Achieving a ‘True to Life’ Sound for Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ series – with James Drake and Jules Woods

The Netflix limited series Adolescence tells the tale a 13-year-old boy named Jamie who is arrested for murdering a classmate. His actions create hard consequences not only for himself, but for his family, who struggle to lead ‘normal’ lives in the aftermath of the murder. Director Philip Barantini creates a sense of reality in the show by shooting each hour-long episode as a one-shot. The camera follows one character and cleverly hands off to another character, giving the story a feeling of scope and movement without ever looking away.

For post sound, Barantini once again worked with sound supervisor/re-recording mixer James Drake and re-recording mixer Jules Woods at the London-based post-production facility Splice, and with production sound mixers Rob Entwistle and Kiff McManus – the same sound team he used on his continuous-shot film Boiling Point (2021), which won the 2021 British Independent Film Award for ‘Best Sound.’

This previous experience allowed the sound team to thoroughly prepare an approach that would result in the best sound possible for Adolescence — one that would allow them to maintain nearly all of the on-set performances, to construct believable backgrounds using location ambiences and effects recorded on set, and to preserve the local accent of the students in the series.

Here, Drake and Woods talk about their collaboration with the production sound team and the benefits of getting involved during the production phase. They talk about the specific sonic challenges of each episode, how their approach to mixing a ‘true to life’ perspective required ever-changing panning and processing, and so much more!

Adolescence | Official Trailer | Netflix

When did you start on Adolescence, and what were director Philip Barantini’s initial ideas for using sound to help tell the story in this series? And what sound ideas did you want to bring to the show?

James Drake (JD): I unofficially started work on the project quite early on whilst the crew were still in prep. I began working through the scripts, speaking with the crew, and building ProTools sessions for the project. For several months, whenever I had a quiet moment, I would open up my Adolescence folders and take a few hours to dip my head into that world.

Originally, when Phil and I talked about the series he was keen to follow the sonic style of the Boiling Point film (also a one-shot project), which we had worked on together – completely grounded in reality, sound could only be diegetic, the sonic perspective should be that of camera’s point of view, and there wouldn’t be any score.

Phil was keen to follow the sonic style of the ‘Boiling Point’ film (also a one-shot project), which we had worked on together

Though once Ep. 3 had been completed, and the production team spent time with the selected take, they felt that perhaps music would help support the emotional story in places. So from there, the whole use of sound in the project started to open up.

Working with Phil is such a collaborative process. We could be free to experiment and bring ideas to him semi- and sometimes fully-formed. Phil would say, “Perhaps we should move more into this character’s headspace here.” And I could go away, find the shape and feel of those moments, maybe work with the composers Aaron May and David Ridley on how sound design would complement the score and then send back an interpretation of a sequence.

Re-recording mixers James Drake and Jules Woods on ‘Adolescence’ series

It’s an incredibly complex sequence that pulls audio from multiple sources, so […] there had to be a level of trust that I would do what was needed.

I think the raid on the house in Ep. 1 is one of the best examples of Phil giving me the freedom to find a path through a sequence. I spent a week solely working through the dialogues in the first fifteen minutes: building and rebuilding, fixing technical issues, panning, feeling the changes in energy, and giving it shape. It’s an incredibly complex sequence that pulls audio from multiple takes, so to do that, especially within the time constraints, there had to be a level of trust that I would do what was needed. From there, we just kept tweaking, adding, and making it better. I think a few minutes before the final exec review, we found the last few pieces of dialogue to help a couple of moments.

That is the joy of working with Phil. He isn’t a helicopter director and places a lot of faith in you to do your craft. Equally, he will come in with new ideas all the time, which not only make the project better but will also keep you on your toes.

Jules Woods (JW): I love working on projects where the sound is fundamentally grounded in reality, and the single-shot format really opened that up to me. I love noticing and capturing the sounds that happen all around us in life, which we’ve naturally learned to ignore – the noise of wind passing our ears, the creaks a quiet house makes as it warms up in the sun, the sound our clothing and shoes make as we walk, and trains in the distance. There’s so much going on if you just stop and listen for a moment.

As subtle as they may need to be, I believe that bringing all of these sounds into a mix makes all the difference to the immersive feel of the project. What some people may consider just ‘noises’, I find actually vital to bring a project to life.
 

