Bollywood sound design in kaabil article

[indiawilds]

I came across this article about the tweaking done to the voice of the Hero in an Indian film called Kaabil. The hero is supposed to be a voice over artiste in the film and then mimics the voices of some top Indian film heroes to invite the people to a place where he can kill them. http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/new...d-sound-like-various-known-characters-kaabil/

The sound designer in that film is Resul Pookutty who had got an Oscar for sound design for the film Slumdog Millionaire. I am just wondering which all softwares were used.

 

[DigitalVision]

My guess is that it would not matter so much which particular audio software you use, but rather how the tools in that software are applied.

From the article: "I did Dynamic Spectral matching, pitch correction and frequency equalization called Equilibrium"

If you or I purchase the same software, that does not mean we can easily duplicate what was accomplished. I have the impression that it was a very difficult, time-consuming task made possible only by years of experience and a high degree of skill and natural ability as a sound professional. But yes, it would still be interesting to know what tools were used.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[indiawilds]

I agree with you Jeff. I am actually intrigued by that article. I never thought so much of importance is given to sound.

I have not seen that film. However, my partner said that she couldn't make out after watching the film. It seemed so believable that the hero is actually able to mimic the voice of other celebrities. Ofcourse, that is the intention of sound design to make everything appear so real and seamless. Wonder if some of the pros here do some such stuff to certain levels?

 

[Noiz2]

Sound Design for film, at least in the US, is a pretty undefined job. Traditionally most of what people think a sound designer does was done by the Supervising Sound Editor and the Sound Editors. Some places the Sound Designer actually is deeply involved in all aspects of the films sound, in others they are hired guns that only do specialized sounds for specific things. And then a lot of films didn't have listed Sound Designers. You couldn't get an Oscar as a Sound Designer until fairly recently which is why most big name sound designers with Oscars have them for mixing or editing. Not that long ago you couldn't even get one for either if you were credited as a sound designer.

India is not noted much for sound design, mostly I think because of the post time frame. India's studios crank out features at a pace Hollywood hasn't seen since the "golden age" in the 30's and 40's. It's nice to see that at least some films are spending the time. Ironically in the US the amount of time for sound post (on non blockbusters) has gone down a lot since a peak in the 1980's. That has been offset a bit by much faster tools but it shows in a lot of mid budget films.

I don't know what they are using in India for sound post. In the US it is still 90%+ ProTools.

For that kind of matching the tools I would expect to see would be an EQ with a matching feature and probably something like Voalign. Though Melodyne would also be something I would try.

I would have the mimicked stars ADR the lines and then work to get the hero's voice to match. You could also start with the futzed vocal and end up with the ADR.

Well after reading the article it seems he did pretty much what I outlined. It also sounds like he used a bit of a mix from the processed lead and the exaggerated ADR.

In the US this dances in the grey area between Sound Design and Dialog/ ADR. Who would be doing this on a US film would have a lot to do with where and by whom it was being done. Because it is really a dialog matching FX I can see it landing on the ADR department in a lot of places. More effecty vocal stuff is more likely to end up with the SFX folks and or sound designer.

One note of caution. Many articles on how big films are made need to be taken with a pinch to a pound of salt. They are first promos for the film and second insight into the process. And really that "second" maybe WAY down the road from the promo part. Having read more than one BTS "scoop" on a film I worked on I can tell you that they are usually about 10% fact 40% almost fact and 50% made up by the marketing guys. The amount of work is usually pretty close, but a lot of the work is not nearly so fan pleasing as the version that gets published.