Brian Y McLaughlin

One of my most recent projects was Sound Design work for the movie “trippin”, written and directed by Devi Snively.  These are some demos of the post production sound work I did on “trippin”, which included sound cleanup (removing errant sounds picked up while recording), sound design and sound mixing.

Trippin Sound Demo 1

This is an example from the opening of the movie, known in “trippin” circles as The Van Scene.  Here I had to take shots from a stationary van and a moving van, and make them all sound like they came from a van driving down the road.  The van had to sound a bit “old” to sell the later plot elements, but I also had to remove the sounds of birds and insects that were captured while filming outside the van.  Also, the metal walls of the van created some nasty sonic artifacts that I removed as well.

Trippin Sound Demo 2

This demo comes from the “Bathroom Scene” in “trippin”.  Here I took the audio, which had low levels to begin with, but also had lots of errant sounds to be removed, like the sound of the rain that happened during filming.  It all came out quite nicely in the end, and then was combined with a much fuller sound mix for the bathroom, that includes water in pipes, a leaky toilet that bubbles and gurgles, as well as frogs and the other creatures and insects of the night you’d expect to hear in a cabin in the woods.

Trippin Sound Demo 3

My favorite of all the demos released so far.  The sound in this scene was all over the place, what with the insects, frogs, different car and truck sounds and none of it matched up.  So, the first step was to clean it all up as best as possible, then start designing the remaining soundscape.  This was a lot of fun, as one of the things I wanted to do was create a unique sound for the truck, as it belonged to our character Red, and I wanted the truck to be an extension of his character.  It was already a crappy truck, but it needed to”sound” crappy.  So if you listen closely, you’ll hear lots of rattles and squeaks and a nicely distinct engine sound, as well as an appropriate song on his radio.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these samples, and believe me, these are just the tip of the iceberg.  This movie is a lot of fun.  (Not only to work on, but to watch as well.)  Rock on, and keep on trippin!

Tags: Brian Y McLaughlin, devi snively, Sound Design, trippin