333- The Unique sound of VIKTOR with the Sound Team & Director
Viktor is an impressive documentary that relies on sound to tell it’s story. The film’s protagonist is a deaf photographer living in Ukraine, documenting the Russian invasion of of his country after he finds out he is not allowed to sign up as a soldier. Using innovative sound design to immerse the audience in Viktor’s POV (or more accurately POH, point of hearing), the film focuses on his frustration at being unable to fight in the traditional sense and his passion for photography, as a way to serve his country. This spoiler free conversation with Sound Designer Peter Albrechtsen, Sound Designer/Foley Artist Heikki Kossi and Re-recording Mixer Tim Nielsen, discusses how they manipulated the sound in the film to approximate how Viktor hears and just as importantly, when to employ these techniques. The sound design for Viktor evolved drastically from the start of postproduction to the final mix. They began with hard rules for when and how to twist the audio. Yet for the final version, all those rules were thrown out the door. It is an interesting case study following the journey a soundtrack to find a film's “voice”. The sound team interview is followed up with a one on one talk with Viktor's director Olivier Sarbil. Olivier is an impressive man with a very unique relationship to the audio postproduction phase of film making.
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Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/333-the-unique-sound-of-viktor-with-the-sound-team-director/
Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com
This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead
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332 - The Sound Legacy Of Harry Potter With James Mather Pt 2
In Part 2 of this in-depth interview with James Mather we talk more about his work as Supervising Sound Editor on the final 4 Harry Potter films (Order of The Phoenix, Half Blood Prince, Deathly Hollows Pt 1&2). James digs into the sound of the horcrux and how the overall sound design was able to become more complex/scary as the main characters grew up. There is also an added bonus of a mini interview with Gillian Dodders, Ben Barker & Glenn Freemantle about their work on The Fantastic Beast Trilogy. All of that is proceeded by Tim's run down of his trip to Mexico City for a recent Tonebenders/MPSE/SAE Institute event, including his adventure being detained by police at the airport on his way home?!
SPONSOR: Take your sound design to the next level with the Creator Access Plan from Sound Ideas. This membership puts 100 downloads a year from over 630,000 world-class sounds right at your fingertips: easy to search, simple to use, and built for creators. Power your next project with the sounds pros trust at Sound Ideas. Go to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ to learn more.
Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/332-the-sound-legacy-of-harry-potter-with-james-mather-pt-2/
Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com
This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead
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331 - The Sound Legacy Of Harry Potter With James Mather Pt 1
The sound design in the Harry Potter series completely changed the way audiences expect magic to sound on screen. Those magical sounds also had to evolve as the series went on, to match the skills developed by the main characters. James Mather was the Supervising Sound Editor on the final 4 films in the series (Order of The Phoenix, Half Blood Prince, Deathly Hollows Pt 1&2) and in this episode he discusses what it was like to find out he got the gig, discovering inspiration from both the books and the sounds of the previous films, and how his team designed the magic to match the circumstances and personalities of each character. Stay tuned for part two of this talk coming soon.
SPONSOR: Take your sound design to the next level with the Creator Access Plan from Sound Ideas. This membership puts 100 downloads a year from over 630,000 world-class sounds right at your fingertips: easy to search, simple to use, and built for creators. Power your next project with the sounds pros trust at Sound Ideas. Go to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ too learn more
Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/331-the-sound-legacy-of-harry-potter-with-james-mather-pt-1/
Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com
This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead
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330 - Sonic Days Interviews
Last year I got to go to the Sonic Days Conference in Denmark, to do a bunch of interviews with the various people doing presentations about their sound work. With the schedule and presenters for the 2025 edition of the conference now announced, these interviews can give you an idea of what to expect. First up is Shelley Roden, foley artist from Skywalker Sound. Next, game Sound Designer, Katrine Amsler talks about her desire for everyone to find bespoke workflows that meet their own needs. The organizer of the conference, Lars Tirsbæk then gives us a quick history of Sonic Days and Sonic College where the conference resides. Leslie Gaston-Bird talks about the need for skill diversification to make a career in audio and all the different roles she is performing. Finally Sound Designer Peter Storm Wich and picture editor Anne Østerud discuss their collaboration on director Thomas Vinterberg's "Families Like Ours".
Head to www.sonicdays.com to see the 2025 schedule and who will be presenting this year.
SPONSOR: After over a year of dedicated work, the entire Sound Ideas sound effects collection, over 500,000 individual files, has been upgraded to the Universal Category System’s, filename and metadata standards. With this enhancement, sounds are now more organized, searchable, and ready for seamless integration into your workflow. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/Page/ucs-data-upgrade to learn more.
Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/330-sonic-days-interviews/
Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com
This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead
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329 - The Directors & Sound Team From Elio
Directors Domee Shi & Madeline Sharafian, join the show to talk about their approach to collaborating with the audio post team on the newest Pixar film, Elio. Re-recording Mixer Bonnie Wild & Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer Jeremy Bowker are also on board to share how they built the soundscape of the "Communiverse", a friendly and warm version of outer space. Together the directors and sound team discuss how scary is too scary, how they share new sounds during development and what types of references and language they used to communicate the film's sonic needs.
If you are going to be in the Mexico City area on Oct 21st, at 4pm, come out to SAE Institute for a afternoon and evening of audio post talk, food and drinks. please register in advance at http://www.tinyurl.com/mpseincdmx and find full details at https://tonebenderspodcast.com/tonebenders-sound-design-meet-up/
SPONSOR: After over a year of dedicated work, the entire Sound Ideas sound effects collection, over 500,000 individual files, has been upgraded to the Universal Category System’s, filename and metadata standards. With this enhancement, sounds are now more organized, searchable, and ready for seamless integration into your workflow. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/Page/ucs-data-upgrade to learn more.
Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/329-the-directors-sound-team-from-elio/
Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com
This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead
Tonebenders is a Sound Design podcast dedicated to covering the worlds of sound editing, field recording and audio post production for film, television and gaming. Through interviews and experiments we delve into everything from foley to plugins. Check us out at www.tonebenderspodcast.com
Ireland