By Randi Altman

In the Gregory Jbara-directed film Original Sound, a Brooklyn-based songwriter, Danny, has a song stolen by a pop star, Ryan Reed, and it’s becomes a big hit. As a make-good, Danny suggests they work together. The collaboration is contentious at first, but things start to click.

Considering the Original Sound’s music-driven focus, the filmmakers knew they needed a strong audio team. New York-based composers and music producers Erik Blicker and Glenn Schloss created the original songs, while Brian Quill handled re-recording mixing, supervising sound editing and dialogue editing, and Eric Stern served as sound effects editor. All are part of FlavorLab audio team.

We reached out to the audio team to talk workflows.

How early were you brought in?
Erik Blicker: Glenn and I were brought in before the film was shot to compose original songs for the shoot and the soundtrack. Our previous relationship with the producers and with Stina Hamlin for the film Alien Intervention — and our audio post team’s involvement with that film — led us to the job. It definitely helped seeing the script and working with writer Adam Seidel and director Gregory Jbara to craft the sound of the characters. Since it is a film based on music creators, it was a job Glenn and I have been training our whole career.

Eric Stern: Brian and I began working on the film in post.

What direction were you given?
Blicker: We worked through the script scene by scene with Adam and Greg, getting the place/action, emotion/backstory, creative notes and references to write songs and score ideas. Since there was a creative component to the story of songwriting and the music business, we created a palette for the score using piano, acoustic guitar, glock and more acoustic instruments. Then we juxtaposed that with hip-hop because one of the main characters, Danny Solis (David Lambert), is a laptop hip-hop producer. For one song, the main characters perform a duo. The director provided the idea of Bauhaus meets steampunk. It was great fun to mash those up and bring it to life.

Glenn Schloss: Throughout the entire writing process, we had an open line of communication with both Adam and Greg. Getting both of their perspectives on the music was incredibly helpful and inspiring.

You had to write songs very quickly. How do you even prepare for a challenge like that?
Blicker: It is a very intense experience, usually involving a lot of procrastination and self-doubt, which give birth to melodies that you allow to come to you. Adam, the writer, was super-helpful; he has a wealth of music knowledge and had so many great references and genre ideas to inspire us.

We collaborated with lead actress Laura Marano, who plays Ryan Reed, on several tracks, and it was great to get her perspective, as she comes from the pop world and helped guide us for some of the pop tunes. We had to have all the songs ready before we recorded at Mission Sound in Brooklyn, as we only had two weeks before they shot the film. Being brought on to executive produce the music was a great experience.

Schloss: Leading up to Mission Sound, we had a lot of sessions working and collaborating remotely with Laura, who was incredibly invested in the music and the project. Anytime we had ideas for each other, all of us would hop on a Zoom call at a moment’s notice. It was fun, and we were able to get so much accomplished.

The nature of our business has always been about working fast and on such tight deadlines that we were prepared to make it work. There was also something weirdly comforting knowing that we had a definitive deadline and had to get these songs done because the shooting schedule was completely locked in.

We had to push forward and make it happen, and by the time we got to Mission Sound, there was such an awesome energy in the air working with both Laura and David on lead vocals. All of us were super-focused and excited.

Have you ever worked this way before?
Blicker: In the course of working on TV shows and creating themes and scores, we have been brought in to create the sound of a series. Never has the Flavorlab team had to write hit songs and score and mix a feature film. I’m excited to say that they loved the music so much that they are pressing some vinyl, which makes sense because one of the lead actors plays a DJ.

Can you talk about your process?
Blicker: For the main hit song, “Stay,” Glenn and his wife Elena and my daughter Ella and I each took a day to write a song. Then we commented on and added to each other’s songs. Since it is a movie about stealing music, we each had to flesh out the two demos as a hip-hop song and a ‘90s Latin rock song. Then the producers picked the one they liked. Then Laura Marano added some ideas to the main pop track.

For the score, having the palette and template with all the instruments miked up and ready to go was super-important.

Schloss: Erik and I each have our own recording space, so a lot of our process involves sharing files back and forth and working on cues independently. That workflow gives us the freedom to explore ideas on our own while staying really collaborative. I think one of our biggest strengths is that Erik and I are brutally honest with each other’s work. We trust each other like brothers, and that kind of open feedback is a huge part of how we refine the music and make it stronger. Having a creative partner you can really bounce ideas off of is definitely one of our secret weapons.

What instrument do you typically start to write on?
Blicker: I usually start in my head and get a melody while also creating chord changes that I like with a beat. Then I write over that, record demos and refine from there.

