TheUndergroundRailroad_sound-01 Asbjoern Andersen


Go behind the sound of Amazon Studios' limited series The Underground Railroad with award-winning supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Onnalee Blank, recordist Watson Wu, and foley artist Heikki Kossi.
Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of Amazon Studios
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It’s not often that mainstream reviews mention the sound work on a show, but critic Brian Tallerico on RogerEbert.com did just that, calling out The Underground Railroad for having “one of the best sound designs in the history of television.”

WB Sound‘s 5x Emmy-winning and 6x CAS Award-winning re-recording mixer/supervising sound editor Onnalee Blank led the sound team on Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad series for Amazon Prime Video. Based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the show follows the harrowing journey of a young woman named Cora, who fights to escape slavery in the Deep South.

Blank began work early in the script phase by amassing a palette of potential sounds for possible directions the soundscape could take, creating on-set prop recording lists for production sound mixer Joe White, hiring renowned recordist Watson Wu to capture authentic ambiences and to record a steam train, working with award-winning sound designers like Harry Cohen, Jay Jennings, and Luke Gibleon, tapping talented foley supervisor/artist Heikki Kossi and his crew at H5 Film Sound in Finland, and mixing the show with long-time collaborator Mathew Waters (with whom she mixed Game of Thrones). The time and talent Blank and her team invested in the show ultimately makes for a powerful sonic experience.

Here, Blank, Wu, and Kossi share details on capturing, performing, designing, and crafting the soundtrack on The Underground Railroad.



The Underground Railroad - Official Trailer | Prime Video


The Underground Railroad – Official Trailer | Prime Video

When did you begin work on The Underground Railroad and who was your point person?

Onnalee Blank (OB): I’ve been working with Barry Jenkins (director/exec. producer) and Joi McMillon (editor) since Barry’s short film Chlorophyl, which was in 2011.

On The Underground Railroad, I started making a sound library during the early script phase. Getting Barry’s thinking for the sound of the show evolved from early script phase to our mixing stage.

TheUndergroundRailroad_sound-02

Supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Onnalee Blank

Then when he started shooting, I was watching dailies and writing down lists of certain props they were using on-set, and calling production sound mixer Joe White with a record list. Joe is amazing. He did a really fantastic job recording all the dialogue and he spent a lot of his own time recording specifics for me as well. It was too hard to fly down to the south and record during that time while creating a sound palette in Los Angeles. For instance, there was a certain typewriter they use in the show, so we got the sound of the exact typewriter. He did a great job of capturing all the carts, buggies, and some ambiences as well.

Joi McMillion (picture editor) started sending me early cuts of her scenes, so I started digging in and creating early sound edits. I created just basic backgrounds and effects to start with and sent them back so she could put them in her Avid. This way she would limit the use of any temp sound.

As far as the soundscape, how do you balance the beauty of what you’re seeing with the horror of the visual?

It was a good way for Joi and me to have a back and forth. We’d do a few passes — a few versions on the same scene — and it would change. We were trying to figure out what the palette of the sound is since each episode is so different.

As far as the soundscape, how do you balance the beauty of what you’re seeing with the horror of the visual? In the end, I said, “I think we’re making a horror movie. So what does horror sound like with naturalistic sounds that we can change to be something totally different?” It was a big challenge. I think, for every scene, we probably did 18 to 24 versions, at least.

It was a lot of work! But working for Barry Jenkins doesn’t feel like work because it is so rewarding.

It was great — just empowering everybody on the team to try anything they want to try. Anything.

Once episodes started to have a shape, I got my sound team involved and everybody brought so much to the table. It was great — just empowering everybody on the team to try anything they want to try. Anything.

They’d send it back and it was awesome because it would be stuff I wouldn’t think to do. Then I’d maybe try that with these other elements — take their ideas and marry it with some of this other stuff. The process became very collaborative with my team.

Barry really fought hard to get us time. Often, even on high-end TV work, it’s hard to get time for sound editorial. It really paid off because by the time we started mixing, we had every episode almost cut. We had what the sound of the show was going to be when we got to the mixing phase. Mixing just took the sound a step or two further into what the show actually became.
 

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The proof is in the pudding. There are so many amazing sonic details, from the powerful ambiences to specific hard effects like lantern rattles to the subjective sounds. For instance in Ep. 2 “South Carolina,” Cora is taking the elevator up to visit the doctor and the sound of the elevator reflects the uneasiness and tension she’s feeling; even is this town, Griffin, that’s supposed to be ‘safe,’ she can’t relax…

OB: What’s great about that elevator sound is that I didn’t want to use any actual elevator sounds. My effects editor, Luke Gibleon, came up with only using train elements so the elevator would seem off in some way.

