Shaping the real and the imaginary in Citizen detective.
This post was written by Nathan Ruyle.
Growing up in a small town in the rural Midwest, I’m always interested in working on projects that take place in that part of the United States. Much of film sound design taps into your sense of memory and this is especially true with documentary film, where the aim is to use sound to draw the audience into an authentic experience of a place. .
I spent my early years exploring the fields and forests of the Midwest, having lunch at the only restaurant in our small town, and playing pool in the American Legion. I therefore knew the sets of this film intimately and I loved bringing the public into this atmosphere. world.
Citizen detective is the story of a true Appalachian crime podcaster who blurs the line between fact and entertainment as she investigates a mysterious local death.
I was also thrilled to fully embrace the truth moments from the film as we follow amateur sleuth Emily Nestor on her investigation. The incident she investigates happened over a decade ago on a harrowing stretch of highway that we return to several times throughout the film.
Through sound design and mixing, I wanted the audience to feel the danger of this roadside in the present, but also to activate the viewer’s imagination with Emily as she tries to piece together what happened. on that horrible night in 2011 at mile 181.
Sound design for Citizen detective
For most of my projects, I am both the supervising sound editor and the re-recording mixer where sound design is a holistic process that also happens through sound editing and mixing.
With my team at This is Sound Design, we designed these roadside moments to be highly immersive, fully engaging 5.1 theatrical environments: semi-trucks rushing from behind, echoes of screeching tires and a car slamming against the guardrail, as we imagine what so far has only been in the pages of a police report.
AT TiSD, we draw on our narrative cinematic experience and workflows for our documentary sound process, incorporating much of our in-house sound artist Mike Miller’s sound effects into the design to bring detail and texture not possible to capture in production.
This sound design aims to find a delicate balance between the real and the imagined that allows the audience to viscerally feel the mystery at the center of the film.
Director Chris Kasick and editor Jeff Gilbert were true collaborators in the design and mixing process, fully embracing our approach and helping greatly to shape key moments. I also loved mixing with Score by P. Andrew Williswho brought wonderful theatrics, acting and energy to the soundtrack.
Let me know what you think and if you have any questions in the comments.
