Sound in film: The ‘uber geniuses’ of the invisible art you just can’t cheat

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1 year ago

March 9, 2024

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Oscar-nominated actors like Cillian Murphy and Carey Mulligan might be the headline-grabbing stars you’ll hear mentioned everywhere ahead of this Sunday’s ceremony.

Lesser known are the names of the “uber geniuses” who’ve made audiences sit-up and listen in what’s been a stand-out year for sound in film.

From the small matter of recreating the noise of an atomic bomb going off for Oppenheimer, to the subtle but menacing churning of the concentration camp crematorium in The Zone Of Interest.

Sound is typically one of the least discussed categories at the Academy Awards, but this year there’s plenty to talk about.

On paper the nominees couldn’t be more different, there’s the team who had to work out how noisy Tom Cruise‘s death-defying Mission Impossible stunts should be, those tasked with setting the right tempo for Bradley Cooper’s Maestro mood swings, not forgetting the nominees who somehow conjured up what a future war with robots might sound like in The Creator.

But sound designer Johnnie Burn is arguably the one to watch having already won a BAFTA for his work The Zone Of Interest.

“This reaction to me is surprising,” Burn told Sky News on the red carpet before his win.

“We are a small team of people who worked together for a year and a half, and I wasn’t really aware that sound was doing such an enormous load.”

The concept was director Jonathan Glazer’s idea to use sound to show the banality of evil unfolding through what we hear, challenging viewers to really listen to scenes of domestic bliss set against the muted sound of execution gunshots in the distance.

As Burn explained: “It was a lot of research, it was reading witness testimony and understanding what happened to Auschwitz in 1943.

“Understanding what the motorbikes and the guns sounded like… Reading events of torture and murder that I could imagine would have a sound attributed to them, then going and re-enacting that as best as possible using sometimes actors but more so trying to find sound in the real world that’s similar and repurposing that, because that’s more credible than having an actor pretend.”

Not only did his team have to meticulously research the details of what the concentration camp would have sounded like, they also had to contend with a cast whose performances were being recorded on hidden cameras.

Unable to use booms they had to wire the house that’s at the centre of the film with three-quarters of a mile of microphone cable to capture their dialogue.

While there is a quiet power to how and when sound is used in The Zone Of Interest, cinematically at the other end of the spectrum, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, is packed full of action and noise.

Sound engineer Chris Burdon – who won the Oscar last year for Top Gun: Maverick and was nominated for Banshees Of Inisherin before that – had a massive task on his hands.

“On a car chase in Rome you’ve got 450 elements over a series of minutes, then you’ve got music with all the layers,” he said.

“It’s a kind of layering process… even a simple scene would have 20 layers of sound effects, whether it’s birds, footsteps, a door… Often you speak to family members or friends and they’re surprised that what they hear or see isn’t just recorded on location.”

When cinema transitioned from silent movies to talkies, filmmaking was transformed by the addition of sound. Cinema-goers quickly developed an insatiable appetite for musicals and gangster films.

The entire experience was a brand-new sensation – from hearing the mobster machine guns ring out across the cinema seats to the screeching tyres in a car chase.

Nowadays the addition of sound is something most of us take for granted but it remains an invisible art. And while a filmmaker can actually quite easily swap out a dodgy actor, they can’t cheat bad sound.

According to The Creator director Gareth Edwards, experts in the field are “worth their weight in gold”.

“Tom [Ozanich] and Dean [Zupancic] who did our sound mix for The Creator are also nominated for Maestro, that’s no accident… These people are these uber geniuses of the industry.”

It is perhaps more obvious that a film about composer Leonard Bernstein had to be note perfect in terms of its audio, but how did the same duo set about figuring out what a war between humans and robots with artificial intelligence would sound like?

Edwards said: “The tricky thing about doing sound design for a sci-fi movie… is that if you go too far you don’t even know what you’re listening to.

“You’ve got to try to find sounds that are one step away from what we know those sounds to be now.”

Whoever wins, while few watching this Sunday’s ceremony at home will recognise their faces, it’s highly likely you will have heard their work.

Instinctively while we may see filmmaking as a visual medium, this year’s brilliantly diverse range of films nominated for their sound demonstrate the transfixing and transporting hold it can have over an audience, often without us even realising it.

Entertainment

The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book delayed

Published

1 day ago

July 11, 2025

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The Salt Path author Raynor Winn's fourth book delayed

The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.

