On the set of a Boxing-Drama

This week I officially started working on director James Twyman's new project and I couldn't be more excited. I am not sure how much I can talk about it but, I really want to take this project as an opportunity to start blogging about what goes through my head during a day of working on-set.

As a sound Engineer, I surprisingly find myself thinking about sound... Shocking, I know. Today I heard the nicest sounding chain just dangling in the background of the set and thought "Hey... That's a really nice rattle...". This is a nice little habit that I have now passed on to my wife. These sort of background noises however, can be problematic in some cases. As lovely as that metallic rattle was, it was getting in the way of my dialogue and had to get rid of it with some good old fashioned duct tape.

Dealing with background noise has become quite an effort on this particular set. To put it in context, I am working on a boxing-drama and there are various fighting sequences that happen on a boxing ring. The ring's surface is quite loud, bouncy and hollow which causes footsteps during dialogue and choreographed sequences to be difficult to capture. Thankfully there is very little dialogue being delivered during this sequences and I've had the chance to record clean versions of that dialogue separately during close-up shot just in case.

Another way I've been trying to get around this issue is asking the actors to say their lines once the scene has been shot and everyone has stepped out of the ring. This way I have no movement getting in the way of the performance and I have a nice and clean line of dialogue to have as a backup.

One of the advices that my favorite tutor in uni gave me was "Backup, backup and backup". You can never be too safe when it comes to protecting your files and making sure you have everything you might need. This has made me a bit paranoid on set, but I rather be that way so that I can deliver an amazing sound design.

The director, cast and crew have been amazing on this project and have given me the freedom to speak freely if I need to record something specific, or if they can arrange the scene so that I can get a good take. In fact, the director has expressed how he thinks sound is such an important element in films and being able to work with someone that understands that is a great experience.

I feel very involved with this project given that I grew up watching the Rocky films and now the Creed spin-offs. I can't wait to work on the sound design for it and using them as a reference to create my own thing.