Audio post house helps capture dramatic mood of crime series

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Audio post house helps capture dramatic mood of crime series --

Fri, 20 Mar 2015 09:09

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Now in its third season on Discovery ID, My Dirty Little Secret combines dramatic re-enactments, interviews with real participants, archival footage and voice-over, to tell the real life stories of people with secret lives who are willing to kill to keep that way. Key to the show s effective story-telling is the role of audio, and for post house HOBO and engineer Chris Stangroom that means effectively mixing the show s many audio elements, including recording the voice- over narration, on-set dialogue, stock music and sound design.

HOBO first came onto our radar two years ago when we were starting production on the first season of My Dirty Little Secret, Kevin Fitzpatrick, executive producer, says. We needed an audio house that could help us find the right balance for a complex show. If the series was going to succeed we needed to ensure the audience could hear the episodes in the right way.

For Stangroom, whose audio post toolkit includes Pro Tools 11, Waves plug-ins, Avid s ReVibe reverb software, which he uses to make things more dense and exciting, and DMG Audio plug-in EQuilibrium, a flexible 32 band EQ perfect for dialogue that requires intense fixes, his role ultimately is to analyse each audio component and ask, how can I make this better?

Dialogue and story are always important, Stangroom says, but for this show we consciously use the music more for dramatic effect, and try to keep the sound effects minimal until that perfect moment in the story when it really makes an impact on the viewer.

Listening to the show can be a masterclass in how to use sound to build dramatic tension: Dialogue will echo as ominous strings and drums blend with sonic drones that build uncomfortably toward a jolting sound design element like sharpened knife screech or a shattered glass, very often followed by jarring silences.

What is most effective about this show s audio is how it will often hit these high dramatic moments, and rather then cut right to the next scene, they will let what just happened sink in with audiences for an extra beat or two longer than most shows it creates a great sense of tension and a feeling that the dramatic stakes have been raised completely, Stangroom says.

For Howard Bowler, HOBO s President, it s important when mixing to never follow a pre-set template, but rather let the story and the audio elements guide the mix, never the opposite.

People sometimes ask how do I make something sound scary, and the truth is there are some things technically you can do, but it s better to rely on what the production gives you, Bowler says. Audio post is not static, it s a constantly evolving process, and the key is to listen and ask yourself if you re capturing what you want the audience to feel, and what tools are at your disposal to make it happen. If you re only leaning heavily on effects or reverbs, they lose their effectiveness.

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