FOLEY, SOUND EDIT AND MIX FOR FILM
= = = = =
FOLEY / SOUND EFFECTS REEL
Above: Foley and sound effects work. Clothing noise, footsteps and scuffs, impacts, incidental handling noise, explosions, jewelry jingling, etc. Foley and sfx have been extracted from music, dialogue etc and so are louder than they would be in the final mix. Occasionally sounds have been treated with reverb for atmosphere as per direction. Other than vocalizations and a footstep here and there, all sounds are my own creation.
SOUND EDIT, FOLEY + MIX FOR SHORT HORROR FILM: “DUAL”
“Dual” is a short film horror film by Justin Staggs. I provided sound edit, Foley and mix at Junior Birdman Audio.
After a successful festival run (nominated for Best Director, Best SFX and Best Short Film at the HorrorHound Film Festival, and Best Short Film Music at the Filmquest Film Festival) “Dual” is now available online, having received over a million views on the horror channel Alter. You can watch it below:
In the film, a child psychologist attempts to reach a troubled little boy with some very powerful “imaginary friends.” Mayhem ensues.
In the future I’ll delve into some of the more notable sonic moments. But for now, enjoy the film!
= = = = =
FOLEY / SOUND EDIT REEL: "TUESDAY"
Above: Highlight reel of Foley effects, sweetening and sound editing for "Tuesday", a dance film directed by Ben McGinley and choreographed by Laura Holway. All sounds are my own creation, primarily original Foley (especially the bread rolling and pie making) sweetened with library assets. For the messy pie making sequence sequence I set up with a portable recorder in the bathroom at home since the acoustics matched that of a kitchen pretty well, and with a lower noise floor. The sound in this reel is much louder and starker than that of the finished piece, which presents the sound effects just on the verge of perception when mixed in with a loud music track.
= = = = =
"ELIXIR": FOLEY, SOUND EDIT AND MIX FOR SHORT FANTASY/ HORROR FILM
Equal parts magical fantasy and undead horror, "Elixir" is a short film by director Justin Staggs. Junior Birdman Audio provided Foley, sound edit and mix. Picture lock arrived at the studio completely silent, with no audio recorded on location whatsoever. Every sound you hear in the movie-- which you can view in its entirety at the link below-- was created and/ or cut in by yours truly and composer David Gerald Sutton. Voice talent Molly Ryman provided ADR performance for the protagonist’s vocalizations throughout the piece. Staggs brought in a variety of SFX to get me going, and I ransacked my library for more. But many elements-- like the blood drops, the woodsy footsteps and the dangling necklace-- are custom cues created just for this production.
= = = = =
"CLEAN CUT": SOUND EDIT AND MIX FOR SHORT COMEDY/ HORROR FILM
This comedy-horror short spent the year of its release vacuuming up awards across North America. The film's audio is almost entirely post sound; for the most part audio was not recorded on set, and even the (sparse) dialog was mostly "wild". I followed the Roomba around my house with a field recorder to provide the bot's engine whir and assorted glitches; the rest of the sound design was accomplished with a combo of original Foley and library sound effects. A cautionary tale about a Roomba gone rogue, and a great experience seeing what director Andrew Hunt could pull off with a dream team of collaborators.
= = = = =
SOUND EDIT + MIX FOR DOCUMENTARY: "BOOMTOWN"
Above: highlight reel from "Boomtown", a short documentary about the proprietors of a fireworks shop in Nevada. Sound edit and mix by Mike Hallenbeck at Junior Birdman Audio. (Plus I wrote all the music you hear here!) Production supplied some fireworks audio with their deliverables, but luckily I was able to sweeten that with some fireworks field reocrdings I'd captured a few years earlier. See the full film here.
= = = = =
"PERSONAL SPACE": SOUND EDIT + MIX FOR SUSPENSE/ HORROR SHORT
Above: Andrew Hunt’s short film “Personal Space”, a short thriller featuring my sound edit and mix, won Best of Fest and a host of other honors at Z-Fest the year of its release; my work earned a nomination for Best Audio/ Sound Design. The film builds from a sense of silence through layers of tension to a twist ending. Other than breaths and gasps from its protagonist, the film contains no dialog. Actress Molly Ryman's vocalizations were recorded "wild" and synced up with the visuals later. Many of the "hero" sound effects arrived in the cut after picture lock; my sound design work focused on the grit and textures in between the main audio events. To this end I employed a variety of objects I keep around for such needs. My trusty squeaky hinge came in handy for the latch at 1:20, as did the block of stone I often use for rough, scratchy textures. And I performed original Foley effects for small moments like plugging in the phone cable and dropping the phone on the glass table surface (with the cable rattling in between) at 2:26.
= = = = =
SOUND EDIT + MIX FOR HORROR FEATURE: "SOLITUDE"
Samples of sound edit and mix from the feature film "Solitude". Sound design for the film often centers around moments of extreme violence, as character after character meets a grisly end. I brought to bear impacts against a variety of surfaces (flesh, dirt, leaves, wood, stone, etc), as well as a heaping helping of fruit and vegetable abuse (recordings of sliced cabbage and the squeezed innards of oranges came in most handy). The sounds are carefully layered to provide a robust presence at each frequency range.
I also created a variety of customized creature voices for the film. Hear some examples below: