On Top of the World
short film
On Top of the World is a short film about exploring the ultimate euphoric emotion. Goosebumps, or even tears of absolute joy. Where do these feelings come from? Can we pro-actively search and even find them?
"Life should be loved, to the point of tears".
Overall sound design concept
‘On Top of the World’ tells the story of finding the ultimate high. It’s about doing what you love - and in the case of these men that includes doing backflips from a massive crane into the ocean.
The goal is to let the viewer experience the same rush as the athletes are feeling when they are on top of the world.
Foley
Foley is a great tool to zoom in on the character’s movement.
Because the athletes make their stunts look so easy, we also want to make it sound as if they are ‘just playing around’.
With this in mind, we have played with the foley performance until we get a smooth character in sound
The feeling of the movie shifts from ‘dreamy’ to more powerful and raw. You can hear the sound character change from smooth to gritty and raw: the viewer has to feel the power these athletes use to accomplish what they are doing.
Sound effects and ambiences
For the sound effects we have used sounds with a natural, organic character. It contributes to the flowing edit and the environment of the film.
And with a set as beautiful as in this film, we can’t resist to emphasize the ambiences. We let them flow throughout the film, on the pulse of the music. This way, the viewer gets pulled into the film even more.
Voice-over
A voice-over actor doesn’t only tell the story with words, he also tells a story with his performance and the sound of the voice itself.
For ‘On top of the World’, we have looked for a voice-over artist who sounds like a fragile, wise grandfather saying: ‘let me tell you a story from my childhood’.
Mixing
With all the sound design, music and voice-over the soundtrack is very crowded, which needs to be mixed carefully to make sure every element is done justice.
So although the film is mostly driven by the composition, we need to make decisions between sound design and music.
Music is a great way to give a scene a particular feeling or emotion, but sound design can create a bond between the image and sound in the film by highlighting specific elements.
So with that in mind, we have created a mix which translates the concept of the film in sound design together with the epic feel of the music.
And that makes us feel 'On top of the World'.
Credits
Director: Jurian Gravett
DoP & editor: Serhan Meewisse
Music composer: Bob Thole
Music engineer: Dennis Krijnen
Music recording assistant: Luuk Gerritsen
Sound design & re-recordingmix: Elephant Ears
