Edward Hardwicke as Sidney
This film is directed by Gareth Warland and produced by Noelle Rodrigues.
A brief synopsis of the film is as follows (courtesy of Gareth's and Noelles's website allmyfriendscollection.com):
The film tells the story of a World War II veteran, Sidney, who experienced time in the Far East. Due to deteriorating physical health, he now lives in a care home in the remote English countryside. When Yoshio, a new Japanese carer begins working at the home, Sid finds his arrival difficult to digest. As he attempts to come to terms with Yoshio′s presence days before the celebration of his 90th Birthday, he finds it difficult to form an understanding of his emotions.
The story aims to visualise a number of pre-conceptions and stereotypes of generations, past and present. As the story develops and new understandings are formed, the film becomes a canvas of perception, whereby the characters and the audience question each other's perspective. The result will create a self-reflective piece of work, emphasizing the term 'people are a product of what they experience.
The film will be screened at the British Film Institute in London and entered in to a number of Film Festivals around the world. allmyfriends will use Sidney as a starting point for future productions, already in development.
In conversations with the director Gareth, the idea was for the film to be realistic in its aesthetic. All the dialogue would be recorded on location (no Automatic Dialogue Replacement - ADR), there would be no musical soundtrack beyond any music that was not diegetic. The sound effects would also be recorded on location, as much as was possible to give a naturalistic sound track that matched the location. In traditional Hollywood codes of dramatic realism, the dialogue would have to be recorded as cleanly as possible and given the most prominence within the sound mix. When no dialogue was present, the sound effects recorded would then match the point of view (POV) of the camera. Gareth also wanted the film to also shift its aesthetic during specific scenes so that the film contained a reflexive element, i.e. occasional glimpses at the camera. With this choice, Gareth intended, the audience to become aware of their involvement as voyeurs.
In terms of sound design, there is one particular scene where the point of view of the audience is transported inside the head of Sidney, this takes place when Sidney is alone in his bedroom, Sidney's internalised thoughts impose themselves on the soundscape and in this moment the audience is asked to empathise with Sidney's emotions. This is the only scene where the conventions of the sound in the film change dramatically.
Filming took place on location in Sutton, Surrey, at a disused care home called Bawtree House. The film shoot lasted 6 days from 12th December until the 18th December, 2009.
Even though I principally joined the project to work on the post production side of the film, I was really interested in helping out on location (in what ever capacity I could), as I thought it would give me an insight in to how a film is made and would also help me get a feel for the film and take the experience and knowledge I had gained in to the post sound work I would do.
I was already aware that Gareth had a friend who would be doing the sound recording on location (Jeremy Brown - Jez), however, there was the chance that Jez might not be available for the first two days of the shoot, however, a contingency plan had been put in place should this arise.
Closer to the first day of shooting, Jez was unable to make the first two days of shooting, therefore, I was asked to help with the sound recording on these days. I was. I admit, very nervous about this responsibility as I had never worked as a sound recordist, or boom operator, on a film shoot and from some of the books that I had read, and from the experiences recounted to me by some of my course mates, I was concerned that, in all honesty, I'd be useless. Together with Joel Bennett (who is also the film editor) we were able to capture all the necessary sound recordings, in good quality, from the shots that took place on those two days. We did have to do numerous wild tracks of the shots, however, because the sound of the film being fed through the camera (as it was shot on film rather than digital) was evident in the sound recordings.
Much to their credit, the organisers of the schedule for the shoot ensured that on the first two days of filming, no dialogue recording was required. What Joel and I recorded, (Joel, mainly as boom operator, and myself as sound recordist) were the sound effects and ambiance of Sidney interacting with various furniture in his bedroom and also walking up and down stairwells and through corridors. The recordings in the bedroom were close miked and wildtracked in order to get clean recordings and also to match the intimacy of the camera shots. The recordings in the corridors and stairwells were recorded from the POV of the camera, thus, these were also wildtracked due to the proximity of the microphone to the camera during takes.
From days 3 to 6, Jez was principle boom operator, on location. He was very experienced in working on location and he was a real asset to have, as he understood the difficulties in recording location dialogue and also the codes of on-location politics. Whilst Jez was operating the boom, I was asked to take charge of the recording and mixing of the audio signals to ensure that the dialogue was recorded as cleanly as possible with the correct signal to noise ratio, and also ensuring that there were no peaks in the dynamics so that the signals did not distort.
It was really interesting to discover the many ways in which Jez ensured that dialogue could be recorded as cleanly as possible. Depending on the shot, whether close or far, along with the boom mic practice, plant mics were used, as well as radio mics.
Once all of the scenes had been shot, Joel and I recorded wild tracks of any sound effects that could not be filmed during the shoot, either because of the danger of the sounds effects overlapping with the dialogue or because of the proximity of the camera to the action. These included wild tracks of doors opening and closing, myself acting as Sidney struggling in and out of his chair with the aid of his walking stick, walking with a zimmer frame, and Sidney shaving at his sink.
All dialogue and effects were recorded in mono, this is because principle dialogue is intended to be centre in the mix and sound effects are intended to be positioned within the stereo field.
Once all of the crew had left, at the end of the shoot, I recorded room tones and ambiances, of all the locations used within the shoot, in stereo to add space and dimension to the mix, so that when it came to editing the various sounds, there would be an underlying ambiance to mask any cuts.
Deciding to help out on location was a very good decision. I was very surprised with the amount of work, effort, planning and time it takes to shoot a film. There were nearly 40 crew members involved in the shooting of the film, and it was an absolute pleasure to work with them. The shoot was incredibly well organised, there were very few hiccups and everyone worked professionally and tirelessly. Being involved with the recording of the sound, on location has also been invaluable in my post production duties, as I was able to make notes of any areas where sound might have been an issue once editing got underway. Being on location helped me to plan and then record wildtracks of sounds that would have been difficult to record in Foley sessions.
The film is currently being edited by Joel and Gareth, and once the editing of the footage has been finalised, I will then start the sound post production task of ensuring that the dialogue is mixed and edited so that cuts are as transparent as possible, and also add ambient sounds, edit the effects and also work with Gareth on recording the television programs that Sidney watches, within a few of the scenes.
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