Foley

This past week we recorded foley for To Rest in Peace. It was amazing to see the efficient creativity of foley artist Karina Becker, and sound designer Chris Whetstone. Who knew that handling a pipe, attached to a broomstick with a leather belt, could sound so much like handling an AK-47?

For those outside the world filmmaking, who may not know what foley recording is, check out this Wikipedia entry. Pictured above is Karina stepping onto cassette tape to reproduce footsteps on grass.

On the agenda for the next two weeks is music recording, colour correction, and the final sound mix. It will be a tight squeeze, but everything is on schedule for finishing the film by the end of April. Knock wood. Or some other material that strangely sounds like it.

ADR

Sound design on To Rest in Peace is moving steadily forward. Today we recorded ADR, and next week we'll record foley.

For those of you outside the world of filmmaking, ADR is 'Automatic Dialogue Replacement'. I'm not sure where the 'automatic' part comes from, it's quite laborious. There were a couple of scenes where the production sound had distant construction noises, or the sounds of a car motor running. In order to clean up these sounds, and have greater control in the design, we re-record the dialogue for these scenes. Actors have to listen to themselves, wait for a beep, and then repeat their line in the same tone and rhythm.

We also added an unscripted line at the end of the film, to strengthen the climactic moment.

Pictured above is Michael Benyaer (Malek) at the microphone, with Chris Whetstone (the sound designer) at the control board. It was such a joy to see the cast again, and catch up. ADR is often a frustrating process, but with the quality of artists we had today, it was sheer pleasure.

In other news, we've set a screening date in May with a group of USC thesis films. Once all the details are confirmed, I will post the information up! The film will also screen in Toronto and Kuwait, before hitting the festival circuit in the fall.