21 - The Sound Design

Bertrand's work will give sound to everything we can see in the film, the steps, the sound of the clothes, the objects moving... In order to do so, he uses a bunch of objects that will create the appropriate sounds

To record the sounds, Bertrand is in front of a screen with the film on it and he creates the sounds depending on the actions he sees. If he sees a character walking on the screen, he synchronises his steps depending on the animation

For the steps, he is watching the way of walking for each characters, their rythm, their shoes they're using etc... For example for the old rat woman, Bertrand used old shoes

For the little mice, he was patting on the ground with latex gloves

Sometimes Bertrand combines different objects together to make a sound. So, to make fire sounds he used straw broom, he made crackling noise by touching it.  

Then he shook a cloth

And finally he blew on the mic so he could have a rumble noise

And that's how he obtained the noise of a fire

Sometimes some sounds are made by 2 very different objects used together. Surprisingly they can create really unexpected sounds.  

Usually, the last recording day is used to make breaking noises. Usually it the happiest day of the sound design session.  

You should have a look to a scene of the film with only the sound design. You will be able to consider what is the amount of work in the sound design. After these sounds are made, we still need to add atmosphere sounds and sounds Bertrand couldn't make with objects. The final step is the mixing part where the sounds are placed in space.