Justin, James, and I took a field trip to the Lake Erie Nature Preserve to record some raw audio for the sound cues in the show.
In our design meeting a couple of days before the outing, Justin and I gave James a “superfast crash course” in sound design. Mostly, it was learning how to read a script like a sound designer–What does this environment sound like? What kinds of sounds might help communicate the action onstage? What kind of mood do we want to set as we transition between scenes–how might a soundscape or music support that? Then we went through the play scene by scene, brainstorming cues.
Armed with our printed list of cues and my field mic, we drove up to the lake and embarked on a sound designer scavenger hunt. We were teaching and practicing fundamental skills that would indeed serve the project: listening with a critical ear, identifying natural sounds that can communicate various settings, generating our own sounds to support the action of the story. Rigorous, systematic research, for sure. And we had a blast doing it.
Research Question: What do streaks of early morning sunlight through a bedroom window sound like?
We got several minutes of birds chirping as we walked down the wooded trail. Unfortunately, most of them were too far away for the mic to pick up. Here, Justin stands holding the field mic up to capture the caws of the bird perched on the branch above. James stands beside him, stifling a laugh because this is the loudest, most obnoxious bird in the park. It’s the one that ended up in the show. Those little bird lungs were the only ones powerful enough to come through clearly over the wind.
In the final scene, as the the first streaks of sunlight come through Reuben’s window, this is the sound cue. You can hear one bird very prominently, but others further in the distance fill out the background.
Research Question: If none of us want cannonball into Lake Erie in mid-March, how else can we make a body-sized splash for Reuben’s fall into the sea?
Research Question: What quality of movement through the water do we need to communicate the action of the ocean scene?
Here, James and Justin sit on a metal pier. James holds the field mic toward the water while Justin holds a thick tree branch–he thrashes it around to create the sounds of Reuben’s attempts to swim when his parachute crashes. Floating toward the top of the frame is one of the many pieces of driftwood we threw into the lake to try to get the perfect “body hitting the water” splash. Here’s a compilation of our best takes:
Other sounds created with sticks and driftwood on the lake:
- sinking to the bottom of the sea: long, sweeping motions with the tree branch through the water; some dragging the floating driftwood along
- bobbing in the water: push the driftwood down, just beneath the surface with the branch and let it pop back up–it makes a cute little “ploop” noise
- Reuben swimming: long, slow sweeps through the water with the branch, lifting out of the water at the end of each stroke
- Seahorse swimming: quick, light swirling of the water with a long thin stick
Compilation of the variety of water sounds we recorded to incorporate into the show:
Research Question: How does the parachute sound different in the gentle breeze vs. in a storm vs. sinking through the water?
Pictured here, James records with the field mic while Justin waves a Target bag he found in his car through the wind.
And the recording:
And here, Justin squats where the boat ramp meets the water. He drags and shakes the Target bag to give us a variety of sounds to work with in the transition from air to sea: rippling in the storm, pelted by rain, uneven drop into the water, fast sinking.
And the recording:
In the span of about 90 minutes, we captured audio for about half of the sound cues in the show (even with the hike into the woods and having to drive to the other side of the park to access the lake). It was focused, efficient, productive work. At the same time, the trip was full of delight in discovery, curiosity, creativity, collaborative brainstorming and problem solving. It was genuinely the most fun I’ve had as a director in a long time.
So what did we do with all this raw audio?
Now that you’ve heard some of the initial recordings, here is the version that we used in the show. As you’ll hear, Justin combined pieces of a few different recordings to help communicate the action of the story. This is the transition between scenes 4 and 5, Reuben’s (our main character) fall from a parachute in the sky to the bottom of the sea. As the sound operator, James had to crossfade the sound cue for the storm and the splash that begins this sequence and time it so that sound matched the movement of the actors. In this you’ll also hear audio description of the onstage action, voiced by our stage manager, Kassie Rice.
Justin used this same sequence of sounds, played in reverse to support the action and mood of Reuben’s journey from the sea back to his bedroom. While the first sequence had much more naturalistic sound, when played in reverse it becomes otherworldly and a bit disorienting before settling back into the silence of the bedroom for the final scene. Audio description of the onstage action in this clip is also voiced by Kassie Rice.