FEATURE FILM
CASE STUDY THE KING’S SPEECH
“The foley stage felt quite artificial, so we shot our foley on location on Pro Tools which helped give it real depth.”
LEE WALPOLE Boom Post
create STORIES
It’s been a long time since a British film triumphed so comprehensively at the Oscars, but earlier this year The King’s Speech won Academy awards for best picture, best director, best actor and best screenplay. Part of the reason for the film’s success can be attributed to director Tom Hooper’s exacting influence in marshalling the film’s creative components, from actors and production talent to post into a single cohesive whole. Co-producer Molinare provided virtually all of the picture post production services, including the edit, visual effects and grading, with all visual effects work carried out on Avid DS Nitris, as were optical effects and final deliverables. Lee Walpole from Boom Post took care of audio post on the movie, with a brief from
Hooper to transport the audience back to the soundscape of 1930s London. “Authenticity was the name of the game,” says Walpole, who explains: “Because so much of the action takes place in these huge old wooden rooms where King George VI began his speech therapy, matching that on the foley stage felt quite artificial, so we shot our foley on location on Pro Tools which helped give it real depth.” The score to the The King’s Speech was another Pro Tools creation, uniquely recorded on the original mics used by King George VI, and recorded, mixed and mastered at Abbey Road Studios by senior recording engineer Peter Cobbin. Cobbin recalls: “In the EMI
archives were the original microphones used by the
HOW PRO TOOLS CREATED AN AUTHENTIC 1930S SOUNDSCAPE
• Original microphones were renovated and used to record
the score and the king’s speeches • Pro Tools used to record realistic on location foley
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Royal Family for speeches. Our technicians were able to renovate and use them to record the film’s score, composed by Alexandre Desplat, and to re-record Colin Firth’s King George VI speeches. It took the sound to the next level – giving it an altogether different character” insists Cobbin, who used Pro Tools to mix the different versions of the score. “Pro Tools makes for a very flexible mixing tool – with its ability to effortlessly combine different tracks. Sometimes we started off with the old mics and then opened out the sound in 5.1 in relation to what was happening dramatically. We made use of a number of Pro Tools stems with the individual instruments broken out into different stems.”
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