I agreed. I felt, “Let’s just make it our own thing. This is underground railroad, right?” Because then it sounds so different.

…we really internalized her mental state with our sound design.

Ep. 10 “Chapter 10: Mabel” was probably one of the episodes I worked on the longest. It’s all sound editorial and mixing. There’s hardly any music. It all takes place on the plantation in Cora’s mother’s perspective. Sheila Atim as Mabel does a phenomenal job acting with her eyes and we really internalized her mental state with our sound design.

Barry always pushes us to break what we have and try something new. Which is what Mabel was. We had a good palette to start with. I hired Recordist Watson Wu, who resides in Florida. Last year was when the 17-year cicadas were coming through the south, he camped out in the Everglades for three days and nights and captured all these sounds.

 

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Watson, when did you start talking to Onnalee about the sort of sounds that she would want for The Underground Railroad and what did that list include?

Watson Wu (WW): In the beginning, she reached out to me and wanted ambient sounds of the Florida wilderness, far away from civilization, to simulate how it sounded back in the 1800s before automobiles. And so I did some research, talked to a friend of mine who’s a fishing Captain and one of his homes is near the Everglades. It’s no man’s land. He showed me on a Google map: go here, park here, jump over that gate and keep walking for miles and guaranteed, within 15 minutes of walking, you’re not going to hear anything.

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Sound recordist Watson Wu

I followed Mike’s idea; I kept going. And sure enough, I was able to get literally half-hour takes without an aircraft. Wow. If I could get three minutes and 30 seconds of an ambience without traffic noise then I’m very happy. You can take that file and loop it because any scenes for a TV series or a movie typically aren’t going to be longer than a minute.

But I want to get longer takes. A half-hour take? That’s just wow. This place is great. It reminded me of Iceland; in certain areas I’d go four hours and not hear one single airplane or a car. It’s beautiful. It’s eerie actually because ears are always struggling to hear sounds. We’re used to being in the city, always hearing cars somewhere, always hearing somebody’s lawnmower, AC unit, or heater going off. So it was mind-blowing to hear very quiet sounds for that long.

It’s eerie actually because ears are always struggling to hear sounds.

Onnalee wanted daytime ambience, nighttime ambience, and if there was a strange sound from an insect or bird, to capture it. If there is foliage moving from wind, she wanted that — basically, just get everything that sounds interesting and eerie to use for the show because it has a lot of quiet moments.

She reached out to me right after summer, which isn’t ideal if you want crazy insects like we have in the summertime, especially in Florida. So we missed the cicadas. But I did capture quite a bit of ambient sounds, authentic wilderness sounds.

It’s kind of fortunate in a way because if I had gone during summer it would be mostly cicadas and nothing else. So it worked out. I was able to capture just one cricket by itself (because I don’t want crickets all the time). I captured mosquitoes and bees that were trying to get under the bug netting on my hat. There were some places where I couldn’t see in front of me because the swarm of mosquitoes was so thick. And the noise, wow! It was deafening.

Creating the music fro The Underground Railroad:

If you want the story behind The Underground Railroad‘s music, check out Soundworks Collection’s interview with two-time Oscar-nominated composer Nicholas Britell (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk):



The Music for The Underground Railroad with Composer Nicholas Britell - Mix Sessions 2021


There were some places where I couldn’t see in front of me because the swarm of mosquitoes was so thick.

I wore long sleeves the entire time and had steel-toe waterproof boots in case something lunged at me. I’ve seen alligators, snakes, things with teeth. I brought a big machete with me and I used a mic stand as a potential weapon to defend myself. And I had to walk around the alligators. There were gators in the shallow water and gators on the road, too. And I had to walk around them. I could see them eyeballing me. There was one snake I came across and I could see it had a bulge because it just ate something, like a rat, and it lunged at me but it couldn’t move very far. I was ready. It was a water moccasin —extremely poisonous, extremely mean. So yeah, the things you do for sound!

I brought a big machete with me and I used a mic stand as a potential weapon to defend myself.

I also wore these Shure SE 846 earphones, which I’m so glad for because with the hat on you aren’t able to wear headphones. These are the best earphones. I can shoot certain rifles and handguns with these and still be protected and I can listen to what I’m shooting. These will let me hear very detailed sounds, quiet and loud, and protect my ears.

