--
Sound production for Her Smell writer/director Alex Ross Perry's new film about a self-destructive punk rocker named Becky Something (Elisabeth Moss), was completed at Goldcrest Post in New York. Ryan M. Price served as supervising sound editor, sound designer and re-recording mixer on the project, delivering a rich and nuanced soundtrack that brings to life a seedy rock club, an indie recording studio and other points along Becky's road to ruin and eventual redemption.
Given its rock n roll subject, it's not surprising that sound plays a big part of Her Smell. Price, who headed the sound teams on three of Perry's previous films (Listen Up Phillip, Queen of Earth and Golden Exits), says that the director sent him a copy of the script even before production began. I promised Ryan that this would be the Big One,' says Perry. I wanted to shoot a movie that lent itself to the loudest, most intricate sound design imaginable.
The film plays out in five discrete acts that trace the arc of Becky's descent into addiction and abusive behavior followed by her struggle to get clean, rebuild relationships and regain her former artistic edge. In its lengthy opening scene, the camera roams the cramped, cacophonous backstage of a venue just after by Becky and her group have finished a set.
In designing sound for the scene, Price's goal was to immerse the audience in Becky's chaotic world and fevered mind. We're backstage after a show and it's crowded and noisy, he observes. We have trucks getting loaded, people dropping stuff in hallways, people fighting in greenrooms. It's intense. He adds that Perry shot the scene on a custom-built set on a soundstage, which meant that all the sound effects had to be created from scratch and blended into the scene.
From there, the story abruptly shifts to a recording studio where Becky has an ugly confrontation with her bandmates and meets a young, up-and-coming band. The atmosphere is tense and at times so quiet, you can hear a pin drop. Where in Act One, the sound design is big; in Act Two, it's tactile and nuanced, recalls Price. It's quiet; we wanted to immerse the audience the hermetically-sealed space of a recording studio. Doors have unique sounds. You can hear every footstep and button push. We used those limited sounds to punctuate the performances of Elisabeth Moss and the other actors, and to drive the tension.
The inflamed atmosphere reaches its crescendo in Act Three. The band is back at a club, preparing to go onstage and nervously wondering if Becky is going to show. When she does arrive, she's gone completely off the rails and vents her rage at everyone in sight. It's the most sound-intensive point in the film. The soundscape is large in this scene, says Price. Everyone creatively is at the top of their game, from the score to editing to the camera work. The sound design is supporting all of that on top of it to indicate how gross the club is. You hear footsteps from upstairs; people yelling through the walls.
As Becky's spins out of control, the sound design moves past realistic representation into the abstract. Alex wanted it to feel like an assault, like there's a battle happening, Price says. I went so far as to include gunshots and bombs going off. They are pitched and shaped differently so you don't recognize them as such but the impact is there. Another note from Alex said that there is a sense that there are demons in the walls. One of many elements I used to get that feel was boiling oatmeal, stretched out and pitched down. It ebbs and flows through the scene.
For Price, the madness of the scene is reflected in its idiosyncratic details. There's a leak in the ceiling and water is dripping into a bucket on the floor, he notes. The bucket is established in a close-up at the beginning of the scene and it continues dripping subliminally through the whole act. There's also a refrigerator that's broken and really loud, and a TV playing static in the corner of the room. Even the lights emit an eerie hum. All of these elements move with the camera, aurally maintaining the geography of the space.
In the film's fourth act, it's one year later and Becky is in her home in the rural Pacific Northwest. She's sober and trying to get her life back on track. It's the quietest part of the film, notes Price, with only minimal sound effects accentuating sparse dialogue and music in stark contrast to the previous scene. In the concluding act, the soundtrack picks up steam again as Becky powers toward a far from certain comeback.
The finished soundtrack was mixed by Price on a stage at Goldcrest. Perry sat in for most of the sessions. We worked hard to achieve Alex's vision, says Price. With so much going on, it took a lot of care to achieve the right balance of music, dialogue and sound design. In the end, we were able to use sound to support the great work that everyone else brought to the film and the story being told. You hear the lights sizzling, the warfare going on just outside the room, the crowd stamping their feet upstairs. It's all there.
Perry described the mix as intense, but rewarding. My other mixes with Ryan were five days; this lasted for 12, he says. Some nights ended close to or past midnight. The files were so massive that we pushed the system to its limits and ultimately we perfected every detail beyond my wildest dreams.
About Goldcrest Post
Goldcrest Post is a leading, independent post-production facility, providing one-stop creative solutions for features films, episodic television, documentaries and other projects. Conveniently located in New York City's West Village, the company provides editorial offices, on-set dailies, picture finishing, sound editorial, ADR and mixing, and rela
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
-- 
