I started by conducting Foley and field recordings using a pair of RODE shotgun microphones, in addition to a portable recorder. I then edited these recordings in the RX suite to remove any unwanted hiss or rumble, readying them to be imported into my Pro Tools sessions. Afterwards I designed more intricate and designed sounds in FL Studio with a variety of synths and plugin effects, such as using a mixture of the software vst serum and capturing sound from my microKORG synthesiser to create bespoke sci-fi sound effects, such as vehicles that can be heard in the Blade Runner scene. The most time consuming portion of this project was the tracklaying in Pro Tools, where the sounds are arranged in time to the visuals, crossfading ambiences to transition between spaces smoothly, layering and EQ’ing different Foley sounds to create larger effects, and then organising the results into stems and recording buses. Part of the creative process during this was decisions around spatialization, such as the reverberation of spaces and the panning of each sound object. This extended into the final mixing process where I elected which speakers each sound is routed to. The films are then finally bounced into both 5.1 surround sound and stereo, so that the best results can be experienced on a wider variety of sound systems.

My re-design of “The Nun”, was inspired by the works of film director David Lynch. His films often showcase sound being exaggerated and pushed to the extremes dynamically to create a very unnerving and exposing atmosphere. Some notable examples of this throughout his early filmography being the train scene from: “The Elephant Man” (The Elephant Man - Train Station Scene), in addition to the opening scene of: “Blue Velvet” (Blue Velvet - Opening Sequence). One trend of Lynch’s filmmaking, noticeable in the second example, that I differentiated myself from was the use of licensed music in order to help convey a theme or setting. Instead, for: “The Nun”, I elected to use samples of choral singing and mutate them into beds of sound that added to the overall ambience of the scene. This carries on the central idea behind the sound in Lynch’s works, while also signalling the religious themes of the film without the need for traditional musical stingers or cues. Aesthetically, altering a sound associated with religion to become something disorientating and uncomfortable added to the horror of the film clip.

Another practitioner of audio post production I took inspiration from was academy award winning sound designer Ben Burtt. Mainly his works for productions such as: “WALL-E” & “Star Wars”. One key thing to note that makes Burtt successful, is that he understands that with animation, you aren’t given any on set audio to help build the soundscape; you have to create the world from the ground up. You have to decide how everything behaves and sounds, without needing to adhere to the real world. A great example of this is this scene from: “WALL-E” (WALL∙E’s “Day At Work”). The overall atmosphere and design of sounds is very metallic and clunky, which fits the scene as we are seeing the world through WALL-E’s perspective. With my design of the scene from: “Raya & the Last Dragon”, I have given my own unique take on the sonic world of the film compared to the original, taking note of how the scene fits in contextually with the rest of the film. I chose to have this more earthy and grounded sonic palette, with water and splashes having more presence at the muddy portion of the frequency spectrum, to show a sense of things not being clear, which is fitting for the first scene in the film. I also wanted a super boomy low end element to action moments to add a sense of drama without having to score music.