My friend Mike suggested that I borrow his mountain bike. With that, I was able to go 10 to 15 miles further into the wilderness to get clean sounds. For a trip like this, you have to be prepared. I’ve been out in the wilderness before, camping, and so I know how to deal with certain things and what to expect and look out for. Being able to plan and execute a trip like this, to be safe while you’re out there, is important.



The Underground Railroad - Ambience Recordings for the TV show


The Underground Railroad – Ambience Recordings for the TV show

It’s scary being in the Everglades at night. I brought a headlamp with me and a flashlight. It’s scary at night when you can’t see what’s going on, can’t see what you’re hearing. So I had to man up and just get out there and do it. I had to place my mics out there and keep watch. I was pointing flashlights at what I was hearing just in case. And I was able to capture the night ambience. The crickets were extremely loud. They performed well. And so all those night sounds were from the Everglades area.

Some places are so quiet that you have to be very good at keeping still and eventually you hit record and walk away (15 to 20-feet away) from the mic so you don’t have to do very shallow breathing — there were very quiet moments that I could feel myself breathing very shallowly — and you can move without getting those rustling sounds or your footstep in the recording.

… you want the entire experience and you want something specific. You want to get all of that at the same time.

I had a SoundField SPS200 ambisonic mic on a mic stand and I also had a Pearl MS8CL handheld mic, which is very sensitive. I could point it at very specific sources. So if there was a bird behind a bush, I could point the Pearl mic at it and get that sound while the ambisonic mic was collecting sound of the entire 360-degree area. That’s the thing, you want the entire experience and you want something specific. You want to get all of that at the same time.

Later on, actually, when the following year came, I offered to get the cicadas Onnalee wanted. So I reached out to K-Tek to get a 20-foot boom pole. And Tino Liberatore (Director of Sales) said, “What are you going to do with a 20-foot boom pole?”

I said, “I want to reach the trees. I want to get my mic up there next to a cicada and capture those sounds.”
And he’s like, “What?! We all avoid those sounds. And you want to capture the cicadas??”

I always avoid them because they ruin whatever you’re recording.

When I got the boom pole, I practiced with it first. You have to be very careful how you move the mic and how you hold the pole as to not create rumbling noise. So I went on my own to certain areas and walked around and got the pole way up there — struggling to keep it very still — to capture extremely loud cicadas. So when you hear the cicadas in the show, it was me right on them with a Sanken CO-100 K mic, which has a frequency range of 20 Hz to 100 kHz, so I was capturing at 32-bit/192 kHz really close on the cicadas.

With those high-fidelity recordings, they were able to create crazy sound design.

Learn more details about Waton’s recording adventure on ‘The Underground Railroad’:

Want more details on Watson Wu’s recordings for The Underground Railroad? Check out his blog post here

 

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Right from the get-go, in Ep. 1 “Chapter 1: Georgia,” the cicadas and bugs in the ambience are so prominent and powerful….

OB: What’s great about that microphone, the Sanken CO-100 K, is if you crank the preamp up, it almost has this distortion quality to it, which is something that I really wanted to get.

We gave all these recordings to Harry Cohen, who was one of our other sound designers, and he morphed them and changed them.

One of the sound designers that worked on this project with us, Jay Jennings, said, “Crank this. It has a very unique tone.” So we were trying his input on this kind of recording style. We gave all these recordings to Harry Cohen, who was one of our other sound designers, and he morphed them and changed them. He also has a huge library of recordings.

We had 8 to 10 cricket effects tracks in 5.1 that we created, and we added a whole bunch of mono elements as well to create this 3D feel, like a depth of field, because if you just use stereo effects or if you just use 5.1s, then it just sits in the track. There’s no depth to it.

Effects re-recording mixer Mathew Waters did a good job of shaping those tracks, saying, “Okay, I need this. I need that. Okay, great. Let’s try this.”

…if you just use stereo effects or if you just use 5.1s, then it just sits in the track. There’s no depth to it.

Watson also captured the sounds of a steam train. One of the best recordings that he did on that steam train is he put the microphones down on the tracks and it had such a unique perspective; you could hear the train in a different way. That was the main recording that I used of the steam train. I morphed it to sound almost like wind or something, and created this huge low-end sound design element that we use throughout the series, especially in Ep. 10. It’s one of the most prominent sounds and people don’t even know it’s a train. It’s awesome.



The Underground Railroad - Steam Train recording session for the TV show


The Underground Railroad – Steam Train recording session for the TV show

 

Watson, can you talk about that steam train recording session? What did you capture and what was in your kit?

