dren. He recorded the peacocks
and then loaded the sounds into a
sampler at the studio. After a bit of
manipulation, the peacock sounds
became part of Swooping Evil’s
sound. “That’s just one story. There
is a whole team here and the entire
sound design process was collaborative. We all put our ideas forward
and sifted through them, making
decisions about what we wanted to
try,” shares Adiri.
Another way they grounded
the creatures in reality was to make
sure the movements, footsteps and
vocals matched the sonic qualities
of the actors in the scene. Adiri, who
handled the sound effects, Foley and
backgrounds in the mix, paid care-
ful attention to the reverb and EQ on
the creatures. He says, “When mix-
ing, you want to put these creatures
in the right environment that works
with the actors. They have to sound
like they’re in the same space. The
footsteps have to match the reso-
nance of the actors’ footsteps. The
vocals have to match, too. Although
this sounds straightforward, it’s not
as simple as it sounds. You need to
detach yourself sometimes and just
watch the scene and ask, ‘Do I be-
lieve that?’”
Adiri feels that if the post sound
job was successful then the audi-
ence won’t even realize that any
sound work had been done. “The
audience will think that everything
was recorded on set, and that’s when
Ph
o
tos
co
u
r
tes
y
of
Wa
r
n
er
B
ro
s.
P
ic
t
u
re
s
A Bowtruckle, a tiny tree-dwelling creature
Director David Yates on set
Screenwriter/producer J.K. Rowling & producer David Heyman on set
