Final Mix

While in Montréal I had my Final Mix at NFB HQ, which involves sitting with Serge (Sound Mixer) and Luigi (Sound Designer) to balance the assembled audio track. I only did this single drawing of my mix during a little break half way. The rest of the time was spent combing over each sound to get things just right!

Later I popped into Aimee's session and drew a bit. I wanted to capture the scale of the theatre, which is a little intimidating when you first walk in for the first time. But man, does it sound good!

There are so many tiny details that go into the mix. On top of everything that was recorded in the foley session there are also loads of sounds Luigi had grabbed from the giant library of archived recordings from over 70 years of NFB history. Not to mention the actual music track, which is also prominently featured in the soundscape!

Darren, one of the composers, sat in for the session to share his input.

Sound is a very strange thing to describe with language. Kind of like trying to explain colour to someone who is blind, but somehow we manage. Often to hilarious effect!

This was also the first time we all saw our films on a big screen, and inevitably you start to notice some things that you wish you could change. But it's kind of liberating to notice some small mistakes, then just let them go instead of stressing over it.

I'm really happy with the way my sound turned out. For a film with such a prominent musical component, it's terribly important to develop a rich layer of other sounds to compliment what is already there. All those tiny noises add believability to the movements on screen.