Behind the Scenes: Sound Engineering

In many cases both sound and color correction make the difference between a film that feels professional, and complete, and, well, one that does not.  But they are additions you might not notice outright because they blend with the film.  They make the scenes look, feel, and sound like a natural and cohesive whole, instead of a series of random images.The San Fransisco Chronicle recently featured our sound guy Jim LeBrecht in an article.

But for us, sitting in the studio and watching him effortlessly weave sounds and make transitions in the film was mesmerizing.”There are so many layers to sound that you might not think of,” shares Director Eric Slade.  For instance, at one point in the film a train goes by.  LeBrecht is responsible for adding the sound of that train to the original footage.  But not just any train.  He’s so precise about what he does that he found the sound of a train from that precise time period.Just after that scene, the film moves into a part about Broughton’s thoughts of suicide.  To transition into that next piece and create the right mood, LeBrecht took the same train clip and altered it until it sounded like an eerie screech.Director Eric Slade said, “He makes the sound fit the mood perfectly.  In that case he just beautifully transitioned from the sound of a train to this otherworldly noise in a seamless way.”In another instance he recorded the sound of one of Gordon Barnett’s bells.  To underscore a part in the film, during the animation of one of James’ poems, he played the recording backward and slowed it way down.  It ends up making sort of a “Waaaaaah” sound.  You would never know what the sound was made from, but you feel it in your belly as it highlights what is being shown in the images perfectly.

In the final stages of the film this is the kind of creativity that shines though and adds the final magic.