WW: I emailed this museum about my needs and they said, “You’re in luck; we have a steam train coming soon and you can rent it on a weekday when nobody is here. We have a 6-mile track.”

On the steam train itself, I had six channels going. I had two mics right above the steam engine, where the train engineer would stand shoveling coal into the firebox. I used the DPA 4061s because there’s basically no room to put bigger mics. I put the mics up high, at each far corner up top, pointed down and in toward where the firebox is located. I kept asking, “Are these areas safe? Can I wrap my cables here, and use zip-ties and gaffer’s tape?”

The engineer told me where I could and could not touch. I was able to use the Microdot cable to extend the cables. I kept my recorder up in the corner away from the floor because it’s really messy. If you’re going to record a steam train make sure to wear your ugliest, darkest clothing. Do not wear white or any light color because it’s messy.

I used a range of mics, from inexpensive to very expensive because they each have their own purposes.

I had a RØDE M1 handheld dynamic vocal mic right next to the smokestack. It was placed in front of the smokestack because, as the train moves forward, the steam is going backward, and that steam will destroy a mic. I had to use a lot of zip ties to keep it very still. It’s a very rough ride but that mic is a workhorse.

I put a Sennheiser E 935, another handheld dynamic vocal mic, right at the steam train’s air compressor to record any little hiss or sounds. That mic does a good job of capturing higher frequency sounds whereas the RØDE does a great job of capturing lower frequency sounds. I used a range of mics, from inexpensive to very expensive because they each have their own purposes.

I also had the Pearl MS8CL and a Rycote WS 10 windshield kit, which is just big enough to hold the mic. Anytime we had to do foley, I would just point that mic at whatever was happening.

It’s not as loud on the train as you’d think. It’s only when the safety valve pops open and you see the steam rising up, that’s when you hear a sound that’s really loud and high-pitched. I had to cover my ears when that happened or use my Shure earphones to protect myself.

The owner of the train, who was also operating the train, would warn me beforehand when that sound was coming. He knew from experience, just by hearing, that the safety valve was going to pop open and the steam was going to blow into the sky.

The size of the cars were different and so they had different sonic characteristics.

All the mics were going into a Zoom F6 recorder. I didn’t use the Sound Device recorder that I love to use because I didn’t want to get dirty. But I knew from my past sessions that the Zoom F6 would do a good job. It won’t work for all jobs, but for certain jobs, it does fantastic.

I took another Zoom F6 into a connected passenger car and had the SoundField SPS200 ambisonic mic inside a Rycote Cyclone on a Manfrotto 5001 B light stand — a nice, portable light stand with legs that can fold out completely flat. So I can put something heavy on the legs to keep it stabilized and keep it from falling over if there are jerky movements in the train car. And I zip-tied my mic stand to the seat so that it didn’t fall over during acceleration or deceleration of the train.

I was able to get the movement and rattling sounds inside the car without the steam train sound in those recordings. One of the cars was a Jim Crow car — a segregation car — and so I was able to record the white section by itself and then later on, the black section by itself. The size of the cars was different and so they had different sonic characteristics.

We were traveling at low speed, medium speed, and high speed and we got the sound of the windows rattling.

At a cleared area, I was able to step out to capture train pass-bys/whistles with a Sound Devices 788T-SSD recorder with Sennheiser 418s to track and Sennheiser 8040s in XY for panning left to right/ right to left to capture the moving train.

The two handheld recorders I placed between the tracks were an Olympus LS-11 and a Zoom H2n. The engineers were like, “Are you sure you want to do that??” And I said, “Heck Yeah!”

I like to capture as much as possible at one time because more is better.

I was recording in the connected cars at the same time that I was capturing the other sounds of the trains. And I was able to hang out by the track and get the pass-bys at the same time the on-boards were recording. I like to capture as much as possible at one time because more is better. During the editing, they’ll change scenes or re-do certain scenes. The beauty of recording so many sounds, so many tracks, at the same time is that you have options. If you just want the sound of the car going over the tracks without the engine, without the billowing of steam and the safety valve hiss, you have that option.

 


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Onnalee, you talked about taking a horror film approach for this series, and that whip sound is certainly ‘horrific.’ It’s brutal and visceral. There are so many sounds like that in The Underground Railroad that are very specific and particular, like the hand-forged chains, metal levers, all the creaky floors and doors in Arnold’s childhood home and the bellows in the forge in Ep. 4, and all those great lantern sounds. Did you have specific recording sessions for that?

OB: The bellows sound comes back later in the other part of Ep. 5, where it’s decrepit and hardly works and it’s rusty. The bellows for the fire was definitely a very unique sound. It’s something you don’t see every day in modern times. That sound wasn’t captured on set. That was all created after the fact. Foley did some, sound effects did some, and sound design. With all of those combinations, we created this sound altogether with the rope and the chain, the creaks and the rust sound, and the heavy squeak — those make it have a very unique sound that comes up later.

The bellows for the fire was definitely a very unique sound.

We used Heikki Kossi in Finland to do our foley. He and his crew at H5 Film Sound are amazing.

We knew Ep. 3 “Chapter 3: North Carolina” was going to be a challenging one for foley because Cora and Grace are up in the attic and it’s this two-part attic so we wanted to have the lower part of the attic feel totally different than the upper part. Heikki built a little space in his foley room that he got inside and moved wood around and created the whole feel of this attic. I said, “I want the walls to breathe. I want everything. Does it have a metal roof? Can you create that sound? I want wind on a metal roof. Can you record that?” And he was game.

He did a great job of creating ‘background foley.’ He’s really, really good at that. I never worked with Heikki until this job. And so it was really nice to figure out what his expertise are and that is definitely one of them. His whole process is different from the people in the States. He covered everything — stuff you wouldn’t think foley would cover, like wind in trees, creaks, and all of his water foley was really excellent.

 

TheUndergroundRailroad_sound-08

Special platform created for attic foley at H5 Film Sound

Heikki, can you talk about your approach to foley on The Underground Railroad? What were some your biggest challenge in terms of foley? And what were some of your unique setups for this show?

Heikki Kossi (HK): Starting on The Underground Railroad was interesting because I started with the last episode without seeing any of the earlier episodes. Of course, we had creative talks with Onnalee about what was to come.

TheUndergroundRailroad_sound-09

Foley Artist Heikki Kossi

I got a strong impression of the aesthetics of the series even though I started with the last episode. And during the process, I noticed that the instinct I followed was right. For example, I worked on Ep. 6 “Tennessee – Proverbs” without knowing what will happen on Ep. 4 “The Great Spirit” or Ep. 9 “Indiana – Winter.” I just had some special feeling about Ridgeway’s relation to the blacksmith’s workplace. I felt that there was something dark in that place and I felt like doing some of the metal sounds in a way that’s very creepy and ugly. The visuals were so inspiring and at the same, I followed my gut.

I felt that there was something dark in that place and I felt like doing some of the metal sounds in a way that’s very creepy and ugly.

For me, the most important thing is the performance — acting with sound. The Underground Railroad is full of amazing acting. Even when the characters don’t do anything overt there are so many motives for foley, especially for off-screen. And there was a lot of that on this show. Onnalee was looking for different textures for the locations and buildings. Those off-screen ambiences (background foley) are something you just need to skip quite often because there is not time for that but with this one there was time.

For example, in Ep. 3 “Chapter 3: North Carolina” Onnalee wanted to create different feeling of the house where Cora and Grace were hiding in the attic. So I carefully spotted all three floors. For the first and second floors, I recorded in the room with natural reverb but using different pits. The first one is more solid and the second one is more hollow. And I created different creaks for every floor.

The attic was recorded in a normal “dry” foley room to make it more intimate. Also, I was using pits that I’ve made from 80-year-old or even 200-year-old wood. It has a totally different sound.

I was using pits that I’ve made from 80 year old or even 200 year old wood. It has a totally different sound.

Then I asked Onnalee what kind of roof there was because, when I performed foley, I haven’t yet seen the episodes that showed the type of roofing on the houses. So for the attic, I created two takes of metal roof rattling for the left and right sides, and also metal creaks and wooden creaks. For the first and second floor only, I created wooden creaks. So that was the way to make the walls breath and to create a special sonic experience of the place.

When I’m recording these sounds for the background, at the same time I’m listening to the temp tracks with dialogue, effects and music in one ear. Then, my performance is like a jam session with the foley elements. It’s almost like playing in the band. Of course, I’m performing to picture because there is so much information and motive for the color of the sound and the rhythm of what I see in the image. I just try to follow the characters’ movement and reactions, especially what’s happening with their eyes.



Master Foley Artist Heikki Kossi performs footsteps for 'The Underground Railroad'


Foley Artist Heikki Kossi performs footsteps for ‘The Underground Railroad’

My goal is to follow the story. I really enjoy that. This is a totally different world compared to, for example, walking on-screen steps where you just need to be in hard sync with the exact performance, which is an enjoyable and important part of the job.

