336 - Tonebenders at TIFF 2025

At this years Toronto International Film Festival I got to interview a bunch of sound people in town to support films screening at TIFF. This episode collects 3 of those interviews, covering some of the international films that I saw during the festival. First up I talk with Oscar winning sound supervisor, Sylvain Bellmare, about the Quebecois film Mille secrets mille dangers (Lovely Day). Then Therese Gylfe & Tove Lidman discuss their work on the Swedish/Spainish film Forestera, which won a major award at TIFF. The final interview of this episode is with María Alejandra Rojas & Arturo Salazar about the really cool Brazilian/Mexican film The Blue Trail. The is movie is a futuristic science fiction film covering the unique ways technology will affect third world countries. __________ Sponsors: This Black Friday, Sound Ideas is offering its biggest savings of the year! Enjoy 50% off all proprietary sound libraries and memberships: our best deal yet on world-class audio collections. But that’s just the beginning. Each week, we’ll spotlight one of our most popular libraries with an exclusive, limited-time discount. Visit https://www.sound-ideas.com/ regularly to discover which library is featured and grab these weekly sound specials before they’re gone!_______ Have you been using Subquake by The Cargo Cult? Get the low end to cut through in your mixes, in ways you were never able to achieve before. We have all used many different low frequency generator plugins over the years, but Subquake is an entirely different beast. Don’t fall into the trap of delivering boring, ho hum sub. Add character and shape to your mixes by having more impact from less signal. Get Subquake, and shake the plaster right off the walls. Head to https://www.thecargocult.nz/ to learn more _______ If you are interested in field recording, you should know about the O-Mini P48 and the brand new O-Mini PIP miniature omni-directional electret microphones. Each one is hand made by Chris Trevino, a practicing field recordist, and a really engaged member of the sound community. He puts a lot of work into making and testing each mic to ensure they live up to his high standards. They are ultra-sonic capable, which makes manipulating your recordings with them a lot of fun. They are also extremely affordable. At $150us for the P48 & $130 for the PIP, they offer a lot of value for a stereo matched pair. Go to https://www.chrisatrevino.com/store to get more information.________ Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/336-tonebenders-at-tiff-2025/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Sinners was a massive critical and box office hit earlier this year. The sound work was a major reason audiences flocked to see it. Part Vampire/Horror, part period gangster and part full blown musical, Sinners is not a film that needed a standard approach to it's sound design and mix. Re-recording mixer Brandon Proctor, Supervising Sound Editor Benny Burtt, Supervising Dialogue & ADR Editor David Butler, Music Editor Felipe Pacheco and Production Sound Mixer Chris Welker talk us through how the sound track was built. Topics range from capturing the the voices and live music on set, to designing the sound of the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s, to mixing everything together to feel real on the mix stage. Finally Re-Recording Mixer/Sound Designer, Steve Boeddeker, joins us to lead an in depth discussion on how long is the perfect amount of time for a blood curdling scream to last? __________ Sponsors: This Black Friday, Sound Ideas is offering its biggest savings of the year! Enjoy 50% off all proprietary sound libraries and memberships: our best deal yet on world-class audio collections. But that’s just the beginning. Each week, we’ll spotlight one of our most popular libraries with an exclusive, limited-time discount. Visit https://www.sound-ideas.com/ regularly to discover which library is featured and grab these weekly sound specials before they’re gone!_______ Have you been using Subquake by The Cargo Cult? Get the low end to cut through in your mixes, in ways you were never able to achieve before. We have all used many different low frequency generator plugins over the years, but Subquake is an entirely different beast. Don’t fall into the trap of delivering boring, ho hum sub. Add character and shape to your mixes by having more impact from less signal. Get Subquake, and shake the plaster right off the walls. Head to https://www.thecargocult.nz/ to learn more _______ The Toucan, by Soundwich, is an omni-directional, ultrasonic microphone that can record up to 100k.  Designed from the ground up with an extremely unique look, the Toucan wants to make ultrasonic recording available for those on a budget, with an eye catching price of $185 US dollars  This is the perfect time to buy because, for Black Friday, Soundwich is offering 15 percent off everything.  Starting now and running until Nov 30th, 2025, only while supplies last.  Head over to https://soundwichartist.com/pages/all-products to learn more and order a Toucan for yourself. Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/335-sinners/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Listeners of Tonebenders sent in their favourite stories of their adventures recording sounds out in the world. This is part one, of two, featuring these amazing soundscapes from all over the world. Recordings were sent in of sounds from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Australia, England, Palau, Laos, Poland, Botswana, Germany, Albania, Switzerland, Canada and The USA. So get ready for a sonic trip around the world! This episode features contributions from Nathan Moody, Simon Panayi, Tim Kahn, Chris Bolte, Andrew Dawson, JååN Verschoren, David Thomas, Philipp Feit,  Diego Lukumy and Lamar Samuels. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for Part 2. Congrats to Diego Lukumy and Lamar Samuels for winning the draw to receive a free pair of O-Mini high-sensitivity, miniature omnidirectional electret microphones, kindly donated by Chris Trevino. Sponsors: This Black Friday, Sound Ideas is offering its biggest savings of the year! Enjoy 50% off all proprietary sound libraries and memberships: our best deal yet on world-class audio collections. But that’s just the beginning. Each week, we’ll spotlight one of our most popular libraries with an exclusive, limited-time discount. Visit https://www.sound-ideas.com/ regularly to discover which library is featured and grab these weekly sound specials before they’re gone!