It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.

In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.

The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.

“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.

“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”

A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.

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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).

But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.

Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’

As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.

In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.

The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.

It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.

Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.

“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”

She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.

The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.

“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.

Entertainment

Oasis fans queue from 8am for the Gallaghers’ homecoming gig in Manchester

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1 day ago

July 11, 2025

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Oasis fans queue from 8am for the Gallaghers' homecoming gig in Manchester

The first fan started queuing before 8am.

Heaton Park, just north of Manchester City centre, is tonight hosting 80,000 fans who’ve come to see the Gallaghers’ homecoming.

“I would honestly say it’s a real cultural moment of the 21st century,” says Sam, who’s from Manchester and has come here with a group of friends – including one who has travelled from Australia for the gig.

This will be the fourth time Sam has seen Oasis play, although obviously not for many years, and he says he can’t wait for the moment the band comes on to the stage.

“The reaction from the fans, that’s going to be really special,” he says. “This band means so much to the North West.”

Like many people attending tonight’s concert, Sam is wearing a bucket hat.

Liam Gallagher’s iconic headgear has become a part of the band’s cultural legacy and they are certainly on display here, with street vendors popping up all around the park’s perimeter.

Another fan, Dean, tells me he feels incredibly lucky to have got a ticket at all.

“I had seven devices out when the tickets were released and I didn’t get one,” he says. “And then about three days ago, a friend of mine messaged to say she couldn’t make it.

“So I made it. £120 with coach travel there and back – perfect.”

Dom is another fan who has come from Australia for the gig.

“We’re frothing to be here, like so stoked,” he says, “The atmosphere is going to be electric.”

One young couple are here on their honeymoon. From Italy, they met at a Liam Gallagher concert several years ago.

“It’s where we fell in love,” Claudia says. “And we got married last month so we wanted to be here to celebrate.”

Amanda, from Manchester, is also here with a loved one – well, sort of.

She’s wearing a paper cut-out mask of her 30-year-old son Harry’s face.

“He’s in Melbourne and got a ticket but then couldn’t come,” Amanda explains.

“And so Harry doesn’t feel left out,” she says pulling the mask down over her face, “we’ve brought him with us!”

Entertainment

Chris Brown: R&B singer denies further charges following alleged bottle attack in London club

Published

1 day ago

July 11, 2025

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Chris Brown: R&B singer denies further charges following alleged bottle attack in London club

R&B singer Chris Brown has denied further charges following an alleged bottle attack in a London nightclub.

The 36-year-old pleaded not guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) to music producer Abraham Diaw, during a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Friday.

Brown also denied one count of having an offensive weapon – a bottle – in a public place.

The Grammy-winning US musician last month pleaded not guilty to a more serious charge of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent to Mr Diaw.

The attack allegedly happened at the Tape venue, a private members’ club in Hanover Square, Mayfair, on 19 February 2023.

The plea hearing is part of preparations for his five to seven-day trial, which is due to take place from 26 October 2026.

Brown’s co-defendant, US national Omololu Akinlolu, 39, on Friday pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting Mr Diaw occasioning him actual bodily harm.

Akinlolu, a rapper who goes by the name Hoody Baby, has previously pleaded not guilty to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.

The defendants sat side-by-side in the dock, looking straight ahead during the hearing in London.

Around 20 fans sat in the public gallery behind the dock for Friday’s hearing, with several gasping as Brown walked into the courtroom.

The Go Crazy singer was able to continue with his scheduled international tour after he was freed on conditional bail in May.

He had to pay a £5m security fee to the court as part of the bail agreement, which is a financial guarantee to ensure a defendant returns to court and may be forfeited if they breach bail conditions.

Mr Diaw was standing at the bar of the Tape nightclub when he was struck several times with a bottle, and then pursued to a separate area of the venue where he was punched and kicked repeatedly, Manchester Magistrates’ Court previously heard.

Brown was arrested at Manchester’s Lowry Hotel at 2am on 15 May by detectives from the Metropolitan Police.

He is said to have flown into Manchester Airport on a private jet in preparation for the UK tour dates.

Brown was released from HMP Forest Bank in Salford, Greater Manchester, on 21 May.

The singer, who rose to stardom as a teenager in 2005, won his first Grammy award for best R&B album in 2011 for F.A.M.E..

He earned his second in the same category for 11:11 (Deluxe) earlier this year.