I have been working feverishly on putting together the soundtrack for the show. I have about 1h done so far, with 4 scenes left. One fascinating thing that has happened to me is how it makes me realize how important, and diverse, sound design is. The closest i can describe this is as if breathing were no longer a reflex, and you had to mentally and explicitly inhale and exhale every breath of air. Try it for a full minute, becoming very conscious of your own breathing, how the muscles in your chest expand and contract, how your diaphragm works, how amazingly flexible your thoracic cage truly is, how you can feel the air rushing through your nose, mouth, throat and lungs. I like to do that from time to time and become conscious of all those things that are otherwise automatic, taken for granted.

Building the soundtrack for the film forced me to really pay attention to the sounds of New York City. There are so many things that happen repeatedly, that we tune out for a reason or another. The city has such a lush soundscape. For one, i have fallen in love with police sirens. No, not the blasting ones that can scare you at the turn of a corner in the streets, but the ones you faintly hear echoing from a distance. How about car alarms? Do you pay attention to the sounds surrounding you? Do you understand the signature of where you live? Whether it be a megalopolis like New York City, or a farm in the middle of nowhere, there is a distinct soundscape everywhere.

So, for example, there is one scene where Josie and Edward are talking over the phone. Edward calls Josie, they talk. Josie is at the police station, in her office, while Edward is in the street. The scene alternates between shots of Josie (in the office, with Edward's voice being heard through the receiver), and shots of Edwards, (in the streets, with Josie's voice being head over the receiver). I basically had to rebuild, consciously, every single sound i could imagine would take place in such a situation, and work the sounds of the actual actors' recordings to make them sound different based on the situation they are in.

I created a little ring melody for Josie's cellphone, the sound that Josie makes brushing against her clothes as she takes the phone out of her pocket, and how that affects the sound of the ring itself (being muffled first, and out in the open afterward). Then when Josie is being seen, i had to create the sound of an office, with phone ringing, copiers and printers, the the hum of computers, and co-workers around typing on their keyboards... And steps from people walking around (a police station is a busy place). Then for Edward, i had to re-create the sound of the street. That was mostly easy as i cold just take my recording equipment and record actual NY street sounds... But in the end, it still felt insufficient... Is it a busy street? How many people walking around, and talking and all? I had to do multiple recordings and pull them together. And then, how about "background noises"? I recorded a car alarm by literally pushing half a dozen cars until one would set off so i could record the sounds. And then i was lucky to catch a number of emergency vehicle sounds, from police cars to firetrucks to ambulances, all with their distinct sirens. then i pulled everything together to create what i think is a realistic soundscape for that scene.

This has been such an interesting experience. Check out the final result here, and tell me what you think?