_______ If you are interested in field recording, you should know about the O-Mini P48 and the brand new O-Mini PIP miniature omni-directional electret microphones. Each one is hand made by Chris Trevino, a practicing field recordist, and a really engaged member of the sound community. He puts a lot of work into making and testing each mic to ensure they live up to his high standards. They are ultra-sonic capable, which makes manipulating your recordings with them a lot of fun. They are also extremely affordable. At $150us for the P48 & $130 for the PIP, they offer a lot of value for a stereo matched pair. Go to https://www.chrisatrevino.com/store to get more information.________ Have you been using Subquake by The Cargo Cult? Get the low end to cut through in your mixes, in ways you were never able to achieve before. We have all used many different low frequency generator plugins over the years, but Subquake is an entirely different beast. Don’t fall into the trap of delivering boring, ho hum sub. Add character and shape to your mixes by having more impact from less signal. Get Subquake, and shake the plaster right off the walls. Head to https://www.thecargocult.nz/ to learn more _______ Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/334-2025-listener-field-recording-stories-pt-1/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Viktor is an impressive documentary that relies on sound to tell it’s story. The film’s protagonist is a deaf photographer living in Ukraine, documenting the Russian invasion of of his country after he finds out he is not allowed to sign up as a soldier. Using innovative sound design to immerse the audience in Viktor’s POV (or more accurately POH, point of hearing), the film focuses on his frustration at being unable to fight in the traditional sense and his passion for photography, as a way to serve his country. This spoiler free conversation with Sound Designer Peter Albrechtsen, Sound Designer/Foley Artist Heikki Kossi and Re-recording Mixer Tim Nielsen, discusses how they manipulated the sound in the film to approximate how Viktor hears and just as importantly, when to employ these techniques. The sound design for Viktor evolved drastically from the start of postproduction to the final mix. They began with hard rules for when and how to twist the audio. Yet for the final version, all those rules were thrown out the door. It is an interesting case study following the journey a soundtrack to find a film's “voice”. The sound team interview is followed up with a one on one talk with Viktor's director Olivier Sarbil. Olivier is an impressive man with a very unique relationship to the audio postproduction phase of film making. SPONSORS: This Black Friday, Sound Ideas is offering its biggest savings of the year! Enjoy 50% off all proprietary sound libraries and memberships: our best deal yet on world-class audio collections. But that’s just the beginning. Each week, we’ll spotlight one of our most popular libraries with an exclusive, limited-time discount. Visit https://www.sound-ideas.com/ regularly to discover which library is featured and grab these weekly sound specials before they’re gone! Have you been using Subquake by The Cargo Cult? Get the low end to cut through in your mixes, in ways you were never able to achieve before. We have all used many different low frequency generator plugins over the years, but Subquake is an entirely different beast. Don’t fall into the trap of delivering boring, ho hum sub.  Add character and shape to your mixes by having more impact from less signal. Get Subquake, and shake the plaster right off the walls.  Head to https://www.thecargocult.nz/ to learn more  Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/333-the-unique-sound-of-viktor-with-the-sound-team-director/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

In Part 2 of this in-depth interview with James Mather we talk more about his work as Supervising Sound Editor on the final 4 Harry Potter films (Order of The Phoenix, Half Blood Prince, Deathly Hollows Pt 1&2). James digs into the sound of the horcrux and how the overall sound design was able to become more complex/scary as the main characters grew up. There is also an added bonus of a mini interview with Gillian Dodders, Ben Barker & Glenn Freemantle about their work on The Fantastic Beast Trilogy. All of that is proceeded by Tim's run down of his trip to Mexico City for a recent Tonebenders/MPSE/SAE Institute event, including his adventure being detained by police at the airport on his way home?! SPONSOR: Take your sound design to the next level with the Creator Access Plan from Sound Ideas. This membership puts 100 downloads a year from over 630,000 world-class sounds right at your fingertips: easy to search, simple to use, and built for creators. Power your next project with the sounds pros trust at Sound Ideas. Go to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ to learn more. Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/332-the-sound-legacy-of-harry-potter-with-james-mather-pt-2/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

