How “The French Dispatch” Sound Team Immerses You in Wes Anderson’s World
When it comes to a Wes Anderson film what unequivocally stands out is the whimsical aesthetics. A potpourri of artistic detail perfectly placed as if each shot was its own painting. The French Dispatch, which chronicles the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional French city, is no different. But what immerses us in this uniquely French allegory is the soundscape, led by production sound mixer Jean-Paul Mugel and supervising sound editors/re-recording mixers Wayne Lemmer and Christopher Scarabosio.
How “The Guilty” Sound Designers Cranked the Tension in Antoine Fuqua & Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller
In The Guilty, Jake Gyllenhaal plays a cop demoted to answering 911 calls while he awaits trial for an unspecified crime he committed eight months prior. He never leaves the call center, yet finds himself snared in an ongoing abduction when the call comes in over the transom. Joe is already in a bad state, upset about his strained home life and an LA Times reporter who won’t stop calling, but his distress skyrockets when he gets a call from Emily (Riley Keough),
Best of Summer: How the “A Quiet Place Part II” Sound Team Turns the Viewer Into Prey
This interview is part of our “Best of Summer” series. It was originally published on June 1.
Don’t make a sound. The utterly frightening creatures of A Quiet Place are back in a terrifying sequel thirsty to tear your body apart. In this new chapter, the story picks up right where it left off with the Abbott family having destroyed their home in order to stay alive.
Sound Editor Trevor Gates on Keeping “Fear Street” Real, Upbeat, & Horrifying
Based on master of teen horror genre fiction R.L. Stine’s novels, Netflix released writer-director Leigh Janiak’s Fear Street trilogy over the past three successive Fridays. Opening with a neon-lit shopping mall murder spree, Part One – 1994 introduces the seemingly cursed teenaged residents of Shadyside and their luckier next-door neighbors in Sunnyvale. In Part Two – 1978, intrepid Deena (Kiana Madeira) and her nerdy younger brother,
“In The Heights” Supervising Sound Editor On Capturing a Musical City’s Magic
In The Heights is, in all ways, an epic collaboration. Director Jon M. Chu‘s adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical, written by original playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes, summoned musicians, choreographers, and a vast team of filmmakers to pull off. It’s never easy to adapt something that was already massively successful in its original form, nor is it easy to make a compelling, modern musical. Throw a pandemic into the middle of it and you’ve cranked up your difficulty setting to eleven.
“Cruella” Sound Editor Mark Stoeckinger on Getting 1970s England Right
Whether it’s her bohemian attic lair, Liberty’s department store, or her job at an insufferable couture designer’s immaculate atelier, young Cruella, née Estella (Emma Stone) divides her time between very particular environments in 1970s England. She and her pals, Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser), are roommates, professional delinquents, and dog-lovers. A terrier and a chihuahua assist them in their lives of petty crime and everyone seems to get along in the free spirit of communal living funded by pickpocketing,
How The “A Quiet Place Part II” Sound Team Turns the Viewer Into Prey
Don’t make a sound. The utterly frightening creatures of A Quiet Place are back in a terrifying sequel thirsty to tear your body apart. In this new chapter, the story picks up right where it left off with the Abbott family having destroyed their home in order to stay alive. Well, almost everyone. The tragic events force Evelyn (Emily Blunt), Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and Marcus (Noah Jupe) to leave their safety net and look for refuge in a treacherous journey that keeps them guessing what could be lurking around the corner.
Sound Designer Scott Hecker on Going Big in “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”
At four hours long, HBO Max’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a reworked version of the 2017 film started by director Snyder but finished by Joss Whedon, differs most obviously from its predecessor in length. Those two extra hours, however, do much more than simply pile up the story, even if the overall plot remains mostly the same. In revisiting what started as his film and now has definitively ended as such,
Supervising Sound Editor on Capturing the Sound of “Ted Lasso” Remotely
Ted Lasso began life nearly a decade ago, in what must now seem like a more innocent time, as a character in a series of promos for NBC as they embarked on coverage of Britain’s Premier League. That character, created and portrayed by SNL alum Jason Sudeikis, is an American football coach, hot off a miracle season with a perpetually struggling college, who is hired by England’s mythical AFC Richmond squad to coach,
How Editor Lee Smith & Sound Editor Oliver Tarney Crafted the Immersive Story of 1917
If you caught last night’s Golden Globes, you saw Sam Mendes‘ World War I epic 1917 take home both Best Film (Drama) and Best Director for Mendes himself. 1917 bested some very steep competition, including Martin Scorsese’s mob epic The Irishman, Todd Phillips Joker, and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. Mendes’ film is practically flawless.
Now imagine you’re a picture editing working on a project where the story is utterly personal to the director,
Meet the Sound Team That Helped The Lion King Roar
After a massive worldwide opening weekend, it’s safe to say the iconic songs from 1994 Disney animated classic The Lion King are still infectious.
In the retelling of the story, not only did director Jon Favreau bring back the original Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer and songs from Elton John and Tim Rice, but he added icons Pharrell Williams as a producer and Beyoncé singing “Spirit” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” as Nala.
