Sarah Silverman, Iliza Shlesinger, Louis C.K, David A. Arnold and more. He talks us through how to translate that energy from the live performance to the screen by...

This show hits hard! Invincible may be an animated series, but it is definitely not for young kids.  There are real consequences here, characters die, battles leave marks. The sound design has to be big and impactful to match the powers of the super heroes going toe to toe on screen.  Punches are huge, explosions really go BOOM.  Blood rains down.  Supervising Sound Editor Brad Meyer, Re-Recording Mixer Jeff Shiffman and Sound Effects Editor Katie Jackson tell us the secrets behind the sound...

How do you use sound to amplify feelings of awkwardness and discomfort? In The Curse the sound design is tasked with making the viewers skin crawl in a very unusual way. The series is not horror, but there are times you feel you have to look away. Long silences (that are never actually silent!) lead to unexpected emotions in both the characters on screen and those watching at home. The show's main characters, played Emma Stone, Benny Safdie and Nathan Fielder, lie to themselves and each other...

How much Fun would it be to have the opportunity to record one of the few working B17 "Flying Fortress" planes that are still operational? The sound team from AppleTV's "Masters Of The Air" got to do just that. They were able put 60 microphones all over the B17, to record every part of it that made a noise. Then they took those sounds back to the sound editorial team and turned the recordings into to the amazing sound design of the intense air battles featured in the series. Supervising...