How I created an immersive cinematic audio story
A study into how I collaborated on the season 1 pilot of "Tumbleweed" with an Academy Award-winning producer and writer.
Background
The client was Gabe Godoi, an Academy Award-winning producer and writer who sought to transform his written short story Tumbleweed into an immersive audio experience for the Genre Slice podcast series.
Here's the final product 👇
You can listen to the full episode here. Illustrations were provided as pitch deck supplements.
Objectives
My main goals of the project were to:
- Convert the written short story into an engaging audio format.
- Integrate in-character narration, music, and sound design.
- Produce a high-quality first episode to pitch to prominent audio platforms.
Solutions
To achieve these objectives, I did the following
🎤 Recording Engineering
Because Gabe and I were working remotely, I coached him over synchronous and async calls to record high-quality narration using his available home recording equipment.
🎧 Production
I worked with notes and vision from Gabe to write and arrange approximately 10 minutes of music tailored for the story and its themes.
🔉 Foley Artistry
To further immerse the listener, I created and layered sound effects (foley) to enhance the narrative's key points.
🛠️ Audio Engineering
I edited, mixed, and mastered the entire episode.
💼 Project Management
I set timelines, expectations, and deliverables for Gabe and myself to ensure smooth project progression and completion before our target deadline.
Implementation
- Narration Recording: Guided Gabe to set up an acoustically quiet recording space at home and coached him through two recording sessions, resulting in a narration-only cut of the episode.
- Script Annotation: Annotated the script with audio and music cues, which were then translated into markers and timestamps within Ableton.
- Foley Creation: Crafted and layered sound effects, with daily feedback sessions to refine the narration + SFX cut.
- Music Composition: Composed music in real-time during remote sessions with Gabe, aligning musical themes with key plot changes.
- Final Mix and Master: Mixed and mastered the entire episode, ensuring all elements were cohesively integrated.
Results
The final episode served as a critical component in Gabe's pitch deck for the Genre Pie podcast series, significantly enhancing the pitch to platforms like Spotify and Audible. The process saved over 40 hours of work through effective script annotation and live feedback sessions.
Here's 3 clips of the same part of the story so you can hear the layers I added.
Edited Voiceover
This is what the episode sounded like after I edited and mixed Gabe’s voice-over. A solid outline to color in with sounds!
Foley Additions
Next, I crafted all of the foley (sound effects) you can hear throughout the episode, sending daily snapshots to Gabe for feedback and input until we had a narration + SFX cut of the episode.
Music Additions
Finally, I marked key changes in the plot and used those as sections for different music to fit the mood thematically. Gabe and I had two remote sessions over Zoom where I composed in real-time to shorten the feedback cycle and experiment with a number of moods/themes.
And here's the final episode in full 👇
You can listen to the full episode here. Illustrations were provided as pitch deck supplements.
