Music and Sound point of view.
Outro Studio did the campaign for Offf Barcelona. And this year the central piece was a short film presenting Offf New Senses.
They ask me to do the sound and music, and this time the challenge was pretty weird, the short film will narrate the journey of a deaf person to a new sense.
They ask me to do the sound and music, and this time the challenge was pretty weird, the short film will narrate the journey of a deaf person to a new sense.
The other challenge (more technical) was that this will sound thru a P.A. on a fucking big room full of people, and I have listed so pretty nice tracks that on this conditions lose their emotional impact due technical issues, like aggressive mid frequencies, loss on hi freq and poor stereo image, nodes on the subs, to much reverb, the tricky balance of dynamics in this environment full of noise and people, etc etc... Others achieve the opposite, an emotional boost. This line is really thin.
But after doing some tests in the room, and bring the final master 2 hours before the screening, I listen to it with the main room overcrowded and almost everything sounded as I imagine.
But after doing some tests in the room, and bring the final master 2 hours before the screening, I listen to it with the main room overcrowded and almost everything sounded as I imagine.
The Music Part.
As usual, I will show the music tracks on my logic session.
This time is a messy window but I will try to explain some things especially from the final track. (You can listen to it above).
The music I did, in general, try to express the feelings of our character and I put the aesthetics, not as the main goal on the first 4 minutes, for me this part is just preliminaries I want to save things and use contrast and show rawness, also induce some stress on that part, my main goal is to make goosebumps when the short smash at 4:20 more or less, so this long journey/introduction until we arrive at this moment, try to put you on the mood.
I have to said that Marc (the director) gave me pretty good references, and he was a really active part on the music narrative.
This time is a messy window but I will try to explain some things especially from the final track. (You can listen to it above).
The music I did, in general, try to express the feelings of our character and I put the aesthetics, not as the main goal on the first 4 minutes, for me this part is just preliminaries I want to save things and use contrast and show rawness, also induce some stress on that part, my main goal is to make goosebumps when the short smash at 4:20 more or less, so this long journey/introduction until we arrive at this moment, try to put you on the mood.
I have to said that Marc (the director) gave me pretty good references, and he was a really active part on the music narrative.
Also some mess on the mixer. The amount of sidechain was huge. Also the way I work with sub frequencies was and important point on this soundtrack.
About the last part, the moment when Gavrel is going to listen for the first time. I wanted this to sound pretty intricate, is how I imagine the feel of having a new sense, lots of things that probably you don't understand well, but they are there. So I use lots of layers of different arpeggios and melodies, but first of all, we wanted to sound like being in the heaven. I have been watching reactions of people who take this operation, and many of them have some ecstasy moment. So those 2 things were really important to transmit to share this feeling with the audience.
About the last part, the moment when Gavrel is going to listen for the first time. I wanted this to sound pretty intricate, is how I imagine the feel of having a new sense, lots of things that probably you don't understand well, but they are there. So I use lots of layers of different arpeggios and melodies, but first of all, we wanted to sound like being in the heaven. I have been watching reactions of people who take this operation, and many of them have some ecstasy moment. So those 2 things were really important to transmit to share this feeling with the audience.
The SFX part.
As the main character is deaf the use of sfx is limited to really special moments and also I tried to give the feel you have about sound but via the sense of touch (skin/bones) instead of eardrum, I have been using "Sub pac" in the past, a machine which give you sub frequencies thru bones and that was a good start point to have an idea of how a deaf person feels sound frequencies. Also, I reinterpreted this to make it fit in the needs of the project. Listen1:51 the vibration of metal parts of the tractor going thru his bones.
You can see there are few of them, I also record some foley for the scene with the female character alone as she is not deaf.
Also I added some "effervescence" sounds when Gavrel (I guess) have spiky hairs due to contact with his girlfriend.
You can see there are few of them, I also record some foley for the scene with the female character alone as she is not deaf.
Also I added some "effervescence" sounds when Gavrel (I guess) have spiky hairs due to contact with his girlfriend.
Last of all the voice he listens for first time, I gave some amount of process to sound like how people with cochlear implant listen, I have been researching for some representations. But I didn't want to sound to poor or robotic. So I show a middle point with some spectral gate to imitate the artificial and limited frequency points they have on the cochlea, and some filtering, and low-fi distortion, to imitate the microphone they have as eardrum.
Here the trailer.
A film by Outro Studio.
With Àlex Monner and Greta Fernández.
Directed by Marc Castellví
With Àlex Monner and Greta Fernández.
Directed by Marc Castellví
Music and Sound Design: Aimar Molero (Aimar-molero.com)
DOP: Nilo Zimmermann
Art Director: Kevin Sabariego
Graphic designers: Adrià Pifarré and Roger Varela
Producers: Úrsula Gallemí and Cris Moya
Set Designer: Kaká Gouvea
Production Assistant and making of: Ana Freitas
Focus Puller: Ssoi Ramon
Gaffer: Eloi Teixidó
Dolly Grip: Adrià Pardo
Sparks: Xavier Guillem
Stylist: Amparo Moreno
Camera and technical supplies courtesy of Aclamfoto.com
Light and grip courtesy of Anotherlight.es
Aerial shots courtesy of Dronair.es
Color correction courtesy of Pijama.tv
Costumes supplies courtesy of Showroom Costume BCN (costumebcn.com)
Make up courtesy of David Molina Make Up School
Hairdressing courtesy of Barcelona Hair Academy
Sound recording services courtesy of Jump Studio & More (jump.cat)
English corrector: Robin Rycroft
Driver Specialist: Anton Ryadkov
Additional cast:
Surgeon 1: Arnau Abril
Surgeon 2: Cris Moya
Surgeon 3: Carmen Galán
Farmer: Kevin Sabariego
Special thanks:
Anna and Xavier (mastorigues.com)
Esther Vallejo
Antonio Sabariego
Carlos Cenarro
DOP: Nilo Zimmermann
Art Director: Kevin Sabariego
Graphic designers: Adrià Pifarré and Roger Varela
Producers: Úrsula Gallemí and Cris Moya
Set Designer: Kaká Gouvea
Production Assistant and making of: Ana Freitas
Focus Puller: Ssoi Ramon
Gaffer: Eloi Teixidó
Dolly Grip: Adrià Pardo
Sparks: Xavier Guillem
Stylist: Amparo Moreno
Camera and technical supplies courtesy of Aclamfoto.com
Light and grip courtesy of Anotherlight.es
Aerial shots courtesy of Dronair.es
Color correction courtesy of Pijama.tv
Costumes supplies courtesy of Showroom Costume BCN (costumebcn.com)
Make up courtesy of David Molina Make Up School
Hairdressing courtesy of Barcelona Hair Academy
Sound recording services courtesy of Jump Studio & More (jump.cat)
English corrector: Robin Rycroft
Driver Specialist: Anton Ryadkov
Additional cast:
Surgeon 1: Arnau Abril
Surgeon 2: Cris Moya
Surgeon 3: Carmen Galán
Farmer: Kevin Sabariego
Special thanks:
Anna and Xavier (mastorigues.com)
Esther Vallejo
Antonio Sabariego
Carlos Cenarro