Each episode in the limited series is shot as a ‘one-shot.’ How did that impact the sound team? What were some challenges in creating sound for each hour-long, continuous-shot episode? What were some opportunities in this approach?

JD: We were really fortunate to have Production Sound Mixers Rob Entwistle and Kiff McManus on the project. They’ve also worked on the Boiling Point (2021) film and completely understood the technical challenges on set. That meant we were getting the best production sound from the start. A testament to this is that for Ep. 3, there were only about 15 ADR cues, and most of those were breaths. To give some perspective, it’s not unusual for us to have over 250 cues for an hour-long episode these days.

Production Sound Mixers Rob Entwistle and Kiff McManus […] completely understood the technical challenges on set. That meant we were getting the best production sound from the start.

I knew from the scripts that Ep. 1 and Ep. 2 were going to be the most challenging for production sound and so I was on set for those episodes to work with Rob and Kiff. Due to the nature of the tech rehearsals and shooting two takes a day, there was an opportunity for me to watch each take in real time, make notes, and then take a copy of the rushes to review them. Then I could speak to the team, they could make any tweaks if needed, speak with other departments, or record wild tracks. By the end of each week, we really knew that we had done everything we could do to ensure that the production sound was the best it could be and that those amazing performances from the shoot were preserved.

With the BGs (backgrounds), it was about making sure that every element flowed into each other so the transitions between locations were as seamless as possible. In addition to that, it was making sure that any specific BG effects, such as doors or shouts, followed the movement of the camera so that the cell doors, for instance, aren’t suddenly coming from the wrong direction.

My favourite example of this has to be the coffee machine hum in the family room in Ep. 1. It’s very subtle but it’s always moving with the camera and has shifts in volume as we get closer and further away. It’s those kinds of things that I love doing; it always makes me smile.

One of the biggest opportunities in the one-shot format is that sound is vital to create tension, energy, or focus.

One of the biggest opportunities in the one-shot format is that sound is vital to create tension, energy, or focus. There isn’t the ability to edit in a close-up or perform a quick series of shots, so that’s left, in part, for sound to do.

That can also include the absence of sound. One of the most powerful moments in Ep. 1 for me is Jamie’s physical examination. It’s entirely played on Eddie’s face. We pull back on all the ambient sound so you’re just left with Eddie’s breaths, Jenkins’s dialogue, and Jamie’s foley (recorded by Adam Mendez and his team). I think Phil and I knew instinctively that’s always how it should be played; any design or music would just take us away from that moment.
 

Did you do any field recordings for the show? Did you do any location ambience recording, like at the Miller’s house/neighborhood or the school, for instance?

JD: Lots! While we were on set, we made sure to record as much as possible. We captured ambiences, doors, footsteps, the pedal for the fingerprint machine – anything we could really. It has made such a difference to the project. Even if they are just a base to build upon, they ground the sound in the actual space. The sparrows you hear in the opening of Ep. 1 are the actual sparrows that nested in the garden right by the car; the drums in Ep. 2 are actually me playing that kit before everyone turned up for the day; the security detector beep at the start of Ep. 3 is from a real detector they had on set.

Having post sound teams on set, with their knowledge of what sounds could be tricky to make believable in post, is something that I think should be an industry standard.

JW: This location field recording proved invaluable for the end result of the series. Location sound teams do a fabulous job of picking up as much content as they can from the set, but their main focus has to be the production dialogue and being with the main unit.
Having post sound teams on set, with their knowledge of what sounds could be tricky to make believable in post, is something that I think should be an industry standard. It’s much like how you have VFX supervisors on set.

Picking up true-to-location sound effects, impulse responses, and crowd recordings from the shoot made such a difference to the immersive nature of the mix.
 

What went into the sound for crowded locations in the series, like the school, the hardware store, or the police station (in Ep. 1)? Can you talk about your loop group recordings?

JD: One of the first conversations I had with Phil was about Ep. 2 and recording as much of the school SAs as possible. It was really important to him to accurately represent the kids from the area, rather than us solely using a loop group. In-between takes, we would take a group of SAs and record them in as quiet a space as possible around the school. It was challenging as it was something entirely new to the kids. There’s nothing harder than plonking a mic in front of people and saying, “Now have a chat.”

what you hear in the school is probably 90% from the SAs, with a small group of teens who came down from Yorkshire to record in the studio with us.

