Time is vastly approaching the deadline and the physics have still yet to be added to the final sounds. Danielle and I sat down and discussed the timbre of the rooms throughout the film. The film only takes place in the following locations:

• Bedroom
• Psychiatrist Office
• Banquet Room
• Corridor
• Outside

(Reverbs & Delays for physical locations)

Therefore, we agonised over a number of reverb presets and adjusted the settings accordingly. Creatively, I wanted the asylum bedroom to feeling claustrophobic to emphasise the tension of the Susie’s situation, therefore a short reverb was selected. The psychiatrist’s office was larger with wooden furniture and needed to be warm sounding with a longer reverb tail. To achieve the warmth requirement; I set up an EQ following the reverb plugin and low-passed at around 4.5k to remove the high-end. This was followed by a gentle boost in the presence region (5301 kHz) in the context of the mix.

(Reverb EQ settings for Psychiatrist Office)

I referenced this with the dialogue itself as it was the main source of sound occupying this space and therefore integral to the scenes. Once a universal frequency was discovered that complimented the vocals, I performed a medium Q’ed boost. Similarly, any harsh frequencies that added build up around the 2-3k range were subtracted providing the illusion of warmth. This was similarly actioned in the banquet room as wooden furniture was the main occupancy, however the reverb tail was increased to provide the illusion of a greater size. The corridor scene needed to be very present in the mix as it wasn’t visually obvious enough that it was that defined location. To create this illusion, I allowed more of the high frequencies to come through and increased the tail. Such as all reverbs, I again sweeped the spectrum to find boosts that complimented the mix and subtracted any mud and harshness. In order to create an outdoor feel, I employed a short, single repeating delay that was just subtle enough to “feel” believable. You have to be careful not to overdo this effect in the outdoor scenes by finding a delicate balance prescribed by the distance of the sound source to camera.

(EchoBoy delay employed for the outdoor effect)

To save on time I discovered a useful automation technique called ‘auto-latch’. Simon Price describes when selected on a particular track: 

Automation only starts being recorded from the moment you alter a parameter, and continues until you stop playback even if you subsequently ‘let go’ of the control. This is probably the best starting mode for fader automation (2003, sound on sound).

By utilising the above technique, I was able to rapidly increase production by riding the reverb sends to picture. For example, when applying reverb to footsteps, I would follow the character on screen and boost when further away from the screen and drop when in an intimately closer position.

This was similarly a technique I employed when panning all the foley sounds. If you do this from the edit screen on Pro Tools, you are provided a horizontal fader rather than the mix screen’s pan pot–making it much easier to follow the sound source with a trackpad.  

Next are a couple of examples of the effects in action. The first clip is during the running scene in the forest. Notice when the character is further away from the camera, the delay on the footsteps was boosted in level:

The next video documents how the creative employment of camera moves allowed for a similar creativity in reverb. As the nurse points her finger, the camera does a rapid backwards pan. To make this more believable I automated the reverb to quickly increase as the camera moves away.

Here is the clip without the effect:

And finally, with: