Diving into the Immersive Sound of ‘Young Woman and the Sea’

With the 2024 Summer Olympics games coming up this month, it’s fun to dive into the history of competitive swimming. Director Joachim Rønning’s biographical sports drama Young Woman and the Sea – streaming on Disney+ on July 19th – follows the inspirational story of Gertrude (Trudy) Ederle, an American competitive swimmer who became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. (She also competed in the 1924 Olympic Games and won a gold medal as a member of the first-place U.S. team in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay!)

The sound of Young Woman and the Sea is a beautiful blend of water and swimming sounds that have a realistic, documentary feel with more subjective sounds of Trudy’s POV, including her hearing impairment (she was almost completely deaf since childhood due to measles.)

Here, Tormod Ringnes (Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer/Re-Recording Mixer at Uhørt),
Baard H. Ingebretsen (Supervising Sound Editor at Uhørt), Luke Gentry (Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer at SONA.), and Ben Meechan (Supervising Sound Editor at SONA.) discuss their approach to blending realistic sound design with more subjective sounds, recording numerous sounds of water from above the surface and below it, recording swimming sounds to picture, creating huge, era-appropriate crowds, creating sounds to make the tugboat feel like a character, using sound to capture Trudy’s struggles on long-distance swims, and also to capture the power of her swimming and the force of her determination.

Young Woman and the Sea | Official Trailer

What were Director Joachim Rønning’s goals for sound on Young Woman and the Sea? What were some of the first sounds or scenes he wanted you to tackle?

Tormod Ringnes (TR): Working with director Joachim Rønning is always an incredible experience. We’ve been fortunate to collaborate with him since his first short film, so our work on Young Woman and the Sea was part of a long-standing partnership. Joachim is very dedicated and focused on all the aspects of the sound and constantly challenges us to go the extra mile. He is passionate about using sound as a storytelling element.

We aimed to immerse the audience in her journey, highlighting both her triumphs and struggles.

Joachim’s main goal was to capture Trudy’s subjective perspective. He wanted the sound to reflect her experiences, especially her challenges as a woman and an athlete at that time, and how she dealt with swimming and growing up. We aimed to immerse the audience in her journey, highlighting both her triumphs and struggles. Joachim wanted the sound to subtly reflect her hearing impairment, not by technically altering frequencies or levels, but by creating a design that depicted her focus, chaos, and personal experiences.

The first scene we worked on was the opening, as it set the tone for the entire film. We experimented with various versions, including more artistic design, but eventually opted for a highly subjective approach. The scene begins with the sound of a big wave before the first image, transitioning to a calm focus on Trudy, and then moving into the title sequence and young Trudy’s feverish state.

The opening of the film has…a huge, massive wave that reflects her inner mind and emotions.

Baard H. Ingebretsen(BI): The opening of the film has the sound of a wave that starts very subtly and grows into a huge, massive wave that reflects her inner mind and emotions. These are some of the scenes we started with very early, and the wave constantly changed. JR [Joachim Rønning] wanted it to be an important and impressive storytelling element.

Ben Meechan (BM): Collaboration was definitely key for Joachim and for his long-term sound team of Tormod and Baard. Finding a crew that they could work alongside was a major goal. Thankfully, I had worked with Tormod and Baard on Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, so I already had a good understanding of the expectations that Joachim would want us to achieve. Luke and I work in a similar way to both Tormod and Baard so we clicked as a group really easily.

The film’s main opening scene is in New York City in 1914. The family hears distant fire truck alarm bells as it goes to the aid of a ferry on fire in the harbor. How did you use this scene to set up the audience’s expectations for sound in the rest of the film?

TR: This scene is from the perspective of a feverish Trudy. We start with an abstract sound design as she looks out the window, hearing distant booms and a subtle rising tone that becomes a fire truck’s bell. When we cut to the chaotic scene, we see multiple fire trucks, people running, and a burning ship. This traumatic experience is portrayed subjectively, reflecting how such events can feel disorienting and slow-motion. This event profoundly impacted Trudy and her mother, influencing the rest of the film’s sound design.

…we were torn between playing the effects either loud and all-encompassing or diffused and distant.

BI: From Trudy’s perspective in almost delirium, we hear and see the streets filled with people in panic, fire trucks, bells, etc. The more she sees and takes in, the more we hear and the more dramatic it gets. It’s a terrible, autentic event. It was a great storytelling opportunity to get into Trudy’s head.

BM: This was such a terrible historic event; we were torn between playing the effects either loud and all-encompassing or diffused and distant. Due to Trudy’s frame of mind, we were able to go between the dynamics of both. The lower-end sounds create a feeling in the chest whilst the high-end bells and whistles almost feel like a ringing in her head.

Young Trudy wants to learn to swim, so she plays “Ain’t We Got Fun” on the ukulele – all through the house and in the butcher shop – until her dad relents. Can you talk about the sound editorial and mix on this sequence?

TR: This scene was challenging. We had great on-set recordings, but we wanted the song to be both fun for the audience and annoying for her father. The sequence was shot in many different locations, so we had to do additional recordings to get everything right rhythmically and with enough variation. The scene was beautifully edited by Úna [Ní Dhonghaíle, film editor], adding to its charm.

BI: With a fantastic collaboration with Úna, the goal was to make the scene as annoying as possible. Most of it is production sound, and some extra ukulele recordings made the song super-funny. Her stomping and running rhythmically in the attic made it more and more irritating for the whole family.

Watching and listening to Luke and Chris Howard (sound effects editor) recreate it and learning to play the ukulele for the M&E was also a joy!!

BM: Baard did a great job and had a lot of fun creating the scene-by-scene distraction of Trudy upsetting the whole neighborhood.

Watching and listening to Luke and Chris Howard (sound effects editor) recreate it and learning to play the ukulele for the M&E was also a joy!!
 

Trudy learns to swim in the ocean (not the pool) because she was sick with measles. How did you want the ocean to sound in this scene?

TR: When Trudy enters the water for the first time, she’s nervous but not afraid. The ocean is where she finds peace. Because of her hearing loss, real-world noises are stressful for her, but in the water, she feels harmony. We started the scene with strong waves, then shifted focus to the small details, like water laps around her feet as she tunes out the rest of the world. The underwater waves were made big but not scary, emphasizing sonic beauty. This set up the concept of water for the rest of the film. Her swimming was better in the ocean compared to the indoor pool, where we made her movements appear clumsy.

We set up for the weekend recording the constant barrage of waves against the coast.

BM: We wanted the waves to feel huge and scary from the beach – definitely somewhere a child should not be learning to swim. Luckily, living in the UK, we are surrounded by beaches where most of the time the water is unsafe to swim in due to tides and weather. Luke and I traveled to Dungeness in the South of England not far from where Trudy finally landed in Kingsdown. We set up for the weekend recording the constant barrage of waves against the coast. Due to the white noise that waves can sometimes emanate, we needed to get clarity in the recordings and add weight, so we decided to record an LCR using Sanken microphones. We had a stereo pair of CUX-100Ks and a CO-100K down the middle. Recording at 192khz, the quality of these mics allowed us to slow the waves down, capturing the detail whilst naturally adding weight, perfect for what we were after.

Can you talk about the underwater swimming sounds – for in the pool, and in the ocean? Were these custom-recorded? Were there any helpful indie sound libraries? Did foley help with these sounds as well?

TR: All the water and swimming sounds were custom-recorded. The UK team recorded the indoor and pool swimming sounds, while the outdoor ocean swimming sounds were recorded by the Norwegian team – all synced with the picture. We did extensive recordings, processing, and assembling. Joachim challenged us to emphasize the force of her feet underwater, making it crucial to record everything in sync, which gave us a documentary feel and effectively portrayed her strength and state. It was all beautifully put together by Luke Gentry and Chris Howard.

BI: We actually swam the whole film in an outdoor pool in Norway that gave us a fantastic palette of close recorded water sounds. It was blended into Luke and Ben’s swimming sounds which gave it both depth and closeness.

Luke Gentry (LG): We purchased an ASF-1 MKII hydrophone at the beginning of the job and used it extensively to capture as much underwater source material as possible. Hydrophones are tricky devices, often making small sounds appear enormous. Our best results came from using it in a bathtub, where we forced air around it to achieve that essential ‘underwater-ness.’ It’s a beautiful-sounding mic that captures tons of high-frequency detail. This allowed us to avoid the typical rolled-off and muted underwater sound and instead create a rich and textured underwater palette.
 

Can you talk about creating the sound of the NYC street crowds?

TR: We love working on period films and ensuring all sounds fit the era, from cars and doors to people. We had large crowd recording sessions where every detail was scripted, allowing us to build a historically accurate crowd sound.

Buster Flaws, our crowd editor, did an amazing job making all crowds true and believable.

BI: The NYC crowd scenes and all other crowd scenes are built up with numerous recordings in lots of different languages. The NYC street crowds are built up by mostly German and some English/American voices. Trudy grew up in “Little Germany,” which had the largest population of Germans outside of Germany at that time. Buster Flaws, our crowd editor, did an amazing job making all crowds true and believable.

Trudy’s first long swim in the ocean is from NYC to a restaurant in New Jersey. She even swims under a tugboat! What were some of your challenges or opportunities to use sound to help tell the story here?

TR: In this scene, we aimed to convey a swim that was spontaneous and driven by a crazy bet. We highlighted her positive energy against the dangerous water and potential mishaps. This race, supposed to be completed in three hours, seemed impossible, so we wanted both the audience and the challenger to doubt her success. The scene was built with a rhythm in sound, collaborating closely with the music to drive the story, and at times, we contrasted this by breaking the rhythm to heighten tension.

The scene was built with a rhythm in sound, collaborating closely with the music to drive the story, and at times, we contrasted this by breaking the rhythm to heighten tension.

BI: The big and massive sound of the tugboat was a great opportunity to show how dangerous it was and how small Trudy was in the water, and the sound of her strength, swimming deep below the danger.

BM: Utilizing weight, whilst rolling low end in the speakers and the incoming propeller traveling overhead gave an all-immersive feel of danger.

Trudy’s first attempt at swimming across the English Channel is a media circus. The ship is full of people and there’s a bagpipe player. What went into the sound for this scene?

TR: Mixing this scene was both challenging and enjoyable, involving numerous elements to depict the circus-like atmosphere while staying with Trudy’s perspective. The bagpipe player’s music seamlessly transitioned into the score, and the tugboat’s sound became a crucial character element, setting the stage for the journey.

There were so many different accents and languages, but each line was scripted to give everything a personal touch.

BI: We had to build up the scene with different languages, shoutouts, and energetic journalists. The tugboat’s rhythm kicks off the bagpipe player with a strong French captain’s voice on top of that.

BM: All the scenes in the film were a challenge for our dialogue department. Becki Ponting and Buster Flaws did a super job of capturing all the chaos of the press and newspaper people that chased Trudy around. There were so many different accents and languages, but each line was scripted to give everything a personal touch.

There’s a subjective POV of Trudy’s trainer, Jabez Wolffe, mixing the sea sickness pills into the tea that Trudy drinks. Can you talk about creating the subjective sound for this scene?

TR: The tugboat is a key character here, reflecting the emotional state of the scene. We see Jabez Wolffe inside the boat, seasick, with creaking and thumping sounds. As he watches Trudy swim, we shift to his subjective perspective, muting the boat’s sounds and focusing on her distant swimming. We don’t see him mix the seasickness pills into the tea, but we convey his intentions through the sound of the pill bottle, his chewing, and the boat’s noises, hinting at his idea. It was incredibly fun to use sound to express character emotions naturally.

Trudy drinks the tea. Can you talk about your sound work on her subjective/impaired POV?

TR: We experimented with various versions of this scene, some with only sound design and some with only music. The main goal was to portray her drifting in and out of consciousness. Trudy tries hard to keep swimming despite being out of it, so we snapped the sound in and out of reality, going fully subjective where everything becomes distorted.

…we snapped the sound in and out of reality, going fully subjective where everything becomes distorted.

LG: It’s easy to assume that the sound of water is just white noise, but in reality, water is a very dynamic and varied source to record and layer. It can be physically manipulated to perform a myriad of sonic textures, both above and below the surface. It can be gentle and soft as well as deep and powerful, and this movie required us all to seek out that variation and apply it to support the story. For me, Trudy’s tea sequence exemplifies this perfectly.

Trudy’s second attempt is much different. Once the press leaves (thanks to Bill shooting at them with a gun), the swim is more focused on Trudy; her movements in the water and her breath track are significant storytelling sounds. Can you talk about editing and mixing the sounds of her swimming here? How does your approach to sound for the second attempt compare to the first attempt to swim across the Channel?

TR: The idea was to stay with Trudy and her perspective, reflecting her challenges swimming across the channel. We created five different layers of water sounds: underwater variations, the vast open ocean, constant sea waves, waves hitting the boat and her body, and tiny laps hitting her face. This allowed us to shift focus, indicating her control or exhaustion.

We created five different layers of water sounds… This allowed us to shift focus, indicating her control or exhaustion.

Daisy Ridley’s swimming in the ocean was fantastic, but we had minimal sound from the shoot. Our dialogue editor, Becki Ponting, worked wonders with the bits we had, and Daisy did amazing ADR sessions with her face in a water bucket.

BI: We also used the tugboat’s engine to tell the audience how strong the current was. The shaking and rattle of a struggling engine was a storytelling element for describing what Trudy had to deal with in the water.

How did you use sound to help convey Trudy’s feeling of being ‘lost’ in the shallows?

TR: The goal was to enhance the feeling of her struggle in the shallows. We focused on the delicate yet dangerous sounds of the water’s surface, using over-water to symbolize life and underwater to represent danger. This created a sense that she was clinging to a fragile lifeline. Sure, there were big waves and strong winds, but what really made it tough were the small laps of water hitting her face, making it hard for her to breathe. Above the water, everything was chaotic and confusing like she was lost, while below, it was dark and deep, trying to drag her down. She was desperate to survive, but the water kept draining her strength.

Becki Ponting worked extremely hard on the dialogues to try and keep as much of the real sync from Daisy’s performance in this scene.

BM: Becki Ponting worked extremely hard on the dialogues to try and keep as much of the real sync from Daisy’s performance in this scene. During the shoot, the water was freezing and this was important to keep as real to life as possible.

Whilst above the water was panic and danger, when we cut under the water it was important to go back into Trudy’s safe space.

Though we were with Trudy and lost in the Ocean, we wanted to keep the world alive, so Luke designed winds that would constantly move around the audience which dragged the viewer into the sea with Trudy.

What was your biggest creative challenge for sound design on Young Woman and the Sea?

TR: Working with the sea and the tugboat has been a significant challenge. It is incredibly difficult to work with water without it becoming just noise with little variation. We experienced much of the same on Joachim’s film Kon-Tiki, which also takes place on the water. We had to be precise in every cut and create a form of hyperrealism, focusing on every small detail and variation in tiny spaces, such as inside and outside the relatively small boat. The boat itself was meant to be a character, so we probably spent the most time on it. One aspect was the engine, which needed to vary, but when we added all the foley sounds of shaking and movement, the boat truly came to life. Fantastic work by Baard H. Ingebretsen!

BM: When you have a car chase or spaceships battling in space, the action on screen is there. Pitching engines, and adding skids and impacts is not easy by any means, but we are conditioned by what we see and here, to show the power and progression of Trudys journey and to keep up the intensity of her swimming, was tough. We recorded and recorded and constantly tried adding different sounds in with the swimming to change the different gears of Trudy’s swim speeds. The kicking and the power in her arms had to feel precise and motor-like, whilst at the same time allowing her to feel like she was gliding through the water. It was relentless at times especially after tracklaying a sequence, only to find the week after it had been cut or replaced with a different timed shot.

…Fairfield Circuitry ‘Roger That!’ guitar pedal…sounded amazing and ended up being integral to our radio futzing chain.

LG: We were keen to add some vintage analog authenticity to the Harry Horlick radio scenes. In early temp mixes, we had used Audio Ease’s Speakerphone and other plugins to rough out a quick idea but felt it didn’t deliver the tone we wanted. Back at the studio, we dreamed up new ways of finding a solution. These included playing his lines out various speakers and old radios and recording the output both close-up and backed off. This sounded great but it lacked that genuine interference and distortion of an old broadcast, so we bought a Fairfield Circuitry “Roger That!” guitar pedal and ran the radios through this. It sounded amazing and ended up being integral to our radio futzing chain.

What was the most challenging scene to mix? Or, was there a scene that went through several iterations mix-wise before you found the best way to play it? Can you talk about your mix choices here?

TR: Many scenes were challenging to mix. For instance, for the first swimming competition scene when we follow Trudy and her struggle to win after a poor start, we had to work with the music to maintain drive and tension while also incorporating the speaker, coach, and audience. We spent a lot of time setting up the sound for the start: Trudy fumbling initially but then using all her strength to catch up. Then the music takes over and drives the scene, with all the swimming sounds in sync with the music’s rhythm.

We can keep the emotion high even if we almost remove all sound, as long as it serves a purpose.

The other major scene we spent a long time on is the entire final act when she sees land and swims towards it. It was an incredibly difficult scene to craft as a major climax while knowing an even greater moment would come later with her arrival in New York and the parade. In such moments, it’s crucial to maintain drive but also include dynamics and pauses. We can keep the emotion high even if we almost remove all sound, as long as it serves a purpose. One moment is when she sees land and swims towards it with grand music. Then, as she places her first foot down underwater, it becomes completely silent (moon landing). We stay with her subjectively, as at the start of the film, before we hear the audience begin to clap and the music reaches its climax.

What have you gained from your experience of working on the sound of Young Woman and the Sea? Now that it’s over, what has stayed with you the most about working on the sound for this film?

TR: Working on Young Woman and the Sea was a great experience, underscoring the importance of early involvement and close collaboration with the editor. Attention to detail in sound design is essential, but it must always serve the storytelling. The synergy within the sound team, and with Ùna Ní Dhonghaíle, the editor, and Amelia Warner, the composer, was crucial. Everyone was committed to bringing this fantastic story to life.

Working on ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ was a great experience, underscoring the importance of early involvement and close collaboration with the editor.

Working with Luke and Ben was incredibly enjoyable; their positive energy and creativity enhanced the entire process. Collaborating with dialogue and music mixer Mike Prestwood Smith during the final mix was a highlight. The positive atmosphere each day and the producers’ feedback reaffirmed that this is how films should be made.

Our friendship and collaboration have continued, us contributing to their Garfield production and receiving their support on Joachim’s next major film.

BM: I love working alongside Luke, as we have built up a trust in the work we do together over the years. It was great to feel that we now have the opportunity to do that with Tormod and Baard. On this project, they felt so passionate about it and they knew we really had to deliver sonically. It was a great collaboration and one I hope we can continue further.

We put a great team together in all departments and I feel everyone really gave some of their best work.

A big thanks to Tormod Ringnes, Ben Meechan, Baard H. Ingebretsen, and Luke Gentry for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Young Woman and the Sea and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

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