I ended up experimenting with different ways of getting them confident around the mic, or at least, to be less aware of it. Overall, what you hear in the school is probably 90% from the SAs, with a small group of teens who came down from Yorkshire to record in the studio with us.

There’s absolute gold that came from the kids in the school that we would never have got otherwise and is vital in keeping the whole feel of the location natural. I loved the final mix review, hearing all the snippets of conversation that we pass that don’t feel performed because a lot of them aren’t!

Voices are an integral part of the sound design of the station, and contribute massively to the energy of those sequences

Similarly, in Ep. 1, we recorded some of the SAs on set, which are peppered through the police station. The main recording we did was with the SAs in the operations office, where we set up two mics and they performed their movements as they did on the take, only with speaking that time. Surprisingly, it didn’t take much editing to get it all working together.

We did more loop group in that episode. Voices are an integral part of the sound design of the station, and contribute massively to the energy of those sequences. Especially when we enter the station for the first time, hearing that barrage of adult voices really helps us as an audience feel the fear that Jamie has.

I actually pop up a few times in the series under various guises when we needed an additional voice that we hadn’t covered in loop group. Luckily, I’m well hidden enough that even my partner hasn’t noticed me!

Special mention has to go to Jo Johnson, our illustrious Producer, who voiced one of the videos playing from a classroom in Ep. 2.
 

Ep. 1 was very tense, from the police storming the house to arrest Jamie to the hallways in the police station to the interrogation. How did you use sound to help elevate the feeling of tension? How did your approach to the mix in the most tense moments help to push that further?

JD: Ep. 1 really has everything; it’s completely maximalist at times and minimalist at others. The storming of the house was always supposed to feel utterly overwhelming. We should really feel how horrifically intrusive and confusing it is for the family. Sound is coming from everywhere constantly – from other members of the family, the police upstairs, the police downstairs, and the police outside. It’s chaos, but incredibly controlled chaos. Everything is placed and shaped so the dialogue still leads and the audience can follow the story.

It’s chaos, but incredibly controlled chaos. Everything is placed and shaped so the dialogue still leads and the audience can follow the story.

In that sequence, it was also about not letting up on the audience. There isn’t a quiet moment until Jenkins and Derek leave Jamie in the cell, and even then it’s not that quiet. I was constantly going back to the opening, thinking of ways to keep the energy and hold the tension, whether that was with subtle design, additional voices, or spurts of radio chatter.

One of the last pieces of sound design that I worked on was for the entrance to the station to the cells. After we had so much sound and then the amazing score in the van ride, despite there being so much in terms of movement, doors, and voices in the station, something felt missing.

I then ended up semi-performing the drone to picture using the SM57 grill and even loosening the capsule to create that sound.

I spent an evening experimenting with recording drones and tones, but nothing was working. I ended up plugging in an old Shure SM57 and created a plugin strip with delays and reverbs to try and make a drone using my voice. Suffice to say it was dreadful, but as I was listening back to the recordings, I hadn’t taken the channel off input and was playing with the grill as this sound came out. I then ended up semi-performing the drone to picture using the SM57 grill and even loosening the capsule to create that sound. It’s a subtle layer but helps tie everything together and keeps that tension held for a little while longer.
 

Ep. 2 has the most movement between different characters as the story moves from students to teachers to investigators, and so on. What were some of the most challenging ‘handoffs’ for editorial? Can you talk about your sound work on them?

JW: You’ve touched upon one of the biggest challenges we faced from a mix point of view. The cuts within traditionally edited television really help us use sound to mark the transitions – a hard edit punctuated with sound design to help the change in location, for example.

James also created some subtle sound design whooshes that we placed when moving through doorways to discreetly highlight the movement.

We still wanted each location to have its own soundscape; the locations needed to become characters of their own. Making sure the audience could still ‘feel’ these transitions was a fun challenge to overcome. Dynamic shaping of the atmospheres for each location, as well as bold use of atmos effects (e.g., birds, cars, chatter, clocks, phones, etc.) helped with this, and James also created some subtle sound design whooshes that we placed when moving through doorways to discreetly highlight the movement. It’s not always a loud sound, but it imparts a pressure change that makes the spatial movement more noticeable.

The constant use of panning, EQ, and reverb automation also helps mark these changes.

To make all the handoffs work and to feel the flow of the physical journey we’re on, constant automation of volume, EQ, reverb, delay, and panning was needed.

JD: I think Jules has hit the nail on the head there. To make all the handoffs work and to feel the flow of the physical journey we’re on, constant automation of volume, EQ, reverb, delay, and panning was needed. Whilst I’m always doing those things in the sound edit, this was unique in that it was on another level. There was the practical and technical aspect of knowing we simply didn’t have time in the mix to pan every element, and that panning dialogue can open up the need for ADR or finding alts.

There was also the creative element of needing to know that those handoffs worked, the movement through the spaces worked, and that the perspectives felt realistic. On this project, I feel like there wasn’t a delineation between “sound edit” and “sound mix.” It was a constant process of both from the very start to the very end.
 

Can you talk about mixing the chase scene between Ryan (the student who jumps out of the classroom window) and DI Luke Bascombe in this episode?

JW: Funnily enough, out of all four episodes, this was the sequence I found myself wanting to come back to the most to refine.

Look at almost any chase scene in a Hollywood movie, even from a sound point of view, the cuts are vital to the energy. They provide the constant ‘punches’ to keep the energy going. Our chase is, of course, relatively short, but even so, without cuts, it was really tough to create a sonically powerful sequence.

We used several staccato sounds as punctuation points: the gate, the gardener strimming the lawn, the members of the public, and car horns.

We used several staccato sounds as punctuation points: the gate, the gardener strimming the lawn, the members of the public, and car horns. James also created some great sound design for when the camera takes some of the more aggressive movements, and as we pass certain objects (e.g., bushes, building posts, etc.).

For me, though, the footsteps of Ryan and Bascombe were critical to get right. The foley team did an amazing job here. We also built upon their work during the mix, adding some bassier thumps as they moved around corners.

There are also constant reverb and perspective changes as they move from the classroom, to the courtyard, to the covered walkway, to the street, to the alleyway beside the house, which also help to give some impact and make the sequence more true to life.

Ep. 3 was the quietest episode in the series. Psychologist Briony Ariston interviews Jamie at the ‘training center.’ What were some challenges for sound editorial and mix in this episode?

JD: I think people will be surprised by how much work went into crafting the sound of this episode. Phil’s main note for the episode was that, at times, you should be able to hear a pin drop in the room. After the original dialogue pass, I dug in with iZotope RX to remove all of the lumps and bumps, clicks and ticks. It had to be crystal clear. Because of the nature of it being mostly just Briony and Jamie in the room, there was no place to hide, and once I started panning the dialogue and moving it around the space, it opened up more challenges.

once I started panning the dialogue and moving it around the space, it opened up more challenges.

The production sound was great, but interestingly, we ended up working perhaps counterintuitively to what’s typically done. Generally, when the camera moves away from an actor, the boom moves closer, but in terms of perspective, we’d actually want to be moving the sound further away. This started in what was effectively the sound edit, and then Jules and I continued working on this in the mix. There were points where we’d say, “We need to make that more off-mic and thinner” — something we’d never usually say!

There were points where we’d say, ‘We need to make that more off-mic and thinner’ — something we’d never usually say!

My original version of the effects and design was much fuller. The off-screen sounds of doors, voices, and footsteps were much more present, and the moments of tension were at times quite dense with sound design. Phil, quite rightly, wanted this pulled back. I think I was so excited by the episode that I went all out, but that then gave us scope to refine it. It was important, though, to have the presence of the outside world throughout the interview scenes, not only to make sure it didn’t feel like a set but to give us the ability to pull back from those layers to help heighten those moments of tension. It was key for me to be able to feel like all the air has been sucked out of the room at times.

We worked with perspective and panning a lot during this episode. As the camera moves, so does the audible perspective of everything.

