Oh wow. Could I ask for some movies where I could see your work?
German with subtitles in English, 中文简体, Español, Français, Ελληνική, Polski.Deutsch, mit Untertiteln in Englisch, Chinesisch, Spanisch, Französisch, Griechisch, Polnisch.KEEP MOVING, made over a period of 12 years and filmed on two continents,premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival...
fishermansframe.gumroad.com
In German, with subtitles in English, 中文简体, Español, Français, Ελληνική, Polski.
Even though it is a documentary, I put a lot of work in sound design.
As one exaple, a protagonist in Chile talks about the passing of his mentor,
the further he progresses, the nearer death comes, the quieter the background ambience of his room becomes.
In another scene, a morning prayer during breakfast (with some ambience sounds that were not there this morning,
but recorded in the neighborhood) cuts to a rehearsal on stage. You can hear the orchestra tuning their instruments,
but in fact, it was not there that day. Just for signaling "This is a theatre" "These are rehearsals"
Even this background ambience of the orchestra had to be edited. In life, they started with single instruments
adding up to the cacophonic we know. Here, I edited it the other way round, from cacophonic fading to single sounds.
To make the audience think
they finished rehearseal. Which of course is nonsense, you do not tune after rehearsing.
But it works - you get the place and do not wonder why you do not hear any instruments the following minutes.
Many sounds came from different sources. You can see a ship on the river Rhine, but its sound was an old ferry
I recorded in Greece. The ferry had a nice rattling that fit the image better than the original sound.
In the link above, you´ll also find cutout scenes. One cutout is a dialogue in an atelier.
The atelier itself was very "dead" soundwise, except some cars passing by.
They are also talking about someone who has passed.
Soundwise the idea was that life goes on.
As it was a very bright, sunny day outside (but late winter) I put a lot of ambience in the room.
Bees flying around that might have come through the open window, birds, leaves etc.
But all single layers: The bees were also recorded in Greece, the leaves of the trees in Germany, the birds
were from the Ozarks.
In fact, the spring-like soundscape was four to six weeks too early for the day of the shooting -the scene was shot early march-
but it works very, very subtly. It took about three days just designing the sound for this scene, but for pacing reasons I did cut it.
Sometimes sounds had to be replaced because of musical rights.
There is a scene with breakdancers on a public square in Cologne
but I could not obtain the rights for the music they used.
So the whole sound of the square including the ambience had to be redone -
I asked a friend to do beatboxing as a replacement for the original music
with some swallows added as the camera pans to the sky.
Besides the "Köln Concert" (which is diegetic music), there is music from the Solo Saxophonist Gert Anklam.
The very long reverb is natural. It was recorded in the Monument to the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig.
As far as I remember, the reverb is about 8-12 seconds...
The magic of editing and coincidence:
In one scene, a dancer rehearses in Santiago de Chile with her daughter, it feels like they are playing.
Cut over 7400 miles to a pas de deux in Innsbruck, Austria:
A couple dances a choreography, originally to music of Richard Wagner.
Both places are connected with a saxophone solo wich was
recorded before filming and editing.
Still you think the couple dances to the saxophone
as both rythms, music and image, magically fit.
Gert is capable of circular breathing.
In one scene, a protagonist waits for the subway,
and there is a steady sound in the background. You do not know
what it is until it becomes louder and reveals itself as a sax.
Same with a scene where the finale of "Part I" of the "Köln Concert" emerges
from as steady sound. Both are sonic signature scenes where the protagonists
had to face life-changing decisions.
So you see, even in "small" films a lot of work can go into sound design,
though the audience would not perceive it as an effect.
Funnily, im my whole film, there is just one single take where no sound work had to be done.
One.
An old women tries to cross a street in Santiago - the larger than life sounds were already there
crispy mufflers, squeaking suspensions, rattling engines.
Recorded with the onboard stereo-mics.
All other scenes had dialogue EQed,
room ambience added and so on.