The sound design in the Harry Potter series completely changed the way audiences expect magic to sound on screen. Those magical sounds also had to evolve as the series went on, to match the skills developed by the main characters. James Mather was the Supervising Sound Editor on the final 4 films in the series (Order of The Phoenix, Half Blood Prince, Deathly Hollows Pt 1&2) and in this episode he discusses what it was like to find out he got the gig, discovering inspiration from both the books and the sounds of the previous films, and how his team designed the magic to match the circumstances and personalities of each character. Stay tuned for part two of this talk coming soon. SPONSOR: Take your sound design to the next level with the Creator Access Plan from Sound Ideas. This membership puts 100 downloads a year from over 630,000 world-class sounds right at your fingertips: easy to search, simple to use, and built for creators. Power your next project with the sounds pros trust at Sound Ideas. Go to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ too learn more Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/331-the-sound-legacy-of-harry-potter-with-james-mather-pt-1/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Last year I got to go to the Sonic Days Conference in Denmark, to do a bunch of interviews with the various people doing presentations about their sound work. With the schedule and presenters for the 2025 edition of the conference now announced, these interviews can give you an idea of what to expect. First up is Shelley Roden, foley artist from Skywalker Sound. Next, game Sound Designer, Katrine Amsler talks about her desire for everyone to find bespoke workflows that meet their own needs. The organizer of the conference, Lars Tirsbæk then gives us a quick history of Sonic Days and Sonic College where the conference resides. Leslie Gaston-Bird talks about the need for skill diversification to make a career in audio and all the different roles she is performing. Finally Sound Designer Peter Storm Wich and picture editor Anne Østerud discuss their collaboration on director Thomas Vinterberg's "Families Like Ours". Head to www.sonicdays.com to see the 2025 schedule and who will be presenting this year. SPONSOR: After over a year of dedicated work, the entire Sound Ideas sound effects collection, over 500,000 individual files, has been upgraded to the Universal Category System’s, filename and metadata standards. With this enhancement, sounds are now more organized, searchable, and ready for seamless integration into your workflow. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/Page/ucs-data-upgrade to learn more. Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/330-sonic-days-interviews/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Directors Domee Shi & Madeline Sharafian, join the show to talk about their approach to collaborating with the audio post team on the newest Pixar film, Elio. Re-recording Mixer Bonnie Wild & Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer Jeremy Bowker are also on board to share how they built the soundscape of the "Communiverse", a friendly and warm version of outer space. Together the directors and sound team discuss how scary is too scary, how they share new sounds during development and what types of references and language they used to communicate the film's sonic needs. If you are going to be in the Mexico City area on Oct 21st, at 4pm, come out to SAE Institute for a afternoon and evening of audio post talk, food and drinks. please register in advance at http://www.tinyurl.com/mpseincdmx and find full details at https://tonebenderspodcast.com/tonebenders-sound-design-meet-up/ SPONSOR: After over a year of dedicated work, the entire Sound Ideas sound effects collection, over 500,000 individual files, has been upgraded to the Universal Category System’s, filename and metadata standards. With this enhancement, sounds are now more organized, searchable, and ready for seamless integration into your workflow. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/Page/ucs-data-upgrade to learn more. Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/329-the-directors-sound-team-from-elio/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Dick Maitland has worked on the sound for over 4,700 episodes of Sesame Street, starting with the show back in 1969. 50 years into the show's run, Steve "Major" Giammaria joined the show as re-recording mixer, and had to quickly get up to speed on all the iconic sounds found on Sesame Street. Together they walk us through the sonic history of one of the most important television programs of all time. Dick talks about performing live foley & sound effects on set during the early days of filming, the importance of signature sounds to make the puppets "real", and how much focus Jim Henson put on the sounds of Sesame Street. Listeners in the Mexico City area, mark you calendars for the Tonebenders Event there on Oct 21st. Full details coming soon! SPONSOR: Sound Ideas’ highly anticipated Mid-Year Sale has been extended for a limited time, but there are only a few days left! Unlock 50% off, on thousands of premium recordings, from epic cinematic sounds to authentic ambiences, ideal for any creative project. This applies to all Sound Ideas proprietary libraries. With over 45 years of experience, Sound Ideas delivers audio trusted by professionals worldwide. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ to learn more. Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/328-sesame-street/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/ This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Michael Babcock (re-recording mixer/sound designer/supervising sound editor) talks about the challenges of the sound work for KPop Demon Hunters. The animated film has quickly become a world wide sensation and Netflix's most watched title ever (523.6 million viewer hours)! Michael calls the project the most challenging film he has ever worked on. Coming up with sound design that compliments the massive music tracks that have to be the main feature put his skills to the test. This episode is a re-podcast of an episode from The Creative Leaders Podcast, hosted by Stepnen Scott. https://open.spotify.com/show/4nAAx7xPdTW0rxoOxgvygH Listeners in the Mexico City area, mark you calendars for the Tonebenders Event there on Oct 21st. Full details coming soon! SPONSOR: Sound Ideas’ highly anticipated Mid-Year Sale has been extended for a limited time. Unlock 50% off, on thousands of premium recordings, from epic cinematic sounds to authentic ambiences, ideal for any creative project. This applies to all Sound Ideas proprietary libraries. With over 45 years of experience, Sound Ideas delivers audio trusted by professionals worldwide. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ to learn more. Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/327-kpop-demon-hunters/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/ This episode is hosted by Stephen Scott