Sound Design
We realised pretty early on in the editing process that all the sound we recorded on the shoot was unusable. Unfortunately, the ambiance of the bowls club had a weird, almost otherworldly hum to the air. (Perhaps this contributed to Rosie’s conclusion there were indeed ghosts present – it was pretty freaky). In addition, the bowls club phone had three messages on voicemail that would beep a reminder every five seconds. Definitely not ideal, and consequently we had to recreate the soundscape from scratch. My previous experience in sound design was very limited. So, as is my modus operandi, to fill any knowledge gap, off to YouTube I went. I found some really cool videos lifting the curtain on the process of sound design, explaining some of the methods used to create realistic soundscapes.


My favourite part was learning about all the unlikely materials they use to create common sounds. For example, rustling a plastic bag can create the sound of pushing a bike through tall grass.
From here I compiled a list of the sounds we needed to recreate:
locker> opening, closing, swinging, keys and phone being put in the locker
Glass juice bottle> pop of the first open,closing lid, catching glass, sliding glass, putting down on bench/table, juice swirling.
Newspaper>crinkle, writing with biro pen
Actors> dialog, gulping juice, the breathless ‘ahh’
shoe> tying shoelace
With our to-do list in hand, I called in the troops and off to Building 9’s recording studios we went.
Here we are trying to copy the pros.

The results were pretty good! There are a few things I didn’t quite nail, like the closing of the locker doors, but overall I was quite happy with the end result.