It’s always hard to say exactly what is challenging and what is easy. The Underground Railroad was just full of small details with everything. And while doing all those things, you just need to be aware of the textures and your own feelings. Sometimes it’s hard. But it’s also rewarding.

In regards to special setups, for the attic I raised the pit one meter high and put one microphone under the pit to capture more hollowness. I also used the same method for when Cora and Grace hear steps off-screen from the other floors.

As for the mics, we used the Neumann KMR81 and AKG C414. For the crunchy stone footsteps in the underground railroad tunnel, we mainly used a Shure KSM313/NE Ribbon mic.

 

[tweet_box]Behind the Harrowing Sound of ‘The Underground Railroad'[/tweet_box]

TheUndergroundRailroad_sound-10

Going back to Ep. 5 “Chapter 5: Tennessee,” which was set in the eerie burned-out woods of Tennessee, can you talk about creating that ambience? You can’t just go out and set the woods on fire to record it, right?

OB: Barry actually did for the shoot. There was a controlled fire while they were shooting. Some of this was enhanced, but a lot of those trees that you see burning are controlled burns.

There was a controlled fire while they were shooting.

That was a question. I kept asking, “Is there going to be more fire?”

But Barry said nope. This is what it is.

It was actually more challenging to create a subtle fire than having it be a forest fire. And it ebbs and flows. How can you make fire interesting when it lasts for almost two hours?

Jay Jennings poured his heart into these episodes; these were his babies and he did a fantastic job. His sound design theme that he created used anvil hits and clocks, and it’s almost like Arnold Ridgeway’s time is running out; you’ll notice that it really pays off towards the end of season.

 

TheUndergroundRailroad_sound-11

As for the score, it’s not constant. There are moments where it’s just sound design and then the music would slip in so subtly. It was beautifully done! Was the score crafted that way?

OB: Composer Nicholas Britell and I have worked together a few times and we’ve really gotten into a great working relationship. It’s nice for a sound designer and composer to really communicate. We would talk once a week, sometimes about the different stuff he was doing.

It’s nice for a sound designer and composer to really communicate.

I’d ask, “What episode are you working on right now?” I would talk to him about scenes that I’ve covered pretty heavily in musical sound design. Because there was a big balance of elements that were like score that we were creating. And certain times he had stuff in the same place. And I’d say, “I’ve got to mute all this stuff. I’m going to play this and I’m going to change my sound design to match your key. You’re in D major flat so let’s change our stuff to that.” And vice versa.

He said, “Hey, I need fire sounds. Can you create some forest fire sounds and trees? I want to implement that into my score.” So I’d create something and send it to him and then he’d write that stem in his score.
Sometimes it was interesting on the mix stage; Mat [Waters], mixing the effects would ask, “Where’s that fire coming from?” It was in the score!

So it was a balance of that as well. I’d say 95% of the time, Nick and I already figured out what’s score and what’s sound design and Barry was a big part of that too. He loves sound in general, and loves having a rich soundtrack.

I’d say 95% of the time, Nick and I already figured out what’s score and what’s sound design and Barry was a big part of that too.

The fact that it does meld so nicely was great. And Barry likes that. He doesn’t like things to pop in and off unless it’s intended to be that way. So how can we make those lines beautiful?

 

TheUndergroundRailroad_sound-12

You mentioned mixing this with Mathew Waters. So you were handling dialogue and music and he was on effects?

OB: That’s correct. I don’t sound supervise that much, so when I do I put my heart and soul into it. I don’t like to mix my own material. I really like to have a different perspective on that. And sometimes I’m like, “What’s going on over there? Why did you mute that?” And Mat’s like, “Oh, because this…”

Everything is for the benefit of the project, which makes for a great mixing experience.

Mathew Waters and I have been working together for a long time. If he mutes one of my sounds, I don’t go into a ball and cry or get pissed off. Everything is for the benefit of the project, which makes for a great mixing experience.

I mean, every once in a while…

No, I’m kidding! It’s a good back and forth, you know? That’s probably why the mix sounds the way it does, because I’m like, “Take that out. Move that around.” And he’s like,”What’s going on with music over there? Can you look at that?” There’s no dancing around what we really feel and what the other person is doing.
 

A big thanks to Onnalee Blank, Watson Wu, and Heikki Kossi for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of The Underground Railraod and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

 

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