28 April 2009

Quiet! Did you hear something?

It's a weird thing: sound.

In most films, the sound person essentially cleans everything up, does the explosions, bottles breaking, etc. Ultimately, it's all pretty standard stuff that's easy to find, and sound person knows how to do.

Then you have something like this. When I'm actually creating an entire unseen atmosphere, it's a very surreal process. Especially after shooting the thing; I'm constantly battling myself. "Wait, he wasn't doing that then". "But it doesn't matter if we see it, because the SOUND will tell us what's happening". "Oh".

So for me, it was crucial to have Megan swing by and let me know if I was anywhere near the right track. Fortunately, she seemed pleased with the direction I've taken. Later, she Twittered that she heard the monsters for the first time. That really hit me. All this time, the monsters were these unseen, unknown creatures and with some clever placement (and some pretty freaky noises), I've actually brought to life that which is never seen or known of.

Pretty damn cool.

I like a challenge like this. I've always appreciated sound because it has the power to completely change the meaning, atmosphere, ambience, idea, concept, or whatever you see on screen. I thought it would be funny to just make everything kazoo effects. Now THAT would change the feeling of the film.

The tough part now, as I work to finish the sound effects, is to keep the creativity up and not let my rational mind keep me from really pushing this story. Or over-doing it and killing the story.

Fortunately, the actors gave me plenty to work with (as far as how high or low in emotionality I can bring the threat).

All I can do is hope I didn't suck. It's tough to invent from scratch that which never even exists in the film. Until now.