JW: What on paper may seem a simple setup has arguably some of the most intricate work of the series. I always approached the mix of Adolescence a bit like a first-person video game. I didn’t want to be watching the story; I wanted to be there within it. We worked with perspective and panning a lot during this episode. As the camera moves, so does the audible perspective of everything. This becomes more apparent when listening in Dolby Atmos or binaural.

During the episode, the dialogue and performance are everything. Supporting that, there is a whole backing track provided by the weather outside. There was a skylight in the room, and throughout the changes of emotion during the episode, the weather also changes with it.
This gave us a useful tool during moments of suspense, or tension — abruptly removing the weather almost gives a sense of holding your breath. It sucks the energy from the room!
 

Ep. 4 was about the family’s struggle with the reality that their son is a murderer. There are touching moments, like the sing-along in the van, the heart-to-heart talk between Manda and Eddie, and Eddie’s emotional breakdown on Jamie’s bed. There’s Eddie’s mental break in the hardware store. Can you talk about how you used sound to bring the audience closer to the family as they deal with their trauma and try to continue their lives?

JD: Ep. 4 is incredible. It’s my favourite. The performances are amazing; the scene between Eddie and Manda in the bedroom breaks me every time.\

Again, we worked hard at preserving the production dialogue throughout the episode. There were a few cues that we recorded in ADR when things just weren’t fixable, but well over 90% of what you’re hearing in Ep. 4 is the dialogue from that take. I knew we couldn’t touch some of the scenes, so we spent time working on the edits from our dialogue editors Michele Woods and Oscar Bloomfield-Crowe, and saved as much as we could.

Phil wanted us to lean into the natural sound in the van and persevere with finding ways to balance and support the production dialogue.

There are probably a few dialogue editors out there who would have wanted to ADR lots of the van scene. Instead of trying to make it clean, Phil wanted us to lean into the natural sound in the van and persevere with finding ways to balance and support the production dialogue. The drive to the hardware store is so brilliant; who would want to touch that anyway?

Apart from Eddie’s breakdown in the hardware store, the aim was to keep the design in the episode as naturalistic as possible. Raoul Brand worked with me as Sound Effects Editor on the episode and brought such a deft hand; everything in the ambiences and background effects was there to just support the dialogue and make the locations feel as real as possible. On the surface, those opening scenes in and around the house probably sound quite simple, but there was a huge amount of thought and design and redesign put into the edit to build that world.

JW: Manda and Eddie’s scene in the bedroom is stunning — the last 20 minutes of the series, just in this one room. The performances are incredible.

To heighten the power even further, we still wanted life to exist outside the room. I find that hearing the nature outside, people driving their cars, and planes overhead almost makes the horror that they are going through more powerful. It’s the fact that life is so normal outside while they are experiencing one of the most difficult moments of their lives.

It required a very delicate approach in the mix, and with the sound design to keep the world alive, but with no distraction from what was happening in front of us.
 

What would you want others in the sound community to know about your work on Adolescence? What stands out to you in terms of your sound work on this show?

JD: I think the collaboration with Rob and Kiff and the entire production sound team was not only a brilliant experience – one that was a huge learning curve for me – it was massively beneficial for the series. I wish every project allowed for some amount of time for the Supervising Sound Editor or Dialogue Editor to be present on set.

I wish every project allowed for […] the Supervising Sound Editor or Dialogue Editor to be present on set.

Creatively, it’s been such a wonderful challenge creating a soundscape that constantly moves and changes. I’ve spent an unknowable amount of time sitting in my studio in Norwich, panning every single element, creating perspective, and developing the shape of scenes; it’s really been a labour of love.

Mix sessions always contain thousands of automated parameters for volume, panning, EQ, reverb, etc., but for ‘Adolescence’ […] these parameters are constantly changing

JW: As James has said, the collaboration with the location sound team was vital. It was a true team effort. James and I have a fantastic shorthand with each other and with Phil. Being creatively on the same page really enabled us to seamlessly develop each episode over time.

This was a constantly evolving project with new sounds being added and mixes being refined right up until we had to hand it over to Netflix. Mix sessions always contain thousands of automated parameters for volume, panning, EQ, reverb, etc., but for Adolescence, I can’t stress enough how much these parameters are constantly changing to bring all the ‘true to life’ perspectives that were required.

A big thanks to James Drake and Jules Woods for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Adolescence and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

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