Schloss: I generally start ideas on piano, which feels at times like a cross between a typewriter and a drum kit. I get inspired with melodies and lyrics by playing chords in my right hand, while my left hand is banging out rhythm parts on the lower octave. It feels very much like a drum set to me. Very inspiring.

What were some of the most challenging songs for you? How did you work through that?
Blicker: Danny’s comeback is a hip-hop DJ jam. We had recorded Glenn’s drums into an MPC 60 to get an old-school sound and spent a bunch of time making it feel great. The challenge in writing was making sure that all the loops and grooves coming in and out made sense and told a story.

There was also a scene where music manager Jake Colburn (Eric Stoltz) is negotiating with Kari River (Ari Notartomaso) and Danny, and it was a very fine line between enhancing the tension and being noticed and in the way. I went back and looked for great negotiation-scene scores in movies; there weren’t many, and for good reason — usually the actors can just carry that tension, and a negotiation moves and flows on its own. We found the right balance of moving the scene along and supporting the story and the actors’ natural crescendo. We came up with a groovy Hofner bass line that was quoting the theme of Ari’s character Kari. It worked.

Schloss: One of the most challenging parts of the project was creating different variations of the hit song and reimagining it across multiple styles. That said, it was also one of the most exciting and creative parts of the writing process.

I’d also mention that recreating the father-and-son collaboration in the living room was pretty intense. There was some dialogue and acting involved while we were creating the music, trying to imagine what it would be like for Danny and his father to reunite over a music-making session. It was a very powerful moment, trying to capture that vibe and nuance between them. Timing wise, we also needed to match certain hit points against the dialogue. I was role-playing the scene in my head quite a bit as we were writing and recording the music.

How did having your team perform the audio post help make things go more smoothly?
Schloss: Creating the music and then handing the cues over to our partner and re-recording mixer, Brian Quill, was invaluable. We were able to make any music changes or edits needed on a moment’s notice. The back and forth was pretty seamless.

How was the mixing broken up? Who did the dialogue, music, SFX?
Brian Quill?: I did the dialogue edit and mix, and Eric Stern did the SFX edit. I also functioned as the supervising sound editor.

Is working on a movie about music more challenging for audio post?
Quill: In some ways it’s easier, as the music can help cover other issues. Long music tracks mean there’s less work we have to do to get the rest of the movie to sound good. That being said, one of the more interesting and challenging parts of this mix was playing with the spatial characteristics of the environments when the music was diegetic.

Using Altiverb and Chameleon, I was able to pull the audience into a space but, conversely, into the more emotional perspective of the characters, but reducing the diegetic feeling. Using this technique, we were able to play with intimacy and the emotional context of the characters to further bring the audience into their world, both literally and figuratively.

Did you do sound design, Foley/ADR?
Quill: Yes, Eric Stern did the majority of the sound design, and I filled in things at the end and tweaked it for creative intention. Foley First did the Foley.

Can you walk us through your overall process/workflow?
Schloss: Brian starts on DX, while Eric starts cutting backgrounds and Foley First starts on the Foley. After a few weeks, Brian takes all the different pieces and starts putting them together. Brian adjusts things to fit in the scenes and also tweaks for creative purposes.

Eric Stern: Since this story takes place in New York City, a large part of the sound design process was building the urban ambience, like distant traffic, car horns, sirens, the subway, people walking by, distant construction, playgrounds, wind, birds and so on. I paid close attention to how the city sounds shift from day to night, as well as how exterior noise bleeds into interiors. That meant subtle differences depending on location — a ground-level apartment with closer traffic and occasional voices, a busy office with more horns and brake noise, and a high-rise with a deeper city hum and distant sirens. Living in New York City definitely helps me here since I’m so familiar with the nuances of everyday city noise from different perspectives.

In addition to editing all of the backgrounds and ambiences, I also edited all of the (non-Foley) hard sound effects and things like doors, interior and exterior crowds, cars passing (in sync with cars you see on the screen, not in background traffic) and more. I also did the sound design for the stylized multi-panel shots and transitions and other similar visual effects throughout the film.

For the backgrounds and other sound effects, I used a combination of library samples, my own recordings and other field recordings that Flavorlab engineers have recorded and collected over the years.

What tools did you use?
Quill: Pro Tools; Auto-Align Post on the DX; and Hush and RX for noise reduction, EQ and a little compression.

Randi Altman is the founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective. She has been covering production and post production for more than 25 years.