April 27, 2017

Technicolor Sound Teams Up with Director James Ponsoldt to Bring The Circle to the Screen

Technicolor created a “vocabulary of sounds” for The Circle – letting the audience feel the effects of technology on the not-too-distant future.

Photo courtesy of STX Entertainment. Motion Picture Artwork © 2017 STX Financing, LLC. All Rights Reserved.​

 

  • Technicolor Sound Services enabled the filmmakers to paint a fictional but highly relatable world.

Based on the international bestseller by Dave Eggers, The Circle is a warning about what could happen when technology taken to extremes collides with privacy. Though the story is fictional, digital security and privacy are growing concerns in the real world – and Technicolor’s role was to make the audience feel the impending reality through new sounds created for familiar technology. This is one way the modern-day thriller directed by James Ponsoldt paints a relatable world, though one without privacy or choice.

Supervising Sound Editors Dror Mohar and Julian Slater took on the aural challenge of recreating this not-too-distant future world as described in the book, including sounds for new technology such as future version iPhones.

“We used the robust descriptions in the novel as a jumping off point to create a sound vocabulary for technology that doesn’t exist quite yet, but is grounded in the existing intersection between technology and privacy,” said Mohar. “For example, how do you come up with the sound of the camera clicking on the next iPhone that doesn’t yet exist?”

After the initial work was done at Technicolor at Paramount, preparation for the final mix was completed at the Technicolor Tribeca West facility. The film premieres at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in April.

Watch the gripping trailer for The Circle, starring Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, and the late Bill Paxton.