#14. Sound Approach On ‘Last Stand’

‘Last Stand’ presented lots of challenges ahead. It required commitment, passion, and most importantly: researching, researching, researching, and plenty of my own recordings.

I could not risk not using accurate gun fire sounds, so I had to dig online to find the right source. With a little luck, I came across historically accurate libraries on German guns from WWII. However, on their own they sounded weak, not dangerous at all, and they did not sell the scene.

So, it looked like I was back to the drawing board.

Luckily, I found Forrest Gump sound design explained by INDEPTH Sound Design very inspiring.

From this video I quickly learned that it's more about the emotional or dramatic Impact of sound in itself, not always the authenticity of the object filmed and that's what matters the most. From here I discovered a new universe.

It wasn’t only a matter of layering but also what kind of meaning a certain type of sound carries.

For instance, I had to deal with a sudden burst of a landmine scene, where visually there was just a handful of soil thrown off screen on the main characters.

So, I designed a landmine explosion layers by layers, and I sweetened those with lots of other sounds that were more or less related to explosions.

Focusing on the scene, one could also spot some LEGO construction toys knocked over, or a dragon sound about to spit flames from his mouth and many other sounds that had nothing to do with bombs or explosions but were indirectly related to them, as a consequence of the effect of a deflagration.

My target for 'Last Stand' was to create a character’s world devastated by the war,

a world sounding constantly under threat.

Pro Tools tempo mapping was in sync with main characters’ heartbeat, so music, drones, winds and some emotional effects varied according to the scene pace and rhythm.