Short Film - Sound Design and Mix
Virile is a psychosexual thriller set at sea. The whole film takes place in the near-future on a research vessel. As men are on the verge of extinction, the aim of the scientific expedition is to discover new ways of breeding. The entire crew are female, apart from Bo who is non-binary. During their expedition they encounter a sole ship with a man onboard. This causes unforeseen sexual tensions among the crew and a hiatus to the scientific expedition.
I worked with director Lydia Rui and composer Mathilde Koechlin as well as editor Osian Pearson in the post stage to bring the futuristic world of 'Virile' to life. You can watch the trailer here:
Atmosphere and SFX:
When the film was nearing it's picture lock, Lydia already wanted me to sketch:
1. A deep characteristic sound for the research vessel
2. A constant atmosphere reminding the audience of the isolation the crew faces out in the ocean
I first got to work on the ship's 'voice', what it would sound like. The ship used during the shoot was a regular fishing boat that never left harbour. Here are some photos during the shoot:
With sound, we wanted to transform it into a sci-fi dystopian "living mechanical vessel" ready for any challenge it faces, something akin to the Nostromo in Alien. One of the first sounds I stumbled upon was a pump drum in an old factory and I instantly fell in love with its rhythmical and robust quality. It became a feature of the ship throughout the film. Here is the original sound:
The pump drum recording from an old factory.
Here is the sound implemented in the final mix. This is the first scene in the film when Bo, the main character, finds an Eel in the engine room, foreshadowing the sexual conflicts in the film:
What also became crucial to the ship's 'voice' was the heartbeat sound. Initially just a low oscillating rumble, I put it through lots of FX such as distortion, reverb and pitch transformers to give it a huge presence. Additionally, the multi-layered tracks of wind and waves would enhance the sense of the ship plowing through the deep ocean. Here are two scenes which show all these elements coming together:
Dialogue, Foley and Clean-Up:
In general the audio from set was quite good. The main obstacle was believability which was discussed in atmos/SFX - how to make it seem that these characters are actually on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Here I have added two scenes before any sound treatment was done and after so you can have a look for yourself what the effects are:
One challenge for dialogue was the character Dr. Rosen. Lydia Rui made the decision that her performances on set had a too thick accent and thus every line of dialogue had to be done again. Everything you heard in the first scene (from above) from Dr. Rosen was ADR. It was quite a challenge.
Thank you for checking out Virile and the BTS for post-sound on the film. It was a challenging but exciting film to work on and every crew and cast member are worth shouting out:
Crew:
Lydia Rui - Director
Mathilde Koechlin - Composer
Osian Pearson - Editor
Clement Harper - On set sound
Lukas Bistricky - Cinematographer
Sychelle-Kristina Yanda - Producer
Violette De Laet - Production Designer
Jongheon Lee - Colourist
Cast:
Bo - Liv Ello
Dr. Amy Rosen - Yuho Yamashita
The Man - James Brown
Elli - Éva Magyar
